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African American Literature Book Club - The #1 Site for "Readers of Black Literature" |
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AALBC.com's Best Selling Books
| Fiction | Nonfiction |
| #1
ISBN: 0671872001 In this funny, gritty urban love story, Franklin and Zora join the ranks of fiction's most compelling couples, as they move from Scrabble to sex, from layoffs to the limits of faith and trust. Disappearing Acts is about the mystery of desire and the burdens of the past. It's about respect, what it can and can't survive. And it's about the safe and secret places that only love can find. |
#1
Format: Paperback, 265pp. Chideya's stereotype-shattering 1995 book, Don't Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African-Americans (Plume Penguin), is now in its eighth printing. Using statistics, she systematically undercuts the argument that African-Americans are at the root of problems like crime, welfare and drugs. |
| #2
by Donna Hill, Carmen Green and Janice Sims ISBN: 0312978928 She's your best friend and sometimes your sworn rival...your childhood playmate and the maid of honor at your wedding...the one who stole your high school boyfriend and the one who gave you the best birthday party ever...She's your sister and no matter what triumphs and tragedies life brings, she's right there by your side... Donna Hill introduces sisters long divided by their mother's favoritism—now reunited in Washington, D.C., one sister's sudden illness is the catalyst for a long-awaited reconciliation. Carmen Green takes two very different sisters to beautiful Martha's Vineyard, where a week in the warm and healing sun brings mutual understanding. Janice Sims unites two estranged sisters in New York City where their childhood loyalty is tested, a new life is welcomed—and a family restored. |
#2
Francis Bok, Edward Tivnan ISBN: 0312306237 In this modern slave narrative, Francis Bok shares his remarkable story with grace, honesty, and a wisdom gained from surviving ten years in captivity." "May 1986: Seven-year-old Francis Bok was selling his mother's eggs and peanuts near his village in southern Sudan when his life was suddenly shattered as Arab raiders on horseback, armed with rifles and long knives, burst into the quiet marketplace, murdering men and gathering the women and young children into a group. Strapped to horses and donkeys, Francis and others were taken north into lives of slavery under wealthy Muslim farmers. Now a student and an antislavery activist, Francis Bok has made it his life mission to combat world slavery. His is the first voice to speak for an estimated twenty-seven million people held against their will in nearly every nation, including our own. Escape from Slavery is at once a riveting adventure, a story of desperation and triumph, and a window revealing a world that few have survived to tell. |
| #3
by Carl Weber, La Jill Hunt, Dwayne S. Joseph ISBN: 0758207557 Which of us hasn’t daydreamed about what we’d do if we won the lottery? A DOLLAR AND A DREAM brings those fantasies to hilarious, heartbreaking life in three stories by #1 national bestselling author Carl Weber and La Jill Hunt, Essence bestselling author Angel Hunter, and Cushcity.com bestselling author Dwayne S. Joseph. |
#3
Rovenia Brock Ph.D.
In this one-of-a-kind book, Dr. Rovenia M. Brock - known as Dr. Ro™ to fans of Black Entertainment Television's Heart & Soul - reveals practical, satisfying ways for African American women to eat healthy, get fit, and overcome weight problems and the health risks that accompany them. |
| #4
Zane (Editor) ISBN: 0743482387 This is a his-and-her collection. There are stories specifically written with female readers in mind, and others written expressly for men. Among the contributors are names already familiar to readers of erotica, such as Reginald Harris, Robert Edison Sandiford, Jonathan Luckett and, of course, Zane -- as well as emerging voices, such as Geneva Barnes and Robert Scott Adams. What they all have in common is that they are great at what they do, and have been handpicked by Zane -- an editor who knows a hot story when she sees it. |
#4
ISBN: 0385502648 Now, in his most daring act yet, E. Lynn Harris writes the memoir of his life--from his childhood in Arkansas as a closeted gay boy through his struggling days as a self-published author to his rise as a New York Times bestselling author. In What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted, E. Lynn Harris shares with readers an extraordinary life touched by loneliness and depression, but more importantly, he reveals the triumphant life of a small-town dreamer who was able through writing to make his dreams--and more--come true. |
| #5
by Carl Weber ISBN: 1575669099 "Player Haters is quite possibly the best book I've written to date. I think I've taken drama to the next level." —Carl Weber, National best selling author Carl Weber is back with another page turner full of life's ups and downs. In Player Hater Carl takes us on a wild ride through the lives of Trent, Wil and Melanie Duncan, three very different siblings trying to deal with the trials and tribulation of everyday life, while at the same time dealing with the would-be haters of the world. |
#5
by Mende Nazer, Damien Lewis
ISBN: 1586482122 Mende Nazer lost her childhood one horrific night in 1993, when Arab raiders swept through her Nuba village. The raiders set fire to the village huts. They murdered the adults by slitting their throats with knives. They rounded up thirty-one young children. Mende was twelve. A slave trader brought Mende to Sudan's capital city, Khartoum, and sold her to a wealthy Arab family. She was subjected to appalling physical, sexual, and mental abuse. She slept in a shed and ate the family leftovers like a dog. She had no rights, no freedom, and no life of her own. The only thing that kept her alive was the hope that she might see her family again. |
| #6
ISBN: 0060536799 When Noire, a hip, Afro-wearing Ph.D. student, walks into Brown Betty Books, her righteousness kicks into overdrive amid the self-identified "talented tenth" who wear their double degrees and five-hundred-dollar shoes like badges of honor. And then Innocent walks in, sits down beside her, and turns her on her head. A dashing, well-heeled investment banker originally from Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa, Innocent seems interested in her ... but he's one of them. Before meeting him, Noire shunned the "bourgie" world of black monied cosmopolitans like Innocent, opting instead for socially conscious -- but economically challenged -- artists and urban intellectuals. Their mutual attraction blossoms into lust and eventually love, but it lives in the shifting sands of personal beliefs and professional ambitions that are often at odds. Set in present-day New York City with jaunts to Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean, A Love Noire is the story of an unlikely couple that struggles to discover whether their passion will keep them together, or if their differences will tear them apart. Stripped to their barest selves, Innocent and Noire transcend all they've known to learn the redemptive power of love. A Love Noire offers an insider's look at color and class struggles, urban living, life in Africa, the notoriously unpredictable and heady New York dating scene, and good old-fashioned love. A natural and potent storyteller, Ms. Turnipseed writes of love and family with grace, and A Love Noire, her debut, marks the arrival of a resonant, sparkling voice in contemporary fiction |
#6
by bell hooks ISBN: 0415969263 Black men are cool. But most books about black men miss the mark, making the same points-difficult childhood, white racism, poverty-they describe without meaningful explanation. bell hooks' brilliant new book We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity goes where everyone else has been unwilling to go. Without casting blame, hooks tells hard truths: black men are feared, admired, made the objects of sexual fantasy, envied, but rarely loved. Black men are hated, and hooks tells us why. In these critical essays, hooks examines what black males fear most (maternal sadism, loss, emasculation) and probes the depths of their longing for intimacy, for fathers, for meaningful relationships. Highlighting the value of a feminist approach to understanding black masculinity, hooks looks at the way patriarchal thought and action undermine black male self-esteem. With compassion and generosity, bell hooks contends that black men become loving individuals only as they accept full accountability for shaping their destiny. Taking as her starting point powerful writing on black masculinity from the sixties and seventies, bell hooks looks seriously at the problems black males face - both the ones not of their own making and the ones they create for themselves. In ten clear and provocative chapters, hooks offers a thorough examination of issues ranging from the trauma of childhood abandonment, parenting and black male violence, to work, education, sexuality, self-esteem, and spiritual recovery. We Real Cool offers a redemptive vision of black men and masculinity, one that is complex and multi-layered. This is the book that everyone seeking to understand black male identity must read. |
| #7
by Zane ISBN: 0743457013 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 bestselling 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. With all-new characters and settings, Gettin' Buck Wild is Zane's hottest collection of stories yet. Smart, witty and extremely sexy, this second volume of Sex Chronicles is tailored to women -- but perfect for lovers to share. |
#7
by Greg Tate (Editor) ISBN: 0767908082 White kids from the ’burbs are throwing up gang signs. The 2001 Grammy winner for best rap artist was as white as rice. And blond-haired sorority sisters are sporting FUBU gear. What is going on in American culture that’s giving our nation a racial-identity crisis? Following the trail blazed by Norman Mailer’s controversial essay “The White Negro,” Everything but the Burden brings together voices from music, popular culture, the literary world, and the media speaking about how from Brooklyn to the Badlands white people are co-opting black styles of music, dance, dress, and slang. In this collection, the essayists examine how whites seem to be taking on, as editor Greg Tate’s mother used to tell him, “everything but the burden”–from fetishizing black athletes to spinning the ghetto lifestyle into a glamorous commodity. Is this a way of shaking off the fear of the unknown? A flattering indicator of appreciation? Or is it a more complicated cultural exchange? The pieces in Everything but the Burden explore the line between hero-worship and paternalism. Among the book’s twelve essays are Vernon Reid’s “Steely Dan Understood as the Apotheosis of ‘The White Negro,’” Carl Hancock Rux’s “The Beats: America’s First ‘Wiggas,’” and Greg Tate’s own introductory essay “Nigs ’R Us.” Other contributors include: Hilton Als, Beth Coleman, Tony Green, Robin Kelley, Arthur Jafa, Gary Dauphin, Michaela Angela Davis, dream hampton, and Manthia diAwara. |
| #8
Format: Hardcover, 300pp. An incendiary, brilliantly imagined new novel by Elizabeth Nunez, Bruised Hibiscus is a spellbinding tale of explosive passions. In the village of Otahiti on the island of Trinidad, a fisherman pulls the body of a white woman from the sea. News travels quickly through the small island, and the conclusion "man-woman business" prevails as the assumed motive for the murder. The rage that surfaces as a result of the murder--born of generations of colonialism, sexual oppression and class disparity--is the catalyst for the reunion of two childhood friends, Rose and Zuela. Inseparable companions during the August holidays of their twelfth year, the two girls witness an unspeakable act through the leaves of a hibiscus bush and shame divides them for twenty years. Rosa, from a family of white plantation owners, falls in love with a black school headmaster named Cedric. Zuela marries a Chinese immigrant three times her age and gives birth to ten children in as many years. Although their lives diverge, both women suffer at the hands of the men they marry. Memories of the horror witnessed at the hibiscus bush resurface upon hearing about the murdered woman, bringing Rosa and Zuela together in a desperate search for liberation. Vivid and impassioned, Bruised Hibiscus is a story of collective memory and personal history, of power and oppression, and ultimately, of the struggle for freedom. |
#8
ISBN: 041593298X When Ellen Brantlinger interviewed administrators, principals, teachers, and middle-class mothers in her small Indiana town, she discovered the considerable power the middle class wields in determining policies that secure educational advantages for their children. With the insight gained from this perspective, Brantlinger examines the roots of increasingly conservative educational policy and the category of class in education. Uniquely grounded in a first-hand, ethnographic account, Dividing Classes examines the relationship between social class and educational success. Instead of studying the historically marginalized lower classes to explain the reproduction of social class, this book asserts the need to look beyond poor people's values and aspirations and to consider the values of dominant groups. In this critical ethnography of U.S. middle class school parents, teachers, and administrators, Brantlinger (curriculum and instruction, Indiana U. Bloomington) examines how relatively advantaged individuals pursue further schooling advantages to the detriment of poorer classes and rationalize their actions. She describes a dissonance between liberal values of equity and preferences for segregated schooling. She also explores class differences between teachers at affluent and disadvantaged schools, describing how teachers from poorer backgrounds oppose class stratification (to reuse the double entendre contained in the book's title) but are not powerful enough to fight it. |
| #9
by Edward P. Jones
ISBN: 0060557540 Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor -- William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation -- as well as of his own slaves. When he dies, his widow, Caldonia, succumbs to profound grief, and things begin to fall apart at their plantation: slaves take to escaping under the cover of night, and families who had once found love beneath the weight of slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend estate, the known world also unravels: low-paid white patrollers stand watch as slave "speculators" sell free black people into slavery, and rumors of slave rebellions set white families against slaves who have served them for years. An ambitious, luminously written novel that ranges seamlessly between the past and future and back again to the present, The Known World weaves together the lives of freed and enslaved blacks, whites, and Indians -- and allows all of us a deeper understanding of the enduring multidimensional world created by the institution of slavery. |
#9
by Kevin Powell ISBN: 0609810448 "A mighty wind of fresh air. His pitiless self-examination and his
equally honest exploration of the racial, sexual, cultural, and class fault
lines that thread our psychic and social landscape is not only brave but
necessary if our nation is to survive." In three mind-jolting essays by one of the most passionate and eloquent voices of his generation, Who's Gonna Take the Weight? by Kevin Powell leads us to the heart of the searing issues facing us today, from manhood, violence, and gender oppression to celebrity culture and hip-hop. Using compelling personal stories as the connecting thread, he examines what this nation has become since the monumental upheavals of the 1960s and where it might be headed if we're not careful. Written one hundred years after W.E.B. DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk and forty years after James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, Who's Gonna Take the Weight? is an impassioned witness to the burning problems that have accompanied us on our journey through the twenty-first century. |
| #10
ISBN:
0970247257 Sweet innocent Yarni, from a well-to do family, by chance, meets Richmond's notorious drug kingpin, Des. Immediately they develop an astronomical love, which separates her from her family and friends. But when Des, is sentenced to life in prison, she will learn, being a hustler's wife isn't as easy, with her sole provider behind bars. |
#10
by bell hooks ISBN: 089608129X This landmark work challenges every accepted notion about the nature of black women's lives. All progressive struggles are significant only when taking place within a feminist movement, which states that race class & sex are immutable facts of exist. |
Disappearing Acts
Don't
Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African Americans
Sister,
Sister: Three Novellas
Escape
from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity - and My Journey
to Freedom in America
A
Dollar And A Dream
Chocolate
Flava: The Eroticanoir.com Anthology
What
Becomes of the Brokenhearted
Player
Haters
Slave
A Love Noire: A Novel
We
Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity
Getting
Buck Wild: Sex Chronicles 2, Vol. 2
Everything
but the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture
Dividing Classes: How the
Middle Class Negotiates and Justifies School Advantage
The
Known World
Who's
Gonna Take the Weight?: Manhood, Race, and Power in America
A
Ain't
I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism
AALBC.com sells books directly, and through Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com affiliate programs. Beginning in January 2004, AALBC.com's bestseller lists only reflect sales generated via Amazon.com.
For permission to reproduce this bestseller list, please contact earl@aalbc.com
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