Jul / Aug 2005

Jul / Aug 2005

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AALBC.com's Best Selling Books for July and August 2005

Fiction	Nonfiction
#1 Heaven (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner) Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Angela Johnson ISBN: 0689822901 Format: Mass Market Paperback, 144pp Pub. Date: July 2000 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Age Range: 12 and up Fourteen-year-old Marley's seemingly perfect life in the small town of Heaven is disrupted when she discovers that her father and mother are not her real parents.	#1 Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery In The United States Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Pat C. & Fredrick L. McKissack ISBN: 059010764X Format: Hardcover, 144pp Pub. Date: January 2003 Publisher: Scholastic, Inc. Age Range: 12 and up Uses slave narratives, letters, diaries, military orders, and other documents to chronicle the various stages leading to the emancipation of slaves in the United States.
#2 The First Part Last (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner) Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Angela Johnson ISBN: 0689849230 Format: Mass Market Paperback, 144pp Pub. Date: January 2005 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Age Range: Young Adult Bobby is a typical urban New York City teenager -- impulsive, eager, restless. For his sixteenth birthday he cuts school with his two best buddies, grabs a couple of slices at his favorite pizza joint, catches a flick at a nearby multiplex, and gets some news from his girlfriend, Nia, that changes his life forever: He's going to be a father. Suddenly things like school and house parties and fun times with friends are replaced by visits to Nia's pediatrician and countless social workers who all say that the only way for Nia and Bobby to lead a normal life is to put their baby up for adoption. Then tragedy strikes Nia, and Bobby finds himself in the role of single, teenage father. Because his child -- their child -- is all that remains of his lost love. With powerful language and keen insight, Johnson tells the story of a young man's struggle to figure out what "the right thing" is and then to do it. The result is a gripping portrayal of a single teenage parenthood from the point of view of a young on the threshold of becoming a man.	#2 Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Andrea Davis Pinkney ISBN: 015201005X Format: Hardcover, 107pp Pub. Date: September 2000 Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books Age Range: Young Adult Ten freedom fighters let their lights shine on the darkness of discrimination. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus and sparked a boycott that changed America. Harriet Tubman helped more than three hundred slaves escape the South on the Underground Railroad. Shirley Chisholm became the first black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. The lives these women led are part of an incredible story about courage in the face of oppression; about the challenges and triumphs of the battle for civil rights; and about speaking out for what you believe in--even when it feels like no one is listening. Andrea Davis Pinkney's moving text and Stephen Alcorn's glorious portraits celebrate the lives of ten bold women who lit the path to freedom for generations. About the Authors: Andrea Davis Pinkney is the author of numerous award-winning picture book biographies. A former editor at Essence Magazine who now edits children's books, she lives in Brooklyn, New York. Stephen Alcorn is an acclaimed painter and printmaker who has created artwork for a number of anthologies. He lives in Cambridge, New York.
#3 The Land (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner) Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Mildred D. Taylor ISBN: 0142501468 Format: Paperback, 375pp Pub. Date: December 2003 Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Age Range: Young Adult The Barnes & Noble Review In a tale written for young adults, Mildred D. Taylor combines her personal family history with that of a country divided by racism, prejudice, and slavery. The events in The Land unfold through the eyes of Paul Logan, the son of a onetime slave and the white man who owned her. Paul's father treats him fairly and with kindness most of the time, frequently allowing him the same privileges he gives his legitimate sons. But as Paul grows older, certain harsh realities make him realize that he will never be considered a true equal to his white brothers -- or any white man, for that matter -- even if his skin is so light that he might be able to "pass." Because of his ancestry, Paul feels that he is caught between two worlds, destined to be shunned by black folk as well as whites. The only person he can relate to at all is Mitchell, a black boy who used to torment Paul but who has now become a trusted friend. When the two run away together to escape their past and find their fortune -- which for Paul means realizing his dream of one day owning his own piece of land -- they encounter a world filled with heartbreaking betrayal, backbreaking labor, and rampant prejudice. As they come to trust only each other, their friendship grows ever stronger, until it seems that nothing -- not even a shared affection for the same woman -- can break the bond between them. But for two black men struggling to make something of themselves in a white-run world, life holds some tragic surprises in store. In an author's note, Taylor explains that the character of Paul is based on one of her own descendants. The hardships he encounters in his struggle to become a landowner offer up a bittersweet lesson on the rewards of hard work and the destructive power of racism, providing Taylor's readers with an unforgettable look at the best, and worst, of humanity.	#3 Confessions of a Video Vixen Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Karrine Steffans ISBN: 0060842423 Format: Hardcover, 205pp Pub. Date: June 2005 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Read an AALBC.com Book Review by Kam Williams Glass vases filled with marbles crashed all around us as he began tossing linens from the bed. As the marbles scattered, we laughed in unison ... I remember the exact moment that I first laid on my back for him ... My legs were wrapped around his waist and just before his body was to merge with mine, I noticed his upper right chest. On it was a tattoo with the words "Pain is Love." Confessions of a Video Vixen is the widely anticipated memoir of Karrine Steffans, the once sought-after sexy siren who appeared in the music videos of multiplatinum hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z, R. Kelly, and LL Cool J. A top-paid video dancer, Karrine transitioned to film when acclaimed director F. Gary Gray picked her to costar in his film A Man Apart, starring Vin Diesel. But the movie and music video sets, swanky Miami and New York restaurants, and trysts with the celebrities featured in the pages of People and In Touch magazines only skims the surface of Karrine's life. This memoir -- part tell-all, part cautionary tale -- shows how Karrinne came to be the confidante of so many, why she kept their secrets, and how she found herself in Hollywood after a life marked by physical abuse, rape, and drugs -- all before she was twenty-six. By sharing her emotionally charged story, she hopes to shed light on an otherwise romanticized industry.
#4 Bronx Masquerade (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner) Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Nikki Grimes ISBN: 0142501891 Format: Paperback, 176pp Pub. Date: December 2003 Publisher: Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers Age Range: 12 and up While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.	#4 Hallelujah! The Welcome Table Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Maya Angelou ISBN: 1400062896 Format: Hardcover, 240pp Pub. Date: September 2004 Publisher: Random House Adult Trade Publishing Group Throughout Maya Angelou’s life, from her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, to her world travels as a bestselling writer, good food has played a central role. Preparing and enjoying homemade meals provides a sense of purpose and calm, accomplishment and connection. Now in Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, Angelou shares memories pithy and poignant–and the recipes that helped to make them both indelible and irreplaceable. Angelou tells us about the time she was expelled from school for being afraid to speak–and her mother baked a delicious maple cake to brighten her spirits. She gives us her recipe for short ribs along with a story about a job she had as a cook at a Creole restaurant (never mind that she didn’t know how to cook and had no idea what Creole food might entail). There was the time in London when she attended a wretched dinner party full of wretched people; but all wasn’t lost–she did experience her initial taste of a savory onion tart. She recounts her very first night in her new home in Sonoma, California, when she invited M. F. K. Fisher over for cassoulet, and the evening Deca Mitford roasted a chicken when she was beyond tipsy–and created Chicken Drunkard Style. And then there was the hearty brunch Angelou made for a homesick Southerner, a meal that earned her both a job offer and a prophetic compliment: “If you can write half as good as you can cook, you are going to be famous.”
#5 Miracle's Boys (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner) Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Jacqueline Woodson ISBN: 0399231137 Format: Hardcover, 192pp Pub. Date: March 2000 Publisher: Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers Age Range: 10 The story of Miracle's Boys is told by 12-year-old Lafayette Bailey, the youngest of three brothers living in New York City. They are orphans, living under the care of the oldest brother, Ty'ree, 22, a whiz kid who was forced to give up on his dream of attending MIT so he could work full time and keep his family together. The boys' diabetic mother, Milagro (Miracle), died of insulin shock two years ago, and their father died before Lafayette was born, succumbing to hypothermia after his heroic rescue of a woman and a dog from a frozen lake. The middle brother, Charlie, 15, has been away at the Rahway Home for Boys for the past two years, serving a sentence for armed robbery. But now that Charlie's back home, it's all too clear to Lafayette that things will never be the same. —Beth Amos	#5 Never Satisfied : How & Why Men Cheat Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble by Michael Baisden Format: Paperback, 3rd ed., 254pp. ISBN: 0964367580 Publisher: Legacy Publishing Pub. Date: January 1995 The book is a collection of interviews of men who have cheated. It examines how men are raised from childhood to be unfaithful and how parents play a large part in creating cheaters. It also takes a hard look at the role of the other woman as well as the tolerant wives and girlfriends. Never before has a book dealt with infidelity on such a realistic level. This is a book every woman and man should read
#6 Christmas in the Big Woods (My First Little House Books Series) Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Laura Ingalls Wilder, Renee Graef (Illustrator) ISBN: 0064434877 Format: Paperback, 32pp Pub. Date: September 1997 Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books Edition Description: REPRINT Age Range: 4 to 8 Long ago, a little girl named Laura Ingalls lived in a little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin with her Pa, her Ma, her sisters, Mary and Carrie, and their good old bulldog, Jack. Winter was just around the corner, and Laura worked hard to help make the little house ready for the cold days ahead. Soon there was frost on the windows and snow on the ground, but Laura and her folks were warm and cozy in their snug little house in the Big Woods. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books have been cherished by generations of readers. Now for the first time, the youngest readers can share her adventures in these very special picture books adapted from Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved storybooks. Renée Graef's warm paintings, inspired by Garth Williams' classic Little House illustrations, bring Laura and her family lovingly to life.	#6 AnteBellum Life at Sea: Featuring the Journal of Sarah Jane Girdler, Kept Aboard the Clipper Ship, Robert H. Dixey, from America to Russia and Europe, January 1857-December 1858 Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble L. Tracy Girdler, Ted Brennan (Illustrator) ISBN: 1881320499 Format: Hardcover, 224pp Pub. Date: September 1996 Publisher: River City Publishing On one of the cotton trading voyages of the Robert H. Dixey from Mobile, Ala., to Europe, the ships captain's niece, Sarah Jane Girdler, was aboard as a nanny for the captain's small daughter. Sarah Jane, then 17, kept a diary of her journey. This diary, with the captain's log and other family correspondence, provides an unusually detailed look at life aboard a clipper ship, the antebellum cotton trade, and the business of ocean transport of that era.
#7 Forged By Fire Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Sharon Mills Draper ISBN: 0689818513 Format: Mass Market Paperback, 160pp Pub. Date: December 1997 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Age Range: Young Adult Teenage Gerald, who has spent years protecting his fragile half-sister from their abusive father, faces the prospect of one final confrontation before the problem can be solved.	#7 Satan, I'm Taking Back My Health! Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble by Jawanza Kunjufu ISBN: 0913543675 Format: Paperback, 200pp Pub. Date: March 2000 Publisher: African American Images This unique look at health care interprets scriptures of the Bible and adapts and applies the wisdom found there to modern ways of life. These scriptures teach that the prevention of diseases is not in the hands of doctors, but rather in what individuals eat and how they live. Health-minded Americans will learn how to avoid the disease-causing preservatives, growth hormones, and pesticides of the meat and dairy industries that pollute the once-fresh foods that the public consumes. Also included is an in-depth discussion of Satan's influence on the advertising industry and how it is linked to drug, cigarette, and alcohol addictions among the American people.
#8 Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales and True Tales Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Virginia Hamilton, Leo Dillon (Illustrator), Diane Dillon (Illustrator) ISBN: 0590473700 Format: Hardcover, 128pp Pub. Date: September 1995 Publisher: Scholastic, Inc. Age Range: 12 and up In the tradition of Hamilton's The People Could Fly and In the Beginning, a dramatic new collection of 25 compelling tales from the female African American storytelling tradition. Each story focuses on the role of women -- both real and fantastic -- and their particular strengths, joys and sorrows.	#8 Righteous Riches: The Word of Faith Movement in Contemporary African American Religion Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Milmon F. Harrison ISBN: 019515388X Format: Paperback, 192pp Pub. Date: February 2005 Publisher: Oxford University Press Does God want us to be wealthy? Many people believe that God offers not only eternal joy in the hereafter but also material blessings in the here and now. Other Christians see this "prosperity theology," as nothing more than vulgar materialism, incompatible with orthodox Christianity. In Righteous Riches, Milmon F. Harrison examines the Word of Faith movement, an independent, non-denominational Christian movement that preaches the so-called "health and wealth gospel." The Word of Faith movement is an international network loosely bound by a basic doctrine called the "Faith Message," which teaches that it is God's will for Christians to be prosperous, successful, and healthy in the present life. Drawing on his personal experiences as a former insider and in-depth interviews with members, Harrison takes us inside the movement, revealing what it is like to belong, and how people accept, reject, and reshape Word of Faith doctrines to fit their own lives. Although the movement is not exclusively African American, many of its most prominent and recognized leaders are African American ministers with large congregations and national television audiences. Analyzing the movement's appeal to African Americans, Harrison argues that, because of their history of oppression and discrimination, African American religious institutions have always had to address the material--as well as spiritual--concerns of their members. The Word of Faith Movement, he says, is one of several prosperity movements that resonate strongly with African Americans. Situating the movement in the contexts of both contemporary American religion and the history of the Black Church, Righteous Riches offers a fascinating look at a quintessentially American phenomenon.
#9 Slam! Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Walter Dean Myers ISBN: 0590486683 Format: Mass Market Paperback, 266pp Pub. Date: October 1998 Publisher: Scholastic, Inc. Age Range: 12 and up Sixteen-year-old "Slam" Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees things differently.	#9 Destruction of Black Civilization Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Chancellor Williams ISBN: 0883780305 Format: Paperback, 384pp Pub. Date: May 1975 Publisher: Third World Press Edition Description: REVISED From Sacred Fire The Destruction of Black Civilization took Chancellor Williams sixteen years of research and field study to compile. The book, which was to serve as a reinterpretation of the history of the African race, was intended to be "a general rebellion against the subtle message from even the most 'liberal' white authors (and their Negro disciples): 'You belong to a race of nobodies. You have no worthwhile history to point to with pride.'" The book was written at a time when many black students, educators, and scholars were starting to piece together the connection between the way their history was taught and the way they were perceived by others and by themselves. They began to question assumptions made about their history and took it upon themselves to create a new body of historical research. The book is premised on the question: "If the Blacks were among the very first builders of civilization and their land the birthplace of civilization, what has happened to them that has left them since then, at the bottom of world society, precisely what happened? The Caucasian answer is simple and well-known: The Blacks have always been at the bottom." Williams instead contends that many elements—nature, imperialism, and stolen legacies— have aided in the destruction of the black civilization. The Destruction of Black Civilization is revelatory and revolutionary because it offers a new approach to the research, teaching, and study of African history by shifting the main focus from the history of Arabs and Europeans in Africa to the Africans themselves, offering instead "a history of blacks that is a history of blacks. Because only from history can we learn what our strengths were and, especially, in what particular aspect we are weak and vulnerable. Our history can then become at once the foundation and guiding light for united efforts in serious[ly] planning what we should be about now." It was part of the evolution of the black revolution that took place in the 1970s, as the focus shifted from politics to matters of the mind.
#10 The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble by Zane Format: Paperback, 2nd ed., 304pp. ISBN: 0967460182 Publisher: Strebor Books International, LLC Pub. Date: February 2001 Edition Desc: 2 ED After more than two years of entertaining tens of thousands of loyal readers on the Internet with her vivid imagination, a large collection of Zane's erotica is finally available in a published format. Zane has captivated the minds of both sexes and all races. She has completely shattered 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 races. 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.	#10 Pimpin' from the Pulpit to the Pews: Exposing and Expelling the Spirit of Lust in the Church Click to order via Amazon or Barnes and Noble Hasani Pettiford ISBN: 0970791518 Format: Paperback, 237pp Pub. Date: June 2003 Publisher: Pettiford, Hasani Publications Fornication, adultery, homoesexuality, incest, masturbation and several other sexual strongholds have crept into the pulpits, altars and pews of the church. Unfortunately, many within the church have faced the overwhelming struggle of sexual sin alone. PIMPIN' From The Pulpit To The Pews is an explosive, eye-opening book that reveals how the spirit of lust has crept into the church and has devastatingly affected both its leadership and laity. the book not only exposes the spirit of lust, but offers a step-by-step plan for overcoming sexual sin in order to pursue sexual purity. This book reveals: How Baal worship has entered into the church. How inappropriate sexual behavior compromises the integrity of church leadership. How Satan's fivefold ministry creates an insatiable appetite for sex. True deliverance for homosexuals within the church how to pursue sexual purity after falling into the traps of sexual sin.

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