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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
March & April 2003
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#1
by Mary Monroe Format: Paperback, 352pp. Mary Monroe, the acclaimed author of The Upper Room, has had her work praised as "warm, energetic, and charming" by the Houston Post and "magnificent" by the San Francisco Chronicle. Now, in her new novel, God Don't Like Ugly, she brings back to life the bond between two girls from opposite sides of the track and the shattering event that changes their lives forever. Set in Ohio during the 50's, 60's and 70's, this richly-drawn
coming-of-age tale is about a sexually abused young black woman and the
beautiful and diabolical best friend who comes to her rescue. Resonating
with clear-eyed wit and uncompromising honesty, it is a tale of endurance,
hope and triumph, full of laughter and pure enjoyment. |
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#2
Format:
Hardcover, 368pp. Douglass' Women reimagines
the lives of an American hero, Frederick Douglass, and two women - his
wife and his mistress - who loved him and lived in his shadow. Anna
Douglass, a free woman of color, was Douglass' wife of forty-four years,
who bore him five children. Ottilie Assing, a German-Jewish intellectual,
provided him the companionship of the mind that he needed. Hurt by
Douglass' infidelity, Anna rejected his notion that only literacy freed
the mind. For her, familial love rivaled intellectual pursuits. Ottilie
was raised by parents who embraced the ideal of free love, but found
herself entrapped in an unfulfilling love triangle with America's most
famous self-taught slave for nearly three decades. |
| #3
by Salome Thomas-El, Cecil Murphey (Contributor) The challenges of working in an urban school are
not for every teacher. Some get burnt out fast. Some lose sight of why
they started teaching to begin with. Some find their calling in other
neighborhoods…with other kids. But not Salome Thomas-EL. A teacher at
Roberts Vaux Middle School in Philadelphia’s inner city, he chose to stay.
Gripping, poignant, and surprisingly honest, this is his blistering
real-life tale of mentoring and making a difference—and of how the
reformation of America’s educational system can start with just one
school.
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#4
Edited by Clayborne Carson and Kris Shepard Format: Hardcover, 240pp., In his introduction, the one-time ambassador to the United Nations
Andrew Young refers to MLK as "the voice of the century," and this
collection deftly pays homage to that powerful voice. Carson (a Stanford
University historian) and Shepard have compiled 12 of King's greatest
speeches and prefaced them with touching and inspiring introductions
written and read by prominent activists, leaders and theologians,
including the Dalai Lama, Sen. Edward Kennedy and others. There's a lot
more here than the "I Have a Dream" masterpiece (which is beautifully
introduced by Dr. Dorothy I. Height, longtime president of the National
Council of Negro Women). The material ranges from King's early talks in
Alabama churches to the magnificent "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech,
which he gave the night before his assassination. |
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#5
by Zelda Lockhart ISBN: 0743412656 When Odessa Blackburn is three years old, she sees her grandmother for the last time, and so begins her story as the fifth born of eight children in a troubled family. Molested by her father, Odessa is also the sole witness to a murder he commits. Her mother guards both secrets and joins her husband in ostracizing their fifth born from the rest of her siblings. As Odessa grows, so do her troubles. She ultimately separates herself from her parents and siblings into a new reality that prompts memory and revelation. Her choices for survival provoke an outcome that will forever alter the carefully maintained lies of her childhood. Zelda Lockhart's Fifth Born is lyrically written, poignant and
powerful in its exploration of how secrets can tear families apart and
unravel people's lives. Set in rural Mississippi and St. Louis,
Missouri, Fifth Born is a story of loss and redemption, as Odessa
walks away from those who she believes to be her kin to discover the
meaning of family. |
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#6
Format: Paperback, 114pp.
Williams is one of AALBC.com's top
selling authors of all time Hailed as "a dreadlocked dervish of words...the Bob Marley of American poets" (Esquire), Saul Williams is a gifted young poet who is opening up this literary art form to a new generation of readers. Like his writing -- a fearless mix of connecting rhythms and vibrant images -- Saul Williams is unstoppable. He received raves for his performance as an imprisoned street poet in the Trimark Pictures release Slam, winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes and the Grand Jury prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. The consummate spoken-word performance artist, Williams has also been signed by producer Rick Rubin to record a CD of his poetry. She is a fascinating and unique collection of
interconnected poems by this multi-talented star -- and marks the
beginning of an incredible and totally original artistic career.
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#7
Format:
Hardcover, 288pp. Something is wrong with Anthony—our 318-pound hero—and it's getting
worse. A monster has caught his uncle and his mother; now it wants
Anthony. Mental illness has been transmitted through his family's blood.
The three women in his life—his mother, younger sister, and
grandmother—find him naked and disoriented in his off-campus college
apartment and take him home to Queens, each determined to fix him in her
own peculiar way. But his presence soon turns their house into a
semisuburban asylum. |
| #8
Publisher: Knopf Alfred A Winner of the PEN Open Book Award! Twelve original and interconnected stories, Victor D. LaValle's astonishing, violent, and funny debut offers harrowing glimpses at the vulnerable lives of young people who struggle not only to come of age, but to survive the city streets.. "In "ancient history," two best friends graduating from high school fight to be the one to leave first for a better world; each one wants to be the fortunate son. In "pops," an African-American boy meets his father, a white cop from Connecticut, and tries not to care. And in "kids on colden street" a boy is momentarily uplifted by the arrival of a younger sister only to discover that brutality leads only to brutality in the natural order of things. |
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#9
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. |
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#10
Format: Paperback, 336pp. Addicted is the story of Zoe, an African-American female arts dealer. It traces her life from the time she first meets her husband, Jason, in the fifth grade, falls in love with him over a game of Twister in the eighth grade, loses her virginity to him in high school and eventually marries him. Everything seems perfect in Zoe’s life to her friends and family as she secretly deals with serious problems in her marriage. After failing to get Jason to open up to her sexually, Zoe becomes involved in not one, not two but three extramarital affairs. By the time she seeks the aid of a prominent female African-American therapist, the walls of her picture perfect life have already started to crumble. 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.
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Douglass'
Women 
I
Choose to Stay: A Black Teacher Refuses to Desert the Inner-City
A
Call To Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of
Fifth
Born
She
The
Ecstatic
Slapboxing
with Jesus
Everything
but the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture
Addicted
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