Bestselling African American Books, July 2010

The top selling books by or about African Americans published in July 2010 from Amazon.com.

1. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
   (Odyssey Editions, 07/21/10, Kindle Edition)
   

   Already a classic by the time it won the National Book Award in 1953, Invisible Man has left an indelible print on the American consciousness. Ralph Ellison’s blistering and impassioned masterpiece not only cracked open the layers of American society to expose the blind prejudice and intolerance at its core, it expanded the idea of what a novel can do.

    

2. Total Eclipse of the Heart: A Novel by Zane
   (Atria, 07/06/10, Paperback)
   

   The New York Times bestselling queen of erotica is back with a provocative and sensual new novel of love, heartbreak, and total liberation.Waitress Brooke Alexander is in love with Patrick Sterling, one of the most prominent attorneys in Washington, D.C. On his good days, Patrick is the man of every woman’s dream. On his bad days, he’s a complete nightmare. . . . Compassionate and honest, Damon Johnson worships the ground his wife, Carleigh, walks on, while she treats him like a trophy husband and views his life aspirations as a joke. He’s beginning to wonder if he made the right decision when he asked for her hand in marriage. . . . When a tragic event brings Brooke and Damon together, they see truths about their relationships they never wanted to accept. Sometimes two people meet by pure chance, but sometimes it’s . . . a total eclipse of the heart.

    

3. Holy Rollers by ReShonda Tate Billingsley
   (Gallery, 07/06/10, Paperback)
   

   Looking for Love . . . Lifelong friends Coco, Nita, and Tia have spent years looking for love in the arms of flashy pro athletes, hoping to land a baller but ending up with a stream of failed relationships. The beautiful and demure Coco has endured years of physical abuse from her boyfriend, Sonny, while Tia, a single mother, has dated her fair share of cheaters and yearns for a stable companion who will be a father figure to her son. And feisty, seductive Nita is tired of being the million-dollar mistress and wants to settle down — if she can find someone worth coming home to. Changing the Game . . . Now that the women are approaching thirty, they’re finding it harder than ever to compete with the pro groupies. Determined to change the game and find some worthwhile men, Tia hatches an outrageous plan. Soon the trio is “holy rolling,” masquerading as God-fearing churchgoers at a local conference for young ministers in the hopes of snagging a prominent pastor. But will their big gamble pay off? Men of the cloth are still just men, after all. As the three friends meet their potential life partners, they will have to decide how far they want to take their holy rollers scheme — each risking heartbreak while taking a chance on finding a reliable, responsible man to love and cherish, flaws and all.

    

4. Trophy Wife by Ashley JaQuavis
   (Urban Books, 07/01/10, Paperback)
   

    

5. Full Figured: Carl Weber Presents by Brenda Hampton
   (Urban Books, 07/01/10, Paperback)
   

    

6. More Church Folk by Michele Andrea Bowen
   (Grand Central Publishing, 07/28/10, Hardcover)
   

   It is now 1986, and the preachers of the Gospel United Church are preparing for their much-anticipated Triennial General Conference. The last time readers encountered the good Rev. Theophilus Simmons, he was a newlywed and the pastor of a modest-sized congregation in Memphis. Now he’s the father of three and running a congregation in St. Louis. His best friend, Rev. Eddie Tate, is now with a fast growing church in Chicago, but he is getting real frustrated with the way things are run in the Gospel United Church. Marcel Brown and his father, Ernest, along with Sonny Washington and Bishop Larsen Giles have had two decades to perfect their slimy methods of “tapping” church funds and other misdeeds. Now they’ve found a secret weapon that will allow them to make fast money and accomplish what they failed to do 20 years ago–buy off enough power to dominate the entire denomination, put their cronies in key spots, and ransack the church like it is the spoils of war. It won’t be long before the two opposing sides face off…”church-folk” style.

    

7. Dmitry’s Royal Flush: Rise of the Queen (The Medlov Crime Family Series) by Latrivia Nelson
   (RiverHouse Publishing, LLC, 07/01/10, Kindle Edition)
   

   From the popular multicultural author, Latrivia S. Nelson, comes the highly anticipated second installment of the Medlov Crime Family Series, Dmitry’s Royal Flush: Rise of the Queen.For Dmitry and Royal Medlov, money doesn’t equal happiness. Forced to leave Memphis, TN and flee to Prague after a brutal mafia war, the couple nestled into the countryside to raise their daughter, Anya, and lead a safe, quiet life. But when Dmitry’s son, Anatoly, shows up with an offer he can’t refuse, Dmitry is forced to go back to the life he left as boss of the most feared criminal organization in world. Consequently, the deal could not only destroy the Medlov Crime Family but also Dmitry and Royal. Royal hasn’t been the same since she was attacked three years ago. Where she used to be a sweet, innocent girl, she’s now the jaded, bitter mistress of the Medlov Chateau. However, a reality check is in store for the pre-Madonna when Anya’s new teacher shows up with her sights set on stealing Dmitry, and Ivan’s old ally shows up with his sights on killing him. Can Royal save them all? Will she?With a family in such turmoil, the only way to survive is to stick together. Read the gripping tale of a marriage strong enough to stand the test of time as Dmitry realizes that he has the best cards in the house as long as he has a Royal Flush.

    

8. A Ramsey Wedding by AlTonya Washington
   (07/01/10, Kindle Edition)
   

   Chicago sets the scene for a week of Love, romance and drama like only The Ramseys can provide. You’re invited to the wedding of the year as Fernando and Contessa tie the knot!

    

9. Platinum: A Novel by Aliya S King
   (Touchstone, 07/06/10, Hardcover)
   

   You only think you want this life . . . Alex Maxwell is planning her wedding to up-and coming music artist Birdie, ghostwriting video vixen Cleopatra Wright’s memoir, and she’s just been assigned the story of the year by her editor in chief at a major music industry magazine — an article about the glamorous lives of women married to platinum-selling hip-hop artists. Alex has been interviewing celebrities and hangers-on long enough to know all that glitters isn’t gold, so she’s determined to get the real scoop. Still, it’s not going to be easy to get past the wives’ gilded cages. . . Beth Saddlebrook, wife of aging rapper Z. They have three beautiful boys and a seemingly endless supply of cash. But Beth spends her days trying to keep Z off drugs and fielding calls from women hollering she’s just a “small-town white bitch” and claiming to be carrying Z’s baby. Only one person understands what she’s going through. . . Kipenzi Hill, multiplatinum-selling R&B artist and Beth’s best friend. Her relationship with rap star and record label president Jake is an open secret in the industry. She knows Jake loves her, but he’d rather break up than publicly acknowledge it. Now she has learned that the newest (and much younger) R&B sensation Bunny has been signed to Jake’s label. Josephine Bennett, wife to Jamaican singer and Ãœberproducer Ras Bennett. Josephine doesn’t just want to spend her husband’s money, she wants to contribute. Her fashion company is finally starting to get media attention when her husband admits to something she’s suspected all along — he’s fallen in love with another woman. Cleopatra Wright, every man’s dream girl, a video vixen with a story to tell and scores to settle. Cleo’s got that thing no one can put a finger on and no man (or woman) can resist. Some would call her evil or misguided or both, but Cleo always moves with a purpose and she’ll stop at nothing to get what she wants. . . Alex realizes she may have more in common with these women than she’d like. What if this is a glimpse of how her life will be if Birdie finally gets signed to a major label? Stuck between her loyalty to this newfound sisterhood and her obligation to write the truth, Alex is forced to rethink everything she knows about work, friendship, and love.

    

10. Sweet Revenge by Grant Wilson
    (07/05/10, Kindle Edition)
    

    Lena Franklin has held on to a painful memory for years. One that Lane Hamilton is responsible for. He humiliated Lena because she was an ugly duckling that had a crush on him. Years later, she is now a successful and beautiful detective and he is a suspect drug dealer. She is going to make it her life’s mission to get revenge for what he did, but will love alter her course?

     

11. Stealing Candy (Zane Presents) by Allison Hobbs
    (Strebor Books, 07/06/10, Paperback)
    

    Forced teen prostitution in America is on the rise and is being exposed through the media. Allison Hobbs offers a provocative look into the lives of three young girls who have been forced into sex slavery by a homicidal pimp, and the one woman who risks everything to try and save their lives. Stealing Candy by Allison Hobbs is a shocking novel about human sex trafficking. Three teenage girls from very different backgrounds have been abducted by a pimp who refers to them as “his candy” while treating them with cruelty and contempt. Routinely battered, emotionally manipulated, the girls are brainwashed into accepting sexual servitude as their hopeless plight in life. Saleema Sparks has made it her life’s mission to provide a sanctuary for troubled teen-age girls. With dwindling personal funds, she may have to close the doors to her one-woman operation — Head Up — a safe haven for young women in crisis. But when Portia, a member of Head Up, goes missing, Saleema does not accept that the troubled teen is simply a runaway. She is compelled to look for Portia, forcing an apathetic community to open their eyes and lend a hand in the search for the abducted teen. But can she help Portia and the other sex-trafficked girls break free from the malicious pimp who has abducted them? Determined to save three young lives, Saleema risks everything to get the girls out of the pimp’s murderous grasp.

     

12. Forever Love by Melinda Abrams
    (07/04/10, Kindle Edition)
    

    Serena Copeland has been haunted by the recurring nightmare of a seductive man. Drawn to him physically, she is repelled by his predator-like eyes. When her best friend reveals that the man in her dreams is real, Serena is torn between fear and love. *********Jonas Augustin has spent centuries pursing the creature that turned him into the immortal monster he has become. That is until he sees the eyes that belonged to his beloved wife on the mahogany face of Serena Copeland. He intends to love her from afar until evil forces compel him to reveal himself to save his forever love. Excerpt:Serena was asleep, tossing and turning. She could see him all to clear. He was outside of her home, in the alley. He stood in the shadows. She could feel his desire to claim her. She could feel his pulse quicken. She could feel his desire welling up. As she fought to stay asleep suddenly he was besideher in her room. She could feel the heat from his body. See the molten intense arousal in his black eyes. Her breath was coming short and fast. As her blood, started to heat up, Jonas knelt down to brush a kiss upon her mouth to go. He knew that he would not be able to be this close without claiming her soon.Jonas was surprised when she reached out in her sleep and grabbed his head. She thrust her tongue into his mouth. Her kisses were intoxicating.She was warm, and hot. Her lust for him was so strong that he did not know if he had the strength to pull back. How many nights had he wanted her. So many night’s had he watched her struggle through the nightmare of his life. And now she was kissing him. Jonas had a low growl escape histhroat. He pulled away and mumbled a low chant over Serena so she would go into a deep sleep. Soon he would take her body If he did not no one would be safe.

     

13. Heart Stopping Love by Grant Wilson
    (07/12/10, Kindle Edition)
    

    LaTonya Taylor is a successful literary agent who has begun to receive threatening emails. When the emails become more than she can handle, she turns to her long time Harley riding friend, Derek Carter. Will they unravel this mystery before someone gets hurt, or worse – falls in love?Excerpt:His mind drifted back to the day he met LaTonya Taylor. Had it really been ten years since he was a struggling author trying to get anything published, when a friend had read his first book and introduced him to LaTonya at a dinner party?She had just become a partner in one of the most successful literary agencies in the country. She read his book and liked it and the rest, as they say, is history.Within a year, she had pushed his book to the top of the best-seller lists everywhere. Television and magazine interviews followed in a frenzy of media hype the likes of which he had never seen. Feeling a debt of gratitude to LaTonya for takinga chance on him, he signed a ten-year deal with her.The annoying voice shocked him back to reality.”Mr. Edwards, I’m sorry, but Miss Taylor isn’t in the office today, she’s working out of her home. Can I give her a message for you?”"Tell her to call me. I’m only going to be around for another hour and then she can get me on my cell phone.” He hung up, not even waiting for the receptionist to acknowledge his last sentence. …………………………….”THE END OF YOUR LIFE IS NEAR. YOU WON’T KNOW WHEN OR WHERE, BUT I WILL. YOU’RE GOING TO DIE, YOU MISERABLE BITCH, AND I’M GOING TO WATCH. DON’T CONTACT THE POLICE! I’M WATCHING YOU!”The cursor sat blinking on her screen as she read the e-mail for the fifth time this morning. LaTonya lit another cigarette and ran her fingers through her relaxed hair. She sat in her home office overlooking the scenic Berkshire Mountains. She thought of Herman Melville sitting at his desk while looking out at these same mountains as he penned “Moby Dick.” The mountains could be beautiful or volatile, depending on who viewed them and the time of year. They seemed to have a different effect on each person. Living here most of her life, she had left for a brief time to attend college. Since the advent of the Internet, one could virtually work at any geographic location on earth and still stay as in touch as if you were in the next office. Since she had become a partner in the business, trips to New York were required a couple of times a month; other than that, she could be found here via phone, fax, or the Internet. The old Victorian house she inhabited was both her home and her office, and she liked it just fine that way. Staring back at the computer screen, she read the e-mail again. It was the third one she’d received in the past week. Pulling the top desk drawer open, she removed a Smith & Wesson .38-caliber Airweight with the shrouded hammer her father had given her and checked it once again to make sure it was loaded.Holding the cold blue steel in her hands made her feel warm and secure. Who was this nut, and why was he/she harassing her? Putting the gun back in the drawer and sliding it shut, she shuddered as a sudden chill came over her. LaTonya didn’t know what to do or where to turn. Each e-mail had warned her against contacting the police, and the person had said he/she was watching her. Maybe she was getting worked up over nothing; maybe this was some cruel prank by some twelve-year-old kid on the Internet. Still, it made her feel uneasy and scared, and she didn’t know whom to turn to. She had thought of calling her sister Erica and confiding in her, but she didn’t want to endanger her.As she peered out at the steel-gray sky, a tear ran down her cheek.

     

14. Can’t Get Enough of You by Bette Ford
    (Avon, 07/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    No rebounds. . . Jenna Gaines has her Ph.D., a great teaching job at her alma mater, everything she ever wanted in life . . . almost. Once upon a time she wanted Scott Hendricks, but the NBA called and he left her to become a hoops star. Now his career is over, and the only man Jenna ever loved is back at her school and in her life — too many years too late, as far as she’s concerned. Jenna would have given up her dreams to follow Scott, which was the last thing he wanted. All Scott can think about now is the taste of her lips and how it feels to caress her silky ebony skin, but Jenna won’t give him a second chance to break her heart. She will, however, let him be her backup and support when she reconnects with her long-lost brother. But anything could happen on their fateful trip — because Scott still has the moves . . . and the magic.

     

15. Lover’s Allure- A Ramsey Romance by AlTonya Washington
    (07/01/10, Kindle Edition)
    

    Journey to Scotland where Darby Ellis and Kraven DeBurgh embark upon a fiery, erotic romance that sets the stage for the next level of Ramsey mystery, drama and revenge.

     

16. Vows (Arabesque) by Rochelle Alers
    (Kimani Press, 07/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    On a well-deserved vacation in exotic Mexico, sensible, practical accountant Vanessa Blanchard allows a maelstrom of desire to turn her world upside down. She’s not sure why she dared to trust gorgeous, mysterious Joshua Kirkland, even though he revealed very little about his past — or their future together. All she knows is that she fell under the spell of a man who made her love him, and then disappeared without a trace. Now Joshua haunts her mind with desperate, unanswered questions and torments her sleepless nights with memories of ecstasy.Unbeknownst to Vanessa, Joshua Kirkland hasn’t abandoned the woman he branded with his passion. His mission began as a game of seduction fueled by suspicion, but it has now turned into a daring race to confront the deadly danger that threatens the love of a lifetime — and the woman he cherishes.

     

17. 32 Candles: A Novel by Ernessa T. Carter
    (Amistad, 07/01/10, Hardcover)
    

    32 Candles is the slightly twisted, utterly romantic, and deftly wry story of Davie Jones, who, if she doesn’t stand in her own way, just might get the man of her dreams. Davie — an ugly duckling growing up in small-town Mississippi — is positive her life couldn’t be any worse. She has the meanest mother in the South, possibly the world, and on top of that, she’s pretty sure she’s ugly. Just when she’s resigned herself to her fate, she sees a movie that will change her life — Sixteen Candles. But in her case, life doesn’t imitate art. Tormented endlessly in school with the nickname “Monkey Night,” and hopelessly in unrequited love with a handsome football player, James Farrell, Davie finds that it is bittersweet to dream of Molly Ringwald endings. When a cruel school prank goes too far, Davie leaves the life she knows and reinvents herself in the glittery world of Hollywood — as a beautiful and successful lounge singer in a swanky nightclub. Davie is finally a million miles from where she started — until she bumps into her former obsession, James Farrell. To Davie’s astonishment, James doesn’t recognize her, and she can’t bring herself to end the fantasy. She lets him fall as deeply in love with her as she once was with him. But is life ever that simple? Just as they’re about to ride off into the sunset, the past comes back with a vengeance, threatening to crush Davie’s dreams — and break her heart again. With wholly original characters and a cinematic storyline, 32 Candles introduces Ernessa T. Carter, a new voice in fiction with smarts, attitude, and sassiness to spare.

     

18. Song of Solomon (Urban Christian) by Kendra Norman-Bellamy
    (Urban Books, 07/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

19. Unconditionally Single by Mary B. Morrison
    (Dafina, 07/01/10, Paperback)
    

    New York Times bestselling author Mary B. Morrison thrills readers with another riveting tale featuring beloved heroine Honey Thomas. This time, Honey goes into hiding to save her life–and fights to keep past enemies from destroying the future she so desperately wants. . .Honey Thomas once made her living as a tough-talking prostitute and madam, but those days are long gone. Now, Honey runs a counseling center she founded in Atlanta that helps women like her get off the streets. The best part is Honey’s new life is being bankrolled by money stolen from her ex-pimp, Valentino James. But no matter how fast Honey runs, she never seems to break free from her demons. Valentino knows Honey has his money–fifty million dollars to be exact–and he’s willing to kill her to get it back. Honey escapes from Valentino by the skin of her teeth, but she knows the time has come to disappear for a while and figure out where her life is headed. In her heart, Honey still aches for Grant Hill, the love she lost when he learned about her dark past. How much more must she lose before she finally finds some peace?Like a cat, Honey Thomas seems to have nine lives, and she’s used up just about every last one of them. But life still has a few surprises left for Honey–and if she’s willing to risk everything, she may just get that happy ending her heart and soul desire. . .

     

20. Heart’s Choice (Arabesque) by Celeste O. Norfleet
    (Kimani Press, 07/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Before he was a football legend, Devon Hayes fantasized about Hollywood actress Jazelle Richardson. Now that he’s famous in his own right and ready to settle down, meeting Jazz through The Platinum Society seems like destiny. Their sensual chemistry is overwhelming except Jazz wants the one thing Devon can’t give her — a life away from the spotlight.Born to movie star parents, Jazz has seen the problems wealth and fame can bring. Reeling after a loss, she’s not sure she’s ready to get close to anyone again, especially someone who’s so attached to his celebrity status. But by the time Devon figures out what matters most, will he have lost the woman his heart chose to love long ago?

     

Rude Buay … The Unstoppable – Coming on Independence Day.

LOS ANGELES, June 22, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Author John A. Andrews, son of the Caribbean soil, penetrates inside the belly of the drug world. In an environment saturated with corruption, deception, duplicity, deceit, and inequities of all kinds, Andrews conceives a cross Atlantic, greed driven fiasco, embedded within the drug epidemic. Can Jamaican-born DEA “Rude Buay” save his country from the tyranny of the Dragon Drug Cartel?

Many stories have been written about the horrible threat that illegal drugs pose to our way of life. People involved can be as ruthless at spreading the evil as those whom are dedicated to stopping it. Here, the stakes are raised much higher, when innocent and malicious teenagers are caught up in this debacle and dying off like flies.

This poignant and hard hitting story intensifies, as Rude Buay – pronounced “Rude Boy,” a dedicated and stubborn Drug Enforcement Agent, goes after this powerful drug cartel threatening the government of his country, Jamaica.

Ironically, just over a decade ago, he was forced to flee Jamaica, after his older brother was killed in a drug related incident. So imagine what it’s like returning to your homeland, to fight a war, where you are not welcomed and distrust your own countrymen.

Rude Buay is a gritty action drama with deviant twists, entangled between the thin line of Law and Order. Rick Scott, founder of the James Mason Classic British Book Club gave 5 stars to this twisted-roller-coaster-action-thriller: a teary-eyed, diabolically encapsulating chronicle that will make you think, laugh, cry, applaud, and even scream.

Have you purchased your copy yet? Click here to pre-order Rude Buay … The Unstoppable Pre-order Rude Buay.

Click here Preview to read the exclusive first chapter of Rude Buay.

Rude Buay … The Unstoppable is a blend of Traffic meets Casino Royale with Charlie’s Angels gone corrupt. With the film project currently in development, Rude Buay is expected to go into pre-production in early 2011.

An ALI project. Visit: www.AndrewsLeadershipInternational.com Website: www.theRUDEBUAY.com *Rude Buay is a drug prevention chronicle about teens caught up in the war on drugs and contains content for adults; parental discretion is advised for children.

This hardcover edition of Rude Buay is published by Books That Will Enhance Your Life and distributed by Baker & Taylor.

SOURCE Books That Will Enhance Your Life www.prnewswire.com Copyright (C) 2010 PR Newswire. All rights reserved -0- KEYWORD: California

Jamaica INDUSTRY KEYWORD: ENT

FLM

Atlanta Black Book Expo

Title: Atlanta Black Book Expo
Location: Atlanta
Link out: www.abbexpo.com
Description: The Atlanta Black Book Expo (ABBE) will launch its first-ever literary showcase on Saturday, August 7, 2010 at the Georgia International Convention Center located in College Park. The event will provide a venue for up-and-coming literary professionals such as authors, playwrights, poets, publishers, and booksellers to promote their creative works.

The expo will also focus on encouraging youth to read more often featuring the student theme: “Going Back to School Strong.” ABBE organizers have partnered with the Ludacris Foundation to create a school supply give-a-way promotion. Established by recording star and actor, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, the foundation supports grassroots organizations that work to help youth and will donate school supplies to provide to needy students during the expo.

“Our goal is to a create a viable source of support to the many talented, yet little known writers and other literary professionals who don\’t have access to mainstream media, publishing, or major distribution,” said Kelly Johnson, ABBE founder. “We also want to promote literacy among school students and expose them to the wonders of reading because they are our authors of tomorrow. And we are especially thankful to our partners like the Ludacris Foundation for helping us in this effort.”

The ABBE will also feature a host of fun entertainment and activities including a Spoken Word/Poetry Slam; raffle prizes, and a live radio broadcast. Arts and crafts vendors are also encouraged to participate. The expo will begin at 11:00 a.m.

General event information including author and exhibitor details is available at www.abbexpo.com.

Interested participants should call 404-824-0128 or email info@abbexpo.com.

For inquires regarding sponsorship opportunities please contact: 678-643-4925 or email Kelly@abbexpo.com.

2010 Glyph Awards

The winners of the Glyph Comics Awards, designed to “recognize the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year,” were named during a ceremony held May 15 in Philadelphia as part of that weekend’s East Coast Black Age of Comics Con (ECBACC).

The judges for the 2010 competition were David Brothers, Carol Burrell, Brian Cronin and Katie & Dan Merritt. A ballot for the Fan Award for Best Comic is now open here.

Story of the Year
* Luke Cage Noir; Mike Benson & Adam Glass, writers; Shawn Martinbrough, artist
* The Original Johnson; Trevor von Eeden, writer and artist
* Unknown Soldier #13-14; Joshua Dysart, writer, Pat Masioni, artist
* War Machine: Iron Heart; Greg Pak, writer, Leonardo Manco, artist
* World of Hurt, Jay Potts, writer and artist

Best Writer
* Joshua Dysart, Unknown Soldier
* Jeremy Love, Bayou
* Greg Pak, War Machine
* Jay Potts, World of Hurt
* Alex Simmons, Archie & Friends

Best Artist
* Chriscross, Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance
* Jeremy Love, Bayou
* Shawn Martinbrough, Luke Cage Noir
* Jay Potts, World of Hurt
* Trevor von Eeden, The Original Johnson

Best Male Character
* Black Lightning, Black Lightning Year One; Jen van Meter, writer, Cully Hamner, artist; created by Tony Isabella & Trevor von Eeden
* Isaiah “Pastor” Hurt, World of Hurt; created by Jay Potts, writer and artist
* Jack Johnson; The Original Johnson; Trevor von Eeden, writer and artist; inspired by the life of Jack Johnson
* Luke Cage, Luke Cage Noir; Mike Benson & Adam Glass, writers, Shawn Martinbrough, artist; created by Archie Goodwin & John Romita Sr.
* Moses Lwanga, Unknown Soldier #13-14; Joshua Dysart, writer, Pat Masioni, artist; inspired by the character created by Robert Kanigher & Joe Kubert

Best Female Character
* Aya, Aya: The Secrets Come Out; created by Marguerite Abouet, writer, Clement Oubrerie, artist
* Lee Wagstaff, Bayou; created by Jeremy Love, writer and artist
* Michonne, The Walking Dead; created by Robert Kirkman, writer, Charlie Adlard & Cliff Rathburn, artists
* Misty Knight, Immortal Iron Fist; Duane Swierczynski, writer, Travel Foreman & Tom Palmer, artists; created by Tony Isabella & Arvell Jones
* Nola Thomas, NOLA; created by Chris Gorak & Pierluigi Cothran, writers, Damian Couceiro, artist

Rising Star Award
* Jiba Molei Anderson, The Horsemen
* John Aston, Rachel Rage
* Kerry & Tawanda Johnson, Harambee Hills
* Julian Lytle, Ants
* Jay Potts, World of Hurt

Best Reprint Collection
* Aya: The Secrets Come Out; Drawn & Quarterly
* Bayou Vol. 1; DC/Zuda
* Icon: A Hero’s Welcome; DC/Milestone
* The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the 21st Century; Dark Horse
* Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool; DC/Milestone

Best Cover
* Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink #1; Brian Stelfreeze, illustrator
* Luke Cage Noir #1; Tim Bradstreet, illustrator
* The Original Johnson; Trevor von Eeden, illustrator
* Unknown Soldier #8; Dave Johnson, illustrator
* Unknown Soldier #10; Dave Johnson, illustrator

Best Comic Strip
* Bayou; Jeremy Love, writer and artist
* Jump Start; Robb Armstrong, writer and artist
* The K Chronicles; Keith Knight, writer and artist
* The Knight Life; Keith Knight, writer and artist
* World of Hurt; Jay Potts, writer and artist

Fan Award for Best Comic
* Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel; Kevin Grevioux, writer, Mat Broome, Sean Parson & Alvaro Lopez, artists
* Black Lightning Year One; Jen Van Meter, writer, Cully Hamner, artist
* Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink; Eric Wallace, writer, Fabrizio Fiorentino, artist
* Luke Cage Noir; Mike Benson & Adam Glass, writers, Shawn Martinbrough, artist
* War Machine: Iron Heart; Greg Pak, writer, Leonardo Manco, artist

News: Black writers in a ghetto of the publishing industry’s making

The Washington Post
By Bernice L. McFadden
Saturday, June 26, 2010

[T]he work of many African Americans authors, myself included, has been lumped into one heap known as “African American literature.” This suggests that our literature is singular and anomalous, not universal. It is as if we American authors who happen to be of African descent are not a people but a genre much like mystery, romance or thriller.

Walk through your local chain bookstore and you will not see sections tagged British Literature, White American Literature, Korean Literature, Pakistani Literature and so on. None of these ethnicities are singled out or objectified the way African American writers are.

And while, yes, a vast majority of all writers, regardless of skin color, are struggling to stay afloat, and there are more African American writers being published today than at any other time in history, one must still take note of exactly what is being published.

For more of this article, click here.

News: Star Jones To Pen Novel Based on ‘The View?’

By Jawn Murray on Jun 10th 2010

TV personality Star Jones is making a foray into the world of fiction with her first novel, ‘The Lunch Club,’ which many speculate is loosely based on her time as a co-host at ‘The View.’

The announcement that the 48-year-old attorney had landed a deal with Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, to publish ‘The Lunch Club‘ was announced today.

The tome will follow female hosts on a daytime talk show called ‘The Lunch Club’ as “they learn that a former colleague-who departed under mysterious circumstances, and is privy to all their backstage secrets – is coming back with a splash!”

An ambitious young publicist is charged with gathering all the details that the former colleague may disclose and “prevent a disaster of nightmarish (even cancellation-worthy!) proportions.”

The book will hit stores next spring.

In real life, Star Jones co-hosted ‘The View’ from the beginning of the show in 1997 until her controversial exit in 2006.

The Badin, North Carolina-bred talent has penned two other books, 2006’s ‘Shine: A Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Journey to Finding Love’ (Harper Collins) and 1999’s ‘You Have To Stand For Something, Or You’ll For Anything’ (Bantam).

For more, see Black Voices:
http://www.bvbuzz.com/2010/06/10/star-jones-fiction-novel-the-view/

Bestselling African American Books, May 2010

The top selling books by or about African Americans published in May2010 from Amazon.com.

1. The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant
   (Pantheon, 05/11/10, Hardcover)
   

   In the thirty-four years since his retirement, Henry Aaron’s reputation has only grown in magnitude: he broke existing records (rbis, total bases, extra-base hits) and set new ones (hitting at least thirty home runs per season fifteen times, becoming the first player in history to hammer five hundred home runs and three thousand hits). But his influence extends beyond statistics, and at long last here is the first definitive biography of one of baseball’s immortal figures.  Based on meticulous research and interviews with former teammates, family, two former presidents, and Aaron himself, The Last Hero chronicles Aaron’s childhood in segregated Alabama, his brief stardom in the Negro Leagues, his complicated relationship with celebrity, and his historic rivalry with Willie Mays — all culminating in the defining event of his life: his shattering of Babe Ruth’s all-time home-run record.  Bryant also examines Aaron’s more complex second act: his quest to become an important voice beyond the ball field when his playing days had ended, his rediscovery by a public disillusioned with today’s tainted heroes, and his disappointment that his career home-run record was finally broken by Barry Bonds during the steroid era, baseball’s greatest scandal.  Bryant reveals how Aaron navigated the upheavals of his time — fighting against racism while at the same time benefiting from racial progress — and how he achieved his goal of continuing Jackie Robinson’s mission to obtain full equality for African-Americans, both in baseball and society, while he lived uncomfortably in the public spotlight. Eloquently written, detailed and penetrating, this is a revelatory portrait of a complicated, private man who through sports became an enduring American icon.From the Hardcover edition.

    

2. Red Hats: A Novel by Damon Wayans
   (Atria, 05/04/10, Hardcover)
   

   Meet Alma, a mother and wife, who’s brutally honest and bitter. Disappointment and heartbreak have left the once vital and joyful woman so cynical and self-protecting that she has forgotten how to love anyone, including herself. She has become so accustomed to being resentful of her husband, James, that even when she wants to show him love she doesn’t know how. He made some mistakes over the course of their decades-long marriage, but she made some mistakes, too, which alienated not only her husband but friends and neighbors as well. Deep down she is sorry for what happened and still loves Harold, but stubborn pride eats away the short time they have left to make amends. When she finds herself widowed with grown children in far-off places, a deep loneliness sets in and she starts to give up on life. That is until a group of red hat ladies — whom she once thought of as belonging to a cult — extend hands of friendship and reintroduce her to herself and, possibly, a new love. In this debut novel, Wayans has crafted unforgettable characters in Alma, her family, and friends, and a charming story that stays with the reader long after the last page is read and reminds us of the enduring power of love and friendship.

    

3. The Dopefiend: Part 2 of Dopeman’s Trilogy (The Dopefiend Trilogy) by JaQuavis Coleman
   (Urban Books, 05/01/10, Paperback)
   

    

4. Trife Life To Lavish Part 2 Genesis & Genevieve…Am I My Brother’s Keeper by Deja King
   (A King Production, 05/25/10, Paperback)
   

   Nichelle feels betrayed and alone as she wonders what happened to her man Renny and if her best friend Tierra is dead or alive. As she fights through the turmoil she is more determined than ever to locate the brother she never knew she had, Genesis, but will the calculating and ruthless Arnez stand in her way? Genesis is still a broken man after losing his wife on their wedding day. The ever so loyal CoCo is right by his side trying to mend his broken heart but she is not sure if he is interested in what she is offering. Things get further complicated when Genesis begins to focus all his attention on finding out what happened to his long lost sister Genevieve. But as Genesis gets closer to discovering the truth, chaos erupts. Precious has always tried to be in control of her own destiny but she was dealt a card that turned her already shaky relationship with Supreme upside down. As she struggles to keep her family intact, it seems impossible with Nico constantly lurking in the background. Things become further complicated when secrets become revealed and their loyalty is tested. Quentin Jacobs is loved by many and hated by few. But the one person s love he wants more than anything is that of his daughter Precious. Quentin will not be deterred and as he begins to make headway, Precious gives him an ultimatum; it s either me or Maya. Who will he choose? Get ready as this explosive tale reveals all and prepares you for a new generation of street royalty in Bitch…A New Beginning.

    

5. Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden
   (Akashic Books, 05/01/10, Kindle Edition)
   

   The seeming inevitability of cruel fate juxtaposes the triumph of the spirit in this remarkably rich and powerful novel, Glorious. Bernice McFadden’s fully realized characters are complicated, imperfect beings, but if ever a character were worthy of love and honor, it is her Easter Bartlett. This very American story is fascinating; it is also heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and beautifully written. — Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of The Scenic Route “Riveting. . . . I am as impressed by its structural strength as by the searing and expertly imagined scenes. — Toni Morrison, on The Warmest December Glorious is set against the backdrops of the Jim Crow South, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights era. Blending the truth of American history with the fruits of Bernice L. McFadden’s rich imagination, this is the story of Easter Venetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer whose tumultuous path to success, ruin, and revival offers a candid portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty. Glorious is ultimately an audacious exploration into the nature of self-hatred, love, possession, ego, betrayal, and, finally, redemption. Bernice L. McFadden is the author of six critically acclaimed novels, including the classic Sugar and Nowhere Is a Place, which was a Washington Post best fiction title for 2006. She is a two-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of two fiction honors from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA). McFadden lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she is working on her next novel.

    

6. Spontaneous (Harlequin Blaze) by Brenda Jackson
   (Harlequin, 05/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
   

   Kimani Cannon knows she’s in trouble the second she lays eyes on 6′4″ of luscious male. The best kind of trouble, toomm-mmm! Duan Jeffries turns out to be the perfect man — charming, considerateand the best lover she’s ever had. Too bad Mr. Delicious is just a one-night stand.Until Kim needs a date to her mother’s (fifth) wedding! Duan’s willing to act the part of her fiancé as long as it means full benefits. More amazing sex? No problem!Then Kim finds out that Duan’s got his own private agenda. Suddenly, she doesn’t know what to believe. Her head and heart are telling her to be careful. But the sensual thrumming in her blood is turning out to be much more persuasive.

    

7. Flint: Book 7: The Finale by Treasure Hernandez
   (Urban Books, 05/25/10, Paperback)
   

    

8. From Cape Town with Love: A Tennyson Hardwick Novel by Blair Underwood
   (Atria, 05/18/10, Hardcover)
   

   THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS OF CASANEGRA AND IN THE NIGHT OF THE HEAT TEAM UP FOR A THIRD TIME TO PRESENT FROM CAPE TOWN WITH LOVE, A TENNYSON HARDWICK NOVEL.Actor-turned-detective Tennyson Hardwick has solved two high-profile deaths in Hollywood, but nothing has prepared him for a race to save a child’s life. Tennyson’s past in the sex game cost him his new girlfriend, and he brings her to Cape Town, South Africa — a scenic film destination and playground for the rich — to try to win her back. There Tennyson is hired as a bodyguard by superstar Sofia Maitlin when she visits an orphanage to adopt an African child.Months later, Maitlin offers Tennyson one of Hollywood’s hottest tickets — a job as a bodyguard at adopted daughter Nandi’s A-list celebrity birthday party. But the party is over before it begins. When Nandi’s birthday goes dreadfully wrong, it’s up to a guilt-ridden Tennyson to save a child’s life and reunite a Hollywood family.But how? He can’t go to the police, the FBI has threatened to arrest him, and Big Brother is monitoring his telephone calls. To find Nandi, Tennyson will have to rely on tips from his father — a retired LAPD captain — and a mysterious woman from his past, Marsha, who has already proven she can’t be trusted. His strongest lead is a deadly knife fighter known only as Spider. When his search for the missing child crosses Marsha’s covert investigation into a criminal gang with ties to South Africa, Tennyson knows that finding Nandi might cost him his freedom — or his life.

    

9. Curly Like Me: How to Grow Your Hair Healthy, Long, and Strong by Teri LaFlesh
   (Wiley, 05/03/10, Paperback)
   

   The simple secrets to growing your curls healthy and long. Tightly curly hair isn’t like any other type of hair, and it needs totally different care to make it happy. Do you spend countless hours — and untold dollars — on weaves, perms, salon visits, and products that promise to change, heal, or make your hair more manageable, only to end up even more frustrated? Do you wrestle daily with hair you can’t get a brush through? Do you struggle to keep from hurting your child when you comb through her tight curls? Would you like to grow your tightly curly hair long and healthy? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this book was written for you. It gives you the information and techniques you need to celebrate — not fight against — your very curly hair. You will learn how not only to care for your curls, but to cherish them, all the while saving time, effort, and money. Curly Like Me is the off-the-grid, do-it-yourself owner’s manual for tightly curly hair: Learn how to wear your own curls in their natural curl patterns Over 250 photographs and illustrations Includes the best products, tools, ingredients, curl-enhancing hairstyle ideas, tips for growing out your perm, and more Shows you pain-free techniques on how to comb and style your curls or your child’s curls Over thirty easy, curl-enhancing hairstyle ideas, tips for growing out your perm, and more Helps you save money by avoiding costly treatments, products, marketing misinformation, and frequent salon visits so you can enjoy your own curls without pain, chemicals, or the use of weaves or extensions The story (with lots of photos) of Teri’s journey from hair broken by relaxers, texturizers, improper care, trying to force it to conform, and fighting her weave addiction to finally understanding her own curls. Now her natural hair reaches to her hips. End your struggles with misunderstood, damaged hair and begin your journey to thriving natural curls. Applying the ideas and information in this book will show you how to love your hair the way it really is. Curly Like Me empowers you to take back the care of your hair so you can let your own beautiful curls shine. Teri LaFlesh spent nearly thirty years working to find a way to make her curls happy. Not wanting anyone else to go through with their hair what she did with hers inspired Teri to create the popular Web site TightlyCurly.com and to write Curly Like Me.

    

10. By Any Greens Necessary: A Revolutionary Guide for Black Women Who Want to Eat Great, Get Healthy, Lose Weight, and Look Phat by Tracye Lynn McQuirter MPH
    (Lawrence Hill Books, 05/01/10, Kindle Edition)
    

    * The first vegan guide geared to African American women * More than forty delicious and nutritious recipes highlighted with color photographs* Menus and advice on transitioning from omnivore to vegan* Resource information and a comprehensive shopping list for restocking the fridge and pantry African American women are facing a health crisis: Heart disease, stroke, and diabetes occur more frequently among them than among women of other races. Black women comprise the heftiest group in the nation — 80 percent are overweight, and 50 percent obese. Decades of studies show that these chronic diseases can be prevented and even reversed with a plant-based diet. But how can you control your weight and health without sacrificing great food and gorgeous curves?Just ask Tracye Lynn McQuirter. With attitude, inspiration, and expertise, in By Any Greens Necessary McQuirter shows women how to stay healthy, hippy, and happy by eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and legumes as part of an active lifestyle. The book is a call to action that all women should heed.

     

11. The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South by Alex Heard
    (Harper, 05/01/10, Hardcover)
    

    A gripping saga of race and retribution in the Deep South and a story whose haunting details echo the themes of To Kill a Mockingbird In 1945, Willie McGee, a young African-American man from Laurel, Mississippi, was sentenced to death for allegedly raping Willette Hawkins, a white housewife. At first, McGee’s case was barely noticed, covered only in hostile Mississippi newspapers and far-left publications such as the Daily Worker. Then Bella Abzug, a young New York labor lawyer, was hired by the Civil Rights Congress — an aggressive civil rights organization with ties to the Communist Party of the United States — to oversee McGee’s defense. Together with William Patterson, the son of a slave and a devout believer in the need for revolutionary change, Abzug and a group of white Mississippi lawyers risked their lives to plead McGee’s case. After years of court battles, McGee’s supporters flooded President Harry S. Truman and the U.S. Supreme Court with clemency pleas, and famous Americans — including William Faulkner, Albert Einstein, Jessica Mitford, Paul Robeson, Norman Mailer, and Josephine Baker — spoke out on McGee’s behalf. By the time the case ended in 1951 with McGee’s public execution in Mississippi’s infamous traveling electric chair, “Free Willie McGee” had become a rallying cry among civil rights activists, progressives, leftists, and Communist Party members. Their movement had succeeded in convincing millions of people worldwide that McGee had been framed and that the real story involved a consensual love affair between him and Mrs. Hawkins — one that she had instigated and controlled. As Heard discovered, this controversial theory is a doorway to a tangle of secrets that spawned a legacy of confusion, misinformation, and pain that still resonates today. The mysteries surrounding McGee’s case live on in this provocative tale of justice in the Deep South. Based on exhaustive documentary research — court transcripts, newspaper reports, archived papers, letters, FBI documents, and the recollections of family members on both sides — Mississippi native Alex Heard tells a moving and unforgettable story that evokes the bitter conflicts between black and white, North and South, in America.

     

12. Duke Ellington’s America by Harvey G. Cohen
    (University Of Chicago Press, 05/01/10, Hardcover)
    

    Few American artists in any medium have enjoyed the international and lasting cultural impact of Duke Ellington. From jazz standards such as “Mood Indigo and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, to his longer, more orchestral suites, to his leadership of the stellar big band he toured and performed with for decades after most big bands folded, Ellington represented a singular, pathbreaking force in music over the course of a half-century. At the same time, as one of the most prominent black public figures in history, Ellington demonstrated leadership on questions of civil rights, equality, and America’s role in the world.With Duke Ellington’s America, Harvey G. Cohen paints a vivid picture of Ellington’s life and times, taking him from his youth in the black middle class enclave of Washington, D.C., to the heights of worldwide acclaim. Mining extensive archives, many never before available, plus new interviews with Ellington’s friends, family, band members, and business associates, Cohen illuminates his constantly evolving approach to composition, performance, and the music business — as well as issues of race, equality and religion. Ellington’s own voice, meanwhile, animates the book throughout, giving Duke Ellington’s America an intimacy and immediacy unmatched by any previous account.By far the most thorough and nuanced portrait yet of this towering figure, Duke Ellington’s America highlights Ellington’s importance as a figure in American history as well as in American music.

     

13. Breakaway (Arabesque) by Rochelle Alers
    (Kimani Press, 05/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    When E.R. doctor Celia Cole-Thomas is wounded and her fiancé killed in a shootout at the hospital, the only way she can heal her body and her heart is to spend time at her mountain retreat. In her remote cabin on the Tennessee border, she isolates herself from the world — until Gavin Faulkner moves into a nearby lodge. And as hard as Celia tries to stay away, Gavin’s friendship and sensuality are slowly bringing her back to life.An FBI special agent, Gavin has been ordered to apprehend a fugitive in the area. The moment he meets Celia, he knows he can’t pass up the chance to show this vibrant woman all the passion she’s been missing. But his dangerous assignment could shatter the fragile trust they’ve built, unless he can convince her that love’s rewards are worth the risks.

     

14. Lily in Full Bloom (Disney Fairies) (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)) by Laura Driscoll
    (RH/Disney, 05/11/10, Paperback)
    

    This blooming good story is the 18th book in our popular Disney Fairies chapter book series, which features Tinker Bell’s adventures in Never Land with her fairy friends. Lily has always thought of herself as a garden-talent fairy first and foremost. But after Tink challenges the other talents to think up new ideas, Lily discovers she’s pretty good at inventing things, too, like her new flowers, the panglories. They grow anywhere — in dirt, on wood, even on rocks! But then little gray spots pop up, first on the panglories, then on other flowers, until all the plants in Pixie Hollow start losing their colors. Can Lily invent a way out of this new fix?

     

15. What’s Really Hood!: A Collection of Tales from the Streets by Wahida Clark
    (Grand Central Publishing, 05/24/10, Paperback)
    

    Life in the streets take on a whole new meaning in this urban anthology of “hood” tales compiled by New York Times bestselling author Wahida ClarkWHAT’S REALLY HOOD!Black Is Blue by Victor L. Martin delves into the life of a corporate woman who falls in love with a thug and finds out just how easy it is to stray from the straight and narrow. Eighteen and hungry Wiz’s only addiction to drugs is the money it made. But Crystal changed all of that and shows him just how powerful a woman can be in The P is Free by LaShonda Teague. In The LastLaugh by Bonta, Bobo, a member of the infamous Eight-Trey street gang, learns that gang life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be as “street wars” take on a whole new meaning. Shawn “Jihad” Trump tells the story of loyalty, love and honor, when The Point Blank Mob is brought to its knees leaving the crew fighting for their lives and freedom in All for Nothing. And New York Times bestselling author, Wahida Clark, introduces Nina, a woman tired of being disrespected by men who takes revenge to the ultimate level in Makin’ Endz Meet.

     

16. Black Diamond 2: Nicety by Brittani Williams
    (Urban Books, 05/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

17. An Actor and a Gentleman by Louis Gossett Jr.
    (Wiley, 05/03/10, Hardcover)
    

    Award-winning African American actor Lou Gossett Jr. takes an unvarnished look at the daunting challenges and incredible triumphs of his fifty-five year career Louis Gossett Jr. is one of the most respected African American stage and screen actors, who rose to fame with his Emmy-winning role in the television miniseries Roots and Oscar-winning performance in An Officer and a Gentleman. Now he tells the story of his fifty-plus years in the entertainment world — from his early success on the New York stage appearing with Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun, through his long Hollywood career working alongside countless stars, including Marilyn Monroe and Dennis Quaid. He writes frankly of his struggle to get leading roles and fair pay as a black man in Hollywood, his problems with drugs and alcohol that took years to overcome, and his current work to eradicate racism and violence and give our children a better future. Includes revealing stories and reminiscences involving famous performers, including Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Shirley Booth, Sammy Davis Jr., Steve McQueen, Richard Gere, Maggie Smith, Halle Berry, and Gena Rowlands Spans half a century of American theater and film history, people, and performances Highlights the problem of racism in Hollywood and the challenges faced by African American actors from the 1950s and 1960s onward An Actor and a Gentleman penetrates the celebrity glitz and glamour to offer an honest, heartfelt portrayal of the African American experience both in Hollywood and the New York theater world, as told by one of the nation’s most enduring and highly esteemed actors.

     

18. Give Me Fever by Niobia Bryant
    (Dafina, 05/01/10, Paperback)
    

    She had everything she needed–until she met himIt looked like it would take a miracle for sexy nature guide Jade Prince to notice quiet accountant Kaeden Strong. Then a camping vacation left them stranded together, sharing a sleeping bag and a wild encounter that burned up the cold night. When it comes to making heat, they’re compatible in every way, except. . .He’s a workaholic who’s allergic to the outdoors. She’s an adventuress with a vixen’s body and a tomboy heart. He’s wanted Jade from the moment he saw her, but so do a long line of men–including her business partner, Darren. On paper, Kaeden is all wrong for Jade–but can he prove he’s right in all the ways that really matter?

     

19. Rhythms of Love: You Sang to Me\Beats of My Heart (Kimani Romance) by Beverly Jenkins
    (Kimani, 05/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Four hearts. Two stories. One melody of love. You Sang to Me by Beverly Jenkins – Sassy streetwise crooner Regina Carson is still dreaming of her big break. And when Jamal Watts hears the stunning songbird, he’s ready to sign her to his label. The love-burned producer isn’t prepared for the passion Regina unleashes in him. Suddenly they’re both hitting all the right notes. But Regina isn’t ready to trust her heart — unless this gorgeous, caring man can show her how, together, they can make the most beautiful music of all. Beats of My Heart by Elaine Overton – Rayne Philips worked hard to turn her jazz club into the hottest downtown scene in the city. But her latest hire — hot young guitarist Tristan Daniels — is throwing off her rhythm. Tristan’s star is on the rise and he wants to make more than sweet music with the sultry club owner. Can the mixed medley of the past turn into a brand-new tempo — the tempo of love?

     

20. Freedom Is Not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America’s Struggle over Black Family Life–from LBJ to Obama by James T. Patterson
    (Basic Books, 05/04/10, Hardcover)
    

    On June 4, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson delivered what he and many others considered the greatest civil rights speech of his career. Proudly, Johnson hailed the new freedoms granted to African Americans due to the newly passed Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, but noted that “freedom is not enough.” The next stage of the movement would be to secure racial equality “as a fact and a result.” The speech was drafted by an assistant secretary of labor by the name of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who had just a few months earlier drafted a scorching report on the deterioration of the urban black family in America. When that report was leaked to the press a month after Johnson’s speech, it created a whirlwind of controversy from which Johnson’s civil rights initiatives would never recover. But Moynihan’s arguments proved startlingly prescient, and established the terms of a debate about welfare policy that have endured for forty-five years.The history of one of the great missed opportunities in American history, Freedom Is Not Enough will be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand our nation’s ongoing failure to address the tragedy of the black underclass.

     

9th Annual West Hollywood Book Fair

Title: West Hollywood Book Fair
Location: West Hollywood, CA
Link: http://www.westhollywoodbookfair.org
Description: The City of West Hollywood and LA Weekly present the multiple, award-winning West Hollywood Book Fair that will take place on Sunday, September 26, 2010 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at West Hollywood Park, 647 North San Vicente Boulevard in West Hollywood. The West Hollywood Book Fair will feature fifteen stages with author panels, special guests and live performances, 150 exhibitors and writing workshops. The West Hollywood Book Fair is one of Southern California’s largest, most eclectic literary events attracting readers and writers of all ages and interests. This year, the City of West Hollywood is celebrating its 25th Anniversary of Cityhood and the West Hollywood Book Fair will join in the festivities. The City of West Hollywood was incorporated in November 1984.

Top-Selling African American Books in 2010

1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
   (Crown, 01/28/10, Kindle Edition)
   

   Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells — taken without her knowledge — became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons — as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia — a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo — to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family — past and present — is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family — especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.From the Hardcover edition.

    

2. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
   (New Press, The, 01/05/10, Kindle Edition)
   

   Jarvious Cotton’s great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Klu Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting by Klan intimidation; his father was barred by poll taxes and literacy tests. Today, Cotton cannot vote because he, like many black men in the United States, has been labeled a felon and is currently on parole. –FROM THE NEW JIM CROW As the United States celebrates the nation’s “triumph over race” with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status–much like their grandparents before them. In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community–and all of us–to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.

    

3. Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Hampton Sides
   (Doubleday, 04/27/10, Hardcover)
   

   From the acclaimed bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder, a taut, intense narrative about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the largest manhunt in American history. On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J, an inmate at the notorious Missouri State Penitentiary, escaped in a breadbox. Fashioning himself Eric Galt, this nondescript thief and con man — whose real name was James Earl Ray — drifted through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he was galvanized by George Wallace’s racist presidential campaign. On February 1, 1968, two Memphis garbage men were crushed to death in their hydraulic truck, provoking the exclusively African American workforce to go on strike. Hoping to resuscitate his faltering crusade, King joined the sanitation workers’ cause, but their march down Beale Street, the historic avenue of the blues, turned violent. Humiliated, King fatefully vowed to return to Memphis in April. With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel when the drifter catches up with his prey. Against the backdrop of the resulting nationwide riots and the pathos of King’s funeral, Sides gives us a riveting cross-cut narrative of the assassin’s flight and the sixty-five-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England — a massive manhunt ironically led by Hoover’s FBI. Magnificent in scope, drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished material, this nonfiction thriller illuminates one of the darkest hours in American life — an example of how history is so often a matter of the petty bringing down the great.

    

4. Alex Cross’s TRIAL by James Patterson
   (Grand Central Publishing, 04/06/10, Paperback)
   

   Separated by timeFrom his grandmother, Alex Cross has heard the story of his great uncle Abraham and his struggles for survival in the era of the Ku Klux Klan. Now, Alex passes the family tale along to his own children in a novel he’s written–a novel called Trial.Connected by bloodAs a lawyer in turn-of-the-century Washington D.C., Ben Corbett represents the toughest cases. Fighting against oppression and racism, he risks his family and his life in the process. When President Roosevelt asks Ben to return to his home town to investigate rumors of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan there, he cannot refuse. United by braveryWhen he arrives in Eudora, Mississippi, Ben meets the wise Abraham Cross and his beautiful granddaughter, Moody. Ben enlists their help, and the two Crosses introduce him to the hidden side of the idyllic Southern town. Lynchings have become commonplace and residents of the town’s black quarter live in constant fear. Ben aims to break the reign of terror–but the truth of who is really behind it could break his heart. Written in the fearless voice of Detective Alex Cross, Alex Cross’s Trial is a gripping story of murder, love, and, above all, bravery.

    

5. Cross Fire by James Patterson
   (Little, Brown and Company, 11/15/10, Hardcover)
   

   Wedding bells ringDetective Alex Cross and Bree’s wedding plans are put on hold when Alex is called to the scene of the perfectly executed assassination of two of Washington D.C.’s most corrupt: a dirty congressmen and an underhanded lobbyist. Next, the elusive gunman begins picking off other crooked politicians, sparking a blaze of theories–is the marksman a hero or a vigilante?A murderer returnsThe case explodes, and the FBI assigns agent Max Siegel to the investigation. As Alex and Siegel battle over jurisdiction, the murders continue. It becomes clear that they are the work of a professional who has detailed knowledge of his victims’ movements–information that only a Washington insider could possess.Caught in a lethal cross fire As Alex contends with the sniper, Siegel, and the wedding, he receives a call from his deadliest adversary, Kyle Craig. The Mastermind is in D.C. and will not relent until he has eliminated Cross and his family for good. With a supercharged blend of action, deception, and suspense, Cross Fire is James Patterson’s most visceral and exciting Alex Cross novel ever.

    

6. The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
   (Algonquin Books, 02/10/10, Kindle Edition)
   

   This debut novel tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I. who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy. With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and confronts her identity as a biracial young woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white. In the tradition of Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, here is a portrait of a young girl — and society’s ideas of race, class, and beauty. It is the winner of the Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice.

    

7. Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden
   (Akashic Books, 05/01/10, Kindle Edition)
   

   The seeming inevitability of cruel fate juxtaposes the triumph of the spirit in this remarkably rich and powerful novel, Glorious. Bernice McFadden’s fully realized characters are complicated, imperfect beings, but if ever a character were worthy of love and honor, it is her Easter Bartlett. This very American story is fascinating; it is also heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and beautifully written. — Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of The Scenic Route “Riveting. . . . I am as impressed by its structural strength as by the searing and expertly imagined scenes.” — Toni Morrison, on The Warmest December Glorious is set against the backdrops of the Jim Crow South, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights era. Blending the truth of American history with the fruits of Bernice L. McFadden’s rich imagination, this is the story of Easter Venetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer whose tumultuous path to success, ruin, and revival offers a candid portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty. Glorious is ultimately an audacious exploration into the nature of self-hatred, love, possession, ego, betrayal, and, finally, redemption. Bernice L. McFadden is the author of six critically acclaimed novels, including the classic Sugar and Nowhere Is a Place, which was a Washington Post best fiction title for 2006. She is a two-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of two fiction honors from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA). McFadden lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she is working on her next novel.

    

8. Wench: A Novel by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
   (Amistad, 01/01/10, Hardcover)
   

   An ambitious and startling debut novel that follows the lives of four women at a resort popular among slaveholders who bring their enslaved mistresses wench \’wench\ n. from Middle English “wenchel,” 1 a: a girl, maid, young woman; a female child. Tawawa House in many respects is like any other American resort before the Civil War. Situated in Ohio, this idyllic retreat is particularly nice in the summer when the Southern humidity is too much to bear. The main building, with its luxurious finishes, is loftier than the white cottages that flank it, but then again, the smaller structures are better positioned to catch any breeze that may come off the pond. And they provide more privacy, which best suits the needs of the Southern white men who vacation there every summer with their black, enslaved mistresses. It’s their open secret. Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet are regulars at Tawawa House. They have become friends over the years as they reunite and share developments in their own lives and on their respective plantations. They don’t bother too much with questions of freedom, though the resort is situated in free territory — but when truth-telling Mawu comes to the resort and starts talking of running away, things change. To run is to leave behind everything these women value most — friends and families still down South — and for some it also means escaping from the emotional and psychological bonds that bind them to their masters. When a fire on the resort sets off a string of tragedies, the women of Tawawa House soon learn that triumph and dehumanization are inseparable and that love exists even in the most inhuman, brutal of circumstances — all while they are bearing witness to the end of an era. An engaging, page-turning, and wholly original novel, Wench explores, with an unflinching eye, the moral complexities of slavery.

    

9. Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority by Tom Burrell
   (Smiley Books, 02/01/10, Paperback)
   

   “Black people are not dark-skinned white people,” says advertising visionary Tom Burrell. In fact, they are much more. They are survivors of the Middle Passage and centuries of humiliation and deprivation, who have excelled against the odds, constantly making a way out of “No way!” At this pivotal point in history, the idea of black inferiority should have had a “Going-Out-of-Business Sale.” After all, Barack Obama has reached America’s Promised Land. Yet, as Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority testifies, too many in black America are still wandering in the wilderness. In this powerful examination of “the greatest propaganda campaign of all time” — the masterful marketing of black inferiority, aka the BI Complex — Burrell poses ten disturbing questions that will make black people look in the mirror and ask why, nearly 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, so many blacks still think and act like slaves. Burrell’s acute awareness of the power of words and images to shift, shape, and change the collective consciousness has led him to connect the contemporary and historical dots that have brought us to this crossroads. Brainwashed is not a reprimand — it is a call to action. It demands that we question our self-defeating attitudes and behaviors. Racism is not the issue; how we respond to media distortions and programmed self-hatred is the issue. It’s time to reverse the BI campaign with a globally based initiative that harnesses the power of new media and the wisdom of intergenerational coalitions. Provocative and powerful, Brainwashed dares to expose the wounds so that we, at last, can heal.

    

10. Sensual Confessions (Madaris Family) by Brenda Jackson
    (Kimani Press, 04/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Blade Madaris has watched the men in his family surrender their single status one by one, and he has no plans to join them. But the gorgeous attorney he meets at his cousin’s wedding would make a fine notch on his bedpost. And when circumstances bring them together for six months, Blade formulates a plan to sweep Samari Di Meglio off her feet and into his arms.Though Blade is the kind of player Sam has spent years avoiding, a no-strings one-night stand is too tempting to resist. But their sizzling night together comes with unforeseen complications. Blade can’t walk away from the most passionate woman he’s ever met. To break through her resistance, the consummate bachelor will have to bare his soul and confess everything that’s in his heart — .

     

11. Spontaneous (Harlequin Blaze) by Brenda Jackson
    (Harlequin, 05/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Kimani Cannon knows she’s in trouble the second she lays eyes on 6′4″ of luscious male. The best kind of trouble, too — mm-mmm! Duan Jeffries turns out to be the perfect man — charming, considerate — and the best lover she’s ever had. Too bad Mr. Delicious is just a one-night stand.Until Kim needs a date to her mother’s (fifth) wedding! Duan’s willing to act the part of her fiance — as long as it means full benefits. More amazing sex? No problem! Then Kim finds out that Duan’s got his own private agenda. Suddenly, she doesn’t know what to believe. Her head and heart are telling her to be careful. But the sensual thrumming in her blood is turning out to be much more persuasive .

     

12. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
    (Spiegel & Grau, 04/27/10, Hardcover)
    

    Two kids with the same name lived in the same decaying city. One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. Here is the story of two boys and the journey of a generation. In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore. Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen?That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had grown up in similar neighborhoods and had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies.Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.

     

13. Wifey 4 Life (Part 5) by Kiki Swinson
    (Melodrama Publishing, 02/16/10, Paperback)
    

    Kira’s quiet life in the islands is interrupted when she’s called back to Virginia to attend her cousin Nikki’s funeral. Reluctantly, Kira plans a short, incognito trip to do just that. However, her plans are derailed when news of her arrival spreads. Now there’s a bounty on her head, and several snakes are ready to cash in. Behind enemy lines in her own hometown, Kira is faced with yet another battle to stay alive as she finds out once again, that she’s living on borrowed time. Will she be able to cheat death again, or will death snatch her from behind in part five of the Wifey series?

     

14. Unzipped: An Urban Erotic Tale by Noire
    (One World/Ballantine, 03/23/10, Paperback)
    

    Have you ever had everything you love snatched from your hands in the blink of an eye? Do you know what it’s like to watch helplessly as those you cherish burn to a crisp? Have you ever heard a mournful cry for street justice and then realized that the only person left to heed the call was you? Pearl Baines is a straight Harlem stunna. She and her twin sister, Diamond, are chased by some of the most notorious ballers in New York City. But while their father, ex-gangsta Irish Baines, devotes his life to rehabilitating young thugs, his sexy twin daughters fall hard for the glamour and glitter of strip clubs and street life. Unlike Diamond, though, Pearl is able to shake off the trappings of the hood in search of a better future. After graduating at the top of her class, Pearl becomes an FBI agent and plans to get as far away from the grime of Harlem as possible. But fate is cruel and the streets always get their due. On what should have been the happiest night of her life, Pearl’s family perishes in a ball of merciless flames — flames intentionally set on the orders of Mookie Mason, her father’s archenemy and the most ruthless gangsta in Harlem.Crazed with grief, Pearl becomes unzipped. Hell-bent on retribution, she prepares for battle in New York’s urban jungle. With the help of Menace, an ex-lover who once trampled all over her heart but was deeply loyal to Irish Baines, Pearl puts her FBI training and tactical skills to work in a murderous mission designed to do what her father wasn’t able to: take down Mookie Mason, and his entire crew, one at a time.

     

15. Relapse: A Novel by Nikki Turner
    (One World/Ballantine, 04/20/10, Paperback)
    

    Nikki Turner, Queen of Hip-Hop Lit, is back with one of her gutsiest female characters yet, a glamorous chick with a high-end hustle that can rival any man’s game. As the respected, renowned concierge for a luxury hotel chain, Beijing Lee caters to the wealthy and famous. Whether it’s securing a dinner reservation, a fleet of limos, or a record deal, or protecting her clients from the paparazzi, there’s nothing Beijing can’t do. She’s stacked up an impressive pile of IOUs from the world’s elite — and one day she decides it’s time to start cashing in. Before long, she’s a five-star diva running her own lucrative business, where she secures her clients their most outrageous — and increasingly illegal — desires.But Beijing has her own addiction: a man named Lootchee, who lavishes her with even more diamonds and luxury than she already has. But behind Lootchee’s charm and over-the-top romantic gestures is a selfish, high-stakes hustler who lures Beijing into a dangerous web that takes even this seasoned enterpriser by surpise, and breaks her heart in the process.Once the ball finally drops, it’ll take a ghost from Beijing’s past to rescue her — not only from those who are out to seriously harm her, but from herself.

     

16. Hot Westmoreland Nights (Silhouette Desire) by Brenda Jackson
    (Silhouette, 03/16/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    He knew better than to lust after the hired help. But Ramsey Westmoreland’s new cook was just so delectable — it was enough to make the Denver rancher rethink his rules. When temptation got the best of him, he discovered Chloe Burton was just as hot in the bedroom as she was in the kitchen.Though their affair was growing steamier by the minute, Ramsey couldn’t help but question Chloe’s true motives. And when he discovered her ultimate betrayal, he was set to satisfy himself with cold showers. Until he realized his fatal mistake: never underestimate the power of the human heart, especially a Westmoreland’s.

     

17. The Little Black Book of Success: Laws of Leadership for Black Women by Elaine Meryl Brown
    (One World/Ballantine, 03/02/10, Hardcover)
    

    In this engaging and invaluable “mentor in your pocket,” three dynamic and successful black female executives share their strategies to help all black women, at any level of their careers, play the power game — and win.Rich with wisdom, this practical gem focuses on the building blocks of true leadership — self-confidence, effective communication, collaboration, and courage — while dealing specifically with stereotypes (avoid the Mammy Trap, and don’t become the Angry Black Woman) and the perils of self-victimization (don’t assume that every challenge occurs because you are black or female).Some leaders are born, but most leaders are made — and The Little Black Book of Success will show you how to make it to the top, one step at a time.

     

18. In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance by Wilbert Rideau
    (Knopf, 04/27/10, Hardcover)
    

    From Wilbert Rideau, the award-winning journalist who spent forty-four years in Louisiana prisons working against unimaginable odds to redeem himself, the story of a remarkable life: a crime, its punishment, and ultimate triumph.After killing a woman in a moment of panic following a botched bank robbery, Rideau, denied a fair trial, was improperly sentenced to death at the age of nineteen. After more than a decade on death row, his sentence was amended to life imprisonment, and he joined the inmate population of the infamous Angola penitentiary. Soon Rideau became editor of the prison newsmagazine The Angolite, which under his leadership became an uncensored, daring, and crusading journal instrumental in reforming the violent prison and the corrupt Louisiana justice system.With the same incisive feel for detail that brought Rideau great critical acclaim, here he brings to vivid life the world of the prison through the power of his pen. We see Angola’s unique culture, encompassing not only rivalries, sexual slavery, ingrained racism, and daily, soul-killing injustices but also acts of courage and decency by keeper and kept alike. As we relive Rideau’s remarkable rehabilitation — he lived a more productive life in prison than do most outside — we also witness his long struggle for justice. In the Place of Justice goes far beyond the confines of a prison memoir, giving us a searing expose of the failures of our legal system framed within the dramatic tale of a man who found meaning, purpose, and hope in prison. This is a deeply moving, eloquent, and inspirational story about perseverance, unexpected friendships and love, and the possibility that good can be forged under any circumstances.

     

19. Breakaway (Arabesque) by Rochelle Alers
    (Kimani Press, 05/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    When E.R. doctor Celia Cole-Thomas is wounded and her fiance killed in a shootout at the hospital, the only way she can heal her body and her heart is to spend time at her mountain retreat. In her remote cabin on the Tennessee border, she isolates herself from the world — until Gavin Faulkner moves into a nearby lodge. And as hard as Celia tries to stay away, Gavin’s friendship and sensuality are slowly bringing her back to life.An FBI special agent, Gavin has been ordered to apprehend a fugitive in the area. The moment he meets Celia, he knows he can’t pass up the chance to show this vibrant woman all the passion she’s been missing. But his dangerous assignment could shatter the fragile trust they’ve built, unless he can convince her that love’s rewards are worth the risks — .

     

20. The Dopefiend: Part 2 of Dopeman’s Trilogy (The Dopefiend Trilogy) by JaQuavis Coleman
    (Urban Books, 05/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

Bestselling African American Books, April 2010

The top selling books by or about African Americans published in April 2010 from Amazon.com.

1. Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Hampton Sides
   (Doubleday, 04/27/10, Hardcover)
   

   From the acclaimed bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder, a taut, intense narrative about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the largest manhunt in American history. On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J, an inmate at the notorious Missouri State Penitentiary, escaped in a breadbox. Fashioning himself Eric Galt, this nondescript thief and con man — whose real name was James Earl Ray — drifted through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he was galvanized by George Wallace’s racist presidential campaign. On February 1, 1968, two Memphis garbage men were crushed to death in their hydraulic truck, provoking the exclusively African American workforce to go on strike. Hoping to resuscitate his faltering crusade, King joined the sanitation workers’ cause, but their march down Beale Street, the historic avenue of the blues, turned violent. Humiliated, King fatefully vowed to return to Memphis in April. With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel when the drifter catches up with his prey. Against the backdrop of the resulting nationwide riots and the pathos of King’s funeral, Sides gives us a riveting cross-cut narrative of the assassin’s flight and the sixty-five-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England — a massive manhunt ironically led by Hoover’s FBI. Magnificent in scope, drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished material, this nonfiction thriller illuminates one of the darkest hours in American life — an example of how history is so often a matter of the petty bringing down the great.

    

2. Alex Cross’s TRIAL by James Patterson
   (Grand Central Publishing, 04/06/10, Paperback)
   

   Separated by timeFrom his grandmother, Alex Cross has heard the story of his great uncle Abraham and his struggles for survival in the era of the Ku Klux Klan. Now, Alex passes the family tale along to his own children in a novel he’s written–a novel called Trial.Connected by bloodAs a lawyer in turn-of-the-century Washington D.C., Ben Corbett represents the toughest cases. Fighting against oppression and racism, he risks his family and his life in the process. When President Roosevelt asks Ben to return to his home town to investigate rumors of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan there, he cannot refuse. United by braveryWhen he arrives in Eudora, Mississippi, Ben meets the wise Abraham Cross and his beautiful granddaughter, Moody. Ben enlists their help, and the two Crosses introduce him to the hidden side of the idyllic Southern town. Lynchings have become commonplace and residents of the town’s black quarter live in constant fear. Ben aims to break the reign of terror–but the truth of who is really behind it could break his heart. Written in the fearless voice of Detective Alex Cross, Alex Cross’s Trial is a gripping story of murder, love, and, above all, bravery.

    

3. Sensual Confessions (Madaris Family) by Brenda Jackson
   (Kimani Press, 04/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
   

   Blade Madaris has watched the men in his family surrender their single status one by one, and he has no plans to join them. But the gorgeous attorney he meets at his cousin’s wedding would make a fine notch on his bedpost. And when circumstances bring them together for six months, Blade formulates a plan to sweep Samari Di Meglio off her feet and into his arms.Though Blade is the kind of player Sam has spent years avoiding, a no-strings one-night stand is too tempting to resist. But their sizzling night together comes with unforeseen complications. Blade can’t walk away from the most passionate woman he’s ever met. To break through her resistance, the consummate bachelor will have to bare his soul and confess everything that’s in his heart….

    

4. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
   (Spiegel & Grau, 04/27/10, Hardcover)
   

   Two kids with the same name lived in the same decaying city. One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. Here is the story of two boys and the journey of a generation. In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore. Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen?That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had grown up in similar neighborhoods and had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies.Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.

    

5. Relapse: A Novel by Nikki Turner
   (One World/Ballantine, 04/20/10, Paperback)
   

   Nikki Turner, Queen of Hip-Hop Lit, is back with one of her gutsiest female characters yet, a glamorous chick with a high-end hustle that can rival any man’s game. As the respected, renowned concierge for a luxury hotel chain, Beijing Lee caters to the wealthy and famous. Whether it’s securing a dinner reservation, a fleet of limos, or a record deal, or protecting her clients from the paparazzi, there’s nothing Beijing can’t do. She’s stacked up an impressive pile of IOUs from the world’s elite — and one day she decides it’s time to start cashing in. Before long, she’s a five-star diva running her own lucrative business, where she secures her clients their most outrageous — and increasingly illegal — desires.But Beijing has her own addiction: a man named Lootchee, who lavishes her with even more diamonds and luxury than she already has. But behind Lootchee’s charm and over-the-top romantic gestures is a selfish, high-stakes hustler who lures Beijing into a dangerous web that takes even this seasoned enterpriser by surpise, and breaks her heart in the process.Once the ball finally drops, it’ll take a ghost from Beijing’s past to rescue her — not only from those who are out to seriously harm her, but from herself.

    

6. In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance by Wilbert Rideau
   (Knopf, 04/27/10, Hardcover)
   

   From Wilbert Rideau, the award-winning journalist who spent forty-four years in Louisiana prisons working against unimaginable odds to redeem himself, the story of a remarkable life: a crime, its punishment, and ultimate triumph.After killing a woman in a moment of panic following a botched bank robbery, Rideau, denied a fair trial, was improperly sentenced to death at the age of nineteen. After more than a decade on death row, his sentence was amended to life imprisonment, and he joined the inmate population of the infamous Angola penitentiary. Soon Rideau became editor of the prison newsmagazine The Angolite, which under his leadership became an uncensored, daring, and crusading journal instrumental in reforming the violent prison and the corrupt Louisiana justice system.With the same incisive feel for detail that brought Rideau great critical acclaim, here he brings to vivid life the world of the prison through the power of his pen. We see Angola’s unique culture, encompassing not only rivalries, sexual slavery, ingrained racism, and daily, soul-killing injustices but also acts of courage and decency by keeper and kept alike. As we relive Rideau’s remarkable rehabilitation — he lived a more productive life in prison than do most outside — we also witness his long struggle for justice. In the Place of Justice goes far beyond the confines of a prison memoir, giving us a searing exposé of the failures of our legal system framed within the dramatic tale of a man who found meaning, purpose, and hope in prison. This is a deeply moving, eloquent, and inspirational story about perseverance, unexpected friendships and love, and the possibility that good can be forged under any circumstances.

    

7. Foxy: My Life in Three Acts by Pam Grier
   (Grand Central Publishing, 04/28/10, Hardcover)
   

   Some may know her as hot, gutsy, gun-totin’ Foxy Brown, Friday Foster, Coffy, and Jackie Brown. Others may know her from her role as Kit Porter on The L Word. But that only defines one part of the legend that is Pam Grier. Foxy is Pam’s testimony of her life, past and present. In it, she reveals her relationships with Richard Pryor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Freddie Prinze Sr., among others. She unveils her experiences as a backup singer and a blaxploitation star. In particularly candid and shocking chapters, she shares-for the first time-her view of those films and the persecution that blacks, especially women, needed to endure to make a name for themselves . . . including how it felt to be labeled one of the most beautiful women alive, yet not be permitted to try on clothes in a department store because of the color of her skin. And in words sure to inspire many, she tells the story of her ongoing battle with cancer. From her disappointments to her triumphs, nothing is held back. With FOXY, Pam wishes to impart life lessons to her readers-and hopes to touch their hearts.

    

8. It Had to Be You (Grayson Friends) by Francis Ray
   (St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 04/27/10, Mass Market Paperback)
   

   Most musicians would do anything to work with the hot, young record producer known as “Rolling Deep.” R.D. can pick and choose any artist he wants–and he wants Laurel Raineau. A classical violinist, Laurel plays soaring music that touches R.D. to his very soul. But the last thing Laurel wants is to work with someone whose exploits with the ladies appear in the tabloids every week. Not one to take no for an answer, R.D. keeps trying–and failing–to let Laurel know that he’s not the player he’s made out to be. So he introduces himself to her by his real name, Zachary Wilder, hoping to win her over. But it’s Zach who falls under this beauty’s spell. Now it’s only a matter of time before Laurel learns who the man she’s losing her heart to really is–but can she walk away from a passion that feels so right?

    

9. Till You Hear from Me: A Novel by Pearl Cleage
   (One World/Ballantine, 04/20/10, Hardcover)
   

   From the acclaimed Pearl Cleage, author of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day . . . and Seen It All and Done the Rest, comes an Obama-era romance featuring a cast of unforgettable characters. Just when it appears that all her hard work on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is about to pay off with a White House job, thirty-five-year-old Ida B. Wells Dunbar finds herself on Washington, D.C.’s post-election sidelines even as her twentysomething counterparts overrun the West Wing. Adding to her woes, her father, the Reverend Horace A. Dunbar, Atlanta civil rights icon and self-described “foot soldier for freedom,” is notoriously featured on an endlessly replayed YouTube clip in which his pronouncements don’t exactly jibe with the new era in American politics. The Rev’s stinging words and myopic views don’t sound anything like the man who raised Ida to make her mark in the world. When friends call to express their concern, Ida realizes it’s time to head home and see for herself what’s going on. Besides, with her job prospects growing dimmer, getting out of D.C. for a while might be the smartest move she could make. Back in her old West End neighborhood, Ida runs into childhood friend and smooth political operator Wes Harper, also in town to pay a visit to the Reverend Dunbar, his mentor. Ida doesn’t trust Wes or his mysterious connections for one second, but she can’t deny her growing attraction to him. While Ida and the Rev try to find the balance between personal loyalties and political realities, they must do some serious soul searching in order to get things back on track before Wes permanently derails their best laid plans.

    

10. Crossing The Line (Indigo Love Spectrum) by Bernice Layton
    (Genesis Press, 04/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

11. Dirty To The Grave by Karen Williams
    (Urban Books, 04/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

12. Naughty No More (Urban Renaissance) by Brenda Hampton
    (Urban Books, 04/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

13. Unspoken Lies (Urban Renaissance) by Darrien Lee
    (Urban Books, 04/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

14. Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South by Stephanie McCurry
    (Harvard University Press, 04/30/10, Hardcover)
    

    The story of the Confederate States of America, the proslavery, antidemocratic nation created by white Southern slaveholders to protect their property, has been told many times in heroic and martial narratives. Now, however, Stephanie McCurry tells a very different tale of the Confederate experience. When the grandiosity of Southerners’ national ambitions met the harsh realities of wartime crises, unintended consequences ensued. Although Southern statesmen and generals had built the most powerful slave regime in the Western world, they had excluded the majority of their own people — white women and slaves — and thereby sowed the seeds of their demise. Wartime scarcity of food, labor, and soldiers tested the Confederate vision at every point and created domestic crises to match those found on the battlefields. Women and slaves became critical political actors as they contested government enlistment and tax and welfare policies, and struggled for their freedom. The attempt to repress a majority of its own population backfired on the Confederate States of America as the disenfranchised demanded to be counted and considered in the great struggle over slavery, emancipation, democracy, and nationhood. That Confederate struggle played out in a highly charged international arena. The political project of the Confederacy was tried by its own people and failed. The government was forced to become accountable to women and slaves, provoking an astounding transformation of the slaveholders’ state. Confederate Reckoning is the startling story of this epic political battle in which women and slaves helped to decide the fate of the Confederacy and the outcome of the Civil War.

     

15. Yesterday’s Promise (Second Chance at Love) by Vanessa Miller
    (Whitaker House, 04/06/10, Paperback)
    

    Melinda Johnson has always felt called to ministry. So, when her father, Bishop Langston Johnson, decides to step down after thirty years of leadership at Omega Christian Center, it seems only natural for her to take his place. But Bishop Johnson feels led by a God who has other things in mind, and to succeed him, he appoints Steven Marks-a man who is opposed to female pastors, not to mention the fact that he is Melinda’s ex-fiancé. Feeling defeated, Melinda nevertheless maintains her position as the church’s Missions and Community Outreach Director. Frequent interaction with the new bishop incites bitter sparring-and rekindles long-suppressed attraction, which grows only stronger when Melinda develops a relationship with Steven’s precious daughter, Brianna, who’s still struggling with the death of her mother. Can Steven and Melinda set aside past pains, forgive each other, and learn to love again? Or will their opposing positions regarding women preachers keep them forever at odds?

     

16. The Real Thing by J.J. Murray
    (Kensington, 04/01/10, Paperback)
    

    Former boxing champion Dante “Blood and Guts” Lattanza is being featured in Personality magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive” issue, and reporter Christiana Artis has the scoop. There’s just one hitch: she’ll have to fly to her elusive subject’s home in Canada. But once she lays eyes on Dante’s chiseled physique and sultry Italian looks, she decides it was worth every mile. Too bad his icy demeanor doesn’t match his hot body. Since he lost his last fight ten years ago, Dante has led a reclusive life–and he never gives interviews. But he’s making a comeback, ready to prove to the world–and his ex-wife–that he can still win a championship. He gives Christiana an ultimatum: if she can perform five tasks, she can ask him five questions. And then she can be on her way. Yet Dante’s always had a weakness for beautiful black women, and seeing Christiana everyday is enough to melt his defenses. Soon Christiana is an intimate part of the very story she came to write. But when the line between personal and professional gets blurred, it can be difficult to see when you’ve found the real thing. . ..

     

17. Stop Being Niggardly: And Nine Other Things Black People Need to Stop Doing by Karen Hunter
    (Karen Hunter, 04/27/10, Hardcover)
    

    nig·gard·ly (adj.) [nig´erd-le]1. stingy, miserly; not generous2. begrudging about spending or granting3. provided in a meanly limited supply If you don’t know the definition of the word, you might assume it to be a derogatory insult, a racial slur. You might be personally offended and deeply outraged. You might write an angry editorial or organize a march. You might even find yourself making national headlines In other words, you’d better know what the word means before you pour your energy into overreacting to it. That’s the jumping-off point for this powerful directive from Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author Karen Hunter. It’s time for the black community to stop marching, quit complaining, roll up their collective sleeves, channel their anger constructively, and start fixing their own problems, she boldly asserts. And while her straight-talking, often politically incorrect narrative is electrifyingly fresh and utterly relevant to today’s hot-button issues surrounding race, Hunter harks back to the wisdom of a respected elder — Nannie Helen Burroughs, who was ahead of her time penning Twelve Things the Negro Must Do for Himself more than a century ago. Burroughs’s guidelines for successful living — from making education, employment, and home ownership one’s priorities to dressing appropriately to practicing faith in everyday life — teach empowerment through self-responsibility, disallowing excuses for one’s standing in life but rather galvanizing blacks to look to themselves for strength, motivation, support, and encouragement. From our urban communities to small-town America, the issues Hunter is bold enough to tackle in Stop Being Niggardly affect us all. Refreshingly candid and challenging, certain to get people everywhere talking, this is the book that takes on race in a new — yet also historically revered and simply stated — way that can change lives, both personally and collectively.

     

18. Anthropology and the Racial Politics of Culture by Lee D. Baker
    (Duke University Press, 04/01/10, Paperback)
    

    In the late nineteenth century, if ethnologists in the United States recognized African American culture, they often perceived it as something to be overcome and left behind. At the same time, they were committed to salvaging “disappearing” Native American culture by curating objects, narrating practices, and recording languages. In Anthropology and the Racial Politics of Culture, Lee D. Baker examines theories of race and culture developed by American anthropologists during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth. He investigates the role that ethnologists played in creating a racial politics of culture in which Indians had a culture worthy of preservation and exhibition while African Americans did not. Baker argues that the concept of culture developed by ethnologists to understand American Indian languages and customs in the nineteenth century formed the basis of the anthropological concept of race eventually used to confront “the Negro problem” in the twentieth century. As he explores the implications of anthropology’s different approaches to African Americans and Native Americans, and the field’s different but overlapping theories of race and culture, Baker delves into the careers of prominent anthropologists and ethnologists, including James Mooney Jr., Frederic W. Putnam, Daniel G. Brinton, and Franz Boas. His analysis takes into account not only scientific societies, journals, museums, and universities, but also the development of sociology in the United States, African American and Native American activists and intellectuals, philanthropy, the media, and government entities from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Supreme Court. In Anthropology and the Racial Politics of Culture, Baker tells how anthropology has both responded to and helped shape ideas about race and culture in the United States, and how its ideas have been appropriated (and misappropriated) to wildly different ends.

     

19. Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II (Oral History) by J. Todd Moye
    (Oxford University Press, USA, 04/14/10, Hardcover)
    

    As the country’s first African American military pilots, the Tuskegee Airmen fought in World War II on two fronts: against the Axis powers in the skies over Europe and against Jim Crow racism and segregation at home. Although the pilots flew more than 15,000 sorties and destroyed more than 200 German aircraft, their most far-reaching achievement defies quantification: delivering a powerful blow to racial inequality and discrimination in American life. In this inspiring account of the Tuskegee Airmen, historian J. Todd Moye captures the challenges and triumphs of these brave pilots in their own words, drawing on more than 800 interviews recorded for the National Park Service’s Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project.

     

20. Best Kept Secrets (Arabesque) by Rochelle Alers
    (Kimani, 04/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    With the tumult of the Great War finally at an end, ambitious Samuel Cole returns from Europe determined to forge his own destiny as a wealthy entrepreneur. The lush lands of the Caribbean will provide the means to wealth, but they offer private bounty, as well — a bride.Marguerite-Josefina Diaz is the toast of Havana, the convent-educated daughter of a wealthy cigar manufacturer. Beautiful and intelligent, M.J. dreams of distant lands and a liberated future for herself — and she believes charming, handsome Samuel will deliver both. But neither of them anticipates the new realities of their life in West Palm Beach — the social injustices, the demands of a growing family and the secret passions that threaten the empire Samuel has vowed to build.