News: Owners taking painful steps to stay afloat in 2010

By Cyndia Zwahlen
December 29, 2009

Step through the glass doors of Eso Won Bookstore, the landmark but struggling Leimert Park shop specializing in African American titles, and you’ll see shelves stacked with civil rights classics by Martin Luther King Jr., poetry by Maya Angelou and important fiction including James Baldwin’s “Another Country.”

Their ranks will be thinned substantially when co-owner James Fugate switches to more bargain-priced books when restocking his shelves next year in a bid to boost sales. Too much money is tied up in the slow-moving back-list tomes, which sell for $15 or more, he said.

“A lot of the history that we built our store on, that stuff has got to go,” said Fugate, who with co-owner Tom Hamilton opened the shop in 1989.

Los Angeles Times

Thoughts on the People of Color Challenge

Why is it so hard to find books by people of color in libraries and bookstores?

One reason is that these books are marginalized: relegated to separate niche sections to which browsers might not go. As the average white shopper strolls through the bookstore section for Fiction and Literature, does it even occur to him or her that there might be more Fiction and Literature, but located on the few shelves for, e.g., African-American authors, or Books of GLBT Interest? And in the libraries, except for the sports and music sections, do books of interest to African-Americans even get set out when it’s not February? (Not at my library, they don’t!)

Librarians and booksellers cannot be viewed as uninterested gatekeepers of culture and learning. On the contrary, by the choices they make in purchasing, categorizing, arranging, marketing, and creating ease or difficulty of access of books, they not only determine what should be included and what excluded, but they also impose a value system on information. Too often, their decisions reflect the cultural assumptions of the dominant group.

See more at Rhapsody in Books.

Black Book Coalition Launch Party/Mixer

Title: Black Book Coalition Launch Party/Mixer
Location: Ulah Bistro, Washington, DC 20009
Description: The Black Book Coalition was founded by MahoganyBooks in conjunction with The Renaissance Group, LLC and the Hurston/Wright Foundation “to achieve success and value for our literary community through the use of our combined talents and expertise.”
Date: 2009-08-12
Start Time: 6pm
End Time: 9pm

Bestselling African American Books, May 2009

The Top 10 selling African American books, featuring African American issues and authors, published in May 2009 from Amazon.com (6/14/09).

1. I’m Down: A Memoir by Mishna Wolff
   (St. Martin’s Press, 05/26/09, Hardcover)
   

   Mishna Wolff grew up in a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black. “He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esqe sweater, gold chains and a Kangol — telling jokes like Redd Fox, and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. You couldn’t tell my father he was white. Believe me, I tried,” writes Wolff. And so from early childhood on, her father began his crusade to make his white daughter Down. Unfortunately, Mishna didn’t quite fit in with the neighborhood kids: she couldn’t dance, she couldn’t sing, she couldn’t double dutch and she was the worst player on her all-black basketball team.  She was shy, uncool and painfully white. And yet when she was suddenly sent to a rich white school, she found she was too “black” to fit in with her white classmates. I’m Down is a hip, hysterical and at the same time beautiful memoir that will have you howling with laughter, recommending it to friends and questioning what it means to be black and white in America.

    

2. Head Bangers: An APF Sexcapade (Strebor Quickiez) by Zane
   (Strebor Books, 05/26/09, Paperback)
   

   Hope and Faith: two things that everyone needs to survive. But the words take on a different meaning in the form of a set of twins who attend Crockett University in Washington, D.C. As seniors, they are looking forward to a bright future in corporate America. Meanwhile, they have decided to relieve some of the stress involved in getting a higher education by being members of APF.Soror Ride ‘em High and Soror Lick ‘em Low, originally hail from Atlanta and, like most twins, they share a connection. In fact, their physical bond is so strong, that one can often feel a pounding in her vagina while the other is engaged in sexual activity. But everything is not perfect when it comes to being a twin. Sometimes animosity and jealousy can creep in; especially when Hope and Faith find themselves both attracted to the same man on campus. Is blood really thicker than water? Or, in this case, thicker than basic carnal desires? In this long-anticipated second volume in the APF series, a follow-up to The Sisters of APF: The Indoctrination of Soror Ride Dick, New York Times Bestselling Author Zane, once again proves why she is “The Queen of Erotic Fiction.” Over the years many have tried to emulate her but Zane’s imagination is not to be replicated any time in the near future. The freak nights of APF are some of the most artistic, exhilarating, erotic experiences that have ever graced the pages of a book; evidenced by the thousands of emails Zane has received over the years from women yearning to join the sorority.The sexual revolution continues…within the pages of Head Bangers: An APF Sexcapade.

    

3. The Dopeman’s Wife by JaQuavis Coleman
   (Urban Books, 05/01/09, Paperback)
   

    

4. Temperatures Rising (Kimani Romance) by Brenda Jackson
   (Kimani, 05/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
   

   Sherri Griffin knows all about hot, stormy weather. The kind where all a girl wants to do is strip down to her La Perla lingerie. A successful radio producer, Sherri’s had to weather all kinds of storms. But nothing could prepare her for the force of football-star-turned-sports-DJ Terrence Jeffries.Never give your heart; never get hurt. That’s the credo gorgeous, arrogant Terrence has always lived by. And he’s looking to add Sherri to his all-star roster of lovely conquests.But a hurricane is poised to hit the Keys, leaving Sherri and Terrence stranded — together. While the gathering clouds bring gale winds and pounding seas, Sherri and Terrence are making their own shelter from the storm. And walking right into the eye of a hurricane of passion.

    

5. Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny by Hill Harper
   (Gotham, 05/05/09, Paperback)
   

   Now in paperback: the New York Times bestselling book of inspirational advice and wisdom for young women from the powerhouse public speaker, star of CSI: NY, and bestselling author of Letters to a Young Brother * Does life sometimes seem so much harder for girls? * Do you ever feel insecure, pressured, or confused? * Do you wish you had someone to give you honest advice on topics like boys, school, family, and pursuing your dreams? * Do you want to make a positive impact on the world, but don’t even know how to begin? In the follow-up to his award winning national bestseller, Letters to a Young Brother, actor and star of CSI: NY shares powerful wisdom for young women everywhere, drawing on the courageous advice of the female role models who transformed his life. Letters to a Young Sister unfolds as a series of letters written by older brother Hill to a universal young sister. She’s up against the same challenges as every young woman: from relating to her parents and dealing with peer pressure, to juggling schoolwork and crushes and keeping faith in the face of heartache. Hill offers guidance, encouragement, personal stories, and asks his female friends to help answer some truly tough questions. Every young sister needs to know that it’s okay to dream big and to deFINE her own destiny. This is a book that will educate, uplift and inspire. Including original contributions from: Michelle Obama * Angela Basset * Ciara * Tatyana Ali * Eve * Malinda Williams * Chanel Iman * Kim Porter * and many more.

    

6. Secret Agenda (Arabesque) by Rochelle Alers
   (Kimani Press, 05/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
   

   On paper, Vivienne Neal had a lifestyle most people would envy. Only she knows what a sham her marriage really was. So when her politician husband is killed in a hit-and-run accident, she moves to Florida and takes a job as a personal assistant to Diego Cole-Thomas, a powerful CEO with an intimidating reputation.Vivienne’s intelligence and social grace prove invaluable to Diego, and on a business trip to South Carolina’s lush Low Country, their business relationship takes a sensual detour. But when threatening letters arrive at Diego’s office, he realizes that Vivienne’s husband’s death was no accident — and that she will meet a similar fate unless they can uncover the scandalous truth together — .

    

7. Sisters and Husbands by Connie Briscoe
   (Grand Central Publishing, 05/08/09, Kindle Edition)
   

   Ten years have passed since Sisters and Lovers, and Beverly, now 39, is engaged to Julian, a man her family and friends agree is the epitome of a great catch: he’s gorgeous, loyal, trustworthy, successful, and very much in love with her. Since this is Beverly’s third engagement in the past five years, after breaking off the previous two at the last moment, everyone’s happy that she’s finally settling down. For Beverly and Julian, nothing could be better than being in love and planning their wedding. That is until Beverly’s oldest sister’s marriage falls apart and dampens the mood of what should have been the happiest time in Beverly’s life. Now, second-guessing her impending nuptials, Beverly is forced to wonder if marriage really works. Will she stick it out? Or will her fears cloud her judgment once again?

    

8. Lady Jasmine: A Novel by Victoria Christopher Murray
   (Touchstone, 05/14/09, Kindle Edition)
   

   Juicy Jasmine Larson Bush is at it again — battling her past in order to save her future.With her own lies, she nearly destroyed her marriage to Pastor Hosea Bush. Why, Jasmine was forced to reveal every secret she’d ever kept from her husband, right down to her real age, weight, and shoe size! She thought she had told Hosea everything.But when Jasmine is blackmailed with a terrible truth from her past that she “forgot” to tell Hosea, more than just her marriage is in jeopardy.Surprisingly, her first instinct is to tell the truth. Jasmine knows, however, that this is one part of her life that can never be exposed. Determined to keep the life she fought so hard to save, Jasmine is willing to commit any sin — even murder — to leave her past behind her. No one can know the truth about the First Lady of City of Lights at Riverside Church. No one can know that beneath the veneer of a redeemed Christian wife, there lies a sinner — especially not her trusting husband.

    

9. Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice by Paul Butler
   (New Press, 05/12/09, Hardcover)
   

   Paul Butler utilizes his years as a prosecutor and law teacher to dramatically describe this country’s war on crime as one encouraging what it seeks to eliminate, corrupting those commissioned to enforce its laws and, in the process, ruining more lives than it protects. Butler conveys this tragedy with a wry humor and through a careful review of studies, experience, and insight. –Derrick Bell, author of Faces at the Bottom of the Well and visiting professor at NYU Law School “A provocative and intelligent analysis of U.S. justice. Butler has a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on issues like the war on drugs, snitches, and whether locking so many people up really makes Americans safer. Butler’s compelling writing makes Let’s Get Free a great read, and his insightful analysis has the potential to make the United States a more just society.” –Anthony D. Romero, executive director, American Civil Liberties Union “Let’s Get Free is a tour de force. This book is provocative and informative and creates a cross-generational dialogue that will enrich all those who read it. It helps us understand the complexity of crime and the need to moderate punishment. This is a good read and a must read.”–Charles J, Ogletree Jr., author of When Law Fails, professor of law at Harvard and the executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice Paul Butler was an ambitious federal prosecutor, a Harvard Law grad who traded in his corporate law salary to fight the good fight. It was those years on the front lines that convinced him that the American criminal justice system is fundamentally broken–it’s not making the streets safer, nor helping the people he’d hoped, as a prosecutor, to protect. In Let’s Get Free, Butler, now an award-winning law professor, looks at several places where ordinary citizens interact with the justice system–as jurors, crime witnesses, and in encounters with the police–and explores what “doing the right thing” means in a corrupt system. Butler’s provocative proposals include jury nullification–voting “not guilty” in certain non-violent cases as a form of protest, just saying “no” when the police request your permission to search, and refusing to work inside the criminal justice system. And his groundbreaking “hip-hop theory of justice” reveals an important analysis of crime and punishment found in pop culture. Chock full of great stories and cutting-edge analysis, this accessible and lively critique will change the way you think about crime and punishment in the United States. As Butler eloquently argues, when we end mass incarceration and excessive police power, everyone wins. Let’s Get Free offers a powerful new vision of justice.

    

10. I Am Not Sidney Poitier: A Novel by Percival Everett
    (Graywolf Press, 05/26/09, Paperback)
    

    An irresistible comic novel from the master storyteller Percival Everett, and an irreverent take on race, class, and identity in AmericaI was, in life, to be a gambler, a risk-taker, a swashbuckler, a knight. I accepted, then and there, my place in the world. I was a fighter of windmills. I was a chaser of whales. I was Not Sidney Poitier.Not Sidney Poitier is an amiable young man in an absurd country. The sudden death of his mother orphans him at age eleven, leaving him with an unfortunate name, an uncanny resemblance to the famous actor, and, perhaps more fortunate, a staggering number of shares in the Turner Broadcasting Corporation.Percival Everett’s hilarious new novel follows Not Sidney’s tumultuous life, as the social hierarchy scrambles to balance his skin color with his fabulous wealth. Maturing under the less-than watchful eye of his adopted foster father, Ted Turner, Not gets arrested in rural Georgia for driving while black, sparks a dinnertable explosion at the home of his manipulative girlfriend, and sleuths a murder case in Smut Eye, Alabama, all while navigating the recurrent communication problem: “What’s your name?” a kid would ask. “Not Sidney,” I would say. “Okay, then what is it?”

     

11. Can You Hear Me Now?: The Inspiration, Wisdom, and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson by Michael Eric Dyson
    (Basic Civitas Books, 05/11/09, Hardcover)
    

    Over the last 20 years, Michael Eric Dyson has become one of America’s most visible — and quotable — public intellectuals. Whether in his sixteen books, or in countless newspapers, television and radio appearances, or on stages, podiums, and pulpits across the world, Dyson has spun an enchanting web of words that has caught the attention of the masses and elites alike. He has weighed in on a myriad array of topics – from faith to fatherhood, and from race to sex, as well as sports, manhood, gender, music, leadership, politics, language, love, justice, literature, suffering, death, hope, relationships and much, much more.Can You Hear Me Now?, offers a sampling of Dyson’s sharp wit, profound thought, and edifying eloquence on the enduring problems of humanity, from love to justice, and the latest topics of the day, including race and the presidency. It is both revealing and relevant, and at once thoughtful provoking and uplifting. Whether he is writing about Jay-Z or Barack Obama, addressing racial catastrophes or opportunities, or speaking about religion or the felicities of King’s rhetoric, Dyson’s intellect shines with insight and inspiration.Can You Hear Me Now? captures Dyson’s incredible facility with words, and his prodigious intelligence, at a time when he has gained greater fame as a public intellectual, university professor, best-selling author, and most recently, as one of the first prominent blacks to endorse President Barack Obama. The time is ripe for his wit, wisdom and worldview, and this book is Dyson’s most accessible compendium of thinking on a broad range of topics that haunt and shape the nation.

     

12. Supreme Clientele by Ashley JaQuavis
    (Urban Books, 05/01/09, Paperback)
    

     

13. Say You Love Me by Adrianne Byrd
    (Kimani Arabesque, 05/27/09, Kindle Edition)
    

    Atlanta novelist Christian Williams knew her husband, Jordan, was the only man she would ever want. But after fifteen years of playing second-best to her husband’s successful software company, she’d had enough. Determined to get a divorce, she took refuge at her family’s Texas ranch to decide where to go with her life. But when Jordan followed her there, Christian soon discovered that the man she still loved was closer than she ever dreamed.Jordan had learned from his hard-driving businessman father that you could never be too successful. He thought that once he’d made his business a leader in the software field, he would finally have time to show Christian how much he loved her. Somehow that day had never come, and now Jordan feared it might be too late. With all they’ve built hanging in the balance, Christian and Jordan must rediscover the desire they once shared–and the passionate dreams still waiting to be fulfilled.

     

14. Michelle: A Biography by Liza Mundy
    (Simon & Schuster, 05/05/09, Paperback)
    

    She can be funny and sharp-tongued, warm and blunt, empathic and demanding. Who is the woman Barack Obama calls “the boss”? In Michelle, Washington Post writer Liza Mundy paints a revealing and intimate portrait, taking us inside the marriage of the most dynamic couple in politics today. She shows how well they complement each other: Michelle, the highly organized, sometimes intimidating, list-making pragmatist; Barack, the introspective political charmer who won’t pick up his socks but shoots for the stars. Their relationship, like those of many couples with two careers and two children, has been so strained at times that he has had to persuade her to support his climb up the political ladder. And you can’t blame her for occasionally regretting it: In this campaign, it is Michelle who has absorbed much of the skepticism from voters about Obama. One conservative magazine put her on the cover under the headline “Mrs. Grievance.”Michelle’s story carries with it all the extraordinary achievements and lingering pain of America in the post-civil rights era. She grew up on the south side of Chicago, the daughter of a city worker and a stay-at-home mom in a neighborhood rocked by white flight. She was admitted to Princeton amid an angry debate about affirmative action and went on to Harvard Law School, where she was more comfortable doing pro-bono work for the poor than gunning for awards with the rest of her peers. She became a corporate lawyer, then left to train community leaders. She is modern in her tastes but likes to watch reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Brady Bunch.In this carefully reported biography, drawing upon interviews with more than one hundred people, including one with Michelle herself, Mundy captures the complexity of this remarkable woman and the remarkable life she has lived.

     

15. Ritz Harper Goes to Hollywood! (Ritz Harper Chronicles) by Wendy Williams
    (Karen Hunter, 05/26/09, Paperback)
    

    As the reigning “Queen of Radio,” Ritz Harper has managed to out, ridicule, jack up or mess over everyone and anyone, from hip-hop stars to high-class snobs. So, she’s decided to take her career to the next level: Hollywood, baby!Decked out in Chanel from head to toe, and sporting bodacious new breast implants, Ritz is ready for her close-up. But first, she has to deal with the dirtiest dealmakers in Tinsel Town — and the trashiest trash-talkers in her reckless past. Is Ritz worried? Of course not. She’s saving all the drama for her on-air debut, where the scandalicious details of her life could send her ratings through the roof. Even if the hottest players and heaviest hitters in Hollywood come gunning for her, this tell-it-like-it-is bombshell plans to drop a few bombs of her own — before you can say “Lights! Camera! How you doin’?”

     

16. Black Light by
    (powerHouse Books, 05/26/09, Hardcover)
    

    Los Angeles native and New York-based visual artist Kehinde Wiley has firmly situated himself within art history’s portrait painting tradition. As a contemporary descendent of a long line of portraitists–including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian, Ingres, and others–Wiley engages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic, and sublime in his representation of urban black and brown men found throughout the world. By applying the visual vocabulary and conventions of glorification, wealth, prestige, and history to subject matter drawn from the urban fabric, Wiley makes his subjects and their stylistic references juxtaposed inversions of each other, imbuing his images with ambiguity and provocative perplexity. In Black Light, his first monograph, Wiley’s larger-than-life figures disturb and interrupt tropes of portrait painting, often blurring the boundaries between traditional and contemporary modes of representation and the critical portrayal of masculinity and physicality as it pertains to the view of black and brown young men. The models are dressed in their everyday clothing, most of which is based on far-reaching Western ideals of style, and are asked to assume poses found in paintings or sculptures representative of the history of their surroundings. This juxtaposition of the “old” inherited by the “new”–who often have no visual inheritance of which to speak–immediately provides a discourse that is at once visceral and cerebral in scope. Without shying away from the socio-political histories relevant to the subjects, Wiley’s heroic images exhibit a unique modern style that awakens complex issues which many would prefer remain mute.

     

17. For You I Do (Kimani Romance) by Angie Daniels
    (Kimani, 05/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Feisty Bianca Beaumont is finally engaged! She’s blissful — until longtime family friend London Brown tells her she’s marrying the wrong guy. Not that Bianca believes London at first, but the sexy former-investigator-turned-restaurateur has convincing proof. Now Bianca is single, and she’s got some secret news of her own — A true gentleman despite his bad-boy reputation, London proposes marriage to avoid a Sheraton Beach scandal. (She is a Beaumont after all!) Bianca agrees — in name only. But London knows she’s feeling the sizzling heat of their attraction. And he’s prepared to turn it up a notch, but only when Bianca is ready, willing and able to claim him as her husband — in every way.

     

18. Sassy by Gloria Mallette
    (Gemini Press, 05/22/09, Paperback)
    

    A successful romance novelist, Sassy is a woman looking to fulfill her own fantasy. When the man of her dreams step right out of the pages of her latest novel, Butterfly, Sassy falls madly in love with him. But what evil lies behind Norris Yoshito’s beautiful eyes and sexy smile? And while Sassy has to take care of her favorite cousin, Bernard, who is dying of AIDS, is the man of Sassy’s dream a serial killer of women who made the mistake of trusting him just as Sassy did, or is Norris Yoshito himself in danger from someone who wants him dead? Is Sassy’s marriage a horrible mistake that will lead to her own death? You’ll find out and you will be stunned.

     

19. The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care by John Dittmer
    (Bloomsbury Press, 05/19/09, Hardcover)
    

    The untold story of the courageous doctors and nurses who fought the battle for racial justice in hospitals, in clinics, and on the streets in the 1960s.The Medical Committee for Human Rights was organized in the summer of 1964 by medical professionals, mostly white and Northern, to provide care and support for Civil Rights activists who were organizing black voters in Mississippi. They left their lives and lucrative private practices to march beside and tend the wounds of demonstrators from Freedom Summer, to the March on Selma, to the Chicago Democratic Convention of 1968. Galvanized, and sometimes radicalized, by their firsthand view of disenfranchised communities, the MCHR soon expanded its mission to encompass a range of causes from poverty to the war in Vietnam, and later took on the whole of the United States healthcare system. The MCHR doctors soon realized that fighting segregation would mean not just caring for white volunteers, but exposing and correcting the shocking inequalities in segregated health care. They pioneered community health plans and brought medical care to underserved, or unserved, areas. Though education was the most famous battleground for integration, the appaling injustice of segregated health care had equally devastating consequences. Award-winning historian John Dittmer, author of the classic Civil Rights history Local People, has written an insightful and moving account of a group of idealists who put their careers in the service of the belief, stated in their motto, that “Health Care Is a Human Right.”

     

20. Deception, Lies & Truth by Dwayne Vernon
    (Norcarjo Publishing, 05/27/09, Paperback)
    

    Will prison life change Daunte, and can his relationship with Mia survive after his rape in prison? Reese has a promising NFL career and loving relationship with Mike. Now the fact that he’s gay is out, will that destroy everything he worked so hard for? Will his team mates Antonio and Keith stay by his side or will they betray him? Will Tonya and Barbara succeed with their pregnancy schemes and trap the rich and famous men they have always dreamed of? Does the return of an old boyfriend, Larry, crush both their dreams? Wil wants Jay back and he will stop at nothing; including Ricky. Can their love sustain? Curtis and Carlton are incarcerated for life. Has jail changed them, or are they still the bad boys that got locked up for murder? Now that the guys are coming back from Chuck’s tour, what will Ricky and Jay do when they find out Chuck’s secret?

     

News: Vertigo Books (DC) to Close

Another independent bookstore bites the dust. In an email to customers (and a blog post) Friday afternoon, the owners of College Park’s Vertigo Books announced they will shut down for good on April 24. The announcement was accompanied by several parting shots at online shopping behemoth Amazon.com, which the owners more or less explicitly blame for their shop’s demise.

Starting today, everything at Vertigo Books is marked down 20 percent. Vertigo, which started in Dupont Circle in 1991 before making the move to College Park, specialized in carrying African American authors as well as international studies tomes.

http://dcist.com/2009/04/vertigo_books_to_close.php

Kim Wayans & Kevin Knotts Booksigning

Title: Kim Wayans & Kevin Knotts Booksigning
Location: Bright Lights Children\’s Bookstore
Click here
Description: Kim Wayans & Kevin Knotts sign their books from the Amy Hodgepodge series at Bright Lights, 8461 So. Van Ness Ave.
Inglewood, CA 90305
Start Time: 2:00 pm
Date: 2009-05-02

News: Book fairs still going strong

Associated Press
April 3, 2009

New York — Marlene Perez’s “Dead Is the New Black” is a young adult novel with a noirish pink and black cover and a supernatural plot. If it ever becomes the next sensation, give some credit to middle-schoolers such as Geneva Lish.

“It has an unusual plot and a unique power,” says Lish, a seventh-grader.

Lish didn’t buy the book online or at a store. She was among the students at J.H.S. 167 in Manhattan who recently visited the Scholastic Book fair, shopping in the school’s auditorium as they looked through graphic novels, fantasy and a Life magazine volume about President Obama.

During a hard time for publishing and education, the fairs remain a relatively stable source of income. According to a recent report from Scholastic Corp., revenue from fairs for the nine months ending Feb. 28 was $261.2 million, virtually unchanged from the same nine-month period a year earlier.

“I’ve never met one parent who said, ‘My kid has too many books.’ . . . You might cut a lot of things out. You might cut out a toy. You’re not going to cut out a book,” says Scholastic’s president of book fairs, Alan Boyko.

Book fairs have been around for decades, although the field now is largely controlled by Scholastic.

The publisher says its business has grown from about 8,000 annual fairs in the early 1980s to about 120,000 fairs expected this year.

Los Angeles Times

Bestselling African American Books, January 2009

The Top 10 selling African American books, featuring African American issues and authors, published in January 2009 from Amazon.com (2/15/09).

1. The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama by Gwen Ifill
   (Doubleday, 01/20/09, Hardcover)
   In The Breakthrough, veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential victory and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power. Ifill argues that the Black political structure formed during the Civil Rights movement is giving way to a generation of men and women who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the 1960s. She offers incisive, detailed profiles of such prominent leaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and U.S. Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama (all interviewed for this book), and also covers numerous up-and-coming figures from across the nation. Drawing on exclusive interviews with power brokers such as President Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, his son Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., and many others, as well as her own razor-sharp observations and analysis of such issues as generational conflict, the race/ gender clash, and the “black enough” conundrum, Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history. The Breakthrough is a remarkable look at contemporary politics and an essential foundation for understanding the future of American democracy in the age of Obama.
    
2. Basketball Jones by E. Lynn Harris
   (Doubleday, 01/27/09, Hardcover)
   Aldridge James “AJ” Richardson is living the good life. He has a gorgeous town house in always-flavorful New Orleans, plenty of frequent-flier miles from jet-setting around the country on a whim, and an MBA but he’s never had to work a regular job. He owes it all to his longtime lover, Dray Jones. Dray Jones the rich and famous NBA star. They fell in love in college when AJ was hired to tutor Dray, a freshman on the basketball team. But Dray knew if he wanted to make it to the big time, he must juggle his public image and his private desires. Built on a deep, abiding love, their hidden relationship sustains them both, but when Dray’s teammates begin to ask insinuating questions about AJ, Dray puts their doubts to rest by marrying Judi, a beautiful and ambitious woman. Judi knows nothing about Dray’s “other life.” Or does she?
    
3. Up To No Good by Carl Weber
   (Kensington, 02/01/09, Hardcover)
   Take Me. Tempt Me. Tame Me. Cailey Holm is definitely not a cat person-in fact, she-s terrified of felines in all forms. Creating a sexy were-lion as the hero of her latest erotic romance was supposed to help her overcome that fear, but suddenly the tall, dangerous, domineering alpha-cat of her darkest dreams is standing in her living room-and then carrying her back to his world, demanding to explore her most erotic fantasies-Set free from Cailey’s story, Lander Cornelius, King of the Werekin, now has a mind of his own-not to mention a magnificent, muscular body specially designed to make his mistress ache with desire. At first Lander’s only motive is to protect his people by controlling Cailey’s magic. But now, he intends to bring them both to the peak of ultimate ecstasy, showing her the intense pleasure of total submission, and unleashing a pure, animal passion that has no limits except their wildest imaginations-
    
4. The Best of Everything by Kimberla Lawson Roby
   (William Morrow, 01/01/09, Hardcover)
   Alicia Black Sullivan swore to never repeat her father’s mistakes: she would never break any promises, she would never be unfaithful. And most important of all, when she got married, it would be for good. And she really does love Phillip, the assistant pastor of her father’s church. She just happens to love money “and the things it can buy” as well. Alicia was born to the good life, she’s entitled to the best, and she’ll do anything to get it. Even if it means piling up thousands of dollars in debt. Even if it means denying to everyone – even herself – that her love of shopping has gotten way out of control. Before long, Phillip begins to wonder if marrying the woman of his dreams was a huge mistake. Alicia has similar thoughts. Deep down, though, she knows a whopper of an emotional bill is coming due. And all the regrets in the world won’t change the fact that she may be more like her infamous father than she could have imagined – or feared.
    
5. The Thirteenth (Vampire Huntress Legends) by L. A. Banks
   (St. Martin’s Griffin, 02/03/09, Paperback)
   The final story in the now cult favorite Vampire Huntress series. The entire Neteru Guardian team is on the run, having now been labeled as America’s most-wanted terrorists following the gruesome demon battle that felled the Washington Monument and crashed the front doors of the White House. The Anti-Christ is positioned for emergence, the powers of darkness have released the pale horse of the apocalypse, and half the Neteru team is pregnant.  Plagues from hell that ravage the country are being cited as stemming from bio-terrorism.  The nation is under martial law.  The Neterus and their team are underground.  If things weren’t bad enough the Dark Realm breaks the sixth Biblical seal, which plunges the world into perpetual darkness and irrevocably into the Armageddon.
    
6. Bring on the Blessings by Beverly Jenkins
   (Avon A, 02/01/09, Paperback)
   On Bernadine Brown’s fifty-second birthday she received an unexpected gift – she caught her husband, Leo, cheating with his secretary. She was hurt – angry, too – but she didn’t cry woe is me. Nope, she hired herself a top-notch lawyer and ended up with a cool $275 million. Having been raised in the church, she knew that when much is given much is expected, so she asked God to send her a purpose. The purpose turned out to be a town: Henry Adams, Kansas, one of the last surviving townships founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. The failing town had put itself up for sale on the Internet, so Bernadine bought it. Trent July is the mayor, and watching the town of his birth slide into debt and foreclosure is about the hardest thing he’s ever done. When the buyer comes to town, he’s impressed by her vision, strength, and the hope she wants to offer not only to the town and its few remaining residents, but to a handful of kids in desperate need of a second chance. Not everyone in town wants to get on board though; they don’t want change. But Bernadine and Trent, along with his first love, Lily Fontaine, are determined to preserve the town’s legacy while ushering in a new era with ties to its unique past and its promising future.
    
7. I’d Rather We Got Casinos: And Other Black Thoughts by Larry Wilmore
   (Hyperion, 01/20/09, Hardcover)
   Within these pages are the musings, the revelations, the ruminations, and the reflections of the incomparable Larry Wilmore. Here, collected for the first time, all in one place, are his Black Thoughts. From why black weathermen make him feel happy (or sad) and why brothas don’t see UFOs to his search for Black Jesus or his quest to replace “African-American” with “chocolate,” Wilmore has finally relented, agreeing to share his unique (black) perspective. Soon, you too will have the ability to find racism in everything. Bring back the Shetland Negro and do away with Black History Month! After all, can twenty-eight days of trivia really make up for centuries of oppression? In Wilmore’s own words, “I’d rather we got casinos!”
    
8. Hittin’ the Bricks: An Urban Erotic Tale by Noire
   (One World/Ballantine, 01/27/09, Paperback)
   Have you ever been betrayed by those you love? Violated in the worst kind of way? And no matter how hard you tried to fight your way out of a trick bag, no matter how tall you tried to walk, did the cold streets of life lead you right back to your grimy destiny?The bestselling author of G-Spot and Candy Licker, Noire pens the intense tale of Eva Patterson, a tragic daughter of the ghetto who finds peril on the streets of New York. With an abusive mother and a heroin monkey on her back, Eva experiences a series of traumatizing events, forcing her to flee her Brooklyn tenement and seek refuge with her beloved cousin Fiyah in Harlem.But fate is not done wreaking havoc in Eva’s life yet. Poised on the brink of progress, Eva meets King Brody, a vicious Harlem drug lord who runs Bricks, the hottest rap club in town. Unbeknownst to Eva, her cousin Fiyah’s thirst for glory leads him to cut a killer deal with Brody. A trade-off is arranged: Fiyah gets a recording contract – and Brody gets Eva. The problem is, Eva already has a man: Ice Mello Williams, a hot Harlem rapper who has a bitter feud going with Fiyah and is determined to seize his recording contract. Torn between the man she loves and a violent kingpin, Eva becomes an unwilling pawn in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Can Fiyah and Mello help her elude the sadistic jaws of Brody, or will she end up losing her life in his brutal trap?
    
9. Missionary No More: Purple Panties 2 by Zane
   (Strebor Books, 01/06/09, Paperback)
   Steamy, sensual and poetically hypnotic, Missionary No More: Purple Panties 2 is the follow-up to the bestseller Purple Panties. No one can debate the fact that Zane knows sex. The Queen of Erotic Fiction has hit home run after home run in the literary arena with her literary offerings. Now comes the latest, a collection of lesbian erotica that will have readers squirming on the edge of their seats, curling up beneath the sheets, and fantasizing about the possibilities. Including such stories as “The Namma’s Nectar,” “Coast to Coast” and “She Loved a Girl,” Missionary No More gives an insight into a world where love and lust have no boundaries. Come take a journey through the eyes of several women who have one thing in common: an appreciation for female sensuality.
    
10. Meet President Barack Obama (Scholastic News Nonfiction Readers) by Laine Falk
    (Children’s Press(CT), 01/15/09, Paperback)
    
     

Article: Write this! Comedian Chris Rock has a book deal

NEW YORK – Chris Rock is making a comeback, as an author.

Grand Central Publishing says Rock’s new book — not yet titled — will be full of “comedic observations.” It’s tentatively scheduled for release next year.

His “Rock This!” was published in 1997.

Deb Futter, vice president and editor-in-chief of hardcovers at Grand Central Publishing, said in a statement Tuesday: “We are so excited to be publishing Chris Rock, especially because he hasn’t published a book in many years so this one will be highly anticipated.”

Rock, 43, was a featured voice in the “Bee Movie” and “Madagascar” films, and he created the “Everybody Hates Chris” TV series.

Rock will have good comic company at Grand Central, which also publishes Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Yahoo News

I Am My Fathers Daughter

This is a 4CD, 3hrs 20min unabridged audio book (memoir) by Rosemary Kariuki Machua. It is a very captivating story of a daughters quest for justice after three decades of her father’s brutal political assassination. Rosemary Kariuki Machua tells of her memories of the father a Kenyan Independence political heavy weight.

At the time of his death,  J.M Kariuki was a millionaire. It is not clear how he amassed his fortune so quickly without somehow engaging on the same vice he was very critical of. His family did not benefit from his wealth, as Kenyatta’s government conspired against them. J.M Kariuki is remembered by Kenyans as a hero as he came to represent the force against the evils that have hemmed the country to this day.

In this powerful audio book, Rosemary clearly points out the sprouting of a culture of political imperialism, impunity and abuse of fundamental human rights among others, that many African governments are grappling with today.

Most interesting, is how emotions (love, anger, jealousy, resentment, and forgiveness) play out against backdrop of social, religious and political realms.

This truly is a must listen to.