Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change by John Lewis

It Worked For Me by Colin Powell with Tony Koltz

When is Strong, Strong Enough? by Souraya Christine

L.A. ’56: A Devil in the City of Angels by Joel Engel

2012′s Bestselling African American Audio Books

Here are 2012′s bestselling African American audiobooks.

1. How to Be Black (Enhanced Edition) by Baratunde Thurston
   (HarperCollins ebooks, 01/31/12, Kindle Edition with Audio/Video)
   

   How To Be Black, the enhanced e-book edition, contains 14 author-conducted video interviews with individuals who exemplify “how to be black,” an audio clip of the author delivering an essay to a live audience, links to a companion website with content created specifically for the enhanced e-book edition, and exclusive photos. Also, all instances of the color black have been rendered in an enhanced extra-black version just for this edition. Have you ever been called “too black” or “not black enough”? Have you ever befriended or worked with a black person? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this book is for you. Raised by a pro-black, Pan-Afrikan single mother during the crack years of 1980s Washington, DC, and educated at Sidwell Friends School and Harvard University, Baratunde Thurston has over thirty years’ experience being black. Now, through stories of his politically inspired Nigerian name, the heroics of his hippie mother, the murder of his drug-abusing father, and other revelatory black details, he shares with readers of all colors his wisdom and expertise in how to be black. Beyond memoir, this guidebook offers practical advice on everything from “How to Be The Black Friend” to “How to Be The (Next) Black President” to “How to Celebrate Black History Month.” To provide additional perspective, Baratunde assembled an award-winning Black Panel—three black women, three black men, and one white man (Christian Lander of Stuff White People Like)—and asked them such revealing questions as: “When Did You First Realize You Were Black?” “How Black Are You?” “Can You Swim?” The result is a humorous, intelligent, and audacious guide that challenges and satirizes the so-called experts, purists, and racists who purport to speak for all black people. With honest storytelling and biting wit, Baratunde plots a path not just to blackness, but one open to anyone interested in simply “how to be.” Please note that due to the large file size of these special features this enhanced e-book may take longer to download then a standard e-book.

    

2. In Dangers Way by L. Allen Stovey
   (Whispers Publishing, 01/04/12, Kindle Edition)
   

   Suspense and tension start at a high level and build form there in this action packed thriller. In Danger’s Way is a real page turner.

    

3. The Tales Of Tarzan : The Collection Adventure Story of Tarzan and Jane ( 8 Titles ), The Timeless African’s Jungle Novel (Annotated) WITH FREE AUDIOBOOK LINK by Edgar Rice Burroughs
   (unsecretbooks.com, 01/31/12, Kindle Edition)
   

   The Tales Of Tarzan is the collection adventure novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Begun with Tarzan of the Apes, the first in a series of books about the title character Tarzan. It was first published in the pulp magazine All-Story Magazine in October, 1912; the first book edition was published in 1914. The character was so popular that Burroughs continued the series into the 1940s with two dozen sequels. In this book contains:1. Tarzan of the Apes (1912) FREE Audiobook link2. The Return of Tarzan (1913) FREE Audiobook link3. The Beasts of Tarzan (1914) FREE Audiobook link4. The Son of Tarzan (1914) FREE Audiobook link5. Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916) FREE Audiobook link6. Jungle Tales of Tarzan (1916, 1917) FREE Audiobook link7. Tarzan the Untamed (1919, 1921) No Audiobook link8. Tarzan the Terrible (1921) No Audiobook linkIn this version also contains : Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Biography, Colour’s cover for each title, Who is Tarzan and Jane?, more story about Tarzan and FREE Audiobook link( 6 Titles ).

    

4. King Peggy: An American Secretary, Her Royal Destiny, and the Inspiring Story of How She Changed an African Village by Peggielene Bartels
   (Random House Audio, 02/21/12, Audio CD)
   

   The charming real-life fairy tale of an American secretary who discovers she has been chosen king of an impoverished fishing village on the west coast of Africa. King Peggy has the sweetness and quirkiness of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and the hopeful sense of possibility of Half the Sky.  King Peggy chronicles the astonishing journey of an American secretary who suddenly finds herself king to a town of 7,000 souls on Ghana’s central coast, half a world away. Upon arriving for her crowning ceremony in beautiful Otuam, she discovers the dire reality: there’s no running water, no doctor, and no high school, and many of the village elders are stealing the town’s funds. To make matters worse, her uncle (the late king) sits in a morgue awaiting a proper funeral in the royal palace, which is in ruins. The longer she waits to bury him, the more she risks incurring the wrath of her ancestors. Peggy’s first two years as king of Otuam unfold in a way that is stranger than fiction. In the end, a deeply traditional African town has been uplifted by the ambitions of its headstrong, decidedly modern female king. And in changing Otuam, Peggy is herself transformed, from an ordinary secretary to the heart and hope of her community.

    

5. All I Did Was Shoot My Man (Leonid Mcgill Mystery) by Walter Mosley
   (Penguin Audio, 01/24/12, Audio CD)
   

   Unabridged, 7 CDs, 8 1/2 hoursRead by Mirron WillisIn the latest and most surprising novel in the bestselling Leonid McGill series, Leonid finds himself caught between his sins of the past and an all-too-vivid present.

    

6. The Reverend’s Wife (A Reverend Curtis Black Novel) by Kimberla Lawson Roby
   (Hachette Audio, 05/01/12, Audio CD)
   

   From New York Times bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby comes the ninth installment in her award-winning Reverend Curtis Black series. It’s been months since Reverend Curtis learned that his wife Charlotte had affairs with two different men, and for now, he continues to be cordial and respectful to her. But he’s also made it clear that once their son Matthew graduates high school, he will be filing for divorce. Charlotte, on the other hand, continues to do everything possible to make amends in hopes of saving their marriage. Unfortunately, Curtis is ready to move on and is being propositioned by a woman who desperately wants to become the next Mrs. Curtis Black. When the situation heads down a path that is frighteningly shocking, could it be the final blow to this once blessed union?

    

7. Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times (Kindle AV Edition) by Thomas Hauser
   (Open Road, 02/14/12, Kindle Edition with Audio/Video)
   

   A sweeping biography of one of the greatest and most provocative athletes of all time Decades after his final fight, Muhammad Ali remains larger than life in the imagination of hundreds of millions of people around the world. He won the heavyweight championship at age twenty-two by conquering Sonny Liston in dramatic fashion. The political establishment stripped him of his prize when he refused induction into the United States Army during the height of the war in Vietnam. Ultimately, Ali returned to reclaim his crown, prevailing in epic fights against the likes of Joe Frazier and George Foreman. His talent and charisma—and above all, his adherence to principle—made him a cultural icon and one of the most beloved sporting figures of all time. But that is only half the tale. Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times is also the story of Ali, the man. Author Thomas Hauser got closer to Ali than any previous biographer. His work—told in Ali’s own words and those of hundreds of family members, friends, rivals, and others who interacted with “The Greatest” over the decades—reveals a deeply spiritual, complex man, who gave new meaning to the word courage and changed forever our conception of what makes a champion.This enhanced ebook includes rare video footage, audio clips, and photos authorized by Muhammad Ali Enterprises.

    

8. The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis
   (Listening Library (Audio), 01/24/12, Audio CD)
   

   We are a family on a journey to a place called wonderful is the motto of Deza Malone’s family. Deza is the smartest girl in her class in Gary, Indiana, singled out by teachers for a special path in life. But the Great Depression hit Gary hard, and there are no jobs for black men. When her beloved father leaves to find work, Deza, Mother, and her older brother Jimmie go in search of him, and end up in a Hooverville outside Flint, Michigan. Jimmie’s beautiful voice inspires him to leave the camp to be a performer, while Deza and Mother find a new home, and cling to the hope that they will find Father. The twists and turns of their story reveal the devastation of the Depression and prove that Deza truly is the Mighty Miss Malone.From the Hardcover edition.

    

9. Forge (Chains Series) by Laurie Halse Anderson
   (Brilliance Audio on CD Value Priced, 04/24/12, Audio CD)
   

   The young soldiers at Valley Forge are suffering from hunger, cold, and the threat of the British army. Their newly forged bonds of friendship might be enough to help them survive. But the chains of Curzon’s past threaten to shackle him again. Surrounded by the fires of ignorance, mistrust, and greed, Curzon can’t risk sharing his deadly secrets with anyone. Does he have the mettle to hold on to his freedom? To claim his rightful place as an American? Is he strong enough to find the answer to the hardest question of all: Is Isabel still alive? Acclaimed author Laurie Halse Anderson continues the thrilling adventure started in her bestselling, award-winning novel Chains. Ride along on a gallop that will take you from battling the British at Saratoga to fighting the elements at Valley Forge to rebelling against merciless tyranny. Discover what the fight for freedom was really all about.

    

10. Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America by Melissa V. Harris-Perry
    (Tantor Media, 03/19/12, Audio CD)
    

    Jezebel’s sexual lasciviousness, Mammy’s devotion, and Sapphire’s outspoken anger-these are among the most persistent stereotypes that black women encounter in contemporary American life. Hurtful and dishonest, such representations force African American women to navigate a virtual crooked room that shames them and shapes their experiences as citizens. Many respond by assuming a mantle of strength that may convince others, and even themselves, that they do not need help. But as a result, the unique political issues of black women are often ignored and marginalized.In this groundbreaking book, Melissa V. Harris-Perry uses multiple methods of inquiry, including literary analysis, political theory, focus groups, surveys, and experimental research, to understand more deeply black women’s political and emotional responses to pervasive negative race and gender images. Not a traditional political science work concerned with office-seeking, voting, or ideology, Sister Citizen is an examination of how African American women understand themselves as citizens and what they expect from political organizing. Harris-Perry shows that the shared struggle to preserve an authentic self and secure recognition as citizens links together black women in America, from the anonymous survivors of Hurricane Katrina to the current First Lady of the United States.

     

11. Freedom’s Teacher, Enhanced E-book by Katherine Mellen Charron
    (The University of North Carolina Press, 03/15/12, Kindle Edition with Audio/Video)
    

    Civil rights activist Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987) developed a citizenship education program that enabled tens of thousands of African Americans to register to vote and to link the power of the ballot to concrete strategies for individual and communal empowerment. Clark, who began her own teaching career in 1916, grounded her approach in the philosophy and practice of southern black activist educators in the decades leading up to the 1950s and 1960s, and then trained a committed cadre of grassroots black women to lead this literacy revolution in community stores, beauty shops, and churches throughout the South. In this engaging biography, Katherine Charron tells the story of Clark, from her coming of age in the South Carolina lowcountry to her activism with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the movement’s heyday. The enhanced electronic version of the book draws from archives, libraries, and the author’s personal collection and includes nearly 100 letters, documents, photographs, newspaper articles, and interview excerpts, embedding each in the text where it will be most meaningful. Featuring more than 60 audio clips (more than three hours total) from oral history interviews with 15 individuals, including Clark herself, the enhanced e-book redefines the idea of the “talking book.”

     

12. Waking with Enemies (Gideon Series) by Eric Jerome Dickey
    (Brilliance Audio on CD Value Priced, 03/15/12, Audio CD)
    

    New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey sizzles in this rapid-fire sequel to Sleeping with Strangers, which finds international hit man Gideon waking up with his past haunting him and danger knocking at his door. After a heated encounter inside a London hotel room – where he was pursued by three very different women – Gideon finds himself living in a world where there’s no one to trust. Someone has taken out a hit on the hit man – but who? Could it be the man he left alive in Tampa, the woman who taught him to kill, the scorned woman he still desires, or some other unseen enemy? The clock is ticking as Gideon struggles to find out who from his past may have ordered the hit, while attempting to outsmart the assassin who was sent to kill him – a cold-blooded killer who isn’t afraid to harm any woman involved with Gideon and is determined to make his reputation off Gideon’s death. As the hunter becomes the hunted, Gideon’s hedonistic lifestyle turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse. He will need to find his friends – and also depend on his enemies – to get out of the game alive.

     

13. What it Was (Derek Strange) by George Pelecanos
    (AudioGO, 03/13/12, Audio CD)
    

    Washington, D.C., 1972. Derek Strange has left the police department and set up shop as a private investigator. His former partner, Frank “Hound Dog” Vaughn, is still on the force. When a young woman comes to Strange asking for his help recovering a cheap ring she claims has sentimental value, the case leads him onto Vaughn’s turf, where a local drug addict’s been murdered, shot point–blank in his apartment. Soon both men are on the trail of a ruthless killer: Red Fury, so called for his looks and the car his girlfriend drives, but a name that fits his personality all too well. Red Fury doesn’t have a retirement plan, as Vaughn points out—he doesn’t care who he has to cross, or kill, to get what he wants. As the violence escalates and the stakes get higher, Strange and Vaughn know the only way to catch their man is to do it their own way. Rich with details of place and time—the cars, the music, the clothes—and fueled by non–stop action, this is Pelecanos writing in the hard–boiled noir style that won him his earliest fans and placed him firmly in the ranks of the top crime writers in America.

     

14. Another Country by James Baldwin
    (AudioGO, 02/14/12, Audio CD)
    

    Published in 1962, this is an emotionally intense novel of love, hatred, race, and liberal America in the 1960s. Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, Another Country tells the story of the suicide of jazz–musician Rufus Scott and the friends who search for an understanding of his life and death, discovering uncomfortable truths about themselves along the way.

     

15. Home by Toni Morrison
    (Random House Audio, 05/08/12, Audio CD)
    

    America’s most celebrated novelist, Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison extends her profound take on our history with this twentieth-century tale of redemption: a taut and tortured story about one man’s desperate search for himself in a world disfigured by war.Frank Money is an angry, self-loathing veteran of the Korean War who, after traumatic experiences on the front lines, finds himself back in racist America with more than just physical scars. His home may seem alien to him, but he is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his medically abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from and that he’s hated all his life. As Frank revisits his memories from childhood and the war that have left him questioning his sense of self, he discovers a profound courage he had thought he could never possess again. A deeply moving novel about an apparently defeated man finding his manhood—and his home.

     

16. Come August, Come Freedom: The Bellows, The Gallows, and The Black General Gabriel by Gigi Amateau
    (Candlewick on Brilliance Audio, 09/11/12, Audio CD)
    

    In a time of post-Revolutionary fervor in Richmond, Virginia, an imposing twenty-five-year-old slave named Gabriel-known for his courage and intellect-plotted a rebellion involving thousands of African- American freedom seekers armed with refashioned pitchforks and other implements of Gabriel’s blacksmith trade. The revolt would be thwarted by a confluence of fierce weather and human betrayal, but Gabriel retained his dignity to the end. History knows little of Gabriel’s early life-but here, author Gigi Amateau imagines a childhood shaped by a mothers devotion, a father’s passion for liberation, and a friendship with a white master’s son who later proved cowardly and cruel. She gives vibrant life to Gabriel’s love for his wife-to-be, Nanny, a slave women whose freedom he worked tirelessly, and futilely, to buy. Interwoven with original documents, this poignant, illuminating novel gives a personal face to a remarkable moment in history.

     

17. Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
    (Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD, 02/02/12, Audio CD)
    

    When Lonnie Collins Motion was seven years old, his life changed forever. Now Lonnie is eleven and his life is about to change again. His teacher, Ms. Marcus, is showing him ways to put his jumbled feelings on paper. And suddenly, Lonnie has a whole new way to tell the world about his life, his friends, his little sister, Lili, and even his foster mom, Miss Edna, who started out crabby but isn’t so bad after all. Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson’s lyrical voice captures Lonnie’s thoughtful perspectives of the world and his determination to one day put a family together again.

     

18. White Lines II: Sunny; a Novel (White Lines Novels, Book 2) by Tracy Brown
    (Blackstone Audio, Inc., and Buck 50 Productions, LLC, 04/24/12, Audio CD)
    

    In her most stunning, riveting, unstoppable novel yet, bestselling and critically acclaimed author Tracy Brown delivers the unforgettable sequel to White Lines. On the surface, it appears that Sunny has got it all: looks, money, a beautiful home, a healthy daughter, and friends who love her. But Sunny has a secret–something she hasn’t even told her best friend. The truth is Sunny is unhappy. She still misses her beloved Dorian and worries that no other man will ever captivate her the way he did. She’s dated some very powerful and successful men since Dorian’s death, but will she ever find love again? It’s not long before Sunny is chasing those white lines, but when the truth finally explodes, will she be able to put her life back together again?

     

19. Chasing Destiny by Eric Jerome Dickey
    (Brilliance Audio on CD Value Priced, 01/15/12, Audio CD)
    

    Billie (aka “Ducati”) is known as much for her extraordinary beauty as for the sexy yellow Ducati motorcycle she rides through the mean streets of Los Angeles. Tough, talented, and self-assured, Billie’s used to doing things her way – but that was before love threw an oil slick in the road and spun her life into chaos. Billie’s first problem is simple: She’s pregnant. Her second problem is that her lover, Keith, is still married. Keith has some “things” to deal with, and the people in his life are dark and duplicitous enough to take matters into their own hands, determined to keep Billie from having her baby. Billie suddenly finds herself confronted, attacked, run off highways, threatened, and shadowed. Keith still has ties to his manipulative wife, Carmen, and he adores his fifteen-year-old daughter, Destiny. Will he do the right thing by his new family, or stand by his old one? Soon all eyes shift as everyone finds themselves desperately chasing Destiny, a troubled and deceptive girl dancing on the edge of womanhood. When the rubber meets the road, all the madness with Billie, Carmen, and Keith comes to a head. Everyone’s fighting dirty for what they want . . . and they’re all willing to destroy their enemy or go down in flames to get it.

     

20. Sleeping with Strangers (Gideon Series) by Eric Jerome Dickey
    Brilliance Audio on CD Value Priced, February 15, 2012, Audio CD)
    

    A powerful hit man, Gideon is the master of the game in a jet-setting world dominated by money, women, and violence. Living off the grid, making love on the run, he makes his living as a contract killer by enacting the revenge of the brokenhearted…for a price. One woman taught him to kill, another motivates him to succeed in the business of revenge. If he can amass a million dollars, the woman he desires has promised to run away with him. For her sake, Gideon takes a high-profile job that earns him dangerous enemies, and hops a plane to London hoping to escape the aftermath. On the plane he meets two mysterious women – have they been sent to bring him down? Have his past transgressions caught up with him at last? Or will one of these strangers help him choose a life of love over a life of violence? In this underworld of grifters and killers, brokenhearted squares and streetwalkers, loyal fans will spot some familiar faces from Dickey’s previous books. A thrilling ride through extremes of love and danger, Sleeping with Strangers thrives on the darker passions of revenge and desire. Don’t miss the sequel: Waking with Enemies

     

The One: The Life and Music of James Brown by RJ Smith

I Got This: How I Changed My Ways and Lost What Weighed Me Down by Jennifer Hudson

I Didn’t Ask to Be Born: (But I’m Glad I Was) by Bill Cosby

Run to Overcome by Meb Keflezighi

March 2012′s Bestselling African American Hardcover Books

The following are the upcoming bestsellers for African American hardcover books.

1. Inspiration: Profiles of Black Women Changing Our World by Crystal McCrary
   (Harry N. Abrams, 2012-03-01, Hardcover)
   

   Inspiration shares the personal stories and unique voices of 30 extraordinary black women. Whether in the White House or on the courts of Wimbledon, in Hollywood or on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, these women have influenced the social, cultural, and political landscape of this country, and even the world. Luminaries such as Patti LaBelle, Venus Williams, Susan Taylor, and Judith Jamison speak about the challenges they’ve faced and the victo­ries they’ve won throughout their careers. These inspiring black women pass their knowledge and lessons on to a new generation of women in intimate first-person essays and stunning color portraits.

    

2. Listen, Whitey!: The Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 by Pat Thomas
   (Fantagraphics, 2012-03-05, Hardcover)
   

   A provocative collection of African-American cultural history.Noted music producer and scholar Pat Thomas spent five years in Oakland, CA researching Listen, Whitey! The Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975. While befriending members of the Black Panther Party, Thomas discovered rare recordings of speeches, interviews, and music by noted activists Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Elaine Brown, The Lumpen and many others that form the framework of this definitive retrospective. Listen, Whitey! also chronicles the forgotten history of Motown Records. From 1970 to 1973, Motown’s Black Power subsidiary label, Black Forum, released politically charged albums by Stokely Carmichael, Amiri Baraka, Langston Hughes, Bill Cosby & Ossie Davis, and many others, all represented. Also explored are the musical connections between Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Graham Nash, the Partridge Family (!?!) and the Black Power movement. Obscure recordings produced by SNCC, Ron Karenga’s US, the Tribe and other African-American sociopolitical organizations of the late 1960s and early ’70s are examined along with the Isley Brothers, Nina Simone, Archie Shepp, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Clifford Thornton, Watts Prophets, Last Poets, Gene McDaniels, Roland Kirk, Horace Silver, Angela Davis, H. Rap Brown, Stanley Crouch, and others that spoke out against oppression. Other sections focus on Black Consciousness poetry (from the likes of Jayne Cortez, wife of Ornette Coleman), inspired religious recordings that infused god and Black Nationalism, obscure regional and privately pressed Black Power 7-inch soul singles from across America. 90,000 words of text are accompanied by over 250 large sized, full-color reproductions of album covers and 45 rpm singles — most of which readers will have never seen before. 224 black-and-white illustrations

    

3. Low Down and Dirty: A Novel by Vickie M. Stringer
   (Atria Books, 2012-03-27, Hardcover)
   

   Vickie Stringer’s Dirty Red is back. This time she’s on the run. Having apparently wounded all of her enemies, and even her beloved Q, Red finds herself away from Detroit living the life of luxury in Arizona. She’s become a successful home broker with a bestselling book, and it seems as if all of her dirty tricks have finally paid off—from framing Detective Thomas to ruining Kera’s freedom. Unfortunately for Red, she’s made more enemies than she can count, and she soon finds herself running across the country in fear of them all while still being in love with Q. Everyone seems to have a reason to pay her the ultimate revenge, and even the most unlikely become partners if it means finally bringing an end to all of Red’s dirty schemes. In yet another fast-paced and spiraling edition in this bestselling series, Vickie Stringer writes about a woman who will do anything to save her life and the people who go so low attempting to stop her.

    

4. The Final Four by Paul Volponi
   (Viking Juvenile, 2012-03-01, Hardcover)
   

   Four players with one thing in common: the will to win Malcolm wants to get to the NBA ASAP. Roko wants to be the pride of his native Croatia. Crispin wants the girl of his dreams. M.J. just wants a chance. March Madness is in full swing, and there are only four teams left in the NCAA basketball championship. The heavily favored Michigan Spartans and the underdog Troy Trojans meet in the first game in the semifinals, and it’s there that the fates of Malcolm, Roko, Crispin, and M.J. intertwine. As the last moments tick down on the game clock, you’ll learn how each player went from being a kid who loved to shoot hoops to a powerful force in one of the most important games of the year. Which team will leave the Superdome victorious? In the end it will come down to which players have the most skill, the most drive, and the most heart.

    

5. Multiplication Is for White People: Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit
   (New Press, The, 2012-03-20, Hardcover)
   

   As award-winning educator Lisa Delpit reminds us — and as all research shows — there is no achievement gap at birth. In her long-awaited second book, Delpit presents a striking picture of the elements of contemporary public education that conspire against the prospects for poor children of color, creating a persistent gap in achievement during the school years that has eluded several decades of reform. Delpit’s bestselling and paradigm-shifting first book, Other People’s Children, focused on cultural slippage in the classroom between white teachers and students of color. Now, in “Multiplication Is for White People,” Delpit reflects on two decades of reform efforts — including No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, the creation of alternative teacher certification paths, and the charter school movement — that still have left a generation of poor children of color feeling that higher math isn’t for them. In her wonderful trademark style, punctuated with telling classroom anecdotes and informed by time spent at dozens of schools across the country, Delpit outlines an inspiring and uplifting blueprint for raising expectations for other people’s children, based on a simple premise: multiplication is for everyone.

    

6. Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King
   (Harper, 2012-03-06, Hardcover)
   

   Arguably the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court when he became embroiled in an explosive and deadly case that threatened to change the course of the civil rights movement and cost him his life. In 1949, Florida’s orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor. To maintain order and profits, they turned to Willis V. McCall, a violent sheriff who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old Groveland girl cried rape, McCall was fast on the trail of four young blacks who dared to envision a future for themselves beyond the citrus groves. By day’s end, the Ku Klux Klan had rolled into town, burning the homes of blacks to the ground and chasing hundreds into the swamps, hell-bent on lynching the young men who came to be known as “the Groveland Boys.” And so began the chain of events that would bring Thurgood Marshall, the man known as “Mr. Civil Rights,” into the deadly fray. Associates thought it was suicidal for him to wade into the “Florida Terror” at a time when he was irreplaceable to the burgeoning civil rights movement, but the lawyer would not shrink from the fight—not after the Klan had murdered one of Marshall’s NAACP associates involved with the case and Marshall had endured continual threats that he would be next. Drawing on a wealth of never-before-published material, including the FBI’s unredacted Groveland case files, as well as unprecedented access to the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund files, King shines new light on this remarkable civil rights crusader, setting his rich and driving narrative against the heroic backdrop of a case that U.S. Supreme Court justice Robert Jackson decried as “one of the best examples of one of the worst menaces to American justice.”

    

7. Blacklash: How Obama and the Left Are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation by Deneen Borelli
   (Threshold Editions, 2012-03-06, Hardcover)
   

   This country is at a crossroads. We can either reverse direction or nosedive into a cycle of dependency that is turning America into a welfare nation—a “government plantation” where the underclass are doomed to 21st-century servitude. Now, Deneen Borelli, one of the most visible and outspoken black conservatives in the country, is fighting back—taking action, not just talking—and speaking up for those who can’t or are too afraid to do so. Borelli’s argument is a solid one: the problem begins with President Barack Obama, whose policy overreach has frozen racial tensions in this country when he should have been thawing them. The Left, having introduced the race card to defend Obama from the massive unpopularity of his policies, has turned a blind eye to the leadership failures that have spread down through black career politicians—traitors to minority success—who are causing a cycle of oppression in America: specifically Charles Rangel, Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson, each of whom has enriched himself at the expense of his community. Borelli also challenges the ninety-five percent of the black Americans who voted for Obama without caring about or vetting his dangerous politics. Borelli doesn’t stop there. She speaks out against the elites and crony capitalists who drive expensive government policies such as needless green initiatives and ObamaCare. She exposes government regulation and the NAACP as nothing more than a liberal front group. She points out each grave flaw in the current administration, big government, unions, and special-interest groups. She demands that new black leaders abandon the false rhetoric and inexcusable lies of so-called progressive politics.

    

8. Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War (Civil War America) by Christian McWhirter
   (The University of North Carolina Press, 2012-03-19, Hardcover)
   

   Music was everywhere during the Civil War. Tunes could be heard ringing out from parlor pianos, thundering at political rallies, and setting the rhythms of military and domestic life. With literacy still limited, music was an important vehicle for communicating ideas about the war, and it had a lasting impact in the decades that followed. Drawing on an array of published and archival sources, Christian McWhirter analyzes the myriad ways music influenced popular culture in the years surrounding the war and discusses its deep resonance for both whites and blacks, South and North.Though published songs of the time have long been catalogued and appreciated, McWhirter is the first to explore what Americans actually said and did with these pieces. By gauging the popularity of the most prominent songs and examining how Americans used them, McWhirter returns music to its central place in American life during the nation’s greatest crisis. The result is a portrait of a war fought to music.

    

9. Kehinde Wiley: The World Stage: Israel by Ruth Eglash
   (Roberts & Tilton, 2012-03-31, Hardcover)
   

   Kehinde Wiley’s acclaimed World Stage series inserts into the language of old master portraiture the very ethnicities and ethnic iconography that western art has most excluded from it, or that western art has portrayed solely in colonial, Orientalist terms. Among the countries and continents he has previously depicted in this ambitious traveling epic are Brazil, Africa, China, India and Sri Lanka. The rhetoric of Wiley’s paintings is powerful in its compositional candor, color palette and playfulness with constructions of visual meaning; as Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky) notes, “Wiley’s canvas surfaces are a mirror reflection of America’s unceasing search for new meanings from the ruins of the Old World of Europe and Africa.” This volume includes a selection of new World Stage portraits, focusing on contemporary youth from Jewish-Ethiopian-Israeli, Jewish-Israeli and Arab-Israeli communities.

    

10. The Political Economy of Liberation: Thomas Sowell and James Cone on the Black Experience by Anthony B. Bradley
    (Peter Lang Publishing, 2012-03-01, Hardcover)
    

    James Cone and Thomas Sowell tower as African American intellectuals who have influenced ideas around the world for decades on issues such as poverty and justice. Although Thomas Sowell writes as a secular economist, his views harmonize more genuinely with classical Christian social thought than do the liberation theology of James Cone. In the traditional black church, theology and economics have always been partners in pursuing the means of liberation for African Americans. This is the first book to put a black economist and a black theologian into direct dialogue with one another in order to distill the strengths of each discipline, thus providing a long-term vision for the economic sustainability of the black community. The implications of the Protestant teaching of sphere sovereignty and the Roman Catholic principle of subsidiarity inform the disciplines of theology, economics, and political philosophy to cast a new vision for black liberation serving religious and political theorists alike. A provocative dynamism emerges because Cone and Sowell maintain alternative and competing visions that engage classical Christian theology in different ways. This book offers the opportunity for a new trajectory of dialogue between theologians and political economists about poverty, human dignity, and justice in ways previously unexplored. The Political Economy of Liberation is an invaluable resource in courses in African American studies, race and religion, political economy, social ethics, Christianity and society, Christian social thought, social justice, and theological ethics at the upper-level undergraduate or graduate level.

     

11. Thornton Dial: Thoughts on Paper
    (The University of North Carolina Press, 2012-03-01, Hardcover)
    

    Thornton Dial (b. 1928), one of the most important artists in the American South, came to prominence in the late 1980s and was celebrated internationally for his large construction pieces and mixed-media paintings. It was only later, in response to a reviewer’s negative comment on his artistic ability, that he began to work on paper. And it was not until recently that these drawings have received the acclaim they deserve. This volume, edited by Bernard L. Herman, offers the first sustained critical attention to Dial’s works on paper. Concentrating on Dial’s early drawings, the contributors examine Dial’s use of line and color and his recurrent themes of love, lust, and faith. They also discuss the artist’s sense of place and history, relate his drawings to his larger works, and explore how his drawing has evolved since its emergence in the early 1990s. Together, the essays investigate questions of creativity and commentary in the work of African American artists and contextualize Dial’s works on paper in the body of American art. The contributors are Cara Zimmerman, Bernard Herman, Glenn Hinson, Juan Logan, and Colin Rhodes.

     

12. The Morehouse Mystique: Becoming a Doctor at the Nation’s Newest African American Medical School by Marybeth Gasman
    (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012-03-15, Hardcover)
    

    The Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, is one of only four predominantly Black medical schools in the United States. Among its illustrious alumni are surgeons general of the United States, medical school presidents, and numerous other highly regarded medical professionals. This book tells the engrossing history of this venerable institution.The school was founded just after the civil rights era, when major barriers prevented minorities from receiving adequate health care and Black students were underrepresented in predominantly White medical schools. The Morehouse School of Medicine was conceived to address both problems—it was a minority-serving institution educating doctors who would practice in underserved communities.The school’s history involves political maneuvering, skilled leadership, dedication to training African American physicians, and a mission of primary care in disadvantaged communities. Highlighting such influential leaders as former Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, The Morehouse Mystique situates the school in the context of the history of medical education for Blacks and race relations throughout the country. The book features excerpts from personal interviews with prominent African American doctors as well as with former presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush, who reveal how local, state, and national politics shaped the development of Black medical schools in the United States.The story of the Morehouse School of Medicine reflects the turbulent time in which it was founded and the lofty goals and accomplishments of a diverse group of African American leaders. Their tireless efforts in creating this eminent Black institution changed the landscape of medical education and the racial and ethnic makeup of physicians and health care professions.

     

13. Blackness in Opera
    (University of Illinois Press, 2012-03-01, Hardcover)
    

    Blackness in Opera critically examines the intersections of race and music in the multifaceted genre of opera. A multidisciplinary cross-section of scholars place well-known operas (Porgy and Bess, Aida, Otello) alongside lesser-known works such as Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, Clarence Cameron White’s Ouanga!, and William Grant Still’s Blue Steel to reveal a new historical context for re-imagining race and blackness in opera. The volume brings a wide-ranging, theoretically informed, interdisciplinary approach to questions about how blackness has been represented in these operas, issues surrounding characterization of blacks, interpretation of racialized roles by blacks and whites, controversies over race in the theatre and the use of blackface, and extensions of blackness along the spectrum from grand opera to musical theatre and film. In addition to essays by scholars, the book also features comments by renowned tenor George Shirley.

     

14. Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants, and Stars: True Tales of Breaking Barriers, Umpiring Baseball Legends, and Wild Adventures in the Negro Leagues by Bob Motley
    (Sports Publishing, 2012-03-08, Hardcover)
    

    “An important step in revealing what has been for most Americans a ‘hidden history.’” —Ken BurnsThe Kansas City Monarchs, the Chicago American Giants, the St. Louis Stars, the Birmingham Black Barons, the Homestead Grays, and the Indianapolis Clowns; for over fifty years, they were the Yankees, Cardinals, and Red Sox of black baseball in America. And for over a decade beginning in the late 1940s, umpire Bob Motley called balls and strikes for many of their games, working alongside such legends as Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and Willie Mays.Today, Motley is the only living arbiter from the Negro Leagues. His personal account of the Negro Leagues is a revealing, humorous, and unforgettable memoir celebrating a long-lost league and a remarkable group of baseball players. In Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants, and Stars Motley and his son Byron share the characters, adventures, and challenges faced by these amazing men as they enthusiastically embraced America’s pastime and made it their own. Filled with stories of talented heroes, small miracles, and downright fun, this unique memoir is a must-read for any baseball fan. 14 black & white illustrations

     

15. Words of Protest, Words of Freedom: Poetry of the American Civil Rights Movement and Era
    (Duke University Press Books, 2012-03-27, Hardcover)
    

    Poetry is an ideal artistic medium for expressing the fear, sorrow, and triumph of revolutionary times. Words of Protest, Words of Freedom is the first comprehensive collection of poems written during and in response to the American civil rights struggle of 1955–75. Featuring some of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century—including Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, and Derek Walcott—alongside lesser-known poets, activists, and ordinary citizens, this anthology presents a varied and vibrant set of voices, highlighting the tremendous symbolic reach of the civil rights movement within and beyond the United States.Some of the poems address crucial movement-related events—such as the integration of the Little Rock schools, the murders of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers, the emergence of the Black Panther party, and the race riots of the late 1960s—and key figures, including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and John and Robert Kennedy. Other poems speak more broadly to the social and political climate of the times. Along with Jeffrey Lamar Coleman’s headnotes, the poems recall the heartbreaking and jubilant moments of a tumultuous era. Altogether, more than 150 poems by approximately 100 poets showcase the breadth of the genre of civil rights poetry.Selected contributors. Maya Angelou, W. H. Auden, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes, June Jordan, Philip Levine, Audre Lorde, Robert Lowell, Pauli Murray, Huey P. Newton, Adrienne Rich, Sonia Sanchez, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Derek Walcott, Alice Walker, Yevgeny Yevtushenko

     

16. The Glassell Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Masterworks of Pre-Columbian, Indonesian, and African Gold by Frances Marzio
    (Museum Fine Arts Houston, 2012-03-20, Hardcover)
    

    One of the world’s top hundred art collectors, Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. (1913-2008), was fascinated by gold, but not for its monetary value. Glassell valued instead the spiritual significance that gold held in many ancient cultures, particularly those of Africa, South America, and Indonesia. Over the years, he acquired an astonishing number of artworks, assembling the largest privately held collection of Pre-Columbian gold. From 1997 to 2004, Glassell donated works of African and Indonesian gold to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Upon his death in 2008, he bequeathed his collection of Pre-Columbian gold to the museum. Masterworks of Pre-Columbian, Indonesian, and African Gold explores two hundred of these dazzling works, many published here for the first time. Spanning from 2000 B.C. to A.D. 1600, these precious objects reflect a variety of cultures, such as the Calima, Quimbaya, Sicán, Moché, and Coclé, and a range of geographic locations, from Mexico to Argentina and from Africa to Indonesia. The book offers fresh insights into the enduring appeal of gold and its artistic manifestations in diverse cultures.

     

17. Nikki and Deja: Wedding Drama by Karen English
    (Clarion Books, 2012-03-20, Hardcover)
    

    Ms. Shelby is getting married! As the girls in Nikki and Deja’s class compete over who can plan the best imaginary wedding for their teacher, Nikki excitedly throws herself into preparations for the real thing. But Deja is not so enthusiastic. Her Auntie Dee has been temporarily laid off from her job, and Deja is worried. What will happen now that she can no longer afford a new dress and special hairdo? Will Nikki leave her best friend behind while she shops and primps? Will Deja be able to get over her jealousy and enjoy the celebration anyway? This is a charming entry in a chapter book series praised for its accessibility, authenticity, and humor.

     

18. Reading African American Experiences in the Obama Era: Theory, Advocacy, Activism by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
    (Peter Lang Publishing, 2012-03-01, Hardcover)
    

    What does it mean to be Black in the Obama era? In Reading African American Experiences in the Obama Era, young African American scholars and researchers and experienced community activists demonstrate how to encourage dialogue across curricula, disciplines, and communities with emphases on education, new media, and popular culture. Considering what this historic moment means for Black life, letters, and learning, this accessible yet scholarly volume encourages movement toward thoughtful analysis today.