Top-Selling African American Books in 2010

1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
   (Crown, 02/02/10, Hardcover)
   

   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.

    

2. 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.

    

3. Wifey 4 Life by Kiki Swinson
   (Melodrama Publishing, 03/16/10, 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?

    

4. Dirtier Than Ever: A Novel by Vickie M. Stringer
   (Atria, 02/16/10, Hardcover)
   

   Following the phenomenal success of Essence bestsellers Dirty Red and Still Dirty, Vickie M. Stringer takes readers on another bumpy ride in Dirtier Than Ever with Red, Bacon, and Q — the crazy love-hate triangle who makes the series a favorite among urban fiction fans. Q wished that Bacon had killed Red when he had the chance. Red knew that Q’s career as a hustler was over and he was counting on starting a new legit business with the money he had made. He had once believed her when she promised that the money didn’t mean a thing and she would give it all up to be with him.  Bacon returns from prison and suddenly Q is left for dead. With Q out of the picture, Bacon now has Red to himself. His sights are set on being the top hustler with Red by his side. He believes Red has fi nally changed when she reveals the truth about her past.  But all comes to a head when the snooping detective, Thomas, suspects Red’s involvement in Q’s getting shot and the murder of Zeke, Q’s best friend. With two murders, a tumultuous love affair, andmoney on her mind, Red must make a decision . . . does she turn over a new leaf or revisit her dirty ways of old?  Gritty, steamy, and intense, Stringer delivers another page-turning caper about a hustler in high heels who is Dirtier Than Ever.

    

5. Big Girls Do Cry by Carl Weber
   (Kensington, 02/01/10, Hardcover)
   

   New York Times bestselling author Carl Weber cranks up the heat in this explosive follow-up to Something on the Side–a novel of friendship, family ties, and the bonds–and betrayals–of love. . . Isis and her sister, Egypt–two of the original curvaceous members of the Big Girls Book Club–have hightailed it out of New York and settled in Richmond, Virginia, where they’ve started a new chapter of the BGBC. The same rules apply here: You must be at least a bodacious size 14 to join. Living in the plush suburbs, Isis has it all–almost. The thirty-seven-year-old plus-size beauty is happily married to Rashid, and they’re living in the lap of luxury. There’s just one thing missing. They want to start a family. Enter Egypt, who’s moved into her sister’s McMansion with dreams of starting over. There’s just one hitch: before her sister married Rashid, he was Egypt’s man for ten years. Egypt thought she was over him, but the close quarters are giving both her and her sister doubts. She’s ready to pack her bags until Isis and Rashid ask her for a serious favor. Egypt knows she shouldn’t get involved, but she can’t say no to her sister–even if the price might be way too high for them all. Egypt isn’t the only one with drama. Rumor has it that Loraine–Isis’s brilliant boss and one of BGBC’s newest members–is in the running to be her sorority’s next national president. But Loraine has more than one secret that will ruin her if they ever see the light of day. Thank goodness only one other person knows them–BGBC’s first male member, Jerome–and what he knows just might destroy him. As friendships and family and past and present collide, these book lovers are about to learn that drama can follow you wherever you go–and that big girls do cry…

    

6. 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.

    

7. Be Careful What You Pray For by Kimberla Lawson Roby
   (William Morrow, 02/01/10, Hardcover)
   

   New York Times bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby returns with this delightful sequel to The Best of Everything, in which the infamous Reverend Curtis Black’s beautiful daughter, Alicia, is all grown up — and headed for trouble of her own Her first marriage didn’t work out, but that isn’t going to stop Alicia Black, the privileged daughter of the charismatic Reverend Curtis Black, from getting what she wants. One month after her wedding to her second husband, she can’t believe her good fortune. God has heeded her prayers, blessing her with Pastor JT Valentine, a handsome, dynamic man of the cloth with his own large congregation, just like her father. Unfortunately, Alicia doesn’t understand just how much like Curtis her new husband truly is. She doesn’t know that JT has been sneaking around town with other women — or that he only married her to get close to her father’s money and fame. But while Alicia is blinded by love, her dad certainly isn’t. He warned his little girl that JT simply can’t be trusted. After all, it takes one to know one, and who better to see into the darkness of a sinner’s heart than Curtis? It will take a miracle to save the day. But God acts in mysterious ways, and soon a host of lies, longtime secrets, and acts of betrayal comes to light, and Alicia must face some very crucial and life-changing decisions. This time, she’s got to be careful what she prays for. . . .

    

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

   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.

    

9. If You Were My Man by Francis Ray
   (St. Martin’s Griffin, 03/02/10, Paperback)
   

   Nathalyia Fontaine has been the sole proprietor of the restaurant Fontaine since her husband died four years ago. She hasn’t dated anyone in all those years, choosing not to open her heart again, or risk revealing her dark past.  That is, until she meets Rafael Dunlap. Rafael is  a hostage negotiator  with his own  set of problems. Though he loves women, he  vows  he’ll never marry because his job is just too unpredictable.    He can’t imagine leaving a widow and children behind. But his thinking and game plan of loving and  leaving  changes when he meets Nathalyia. Though she tries to resist him, Rafael sweeps her into a whirlwind romance. When the unexpected happens, and Nathalyia is forced to keep it a secret, she ends things with Rafael before he can break her heart.  But when Rafael is in harms way, will Nathalyia resolve to tell him the truth before it’s too late? Or will past demons keep them apart forever?

    

10. Little Black Girl Lost 5 by Keith Lee Johnson
    (Urban Books, 02/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

11. Reverend Feelgood by Lutishia Lovely
    (Dafina, 02/01/10, Paperback)
    

    In Lutishia Lovely’s wickedly sexy new novel, an energetic young pastor works overtime to keep the ladies in his congregation deliciously satisfied. . .Nathaniel “Nate” Thicke is a preaching prodigy. At only twenty-eight years old, he’s the senior pastor of The Gospel Truth Church. In addition to carrying on the preaching tradition begun by his great-grandfather, Nate is also just plain carrying on, wherever the spirit–and the flesh–lead him. And when it leads him to three women from the same family, bickering and backstabbing follow…Content with having his pick of the flock, Nate is surprised to discover he’s fallen head-over-heels in love, and decides to become a one-woman man. But the other ladies aren’t about to give him up so easily. They’re prepared to do whatever it takes to get their man back–even if it means adding a few more shocking sins to their list…

     

12. Wrapped in Pleasure: Delaney’s Desert Sheikh\Seduced by a Stranger (Arabesque) by Brenda Jackson
    (Kimani Press, 01/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Two Westmoreland novels — one classic and one new — from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Brenda Jackson Delaney’s Desert Sheikh A mix-up in Delaney Westmoreland’s vacation plans forces her to share a cabin with a tall, dark and oh-so-handsome sheikh who is bent on her seduction. Jamal Ari Yasir intends to school Delaney in sensuality for his own pleasure. But instead of loving and leaving her, he becomes enraptured by an irresistible and unforgettable passion for his sexy-as-sin roommate. Can the arrogant sheikh convince his secret lover that they are fated for more than just a summer fling? Seduced by a Stranger Johari Yasir has no interest in returning to her homeland to marry a man she’s never met — at least, not without sowing some wild oats first. And when a handsome charmer offers to whisk her away in his private plane, she impulsively accepts. Rasheed Valdemon is shocked that his bride-to-be would fly off with someone she barely knows — even though he’s the one doing the asking. More surprising is his hunger for this lovely, rebellious woman. Yet what will happen when she realizes she’s been seduced by the man who’s destined to be her husband?

     

13. Three Days Before the Shooting . . . (Modern Library) by Ralph Ellison
    (Modern Library, 01/26/10, Hardcover)
    

    At his death in 1994, Ralph Ellison left behind roughly two thousand pages of his unfinished second novel, which he had spent nearly four decades writing. Long awaited, it was to have been the work Ellison intended to follow his masterpiece, Invisible Man. Five years later, Random House published Juneteenth, drawn from the central narrative of Ellison’s unfinished epic. Three Days Before the Shooting . . . gathers together in one volume, for the first time, all the parts of that planned opus, including three major sequences never before published. Set in the frame of a deathbed vigil, the story is a gripping multigenerational saga centered on the assassination of the controversial, race-baiting U.S. senator Adam Sunraider, who’s being tended to by “Daddy” Hickman, the elderly black jazz musician turned preacher who raised the orphan Sunraider as a light-skinned black in rural Georgia. Presented in their unexpurgated, provisional state, the narrative sequences form a deeply poetic, moving, and profoundly entertaining book, brimming with humor and tension, composed in Ellison’s magical jazz-inspired prose style and marked by his incomparable ear for vernacular speech. Beyond its richly compelling narratives, Three Days Before the Shooting . . . is perhaps most notable for its extraordinary insight into the creative process of one of this country’s greatest writers. In various stages of composition and revision, its typescripts and computer files testify to Ellison’s achievement and struggle with his material from the mid-1950s until his death forty years later. Three Days Before the Shooting . . . is an essential, fascinating piece of Ralph Ellison’s legacy, and its publication is to be welcomed as a major event for American arts and letters.

     

14. Snapped: A Novel by Tracy Brown
    (St. Martin’s Griffin, 01/05/10, Paperback)
    

    As the pampered wife of Frankie Bingham, Camille wants for nothing. After all Frankie and their life together are her whole world. So Camille tries not to be bothered by his closeness with his coworker and dear friend Gillian. But it soon becomes clear that Camille’s suspicions are correct. When his indiscretions become a public matter for the world Camille is pushed to a dangerous breaking point that spells disaster for them all.Camille’s sister Misa is newly divorced and clueless about men.  She smothers men with phone calls, emails and pops up unannounced at their homes. She hacks into their voicemail and email and causes drama. So when she sets her sights on Baron, he has no idea what hit him. Will her quest to win his heart cost her everything?Dominique Storms appears to have it all – a great career, a beautiful NYC condo and a gifted teenaged daughter. Her only problem is that the man she loves is incarcerated. While trying to juggle the demands of motherhood, work, and friendships, she manages to make her man Jamel a priority in her life. But is he doing the same? And is she too distracted to notice what is going on with her daughter?Latoya Blake seems to be the one who has life all figured out, that is, until some skeletons are discovered in her closet. When her well-put-together façade crumbles, will she crumble as well?

     

15. Diary of a Stalker (Urban Renaissance) by Electa Rome Parks
    (Urban Trade Paper, 01/01/10, Paperback)
    

    Never judge a book by its cover. . . Xavier Preston is tall, dark, and handsome, and the problem is that he knows it. He’s a bestselling author who is accustomed to adoring female fans, both young and old, flirting with him, throwing themselves shamelessly at him, and trying to get between more than the covers of his novels. He has always been more than willing to accommodate their needs and desires; however, his womanizing days have finally ended. He’s engaged to a beautiful woman, Kendall, and he’s decided to walk the straight and narrow. Or has he? From outside appearances, the very stunning Pilar has it all: a great career, a beautiful home, and a trust fund that keeps her financially secure; however, looks can be deceiving. All that glitters isn’t necessarily gold. Pilar is searching for her perfect soulmate, and she thinks she has found him in Xavier. She believes in going after what she wants with a vengeance . . . and she wants Xavier. That is not negotiable. She will have him, even if it kills him. When Xavier meets his fanatical fan, Pilar, he gets much more than he bargained for. What starts out as an erotic one-night stand quickly spirals out of control into a dangerous game of obsession and pain with both parties playing to win. Think you know what goes on behind the literary scene? Think again.

     

16. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
    (Atheneum, 01/05/10, Paperback)
    

    If an entire nation could seek its freedom, why not a girl?As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight…for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.From acclaimed author Laurie Halse Anderson comes this compelling, impeccably researched novel that shows the lengths we can go to cast off our chains, both physical and spiritual.

     

17. Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Pinkney
    (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 02/03/10, Hardcover)
    

    It was February 1, 1960.They didn’t need menus. Their order was simple.A doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side.This picture book is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the momentous Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in, when four college students staged a peaceful protest that became a defining moment in the struggle for racial equality and the growing civil rights movement. Andrea Davis Pinkney uses poetic, powerful prose to tell the story of these four young men, who followed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words of peaceful protest and dared to sit at the “whites only” Woolworth’s lunch counter. Brian Pinkney embraces a new artistic style, creating expressive paintings filled with emotion that mirror the hope, strength, and determination that fueled the dreams of not only these four young men, but also countless others.

     

18. The Candy Shop by Kiki Swinson
    (Dafina, 01/01/10, Paperback)
    

    Having no regards for people, their property and even her own life, Faith Simmons has done everything from selling off her life’s fortune, to selling her body, and stealing, all because of her sweet addiction for The Candy Shop.

     

19. 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.

     

20. Hood Richest: (Triple Crown Publications Presents) by Michelle Monay
    (Triple Crown Publications, 02/15/10, Paperback)
    

     

Bestselling African American Books, February 2010

1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
   (Crown, 02/02/10, Hardcover)
   

   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.

    

2. Dirtier Than Ever: A Novel by Vickie M. Stringer
   (Atria, 02/16/10, Hardcover)
   

   Following the phenomenal success of Essence bestsellers Dirty Red and Still Dirty, Vickie M. Stringer takes readers on another bumpy ride in Dirtier Than Ever with Red, Bacon, and Q – the crazy love-hate triangle who makes the series a favorite among urban fiction fans. Q wished that Bacon had killed Red when he had the chance. Red knew that Q’s career as a hustler was over and he was counting on starting a new legit business with the money he had made. He had once believed her when she promised that the money didn’t mean a thing and she would give it all up to be with him.  Bacon returns from prison and suddenly Q is left for dead. With Q out of the picture, Bacon now has Red to himself. His sights are set on being the top hustler with Red by his side. He believes Red has fi nally changed when she reveals the truth about her past. But all comes to a head when the snooping detective, Thomas, suspects Red’s involvement in Q’s getting shot and the murder of Zeke, Q’s best friend. With two murders, a tumultuous love affair, andmoney on her mind, Red must make a decision . . . does she turn over a new leaf or revisit her dirty ways of old?  Gritty, steamy, and intense, Stringer delivers another page-turning caper about a hustler in high heels who is Dirtier Than Ever.

    

3. Big Girls Do Cry by Carl Weber
   (Kensington, 02/01/10, Hardcover)
   

   New York Times bestselling author Carl Weber cranks up the heat in this explosive follow-up to Something on the Side–a novel of friendship, family ties, and the bonds–and betrayals–of love. . . Isis and her sister, Egypt–two of the original curvaceous members of the Big Girls Book Club–have hightailed it out of New York and settled in Richmond, Virginia, where they’ve started a new chapter of the BGBC. The same rules apply here: You must be at least a bodacious size 14 to join. Living in the plush suburbs, Isis has it all–almost. The thirty-seven-year-old plus-size beauty is happily married to Rashid, and they’re living in the lap of luxury. There’s just one thing missing. They want to start a family. Enter Egypt, who’s moved into her sister’s McMansion with dreams of starting over. There’s just one hitch: before her sister married Rashid, he was Egypt’s man for ten years. Egypt thought she was over him, but the close quarters are giving both her and her sister doubts. She’s ready to pack her bags until Isis and Rashid ask her for a serious favor. Egypt knows she shouldn’t get involved, but she can’t say no to her sister–even if the price might be way too high for them all. Egypt isn’t the only one with drama. Rumor has it that Loraine–Isis’s brilliant boss and one of BGBC’s newest members–is in the running to be her sorority’s next national president. But Loraine has more than one secret that will ruin her if they ever see the light of day. Thank goodness only one other person knows them–BGBC’s first male member, Jerome–and what he knows just might destroy him. As friendships and family and past and present collide, these book lovers are about to learn that drama can follow you wherever you go–and that big girls do cry…

    

4. 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.

    

5. Be Careful What You Pray For by Kimberla Lawson Roby
   (William Morrow, 02/01/10, Hardcover)
   

   New York Times bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby returns with this delightful sequel to The Best of Everything, in which the infamous Reverend Curtis Black’s beautiful daughter, Alicia, is all grown up –and headed for trouble of her own Her first marriage didn’t work out, but that isn’t going to stop Alicia Black, the privileged daughter of the charismatic Reverend Curtis Black, from getting what she wants. One month after her wedding to her second husband, she can’t believe her good fortune. God has heeded her prayers, blessing her with Pastor JT Valentine, a handsome, dynamic man of the cloth with his own large congregation, just like her father. Unfortunately, Alicia doesn’t understand just how much like Curtis her new husband truly is. She doesn’t know that JT has been sneaking around town with other women –or that he only married her to get close to her father’s money and fame. But while Alicia is blinded by love, her dad certainly isn’t. He warned his little girl that JT simply can’t be trusted. After all, it takes one to know one, and who better to see into the darkness of a sinner’s heart than Curtis? It will take a miracle to save the day. But God acts in mysterious ways, and soon a host of lies, longtime secrets, and acts of betrayal comes to light, and Alicia must face some very crucial and life-changing decisions. This time, she’s got to be careful what she prays for. . . .

    

6. Little Black Girl Lost 5 by Keith Lee Johnson
   (Urban Books, 02/01/10, Paperback)
   

    

7. Reverend Feelgood by Lutishia Lovely
   (Dafina, 02/01/10, Paperback)
   

   In Lutishia Lovely’s wickedly sexy new novel, an energetic young pastor works overtime to keep the ladies in his congregation deliciously satisfied. . .Nathaniel “Nate” Thicke is a preaching prodigy. At only twenty-eight years old, he’s the senior pastor of The Gospel Truth Church. In addition to carrying on the preaching tradition begun by his great-grandfather, Nate is also just plain carrying on, wherever the spirit–and the flesh–lead him. And when it leads him to three women from the same family, bickering and backstabbing follow…Content with having his pick of the flock, Nate is surprised to discover he’s fallen head-over-heels in love, and decides to become a one-woman man. But the other ladies aren’t about to give him up so easily. They’re prepared to do whatever it takes to get their man back–even if it means adding a few more shocking sins to their list…Praise for Lutishia Lovely and A Preacher’s Passion”The scintillating brew of sex, faith and sharp humor will have Lovely’s fans breathless for more.”–Publishers Weekly”Lutishia Lovely brought Passion to church and set it on fire!!!”–Pat G’Orge-Walker, Essence- bestselling author”Filled with drama, consequences, double-standards and plenty of life lessons to go around.”–Naleighna Kai, author of She Touched My Soul

    

8. Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Pinkney
   (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 02/03/10, Hardcover)
   

   It was February 1, 1960.They didn’t need menus. Their order was simple.A doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side.This picture book is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the momentous Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in, when four college students staged a peaceful protest that became a defining moment in the struggle for racial equality and the growing civil rights movement. Andrea Davis Pinkney uses poetic, powerful prose to tell the story of these four young men, who followed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words of peaceful protest and dared to sit at the “whites only” Woolworth’s lunch counter. Brian Pinkney embraces a new artistic style, creating expressive paintings filled with emotion that mirror the hope, strength, and determination that fueled the dreams of not only these four young men, but also countless others.

    

9. Hood Richest: (Triple Crown Publications Presents) by Michelle Monay
   (Triple Crown Publications, 02/15/10, Paperback)
   

    

10. A Girl From Flint by Treasure Hernandez
    (Urban Books, 02/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

11. Dope Sick by Walter Dean Myers
    (Amistad, 02/01/10, Paperback)
    

    A drug deal goes south and a cop has been shot. Lil J’s on the run. And he’s starting to get dope sick. He’d do anything to change the last twenty-four hours, and when he stumbles into an abandoned building, it actually might be possible. . . . Elements of magical realism intensify this harrowing story about drug use, violence, perceptions of reality, and second chances.

     

12. No Other Lover Will Do by Cheris Hodges
    (Dafina, 02/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

13. Don’t Bring Home a White Boy: And Other Notions that Keep Black Women From Dating Out by Karyn Langhorne Folan
    (Karen Hunter, 02/02/10, Hardcover)
    

    IN AN AGE WHEN AMERICA HAS EMBRACED a mixed-race president and a strong, independent black woman as first lady…when black women are on the move and more empowered than ever before…there remains one hot-button topic that stirs up cultural resistance and intensity of emotion like no other: interracial relationships — or, specifically, when black women date or marry white men.What is it about the black female/white male dynamic that sparks such controversy and depth of feeling? What keeps many single black women from exploring relationships outside of their race at a time when the pool of eligible black men is at an all-time low?”Don’t bring home a white boy” is the cultural message stamped deep into every black daughter, an enduring twenty-first-century taboo with origins dating back to the Civil War era, the turbulent Civil Rights decades, and beyond. Now at last there is an honest, eye-opening examination of this societal phenomenon that will resonate with women everywhere and give voice to all sides of the debate. Karyn Langhorne Folan, herself a black woman happily married to a white man, brings together historical, statistical, psychological, and personal perspectives in a groundbreaking book that boldly debunks the “notions” that can keep interracial dating off the table for many women, including:After slavery, I could never date a white man…My family would never accept him — and his would never accept me…White men don’t find black women attractive unless they look like Halle…Our biracial children would have no sense of identity…It means I’m a sellout, or fi lled with self-hate…We’d just be too different…Filled with real-life anecdotes from, and interviews with, men and women of both races and informed by Folan’s thorough and expansive research, Don’t Bring Home a White Boy is both an invaluable contribution to the topic of interracial dating and a timely handbook to help women look beyond skin color in the quest to have all they deserve and desire in a life partner.

     

14. My Times in Black and White: Race and Power at the New York Times by Gerald M. Boyd
    (Lawrence Hill Books, 02/01/10, Hardcover)
    

    “An inspiring and riveting tale. ” –Patrik Henry Bass, Senior Editor, Essence  After a career of many firsts, journalist Gerald Boyd became the first black managing editor of the New York Times. But the dream ended abruptly with Boyd’s forced resignation in the wake of scandal over Jayson Blair, a reporter who had plagiarized and fabricated news stories.  A rare inside view of power and behind-the-scenes politics at the nation’s premier newspaper, My Times in Black and White is the inspirational tale of a man who rose from urban poverty to the top of his field, struggling against whitedominated media, tearing down racial barriers, and all the while documenting the most extraordinary events of the latter twentieth century.

     

15. Where There’s Smoke 2 by Terra Little
    (Urban Books, 02/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

16. Jesus, Jobs, and Justice: African American Women and Religion by Bettye Collier-Thomas
    (Knopf, 02/02/10, Hardcover)
    

    “The Negroes must have Jesus, Jobs, and Justice, ” declared Nannie Helen Burroughs, a nationally known figure among black and white leaders and an architect of the Woman’s Convention of the National Baptist Convention. Burroughs made this statement about the black women’s agenda in 1958, as she anticipated the collapse of Jim Crow segregation and pondered the fate of African Americans. Following more than half a century of organizing and struggling against racism in American society, sexism in the National Baptist Convention, and the racism and paternalism of white women and the Southern Baptist Convention, Burroughs knew that black Americans would need more than religion to survive and to advance socially, economically, and politically. Jesus, jobs, and justice are the threads that weave through two hundred years of black women’s experiences in America.Bettye Collier-Thomas’s groundbreaking book gives us a remarkable account of the religious faith, social and political activism, and extraordinary resilience of black women during the centuries of American growth and change. It shows the beginnings of organized religion in slave communities and how the Bible was a source of inspiration; the enslaved saw in their condition a parallel to the suffering and persecution that Jesus had endured.The author makes clear that while religion has been a guiding force in the lives of most African Americans, for black women it has been essential. As co-creators of churches, women were a central factor in their development. Jesus, Jobs, and Justice explores the ways in which women had to cope with sexism in black churches, as well as racism in mostly white denominations, in their efforts to create missionary societies and form women’s conventions. It also reveals the hidden story of how issues of sex and sexuality have sometimes created tension and divisions within institutions.Black church women created national organizations such as the National Association of Colored Women, the National League of Colored Republican Women, and the National Council of Negro Women. They worked in the interracial movement, in white-led Christian groups such as the YWCA and Church Women United, and in male-dominated organizations such as the NAACP and National Urban League to demand civil rights, equal employment, and educational opportunities, and to protest lynching, segregation, and discrimination. And black women missionaries sacrificed their lives in service to their African sisters whose destiny they believed was tied to theirs.Jesus, Jobs, and Justice restores black women to their rightful place in American and black history and demonstrates their faith in themselves, their race, and their God.

     

17. Drama High: Culture Clash by L. Divine
    (Dafina, 02/01/10, Paperback)
    

    Ever since she discovered a love for drag racing, it’s full speed ahead for Jayd Jackson. . .Fed up with the way her school’s handling Cultural Awareness Day, Jayd and her crew decide to form the first African Student Union. Now some notorious haters are out for blood. But that’s not the only multicultural activity Jayd’s got cooking. On the boy front, Jayd discovers she loves being behind the wheel of her friends’ hot rods, but she can’t deny her attraction for Emilio, the new Latino sophomore at South Bay High. Emilio seems to be crushin’ hard on Jayd too. And now that Jayd may be South Bay’s last virgin, she wonders if it’s time to take things to the next level.But her magical grandmother thinks Jayd’s already moving too fast–and if she doesn’t slow down, she’s sure to get burned. . .

     

18. Love Out of Order (Indigo Love Spectrum) by Nicole Green
    (Genesis Press, 02/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

19. The Denzel Principle: Why Black Women Can’t Find Good Black Men by jimi izrael
    (St. Martin’s Press, 02/16/10, Hardcover)
    

    Sisters decry the shortage of good men and say there is no way she is settling for less than a good Black man. Not just a good one, but the BEST one: Denzel Washington. She, of course, has no idea what that means, what she wants or what a good Black man truly looks like. –from The Denzel PrincipleThe Denzel Principle is the belief that the perfect man –in the form of Denzel Washington –actually exists off screen and that all Black women can snag a Denzel of their very own.So what does your very own Denzel look like? Well, he’s rich but earthy, handsome but not pretty, doting but not docile, tough but vulnerable, political but not radical, passionate but not hysterical, ambitious but not overbearing, well-read but not nerdy, manly but not macho, gentle but not feminine, Black but not militant, sexy but not solicitous, flirtatious but particular…and all that on cue and in proper measure.Award winning reporter and cultural critic, jimi izrael offers to set the record straight — from a regular guy’s point of view. The Denzel Principle is straight talk on everything from “Ways Women Can Break the Hold of the Dizzle,” “Ways to Attract Mr. Right,” to “Ten Reasons to Love Ordinary Black Men” and so much more.

     

20. Liberating Black Theology: The Bible and the Black Experience in America by Anthony B. Bradley
    (Crossway Books, 02/28/10, Paperback)
    

    An African-American theologian presents this timely critique of the “victimology” theme within black liberation theology and its long-standing spiritual and social implications. When the beliefs of Barack Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, assumed the spotlight during the 2008 presidential campaign, the influence of black liberation theology became hotly debated not just within theological circles but across cultural lines. How many of today’s African-American congregations-and how many Americans in general-have been shaped by its view of blacks as perpetual victims of white oppression? In this interdisciplinary, biblical critique of the black experience in America, Anthony Bradley introduces audiences to black liberation theology and its spiritual and social impact. He starts with James Cone’s proposition that the “victim” mind-set is inherent within black consciousness. Bradley then explores how such biblical misinterpretation has historically hindered black churches in addressing the diverse issues of their communities and prevented adherents from experiencing the freedoms of the gospel. Yet Liberating Black Theology does more than consider the ramifications of this belief system; it suggests an alternate approach to the black experience that can truly liberate all Christ-followers.

     

Top-Selling Romances in 2009

The bestselling romances, featuring African American characters or written by African Americans, published in 2009 (as of 1/10/2010).

1. The Conversation: How Black Men and Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships by Hill Harper
   (Gotham, 09/08/09, Hardcover)
   

   In his first book for adults, New York Times bestselling author Hill Harper invites you to join the Conversation: an honest dialogue about the breakdown of African — American relationships. For generations African Americans have turned to their families in times of need — but now, this proud and strong legacy is in peril. Black men and women have stopped communicating effectively and it threatens the very relationships and marriages necessary to sustain the Black family. Today, less than a third of Black children are being raised in two — parent households, a sharp decline from past generations. So, why is it so difficult for Black men and women to build long — term, loving and mutually beneficial relationships? What is happening in the community that makes it so hard for women and men to find their way to each other? And why are there so few people who manage to hold a marriage together, even after finding a person to love? In his moving yet practical book, Hill Harper undertakes a journey both universal and deeply personal in search of answers to these questions. He has conversations with friends and strangers — married, single and divorced — and learns about their private struggles, emotional vulnerabilities, and real concerns, and begins to see common themes emerge. As his journey picks up momentum, Hill begins to recognize his own struggles in other people’s stories, and is encouraged to more deeply examine his own relationship issues. Why does so much misinformation and mistrust exist between the sexes? Hill addresses the stereotypes that have developed in the Black community, in the hope that by addressing the challenges, Black men and women can find their way to common ground. The Conversation aims to open up the lines of communication, and offers inspiration to those who want to take control of this crisis and start building successful, sustainable relationships.

    

2. Wrapped in Pleasure: Delaney’s Desert Sheikh\Seduced by a Stranger (Arabesque) by Brenda Jackson
   (Kimani Press, 01/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
   

   Two Westmoreland novels — one classic and one new — from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Brenda Jackson Delaney’s Desert Sheikh A mix-up in Delaney Westmoreland’s vacation plans forces her to share a cabin with a tall, dark and oh-so-handsome sheikh who is bent on her seduction. Jamal Ari Yasir intends to school Delaney in sensuality for his own pleasure. But instead of loving and leaving her, he becomes enraptured by an irresistible and unforgettable passion for his sexy-as-sin roommate. Can the arrogant sheikh convince his secret lover that they are fated for more than just a summer fling? Seduced by a Stranger Johari Yasir has no interest in returning to her homeland to marry a man she’s never met — at least, not without sowing some wild oats first. And when a handsome charmer offers to whisk her away in his private plane, she impulsively accepts. Rasheed Valdemon is shocked that his bride-to-be would fly off with someone she barely knows — even though he’s the one doing the asking. More surprising is his hunger for this lovely, rebellious woman. Yet what will happen when she realizes she’s been seduced by the man who’s destined to be her husband?

    

3. Total Eclipse of the Heart by Zane
   (Atria, 12/01/09, Hardcover)
   

   Brooke Alexander, a waitress who has self-esteem issues regarding her lackluster existence and her fluctuating weight, is in love with Patrick Sterling, one of the most prominent attorneys in Washington, D.C. On his good days, Patrick is the man in every woman’s dream. On his bad days, Patrick’s behavior is demeaning and he is angry at the world.Damon Johnson, who’s been married to Carleigh for four years, is one of “the last good men” — compassionate and honest, he worships the ground his wife walks on. But Carleigh treats Damon like a trophy husband, allowing her friends to salivate over him and disrespect their happy home. Damon has dreams beyond his six-figure corporate job, and Carleigh views his life aspirations as a joke. Her selfish nature makes Damon wonder if he made the right decision when he asked for her hand in marriage.When a tragic event causes Brooke’s and Damon’s lives to intersect, truths unfold as they begin to reflect on their own relationships.In this provocative tale of love and heartbreak, Zane explores what happens when you cater to your emotional well-being and discover the meaning of unconditional love…or, rather, experience a total eclipse of the heart.

    

4. Mama Dearest by E. Lynn Harris
   (Karen Hunter, 09/22/09, Hardcover)
   

   One of E. Lynn Harris’s incomparable heroines, Yancey Harrington Braxton, is working her way back to Broadway and beyond. And this diva supreme always stirs up drama in and out of the spotlight….New York City, you’ve been warned: Yancey Harrington Braxton is back. The ambitious singer and actress is fired up to move past her recent professional and personal setbacks — including an explosive romance with NFL tight end John Basil Henderson — and prove her talents are stronger than ever. After being out on tour, Yancey realizes what she really wants is to star in her own reality TV series, and she’s even found a rich and well-connected lover to make it happen. There are, however, two women fierce enough to derail Yancey’s plans with ambitions of their own: Madison B., a hot new bombshell taking the music industry by storm, and Ava Middlebrooks, who happens to be Yancey’s own mama dearest.Ava is out, about, and ready to reclaim her throne. Not even a stint in prison for attempted murder has curbed Ava’s competitive nature, and it doesn’t faze her in the least that her #1 rival is her own daughter. Ava is willing to do whatever it takes to make Yancey pay, including using Madison B. to turn Yancey’s world upside-down by forcing her to confront the past…and making her comeback dreams more exciting and dangerous than she ever imagined.Taking readers on a wild, passion-filled tour of the entertainment world, E. Lynn Harris’s Mama Dearest delivers sensual thrills and electric plot twists — with one unforgettable woman of radiant star power, sexual magnetism, and unapologetic ambition at the heart of the action.

    

5. 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.

    

6. Resurrecting Midnight by Eric Jerome Dickey
   (Dutton Adult, 08/25/09, Hardcover)
   

   International assassin Gideon spilled blood for the first time when he was seven years old, with a single shot to the head of a man who was attempting to kill the woman Gideon had known as his mother. The victim was none other than his own father, a man of unspeakable evil. This pivotal event shaped Gideon throughout his life, made him who he is, one of the fiercest, most feared hired guns in the world. And one of the most hunted. After nearly losing his life in Antigua during a mission that went terribly wrong, Gideon trusts no one. But when a former lover and grifter, Arizona, resurfaces in need of his skills, she reminds him he was indebted to a man who had once saved his life: the son of the legendary con-man Scamz. Gideon is forced to take on an assignment which will lead him to Argentina in pursuit of a briefcase containing one part of a larger puzzle. The “package” contains material that another group of assassins – the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – will kill to obtain and protect. One of the leaders of the Four Horsemen has a connection to Gideon that neither man is aware of — a connection that will be exposed when they meet face-to-face and gun-to-gun. Each member of The Four Horsemen is a world-class killer, each with a dark and dangerous past, and nothing will stop that team of renegades from completing their mission. As Gideon struggles to keep promises and uncover information about his past, he finds himself at the center of the ultimate double-cross and he is forced to do what he must to protect himself and those closest to him. Set amidst the exotic and vibrant streets of Miami and Buenos Aires, Resurrecting Midnight is an action-filled, pulse- pounding thriller from bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey.

    

7. Ride Wit’ Me by Deja King
   (A King Production/Young Diamond Book, 09/29/09, Paperback)
   

   Check out Mercedes and Dalvin, two beautiful young lovers in a modern day story that is destined to be a classic. Mercedes is truly a daddy s girl. She is his crown jewel and nothing in the world is more precious to him. Mercedes does everything to please her father until she falls in love the very first time.Dalvin is a rising Kingpin. His family runs the streets of Chicago and he is destined to take over the helm one day. Falling in love is the last thing on his mind until he meets Mercedes Clinton. He s instantly mesmerized by her beauty. She is the girl of his dreams and someone he immediately feels he s destined to spend the rest of his life with.But sometimes in love, things are not meant to be. Parents can sometimes seem to be your enemy and the streets will always have their way of trying to destroy anything good. Will Mercedes and Dalvin fall victim to the obstacles standing in their way, or will they fight against the odds and ride it out.

    

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

   “Every Hustler’s reign ends in one of two ways…prison or death.” Refusing to let the prediction become a reality, Julius “Jules” Carter creates new rules to an old game. Strategically, he forms one of the most notorious drug operations Harlem has ever seen. Jules thought the game was his biggest challenge that is until he meets Tish. Young and Ambitious she is determined to escape from Harlem’s allure, but her love for Jules has her rooted. She gets tangled in his web of lies and deceit. When she finds out about his past demons and connects them with her own, she soon finds out that there’s a thin line between love and hate. You can’t turn a bad girl good, but once a good girl turns bad she’s gone forever. Julius finds out the hard way that everything done in the dark eventually comes to light. Ashley and JaQuavis narrate a fast paced, suspenseful tale of one of Harlem’s biggest drug lords, his rise to power, and the woman behind him.

    

9. The Ideal Wife by Jacquelin Thomas
   (Pocket, 10/06/09, Paperback)
   

   Marrying a handsome, wealthy lawyer and living in a Hollywood Hills mansion…it’s a dream come true for twenty-four-year-old Jana, from the moment Lawrence Collins swept her off her feet and into his luxurious world. True, she put her studies at a local Bible college on hold in order to wed after a six-month whirlwind romance. Beautiful and vivacious, with a stunning body, Jana knows men like Lawrence don’t come along every day, and she vows to be a perfect companion — the ideal wife — to this sexy, powerful man. But at what price? From her wardrobe and hairstyle to her friends and her choice of church, Lawrence seems to want to change Jana into someone she’s not…and soon, the man Jana thought she knew will test her values and her faith with a shocking revelation that goes against everything she believes. How far will Jana be willing to go to keep the man she loves? With her “ideal” marriage falling apart, Jana — the real, modest, smart, and strong girl who knows what she stands for — must put her trust in God, and follow His guiding light out of the darkness of a broken relationship.

    

10. One Night with the Wealthy Rancher (Silhouette Desire) by Brenda Jackson
    (Silhouette, 08/11/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Texas Cattleman’s Club member Darius Foster is tired of women chasing after his millions. But his jaded heart is about to get a jump-start.The wealthy rancher never expected to see Summer Martindale in his part of Texas. Darius was still trying to forget that incredible night they’d spent together…a night that never should have happened. Certain she had relocated just to get close to him–and his money–the ex-lawman vowed to keep his distance. But when danger came calling, Darius knew he was the only one who could protect Summer. And that meant getting closer to her…in every way!

     

11. One Night With You (Grayson Friends) by Francis Ray
    (St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 11/03/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Cougars, brush fires, snow storms — rancher Duncan McBride tackles it all without a flinch. But the archeologist who’s come to authenticate cave drawings found on his property is the kind of trouble he’d sworn to avoid. Far from the aging academic he was expecting, Raven La Blanc is a stunning woman…and definitely not sticking around this small Montana town once her job is done.The primitive drawings at Duncan’s ranch are Raven’s ticket to the tenured position she’s worked so hard for back in Santa Fe. But there’s no denying the attraction between her and Duncan. Maybe, just this once, she can put her work aside and explore the depths of her own heart and soul? One night may be all it takes for Raven to really find what she’s looking for…

     

12. Unconditionally Single by Mary B. Morrison
    (Dafina, 08/01/09, Hardcover)
    

    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. . .

     

13. Bachelor Untamed (Kimani Romance) by Brenda Jackson
    (Kimani, 10/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    One mind-blowing kiss. That was all Ellie Weston shared with her neighbor and crush one summer, before he angrily discovered she’d approached him on a dare. Ten years later, Ellie is back at her great-aunt’s lake house, and so is Uriel Lassiter still wildly sexy, single and happy to stay that way. When Ellie finds her great-aunt’s never-completed romance novel, she decides to finish the manuscript but first she needs some real-life inspiration: a sultry summer fling.Uriel hasn’t forgotten Ellie, and their sizzling chemistry is starting to make him reconsider his tried-and-true bachelor status. But when the truth about her motive emerges, can Ellie convince him that make-believe has turned into sweet reality?

     

14. The Doctor’s Private Visit (Kimani Romance) by Altonya Washington
    (Kimani, 01/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    When Capri Timmons trades her chaotic Miami life for suburbia, the reserved photographer doesn’t realize her fantastic new house comes with a gorgeous doctor next door! Sexy, way-too-easy-on-the-eyes Tiberius Evans is just the kind of man Capri has vowed to steer clear of at all costs. Except the more she resists, the more Tiberius wants her. With Tiberius, women usually check their inhibitions at the door. But his luscious, one-step-at-a-time neighbor isn’t like anyone the devout bachelor has ever known. And his protective instinct isn’t the only thing aroused. A dose of seduction is just what the doctor ordered. But Capri is making Tiberius rethink his just-for-one-night past — and his unclaimed future. Tiberius is happy to act the perfect gentleman if it lands him the woman he loves in the end!

     

15. If You Were My Man by Francis Ray
    (St. Martin’s Griffin, 03/02/10, Paperback)
    

    Natalya Fontaine has been the sole proprietor of the restaurant Fontaine since her husband died four years ago. She hasn’t dated anyone in all those years, choosing not to open her heart again, or risk revealing her dark past. That is, until she meets Rafael Dunlap. Rafael is a hostage negotiator with his own set of problems. Though he loves women, he vows he’ll never marry because his job is just too unpredictable. He can’t imagine leaving a widow and children behind. But his thinking and game plan of loving and leaving changes when he meets Natalya. Though she tries to resist him, Rafael sweeps her into a whirlwind romance. When the unexpected happens, and Natalya is forced to keep it a secret, she ends things with Rafael before he can break her heart. But when Rafael is in harms way, will Natalya resolve to tell him the truth before it’s too late? Or will past demons keep them apart forever?

     

16. Sweet Deception (Kimani Romance) by Rochelle Alers
    (Kimani, 12/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Law professor Myles Eaton knows a lot can happen in ten years. A decade ago, Philadelphia’s finest bachelor was a hotshot attorney engaged to a woman he swore he’d love forever — until she left him to marry a powerful politician. The only thing more difficult than forgiving her has been forgetting the searing heat they shared. And just when Myles is sure he’s over her, Zabrina Cooper arrives back in his life.Nothing could stop Zabrina from loving Myles, not even when she was blackmailed into becoming wife — in name only — to another man. And as her secrets are revealed, Zabrina has one summer to convince Myles that beyond their incredible chemistry is a soul-deep bond that never faded.

     

17. The Perfect Seduction (Kimani Romance) by Carmen Green
    (Kimani, 01/01/10, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Loren Smith’s new career as a pastry chef is finally bringing the former model out of her shell. But when a fire forces her to move in with her best friend, she doesn’t expect to be living under the same roof as sinfully seductive Robinson Hood! And soon the sexy undercover investigator makes her his personal mission. Rob finds Loren as fragile and irresistible as the airy confections she whips up–and he isn’t about to let her go back into retreat mode. The widowed P.I. wants her to know only his sensual touch. But first Rob has to earn her trust. Which means taking it slow and hot until he has the wary beauty right where he wants her–in his arms, in his bed… and in his heart.

     

18. Lady Jasmine: A Novel by Victoria Christopher Murray
    (Touchstone, 06/02/09, Paperback)
    

    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.

     

19. Captured by Beverly Jenkins
    (Avon, 10/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    She was the most irresistible treasure of all . . . Dominic LeVeq, the most notorious privateer ever to command the high seas, has just captured a coveted prize: a British frigate. On a dangerous mission against the Crown, Dominic should be thinking only of his ship’s safety. But the rebel captain is utterly entranced by Clare Sullivan, the stunning slave on board. Consumed by desire, desperate to have her, Dominic offers Clare her freedom in exchange for a forbidden night in his bed — a night he assures her will be most pleasureable indeed. Clare believes that Dominic is nothing more than a seductive rogue used to getting what he wants. But she too feels a tantalizing passion between them, and so she submits to just one night of bliss. She’ll soon realize that Dominic has captured more than her body. He’s captured her heart . . . and she doesn’t want him to ever let go.

     

20. Promises of Forever (Indigo) by Celya Bowers
    (Genesis Press, 01/01/10, Paperback)
    

     

Top-Selling Mysteries in 2009

The bestselling mysteries featuring African American characters or by African Americans for 2009 (as of 11/1/2009).

1. I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
   (Little, Brown and Company, 11/16/09, Hardcover)
   

   You can’t runDetective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and soon learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington’s wildest scenes. And she was not this killer’s only victim.You can’t hideThe hunt for her murderer leads Alex and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, to a place where every fantasy is possible, if you have the credentials to get in. Alex and Bree are soon facing down some very important, very protected, very dangerous people in levels of society where only one thing is certain–they will do anything to keep their secrets safe. Alex Cross is your only hope to stay aliveAs Alex closes in on the killer, he discovers evidence that points to the unimaginable–a revelation that could rock the entire world. With the unstoppable action, unforeseeable twists, and edge-of-your-seat suspense that only a James Patterson thriller delivers, I, Alex Cross is the master of suspense at his sharpest and best.

    

2. Alex Cross’s TRIAL by James Patterson
   (Little, Brown and Company, 08/24/09, Hardcover)
   

   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. Cross Country (Alex Cross) by James Patterson
   (Vision, 10/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
   

   Detective Alex Cross pursues the most ruthless killer he’s ever encountered-to a land of sheer terror and back. It’s the worst crime scene Alex Cross has ever seen, and then more killings, each one more ruthless than the last, quickly follow. After one death comes terrifyingly close to home, Alex realizes he’s chasing a horrible new breed of killer. Digging deeper into the case, Alex and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, uncover a shocking Washington, D.C., underworld: a gang of teenage thugs headed by a warlord known only as the Tiger. When the Tiger’s elusive trail turns up in Africa, Alex knows that he must follow. Unprotected and alone, can Alex manage to both survive and catch the killer?

    

4. Resurrecting Midnight by Eric Jerome Dickey
   (Dutton Adult, 08/25/09, Hardcover)
   

   International assassin Gideon spilled blood for the first time when he was seven years old, with a single shot to the head of a man who was attempting to kill the woman Gideon had known as his mother. The victim was none other than his own father, a man of unspeakable evil. This pivotal event shaped Gideon throughout his life, made him who he is, one of the fiercest, most feared hired guns in the world. And one of the most hunted. After nearly losing his life in Antigua during a mission that went terribly wrong, Gideon trusts no one. But when a former lover and grifter, Arizona, resurfaces in need of his skills, she reminds him he was indebted to a man who had once saved his life: the son of the legendary con-man Scamz. Gideon is forced to take on an assignment which will lead him to Argentina in pursuit of a briefcase containing one part of a larger puzzle. The “package” contains material that another group of assassins – the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – will kill to obtain and protect. One of the leaders of the Four Horsemen has a connection to Gideon that neither man is aware of — a connection that will be exposed when they meet face-to-face and gun-to-gun. Each member of The Four Horsemen is a world-class killer, each with a dark and dangerous past, and nothing will stop that team of renegades from completing their mission. As Gideon struggles to keep promises and uncover information about his past, he finds himself at the center of the ultimate double-cross and he is forced to do what he must to protect himself and those closest to him. Set amidst the exotic and vibrant streets of Miami and Buenos Aires, Resurrecting Midnight is an action-filled, pulse- pounding thriller from bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey.

    

5. The Million Dollar Demise: A Novel by RM Johnson
   (Simon & Schuster, 09/22/09, Hardcover)
   

   The tension and suspense are ramped up to new highs in this eagerly anticipated final installment in Essence bestselling author RM Johnson’s Million Dollar trilogy.Picking up where The Million Dollar Deception left off, Freddy Ford knocks on Nate Kenny’s door, storms into the house, and shoots both Nate and his ex-wife Monica. But he doesn’t stop there — before driving off, Freddy manages to escape with little Nathaniel, Nate and Monica’s beloved adopted son, while little Layla sleeps upstairs.Nate is expected to survive the brutal attack, but Monica is left in a coma, and doctors are not certain that she will ever recover. When Lewis Waters — Freddy’s best friend and Layla’s actual father — visits the hospital to see Monica, Nate bargains with him: if Lewis can get Freddy arrested, Nate will give him back his little girl.Meanwhile, Daphanie Coleman, the woman Nate had planned to marry before he sought revenge on Monica, rushes to Nate’s side with plans to get him back by making herself available to him in his time of crisis. By chance, she meets Lewis while visiting Monica’s bedside, and the two devise a plan to both get what they want.When Monica finally awakens, she opens her eyes to a world in which Daphanie and Nate are hiding an affair, Lewis and Daphanie are harboring nasty secrets, and Nate has plotted to steal another man’s child in the name of revenge. Will Monica forgive Nate, whom she was about to remarry? Will she uncover the truth behind the love triangle of Daphanie, Lewis, and Nate? And, more important, can the tragic lovers escape a second attempt on their lives?

    

6. Life After Wifey by Kiki Swinson
   (Dafina, 03/01/09, Paperback)
   

   Nikki, is in possession of a lot of chilling information that could not only shed light on some unanswered questions, but could also put a lot of dangerous people behind bars for life — including her new boyfriend, Syncere, from New Jersey. Well aware that she is sleeping with the enemy, Nikki knows she must step up her game and take some precautionary measures to protect herself if she plans to seek out Kira shooter. What better place to start on her journey than with the man she shares her bed with? In Life After Wifey, Nikki is going to put herself in some very compromising situations but through it all, she knows that she must never implicate herself and Kira in the plans that ended Ricky and Russell lives. Nikki must suit up with everything Kira has ever taught her about the streets and then prepare for the worst.

    

7. Alibi by Teri Woods
   (Grand Central Publishing, 08/06/09, Hardcover)
   

   Two men think they’ve found the perfect opportunity–a chance to rob the stash house of Simon Shuller, one of Philadelphia’s biggest drug lords. But their plans are spoiled when one of Shuller’s men catches them as they break into the stash house. Temperatures flare as the men capture Shuller’s worker, Poncho, and force him to show them the goods. What they didn’t expect was for Poncho’s partner to be armed and very dangerous. An altercation breaks out and when the smoke clears, Nard, Poncho’s accomplice, is the only one left standing. Thinking quickly, Nard cleans shop and makes his escape, but not before being spotted by a few neighbors. Not wanting to kill anyone else, he makes a mad dash for the streets but wonders if the witnesses will give up his identity. What he needs now is a plausible alibi. If he doesn’t come up with one fast, it could mean life in prison, or death on the streets.

    

8. Black Water Rising: A Novel by Attica Locke
   (Harper, 06/01/09, Hardcover)
   

   Writing in the tradition of Dennis Lehane and Greg Iles, Attica Locke, a powerful new voice in American fiction, delivers a brilliant debut thriller that readers will not soon forget. Jay Porter is hardly the lawyer he set out to be. His most promising client is a low-rent call girl and he runs his fledgling law practice out of a dingy strip mall. But he’s long since made peace with not living the American Dream and carefully tucked away his darkest sins: the guns, the FBI file, the trial that nearly destroyed him. Houston, Texas, 1981. It is here that Jay believes he can make a fresh start. That is, until the night in a boat out on the bayou when he impulsively saves a woman from drowning — and opens a Pandora’s box. Her secrets put Jay in danger, ensnaring him in a murder investigation that could cost him his practice, his family, and even his life. But before he can get to the bottom of a tangled mystery that reaches into the upper echelons of Houston’s corporate power brokers, Jay must confront the demons of his past. With pacing that captures the reader from the first scene through an exhilarating climax, Black Water Rising marks the arrival of an electrifying new talent.

    

9. Vanilla Ride (Hap and Leonard) by Joe R. Lansdale
   (Knopf, 06/30/09, Hardcover)
   

   In this Texas-sized thriller, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine — best friends, freelance troublemakers, and tough guys with good intentions — find themselves in the crosshairs of the Dixie Mafia.Hap is an East Texas smart mouth with a weakness for southern women. Leonard is a gay, black veteran pining for a lost love. They’re not the makings of your typical dynamic duo, but never underestimate the power of a shared affinity for stirring up trouble and causing mayhem. When an old friend asks Leonard to rescue his daughter from an abusive, no-good drug dealer, he gladly agrees and, of course, invites Hap along for the fun. Even though the dealer may be lowly, he is on the bottom rung of the Dixie Mafia, and when Hap and Leonard come calling, the Mafia feels a little payback is in order. Cars crash, shotguns blast, and people die, but Hap and Leonard come out on top. Unfortunately for them, now they’re facing not only jail time but also the legendary — and lethal — Vanilla Ride, who is still out to claim the price on their heads. Full of twists and turns, gunfire and gaffes, this hilarious, rip-roaring novel will have readers turning the pages faster than a Texas tornado.

    

10. Wife of the Gods: A Novel by Kwei Quartey
    (Random House, 07/14/09, Hardcover)
    

    A lyrical and captivating mystery that brings to life the majesty and charm of Ghana—from the capital city of Accra to a small community where long-buried secrets are about to rise to the surface.

     

11. In the Night of the Heat: A Tennyson Hardwick Novel (Tennyson Hardwick Novels) by Blair Underwood
    (Atria, 04/07/09, Paperback)
    

    Award-winning actor and author Blair Underwood joins forces with two amazing and award-winning authors Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes to deliver the second installation in the stunning and provocative Tennyson Hardwick novel In the Night of the Heat.Threatened with death after acquittal for murder, football superstar T. D. Jackson asks struggling actor and former gigolo Tennyson Hardwick for protection. Tennyson has a reputation in Hollywood after solving the murder of rapper Afrodite, but politely turns Jackson down: His acting career is taking off with a new series, and he’s trying to work out his personal life after a series of wrong turns.But Tennyson’s life is upturned when his seedy past catches up to him on the set of his TV series. Then T. D. Jackson is found dead in his home, the victim of an apparent suicide.T.D.’s gorgeous cousin, Melanie, is sure the superstar was murdered, and Jackson’s family offers Tennyson an irresistible fee to discover the truth. But prying into T. D. Jackson’s death means answering the question that divided a nation and destroyed a film star and a football icon’s life and career: Did T. D. Jackson kill his wife?When the investigation takes an unexpected turn toward the governor’s mansion and a long-forgotten football game in the segregated South of the 1960s, Tennyson uncovers secrets tearing at the heart of two dynasties and must rely on all of his assets — his actor’s heart, deadly hands, profiler’s mind, and every other part of his body — to keep from dying next.

     

12. Mucho Mojo (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Joe R. Lansdale
    (Vintage, 01/06/09, Paperback)
    

    Hap and Leonard return in this incredible, mad-dash thriller, loaded with crack addicts, a serial killer, and a body count.Leonard is still nursing the injuries he sustained in the duo’s last wild undertaking when he learns that his Uncle Chester has passed. Hap is of course going to be there for his best friend, and when the two are cleaning up Uncle Chester’s dilapidated house, they uncover a dark little secret beneath the house’s rotting floor boards — a small skeleton buried in a trunk. Hap wants to call the police. Leonard, being a black man in east Texas, persuades him this is not a good idea, and together they set out to clear Chester’s name on their own. The only things standing in their way is a houseful of felons, a vicious killer, and possibly themselves.

     

13. A Perfect Place To Pray (Indigo) by I.L. Goodwin
    (Genesis Press, 08/01/09, Paperback)
    

     

14. 1-900-A-N-Y-T-I-M-E: A Novel by Tracy Price-Thompson
    (Atria, 09/22/09, Paperback)
    

    From award-winning, national bestselling author Tracy Price-Thompson comes a sexy, thrilling new novel featuring a working woman whose obsessive clients are determined to get her all to themselves.Bertha Sampson is a sensuous but severely disfigured woman who turns to selling phone sex in order to satisfy some of her most erotic fantasies. Blessed with a silky voice, a kinky wit, and the ability to construct erotic portraits through words, she lulls men into her fantasies and builds a colorful clientele base as a phone sex worker. Bertha’s distinctive voice allows her to escape the bonds of her physical limitations. But intimate attachments can be formed in many ways, even through a phone line, and to her horror anonymous sex is not always anonymous. Her sumptuous voice and phone skills are so captivating that two of her clients become obsessed with meeting her in the flesh. They both relentlessly track her down — one seeking her love, the other seeking her life.

     

15. 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.

     

16. Deadly Charm (Amanda Bell Brown Mystery Series, Book 3) by Claudia Mair Burney
    (Howard Books, 03/24/09, Paperback)
    

    When the ominous Thunders roll into Dr. Amanda Bell Brown’s town, the sassy sleuth sees a storm brewing. Disgraced playboy preacher Ezekiel Thunder and his seductive first lady, Nikki, are on the comeback trail, but Bell is less than charmed by the pair. When their toddler, Baby Zeekie, is found dead from an accidental drowning, forensic psychologist Bell suspects foul play in the fatal family, especially after the mama in mourning flirts with Bell’s estranged husband, Jazz. Bell is sickened by the woman’s behavior and the thought of someone murdering an innocent child — or is it morning sickness that’s plaguing her? Between babies and bodies, she pushes past the limits to discover the deadly truth.

     

17. Dark Child: A Novel (Zane Presents) by Travis Hunter
    (Strebor Books, 06/30/09, Hardcover)
    

    When poor babies wind up missing, no one seems to care.Urban Brown is a white man who grew up in the dark recesses of the inner city where he was the victim of torment, abuse, abandonment, deception and murder. Urban overcame his horrid past to live a peaceful and prosperous existence in his upper-class community. He has everything a man could ask for: a career, which he loves; a sprawling estate and a drop-dead gorgeous fiance, Sierra. Then out of the blue, he receives a phone call that changes his life.Jamillah is Urban’s sister, and unlike her brother, she wasn’t able to overcome the horrors of her past and turned to drugs to ease the pain. Life on the streets is hard enough, but once a baby comes along, she tries to sell him on the black market. Urban won’t hear any of it, and he and Sierra resolve to raise the child as their own. But upon further investigation, Urban realizes that his sister is involved in a dark and sinister scheme to steal black babies from poor girls in small, rural towns and sell them to the highest bidders. As Urban digs deeper and deeper into the kidnapping network, he gets dangerously close to the heart of the matter and is disgusted and disheartened by what he discovers.Dark Child is a chilling story about the untold struggles of the disenfranchised that inspiringly illustrates how one man is not able to turn his back on the problems of his former community — even though he so desperately wants to leave that troubled place in his past forever.

     

18. Dying Declaration by Randy Singer
    (Tyndale House Publishers, 04/08/09, Paperback)
    

    Thomas and Theresa Hammonds believe in tough love and old-fashioned discipline. They do not believe in doctors. When their controversial beliefs lead to personal tragedy, the Hammonds face heartbreaking loss, a crisis of faith — and a charge of negligent homicide by a relentless prosecutor. Defending Thomas and Theresa is freewheeling lawyer Charles Arnold. He believes in grace and mercy, but nothing in his colorful past has prepared him for the challenges of this shocking case, or for the dangerous conspiracy at its heart.

     

19. Black Noir: Mystery, Crime, and Suspense Stories by African-American Writers by Otto Penzler
    (Pegasus, 03/03/09, Paperback)
    

    The best mystery and crime fiction ever produced by African-American writers.

     

20. Hell Has No Fury by Keith Lee Johnson
    (Urban Books, 06/01/09, Paperback)
    

    A suspense thriller by the best selling author of The Little Black Girl Lost series.After stepping away from his thriller-suspense novels to write the phenomenally successful Little Black Girl Lost series, author Keith Lee Johnson has returned with some new flavor, along with some old friends, in his latest novel, Hell Has No Fury. In This suspense laden tale, Johnson brings back Phoenix Perry, the beautiful yet fearless FBI agent from his earlier novels, Sugar and Spice and Pretenses.After a long stint at desk duty, Phoenix Perry is dragged back into the limelight when a family member is found beaten and near death. To complicate matters, there are two dead bodies at the scene, and Phoenix’s cousin is the prime suspect. Can Phoenix find her cousin’s attackers and prove her innocence before the body count becomes astronomical? A nationwide chase ensues, involving shady editors, crooked literary agents and host of others. If you’re into suspense thrillers, this one is not to be missed.

     

Top-Selling African American Books (as of October 2009)

The top-selling African American books to date for 2009, featuring African American issues and authors, from Amazon.com (11/1/09).

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
   (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, 02/10/09, Hardcover)
   

   Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

    

2. I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
   (Little, Brown and Company, 11/16/09, Hardcover)
   

   You can’t runDetective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and soon learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington’s wildest scenes. And she was not this killer’s only victim.You can’t hideThe hunt for her murderer leads Alex and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, to a place where every fantasy is possible, if you have the credentials to get in. Alex and Bree are soon facing down some very important, very protected, very dangerous people in levels of society where only one thing is certain–they will do anything to keep their secrets safe. Alex Cross is your only hope to stay aliveAs Alex closes in on the killer, he discovers evidence that points to the unimaginable–a revelation that could rock the entire world. With the unstoppable action, unforeseeable twists, and edge-of-your-seat suspense that only a James Patterson thriller delivers, I, Alex Cross is the master of suspense at his sharpest and best.

    

3. Alex Cross’s TRIAL by James Patterson
   (Little, Brown and Company, 08/24/09, Hardcover)
   

   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.

    

4. The Conversation: How Black Men and Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships by Hill Harper
   (Gotham, 09/08/09, Hardcover)
   

   In his first book for adults, New York Times bestselling author Hill Harper invites you to join the Conversation: an honest dialogue about the breakdown of African — American relationships. For generations African Americans have turned to their families in times of need — but now, this proud and strong legacy is in peril. Black men and women have stopped communicating effectively and it threatens the very relationships and marriages necessary to sustain the Black family. Today, less than a third of Black children are being raised in two — parent households, a sharp decline from past generations. So, why is it so difficult for Black men and women to build long — term, loving and mutually beneficial relationships? What is happening in the community that makes it so hard for women and men to find their way to each other? And why are there so few people who manage to hold a marriage together, even after finding a person to love? In his moving yet practical book, Hill Harper undertakes a journey both universal and deeply personal in search of answers to these questions. He has conversations with friends and strangers — married, single and divorced — and learns about their private struggles, emotional vulnerabilities, and real concerns, and begins to see common themes emerge. As his journey picks up momentum, Hill begins to recognize his own struggles in other people’s stories, and is encouraged to more deeply examine his own relationship issues. Why does so much misinformation and mistrust exist between the sexes? Hill addresses the stereotypes that have developed in the Black community, in the hope that by addressing the challenges, Black men and women can find their way to common ground. The Conversation aims to open up the lines of communication, and offers inspiration to those who want to take control of this crisis and start building successful, sustainable relationships.

    

5. The 50th Law by 50 Cent
   (HarperStudio, 09/01/09, Hardcover)
   

   In The 50th Law, hip hop and pop culture icon 50 Cent (aka Curtis Jackson) joins forces with Robert Greene, bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power, to write a “bible” for success in life and work based on a single principle: fear nothing. With intimate stories from 50 Cent’s life on the streets and in the boardroom as he rose to fame after the release of his album Get Rich or Die Tryin’, as well as examples of others who have overcome adversity through understanding and practicing the 50th Law, this deeply inspirational book is perfect for entrepreneurs as well as anyone interested in the extraordinary life of Curtis Jackson.

    

6. Mama Dearest by E. Lynn Harris
   (Karen Hunter, 09/22/09, Hardcover)
   

   One of E. Lynn Harris’s incomparable heroines, Yancey Harrington Braxton, is working her way back to Broadway and beyond. And this diva supreme always stirs up drama in and out of the spotlight….New York City, you’ve been warned: Yancey Harrington Braxton is back. The ambitious singer and actress is fired up to move past her recent professional and personal setbacks — including an explosive romance with NFL tight end John Basil Henderson — and prove her talents are stronger than ever. After being out on tour, Yancey realizes what she really wants is to star in her own reality TV series, and she’s even found a rich and well-connected lover to make it happen. There are, however, two women fierce enough to derail Yancey’s plans with ambitions of their own: Madison B., a hot new bombshell taking the music industry by storm, and Ava Middlebrooks, who happens to be Yancey’s own mama dearest.Ava is out, about, and ready to reclaim her throne. Not even a stint in prison for attempted murder has curbed Ava’s competitive nature, and it doesn’t faze her in the least that her #1 rival is her own daughter. Ava is willing to do whatever it takes to make Yancey pay, including using Madison B. to turn Yancey’s world upside-down by forcing her to confront the past…and making her comeback dreams more exciting and dangerous than she ever imagined.Taking readers on a wild, passion-filled tour of the entertainment world, E. Lynn Harris’s Mama Dearest delivers sensual thrills and electric plot twists — with one unforgettable woman of radiant star power, sexual magnetism, and unapologetic ambition at the heart of the action.

    

7. Precious (Push Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage Contemporaries) by Sapphire
   (Vintage, 10/20/09, Paperback)
   

   NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTUREIncludes a Reading Group GuidePrecious Jones, an illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem’s casualties. But when Precious, pregnant with a second child by her father, meets a determined and radical teacher, we follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment as she learns not only how to write about her life, but how to make it truly her own for the first time.

    

8. The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate Conversation by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
   (Vanguard Press, 09/25/09, Hardcover)
   

   In 2000-2001, Michael Jackson sat down with his close friend and spiritual guide, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, to record what turned out to be the most intimate and revealing conversations of his life. It was Michael’s wish to bare his soul and unburden himself to a public that he knew was deeply suspicious of him. The resulting thirty hours are the basis of The Michael Jackson Tapes. There has never been, and never will be, anything like them.

    

9. The Cartel 2 by Ashley JaQuavis
   (Urban Books, 11/01/09, Paperback)
   

    

10. I Am the New Black by Tracy Morgan
    (Spiegel & Grau, 10/20/09, Hardcover)
    

    The outrageously funny, heartbreaking, and surprising story of Tracy Morgan’s rise from ghetto wiseass to superstar comedian. Who is Tracy Morgan? The wildly unpredictable funnyman who rocketed to fame on Saturday Night Live? The Emmy-nominated actor behind the sly and ingenious character Tracy Jordan on the award-winning hit sitcom 30 Rock, whose turbulent personal life often mirrors that of his fictional alter ego? Is he Chico Divine, the life of the party–any party, anytime, anywhere, getting ladies pregnant everywhere he goes? Or is he a soulful, tender family man who emerged from a hardscrabble ghetto upbringing and against all odds achieved superstardom, raised a solid family, prevailed over a collection of lethal bad habits, and is still ascending new heights and coming into his own? The answer is: Tracy Morgan is all that. And then some. When he was just a boy living in the Coney Island projects, being funny was about survival. With the right snap, Tracy could shut down the playground bullies who beat up on him and his physically disabled older brother. And with a wild enough prank, he could exact revenge on whoever stole his Pumas at the community pool. Later, being funny was about escape–from the untouchable sadness of his father’s death, from the desperation of the drug dealer’s trade, from the life and death battles waged on the streets of the South Bronx in the age of crack. But these days being funny is about living his dream–a dream born in the comedy clubs of Harlem and realized on shows like Martin and Saturday Night Live, where he was a cast member for seven years, and in movies like The Longest Yard and Half-Baked. With brutal honesty and his trademark take-no-prisoners humor, Tracy tells the story of his rise to fame, with all its highs and its many lows–from the very public battles with alcohol and diabetes that threatened his career and his life to the private and poignant end of his twenty-year marriage. In his singularly warped and brilliant way he muses on family, love, sex, race, politics, ambition, and what it takes to bring the funny. Howlingly funny, inspiring, searing, and touching, I Am the New Black is a fascinating peek inside the mind of one of the most compelling and defining comedians of our time.

     

11. Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, A Memoir by Cornel West
    (Smiley Books, 10/15/09, Hardcover)
    

    New York Times best-selling author Cornel West is one of America’s most provocative and admired public intellectuals. Whether in the classroom, the streets, the prisons, or the church, Dr. West’s penetrating brilliance has been a bright beacon shining through the darkness for decades. Yet, as he points out in this new memoir, “I’ve never taken the time to focus on the inner dynamics of the dark precincts of my soul.” That is, until now. Brother West is like its author: brilliant, unapologetic, full of passion yet cool. This poignant memoir traces West’s transformation from a schoolyard Robin Hood into a progressive cultural icon. From his youthful investigation of the “death shudder” to why he embraced his calling of teaching over preaching, from his three marriages and his two precious children to his near-fatal bout with prostate cancer, West illuminates what it means to live as “an aspiring bluesman in a world of ideas and a jazzman in the life of the mind.” Woven together with the fibers of his lifelong commitment to the prophetic Christian tradition that began in Sacramento’s Shiloh Baptist Church, Brother West is a tale of a man courageous enough to be fully human, living and loving out loud.

     

12. Cross Country (Alex Cross) by James Patterson
    (Vision, 10/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Detective Alex Cross pursues the most ruthless killer he’s ever encountered-to a land of sheer terror and back. It’s the worst crime scene Alex Cross has ever seen, and then more killings, each one more ruthless than the last, quickly follow. After one death comes terrifyingly close to home, Alex realizes he’s chasing a horrible new breed of killer. Digging deeper into the case, Alex and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, uncover a shocking Washington, D.C., underworld: a gang of teenage thugs headed by a warlord known only as the Tiger. When the Tiger’s elusive trail turns up in Africa, Alex knows that he must follow. Unprotected and alone, can Alex manage to both survive and catch the killer?

     

13. What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing by Ron Hall
    (Thomas Nelson, 09/29/09, Hardcover)
    

    New thoughts and reflections from the authors of the inspirational New York Times bestseller Same Kind of Different as Me. The more than four hundred thousand readers stirred by the story of Ron Hall and Denver Moore will resonate with the all new, stand-alone true stories of hope and healing offered in this intimate, authentic follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Same Kind of Different as Me. With new “Denverisms” and reflections from Denver on his personal dealings with homelessness and disrespect from others, additional insights from Ron on what we can learn from people not like us and from those dealing with a terminal illness, and the stories of readers who have been impacted by the book’s central themes, this inspirational reader will generate a host of new fans. Topics include: Faith and friendship Racial reconciliation Community outreach Compassion HealingBook also includes for the first time samples of Denver’s paintings.

     

14. A Deep Dark Secret by Kimberla Lawson Roby
    (William Morrow, 10/01/09, Hardcover)
    

    The New York Times bestselling author returns with the moving story of a family who learns to overcome betrayal and secrets with courage and love On the outside, twelve-year-old Jillian Maxwell is the perfect child. She’s helpful with chores around the house, gets straight As in school, has plans for college, and stays out of trouble. She seems to have everything a girl could want: a big, beautiful new home, an adoring little sister, a mother who cares about her, and an attentive stepfather. But inside, Jillian harbors a terrible secret.Too frightened to tell, convinced that her friends and loved ones, especially her mother, won’t understand — and worse, will blame her — Jillian endures her pain in silence, believing that things will get better. However, as time passes and her dilemma intensifies, the bright, hardworking girl becomes sullen and disinterested in her studies. Then, just when it seems she’s on the verge of losing everything, Jillian discovers she has more strength than she ever imagined and the power to change her fate. With sensitivity and grace, Kimberla Lawson Roby addresses a very real and serious issue, while delivering the inspiring tale of one family’s mission to shed light into the darkest corner of their lives.

     

15. A Mercy (Vintage International) by Toni Morrison
    (Vintage, 08/11/09, Paperback)
    

    National BestsellerOne of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in “flesh,” he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master’s house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives.A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and a daughter-a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.

     

16. Michael Jackson: A Visual Documentary The Official Tribute Edition by Adrian Grant
    (Omnibus Press, 08/01/09, Paperback)
    

    From the fifties to his death in 2009, it is a complete record of Michael’s moves, grooves and music. Illustrated with hundreds of colour and black and white photographs, it includes all Michael’s records, concerts, videos and awards, memorabilia and records you never knew existed. From Steeltown to Motown, from the Jackson 5 to his own man, from “The Wiz” to “Thriller”, Michael Jackson was bad, smooth, dangerous and invincible. He made the most exciting videos, with the deffest moves, played the most spectacular concerts, and filled the world’s largest arenas. He began performing at the age of five, broke records since he was 11 and was a star without equal from the age of 21. Never far from the media spotlight Michael’s whole aura often seemed alienated from reality. “The Visual Documentary” presents all the facts about Michael’s life and death as never before. Here is everything you need to know about the tragic superstar. “Michael Jackson – The Visual Documentary” has been compiled by Adrian Grant, a writer renowned fort his close affiliation with Jackson and a pioneer of many Jackson related projects including the stage musical “Thriller”.

     

17. Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America by Paul Tough
    (Mariner Books, 09/10/09, Paperback)
    

    What would it take? That was the question that Geoffrey Canada found himself asking. What would it take to change the lives of poor children — not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in big numbers, and in a way that could be replicated nationwide? The question led him to create the Harlem Children’s Zone, a ninety-seven-block laboratory in central Harlem where he is testing new and sometimes controversial ideas about poverty in America. His conclusion: if you want poor kids to be able to compete with their middle-class peers, you need to change everything in their lives — their schools, their neighborhoods, even the child-rearing practices of their parents. Whatever It Takes is a tour de force of reporting, an inspired portrait not only of Geoffrey Canada but of the parents and children in Harlem who are struggling to better their lives, often against great odds. Carefully researched and deeply affecting, this is a dispatch from inside the most daring and potentially transformative social experiment of our time.

     

18. Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
    (Algonquin Books, 03/17/09, Paperback)
    

    In Jordan’s prize-winning debut, prejudice takes many forms, both subtle and brutal. It is 1946, and city-bred Laura McAllan is trying to raise her children on her husband’s Mississippi Delta farm — a place she finds foreign and frightening. In the midst of the family’s struggles, two young men return from the war to work the land. Jamie McAllan, Laura’s brother-in-law, is everything her husband is not — charming, handsome, and haunted by his memories of combat. Ronsel Jackson, eldest son of the black sharecroppers who live on the McAllan farm, has come home with the shine of a war hero. But no matter his bravery in defense of his country, he is still considered less than a man in the Jim Crow South. It is the unlikely friendship of these brothers-in-arms that drives this powerful novel to its inexorable conclusion. The men and women of each family relate their versions of events and we are drawn into their lives as they become players in a tragedy on the grandest scale. As Kingsolver says of Hillary Jordan, “Her characters walked straight out of 1940s Mississippi and into the part of my brain where sympathy and anger and love reside, leaving my heart racing. They are with me still.”

     

19. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed
    (W.W. Norton & Co., 09/08/09, Paperback)
    

    Winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize: “[A] commanding and important book.” — Jill Lepore, The New Yorker This epic work — named a best book of the year by the Washington Post, Time, the Los Angeles Times, Amazon, the San Francisco Chronicle, and a notable book by the New York Times — tells the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president had been systematically expunged from American history until very recently. Now, historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed traces the Hemings family from its origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family’s dispersal after Jefferson’s death in 1826. In the mid-1700s the English captain of a trading ship that made runs between England and the Virginia colony fathered a child by an enslaved woman living near Williamsburg. The woman, whose name is unknown and who is believed to have been born in Africa, was owned by the Eppeses, a prominent Virginia family. The captain, whose surname was Hemings, and the woman had a daughter. They named her Elizabeth. So begins The Hemingses of Monticello, Annette Gordon-Reed’s “riveting history” of the Hemings family, whose story comes to vivid life in this brilliantly researched and deeply moving work. Gordon-Reed, author of the highly acclaimed historiography Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, unearths startling new information about the Hemingses, Jefferson, and his white family. Although the book presents the most detailed and richly drawn portrait ever written of Sarah Hemings, better known by her nickname Sally, who bore seven children by Jefferson over the course of their thirty-eight-year liaison, The Hemingses of Monticello tells more than the story of her life with Jefferson and their children. The Hemingses as a whole take their rightful place in the narrative of the family’s extraordinary engagement with one of history’s most important figures. Not only do we meet Elizabeth Hemings — the family matriarch and mother to twelve children, six by John Wayles, a poor English immigrant who rose to great wealth in the Virginia colony — but we follow the Hemings family as they become the property of Jefferson through his marriage to Martha Wayles. The Hemings-Wayles children, siblings to Martha, played pivotal roles in the life at Jefferson’s estate. We follow the Hemingses to Paris, where James Hemings trained as a chef in one of the most prestigious kitchens in France and where Sally arrived as a fourteen-year-old chaperone for Jefferson’s daughter Polly; to Philadelphia, where James Hemings acted as the major domo to the newly appointed secretary of state; to Charlottesville, where Mary Hemings lived with her partner, a prosperous white merchant who left her and their children a home and property; to Richmond, where Robert Hemings engineered a plan for his freedom; and finally to Monticello, that iconic home on the mountain, from where most of Jefferson’s slaves, many of them Hemings family members, were sold at auction six months after his death in 1826. As The Hemingses of Monticello makes vividly clear, Monticello can no longer be known only as the home of a remarkable American leader, the author of the Declaration of Independence; nor can the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president have been expunged from history until very recently, be left out of the telling of America’s story. With its empathetic and insightful consideration of human beings acting in almost unimaginably difficult and complicated family circumstances, The Hemingses of Monticello is history as great literature. It is a remarkable achievement. 37 illustrations.

     

20. Midnight: A Gangster Love Story by Sister Souljah
    (Washington Square Press, 09/08/09, Paperback)
    

    Sister Souljah, the hip-hop generation’s number one author and most compelling storyteller, delivers a powerful story about love and loyalty, strength and family. In her bestselling novel, The Coldest Winter Ever, Sister Souljah introduced the world to Midnight, a brave but humble lieutenant to a prominent underworld businessman. Now, in a highly anticipated follow-up to her million-selling masterpiece, she brings readers into the life and dangerously close to the heart of this silent, fearless young man.Raised in a wealthy, influential, Islamic African family, Midnight enjoys a life of comfort, confidence, and protection. Midnight’s father provides him with a veil of privilege and deep, devoted love, but he never hides the truth about the fierce challenges of the world outside of his estate. So when Midnight’s father’s empire is attacked, he sends Midnight with his mother to the United States.In the streets of Brooklyn, a young Midnight uses his Islamic mind-set and African intelligence to protect the ones he loves, build a business, reclaim his wealth and status, and remain true to his beliefs.Midnight, a handsome and passionate young man, attracts many women. How he interacts and deals with them is a unique adventure. This is a highly sensual and tremendous love story about what a man is willing to risk and give to the women he loves most. Midnight will remain in your mind and beat in your heart for a lifetime.Her “raw and true voice” (Publishers Weekly) will both soothe and arouse you. In a beautifully written and masterfully woven story, Sister Souljah has given us Midnight, and solidified her presence as the mother of all contemporary urban literature.

     

Bestselling African American Books, October 2009

The Top 20 selling African American books, featuring African American issues and authors, published in October 2009 from Amazon.com (11/1/09).

1. Precious (Push Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage Contemporaries) by Sapphire
   (Vintage, 10/20/09, Paperback)
   

   NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Includes a Reading Group Guide Precious Jones, an illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem’s casualties. But when Precious, pregnant with a second child by her father, meets a determined and radical teacher, we follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment as she learns not only how to write about her life, but how to make it truly her own for the first time.

    

2. I Am the New Black by Tracy Morgan
   (Spiegel & Grau, 10/20/09, Hardcover)
   

   The outrageously funny, heartbreaking, and surprising story of Tracy Morgan’s rise from ghetto wiseass to superstar comedian. Who is Tracy Morgan? The wildly unpredictable funnyman who rocketed to fame on Saturday Night Live? The Emmy-nominated actor behind the sly and ingenious character Tracy Jordan on the award-winning hit sitcom 30 Rock, whose turbulent personal life often mirrors that of his fictional alter ego? Is he Chico Divine, the life of the party–any party, anytime, anywhere, getting ladies pregnant everywhere he goes? Or is he a soulful, tender family man who emerged from a hardscrabble ghetto upbringing and against all odds achieved superstardom, raised a solid family, prevailed over a collection of lethal bad habits, and is still ascending new heights and coming into his own? The answer is: Tracy Morgan is all that. And then some. When he was just a boy living in the Coney Island projects, being funny was about survival. With the right snap, Tracy could shut down the playground bullies who beat up on him and his physically disabled older brother. And with a wild enough prank, he could exact revenge on whoever stole his Pumas at the community pool. Later, being funny was about escape–from the untouchable sadness of his father’s death, from the desperation of the drug dealer’s trade, from the life and death battles waged on the streets of the South Bronx in the age of crack. But these days being funny is about living his dream–a dream born in the comedy clubs of Harlem and realized on shows like Martin and Saturday Night Live, where he was a cast member for seven years, and in movies like The Longest Yard and Half-Baked. With brutal honesty and his trademark take-no-prisoners humor, Tracy tells the story of his rise to fame, with all its highs and its many lows–from the very public battles with alcohol and diabetes that threatened his career and his life to the private and poignant end of his twenty-year marriage. In his singularly warped and brilliant way he muses on family, love, sex, race, politics, ambition, and what it takes to bring the funny. Howlingly funny, inspiring, searing, and touching, I Am the New Black is a fascinating peek inside the mind of one of the most compelling and defining comedians of our time.

    

3. Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, A Memoir by Cornel West
   (Smiley Books, 10/15/09, Hardcover)
   

   New York Times best-selling author Cornel West is one of America’s most provocative and admired public intellectuals. Whether in the classroom, the streets, the prisons, or the church, Dr. West’s penetrating brilliance has been a bright beacon shining through the darkness for decades. Yet, as he points out in this new memoir, “I’ve never taken the time to focus on the inner dynamics of the dark precincts of my soul.” That is, until now. Brother West is like its author: brilliant, unapologetic, full of passion yet cool. This poignant memoir traces West’s transformation from a schoolyard Robin Hood into a progressive cultural icon. From his youthful investigation of the “death shudder” to why he embraced his calling of teaching over preaching, from his three marriages and his two precious children to his near-fatal bout with prostate cancer, West illuminates what it means to live as “an aspiring bluesman in a world of ideas and a jazzman in the life of the mind.” Woven together with the fibers of his lifelong commitment to the prophetic Christian tradition that began in Sacramento’s Shiloh Baptist Church, Brother West is a tale of a man courageous enough to be fully human, living and loving out loud. Â

    

4. Cross Country (Alex Cross) by James Patterson
   (Vision, 10/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
   

   Detective Alex Cross pursues the most ruthless killer he’s ever encountered-to a land of sheer terror and back. It’s the worst crime scene Alex Cross has ever seen, and then more killings, each one more ruthless than the last, quickly follow. After one death comes terrifyingly close to home, Alex realizes he’s chasing a horrible new breed of killer. Digging deeper into the case, Alex and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, uncover a shocking Washington, D.C., underworld: a gang of teenage thugs headed by a warlord known only as the Tiger. When the Tiger’s elusive trail turns up in Africa, Alex knows that he must follow. Unprotected and alone, can Alex manage to both survive and catch the killer?

    

5. A Deep Dark Secret by Kimberla Lawson Roby
   (William Morrow, 10/01/09, Hardcover)
   

   The New York Times bestselling author returns with the moving story of a family who learns to overcome betrayal and secrets with courage and love On the outside, twelve-year-old Jillian Maxwell is the perfect child. She’s helpful with chores around the house, gets straight As in school, has plans for college, and stays out of trouble. She seems to have everything a girl could want: a big, beautiful new home, an adoring little sister, a mother who cares about her, and an attentive stepfather. But inside, Jillian harbors a terrible secret.Too frightened to tell, convinced that her friends and loved ones, especially her mother, won’t understand — and worse, will blame her — Jillian endures her pain in silence, believing that things will get better. However, as time passes and her dilemma intensifies, the bright, hardworking girl becomes sullen and disinterested in her studies. Then, just when it seems she’s on the verge of losing everything, Jillian discovers she has more strength than she ever imagined…and the power to change her fate. With sensitivity and grace, Kimberla Lawson Roby addresses a very real and serious issue, while delivering the inspiring tale of one family’s mission to shed light into the darkest corner of their lives.

    

6. Captured by Beverly Jenkins
   (Avon, 10/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
   

   She was the most irresistible treasure of all . . . Dominic LeVeq, the most notorious privateer ever to command the high seas, has just captured a coveted prize: a British frigate. On a dangerous mission against the Crown, Dominic should be thinking only of his ship’s safety. But the rebel captain is utterly entranced by Clare Sullivan, the stunning slave on board. Consumed by desire, desperate to have her, Dominic offers Clare her freedom in exchange for a forbidden night in his bed — a night he assures her will be most pleasureable indeed. Clare believes that Dominic is nothing more than a seductive rogue used to getting what he wants. But she too feels a tantalizing passion between them, and so she submits to just one night of bliss. She’ll soon realize that Dominic has captured more than her body. He’s captured her heart . . . and she doesn’t want him to ever let go.

    

7. Bachelor Untamed (Kimani Romance) by Brenda Jackson
   (Kimani, 10/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
   

   One mind-blowing kiss. That was all Ellie Weston shared with her neighbor and crush one summer, before he angrily discovered she’d approached him on a dare. Ten years later, Ellie is back at her great-aunt’s lake house, and so is Uriel Lassiter still wildly sexy, single and happy to stay that way. When Ellie finds her great-aunt’s never-completed romance novel, she decides to finish the manuscript but first she needs some real-life inspiration: a sultry summer fling.Uriel hasn’t forgotten Ellie, and their sizzling chemistry is starting to make him reconsider his tried-and-true bachelor status. But when the truth about her motive emerges, can Ellie convince him that make-believe has turned into sweet reality?

    

8. A True Story About Jackie Robinson (Testing The Ice) by Sharon Robinson
   (Scholastic Press, 10/01/09, Hardcover)
   

   When Jackie Robinson retires from baseball and moves his family to Connecticut, the beautiful lake on their property is the center of everyone’s fun. The neighborhood children join the Robinson kids for swimming and boating. But oddly, Jackie never goes near the water. In a dramatic episode that first winter, the children beg to go ice skating on the lake. Jackie says they can go–but only after he tests the ice to make sure it’s safe. The children prod and push to get Jackie outside, until hesitantly, he finally goes. Like a blind man with a stick, (contd.) Jackie taps on the ice’s surface, when suddenly howling and roaring sounds come out of the lake! It is only then that Sharon realizes why she’s never seen her father in the water — Jackie doesn’t know how to swim! But her horror changes to relief as Jackie bravely taps his way to the middle of the lake — and declare it safe! In a stunning metaphor for Jackie Robinson’s legendary breaking of the color barrier in Major League Baseball, Sharon Robinson honors her extraordinary father’s memory with her warm graceful storytelling. Two-time Caldecott Honor Book artist Kadir Nelson has created richly rendered paintings that radiate with the beauty and spirit of one of America’s finest heroes.

    

9. The Ideal Wife by Jacquelin Thomas
   (Pocket, 10/06/09, Paperback)
   

   Marrying a handsome, wealthy lawyer and living in a Hollywood Hills mansion…it’s a dream come true for twenty-four-year-old Jana, from the moment Lawrence Collins swept her off her feet and into his luxurious world. True, she put her studies at a local Bible college on hold in order to wed after a six-month whirlwind romance. Beautiful and vivacious, with a stunning body, Jana knows men like Lawrence don’t come along every day, and she vows to be a perfect companion — the ideal wife — to this sexy, powerful man. But at what price? From her wardrobe and hairstyle to her friends and her choice of church, Lawrence seems to want to change Jana into someone she’s not…and soon, the man Jana thought she knew will test her values and her faith with a shocking revelation that goes against everything she believes. How far will Jana be willing to go to keep the man she loves? With her “ideal” marriage falling apart, Jana — the real, modest, smart, and strong girl who knows what she stands for — must put her trust in God, and follow His guiding light out of the darkness of a broken relationship.

    

10. The Princess and the Frog Little Golden Book by RH Disney
    (Golden/Disney, 10/13/09, Hardcover)
    

    Walt Disney Pictures presents The Princess and the Frog. . . .Meet Tiana — Disney’s newest princess. Her big dreams are put on hold when she is transformed into a frog! Discover how she finds love and learns all about what is truly important in the Little Golden Book retelling of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.

     

11. Barack Like Me: The Chocolate-Covered Truth (Touchstone Books) by David Alan Grier
    (Touchstone, 10/06/09, Hardcover)
    

    From growing up in Detroit, where he marched as a ten-year-old with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to attending the inauguration of President Barack Obama, where he narrowly avoided the Purple Tunnel of Doom but still saw nothing, David Alan Grier examines how he — and America — have changed for the better and the funnier.Within these pages, Grier imagines being called to serve in President Obama’s cabinet as the “secretary of mirth”; takes you to a wild and emotional election night party he hosted that didn’t go as planned; explains the true meaning of the “magical Negro”; recalls the formative episodes from his life — including being rejected by the Black Panthers at their headquarters door and turning down the initial offer to work on In Living Color — and for the first time ever sneaks you backstage at Dancing with the Stars, where he exposes the inner workings of the show — the camaraderie between dancers and stars, the excruciatingly painful rehearsals, the outrageous preparations, and each hysterical moment of his four-episode appearance and subsequent public meltdown.Grier unabashedly muses on politics, culture, and race while recounting his own life story in this edgy, timeless, hilarious, and revelatory memoir and look at all things Barack.Barack Like Me is David Alan Grier at his best — the man, comic, and twenty-first-century thinker — funny, brilliant, and original.

     

12. January’s Sparrow by Patricia Polacco
    (Philomel, 10/29/09, Hardcover)
    

    Patricia Polacco’s most powerful book since Pink and Say. In the middle of the night, The Crosswhites — including young Sadie — must flee the Kentucky plantation they work on. Dear January has been beaten and killed by the plantation master, and they fear who may be next. But Sadie must leave behind her most valuable possession, the wooden sparrow carved for her by January. Through the Underground Railroad, the Crosswhites make the slow and arduous journey to Marshall, Michigan, where they finally live in freedom. And there they stay, happily, until the day a mysterious package shows up on their doorsteps. It is January’s sparrow, with a note that reads, “I found you.” How the Crosswhites, and the whole town of Marshall, face this threat will leave readers empowered and enthralled. This is a Polacco adventure that will live in the minds of children for years.

     

13. Sizzling Seduction (Kimani Romance) by Gwyneth Bolton
    (Kimani, 10/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Firefighter Patrick Hightower will take any risk in the line of duty. But risking his heart again? That’s something he’s vowed never to do. He prefers scorching affairs — the briefer, the better — though he might make a temporary exception for smart, sexy teacher Aisha Miller. Only Aisha isn’t interested in exploring their instant, searing connection — no matter how much she feels the heat.Aisha has had enough of dominant men trying to control her life, and the gorgeous firefighter who visits her kindergarten class is alpha male through and through. Yet the gentler side Patrick shows, especially around her young son, gradually melts her reserve. As shadows from Aisha’s past resurface, she’ll discover just how far Patrick will go to prove she’s found her real-life hero.

     

14. John Brown’s Trial by Brian McGinty
    (Harvard University Press, 10/15/09, Hardcover)
    

    Mixing idealism with violence, abolitionist John Brown cut a wide swath across the United States before winding up in Virginia, where he led an attack on the U.S. armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Supported by a “provisional army” of 21 men, Brown hoped to rouse the slaves in Virginia to rebellion. But he was quickly captured and, after a short but stormy trial, hanged on December 2, 1859. Brian McGinty provides the first comprehensive account of the trial, which raised important questions about jurisdiction, judicial fairness, and the nature of treason under the American constitutional system. After the jury returned its guilty verdict, an appeal was quickly disposed of, and the governor of Virginia refused to grant clemency. Brown met his death not as an enemy of the American people but as an enemy of Southern slaveholders. Historians have long credited the Harpers Ferry raid with rousing the country to a fever pitch of sectionalism and accelerating the onset of the Civil War. McGinty sees Brown’s trial, rather than his raid, as the real turning point in the struggle between North and South. If Brown had been killed in Harpers Ferry (as he nearly was), or condemned to death in a summary court-martial, his raid would have had little effect. Because he survived to stand trial before a Virginia judge and jury, and argue the case against slavery with an eloquence that reverberated around the world, he became a symbol of the struggle to abolish slavery and a martyr to the cause of freedom. (20090815)

     

15. Snow White: A Survival Story by Anna J.
    (Urban Books, 10/01/09, Paperback)
    

     

16. Touch of Heaven (Kimani Romance) by Maureen Smith
    (Kimani, 10/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Warrick Mayne has spent twelve years blaming Raina St. James for ruining his sister’s life. Now the self-made millionaire has the perfect opportunity for payback — knocking down Raina’s luxury day spa to build an office complex. But his plan has met a hitch, in the delectable form of Raina herself. He may be her enemy now, but long ago, Raina had a secret crush on her friend’s gorgeous older brother. And time has only enhanced Warrick’s appeal. When an innocent business trip to Warrick’s out-of-town estate turns unmistakably seductive, they succumb to their electrifying mutual attraction. But it’ll take more than one encounter of sensual healing — no matter how blissful — to open Raina’s and Warrick’s eyes to the passionate, heartbreaking truth.

     

17. Somebody Else’s Man by Daaimah S. Poole
    (Dafina, 10/01/09, Paperback)
    

    Essence- bestselling author Daaimah S. Poole brings you the sizzling tale of two ex-best friends who can’t forgive, won’t forget. . .and will find out what matters most. . . Nicole and Tia just know nothing can break up their long-time friendship. But when a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity comes along, Tia takes her new boyfriend’s advice to sue Nicole’s mother after a car accident. Now Tia has money, a flashy new home in Florida. . .and one furious ex-friend out to grab some of the good life for herself. And when wealthy businessman Derrick starts burning up her sheets, Nicole sees a future as sparkling as the engagement ring she’s expecting. . . . . .until Tia turns up broke, with a new baby in tow. . .and news that Derrick isn’t the man he seems. Now Derrick will marry Nicole only if she drops Tia for good. And between lies, lust, and betrayal, Nicole must gamble on whom to believe, what she really wants–and a choice that may cost her everything. . .

     

18. Teach Me Tonight (Kimani Romance) by Jacquelin Thomas
    (Kimani, 10/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    She always said they were just friends. But Tamara Hodges has never forgotten Micah Ross, her smart-as-a-whip college math tutor — and the guy who got away. Their ten-year reunion could be her chance to make things right. But the computer geek turned hip Beverly Hills record producer is giving her a very cool reception. Until Tamara turns up the heat.Even after all these years, Micah is still hot for his gorgeous ex-pupil — and hurt by her cruel rejection. So when the sorority sister turned magazine writer shows up to interview a singer on his label, Micah seizes his opportunity for sweet revenge. But his scheme goes awry when passion ignites in an evening neither can forget. Is this Micah’s chance to walk off with the ultimate prize — the homecoming queen of his dreams?

     

19. Millionaire Mistress 3 by Tiphani
    (Life Changing Books, 10/30/09, Paperback)
    

    A bad bitch never dies! Chloe is back and in full force! Ride with author, Tiphani as she tells a riveting tale about money, lust, and revenge. Between sexin’ any man who can help her achieve her over-the-top goals, and on a crazed path of revenge, Chloe shocks us all with her newfound tricks of the trade. She’s come full circle with new ammo, a new mission, and her old mischievous ways. You won’t believe what she’s got up her sleeve. Stay tuned…the third installment to this drama filled series is in stores Oct ‘09.

     

20. Disney’s The Princess and the Frog: Kiss the Frog (Step into Reading, Step 2) by RH Disney
    (RH/Disney, 10/13/09, Paperback)
    

    Walt Disney Pictures presents The Princess and the Frog. . . .Meet Tiana, Disney’s newest princess! When she and the spoiled Prince Naveen are turned into frogs, they find themselves lost in the Louisiana bayou, with no one to turn to but a lovesick Cajun firefly, a trumpet-playing alligator — and each other. Determined to become human again, Tiana and Naveen embark on a hilarious and heartwarming adventure. Together, they find romance where they least expect it — and discover that dreams really can come true.This Step 2 retelling shares the magic of Disney’s latest feature film — and soon-to-be classic — The Princess and the Frog.

     

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?

     

Top-Selling Romance Novels in 2009

The bestselling romance novels featuring African American characters or by African Americans for 2009 (as of 5/13/2009).

1. Irresistible Forces by Brenda Jackson
   (Kimani Press, 01/30/09, Kindle Edition)
   

   An offer he couldn’t refuse… One week of mind-blowing sex on a beautiful Caribbean island. Of all the business proposals financial tycoon Dominic Saxon has heard, Taylor Steele’s is definitely the most tempting. All Taylor wants in return is for Dominic to father her baby. No strings, no commitments-just a mutually satisfying arrangement. Make that very satisfying. For a man with no intention of marrying again, it sounds ideal. Taylor wants a baby, not a relationship. And sexy, intelligent Dominic seems like a man with perfect genes. Turns out, Dominic has perfect everything. Their -procreation vacation- is a whirlwind of sensual ecstasy. But when it’s over, will either of them be able to say goodbye?

    

2. Some Like It Hot by Brenda Jackson
   (St. Martin’s Griffin, 04/28/09, Paperback)
   

   In this first ever short story collection, New York Times bestselling author Brenda Jackson takes us on five steamy, sexy adventures. From a freelance writer whose interview with a ruthless, ambitious, and very handsome millionaire turns into something so much more to an attorney’s explosive encounter with a sexy club owner.  From an event planner’s very steamy night with an old flame to a businesswoman who wants to get back the man she let slip away while climbing the ladder of success. Experience just how much Brenda Jackson can turn up the heat!

    

3. 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.

    

4. 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….

    

5. Up To No Good by Carl Weber
   (Kensington, 02/01/09, Hardcover)
   

   There’s always a man around the corner, and church trustee James Black should know–he’s usually that very man. The “New York Times”-bestselling author of “Something on the Side” introduces a deliciously dysfunctional family in this new page-turning novel filled with intrigue, sex, and surprises. Annotation: The Black family has a few issues to work out. The father, James, is finally ready to put his player days behind him and settle down, but his lover is the same age as his daughter, Jamie, who has problems of her own, as she tries to discover the mystery woman who has been stalking her man. Meanwhile, James’s son Darnel catches his fiance in bed with his best friend, Omar, and he finds himself in jail after exacting a brutal vengeance. This is only the beginning of the soap opera, as the family fights to stick together through a series of unbelievable twists and turns, both in the streets and between the sheets.

    

6. Taste of Passion (Madaris Family Novels) by Brenda Jackson
   (St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 06/02/09, Mass Market Paperback)
   

   Attorney Mackenzie “Macâ€ Standfield swore off love when her heart was shattered into a million pieces. But there’s one man who has managed to tempt her beyond reason — rodeo star Luke Madaris. Although five years have passed, Mac discovers when she runs into Luke again that the sexual tension is just as charged as ever… When Luke gets injured in a rodeo, he knows the only place where he can recuperate — without being smothered by his worried family — is at Mac’s place. After all, like Mac, he has no interest in any romantic entanglements….until being in such close quarters with Mac forces Luke to confront a desire he can no longer fight…With each passing day, Mac and Luke come to realize that their smoldering attraction can be put out only if they surrender to it. But what Mac doesn’t realize is that once you give yourself to a Madaris man, there’s no turning back…

    

7. Playing Dirty by Kiki Swinson
   (Dafina, 04/01/09, Paperback)
   

    

8. Single Husbands by HoneyB
   (Grand Central Publishing, 03/16/09, Hardcover)
   

   Herschel Henderson said, “I do,” to gain access to his wife’s money, Lexington Lewis vowed for his better and her worse, and Brian Flaw meant until death do we part, yet none of them are dedicated to their wives. Herschel has a mistress that he sexes more than his wife, Lexington is making love to as many women as he can, and Brian is sexing women of every ethnicity because he’s become bored with his wife. The one thing these men do share, is the fact that neither of them will give up the sexual freedom they enjoyed as single men.

    

9. 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.

    

10. Nobody But You: A Grayson Friends Novel by Francis Ray
    (St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 03/03/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    NASCAR star Cameron Dunlap is poised to win this year’s Sprint Cup. But being a successful race-car driver comes with a price: His own life. Cameron knows that his profession puts him at high risk. Thankfully, his latest visit to the hospital left him intact. That is, until he bumps into Caitlin Lawrence and is thrust back into his painful past.  The one-time love of his life who left him at the altar, Caitlin could never accept Cameron’s fast and furious existence. The threat of losing him on the racetrack was just too much for Caitlin and the young son Cameron never knew he had. Now that this chance meeting has changed their lives forever, will Caitlin and Cameron find a way to recapture what might have been?

     

11. Surrender (Arabesque) by Brenda Jackson
    (Kimani Press, 04/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    After a childhood spent moving from army base to army base, independent-minded Nettie Brooms is determined to secure a stable life — and never become involved with a military man. Then she meets incredibly handsome and charming Ashton Sinclair, a dedicated colonel in the U.S. Marines who’s intent on capturing her heart — no matter what it takes. Now Nettie’s wondering how a man she swore she would avoid could so easily test her resolve by igniting an irresistible passion she can’t walk away from.

     

12. Lady Jasmine: A Novel by Victoria Christopher Murray
    (Touchstone, 06/02/09, Paperback)
    

    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.

     

13. The Hood Life: A Bentley Manor Tale (Bentley Manor Tales) by Meesha Mink
    (Touchstone, 01/06/09, Paperback)
    

    A pimp, a killer, a playa, and a drug dealer struggle to get their game right in a sizzling novel where leaving the life and trying to go straight is a deadly option.Tavon, better known as “Sweet,” would pimp his own mother — and he does. Convinced that the prostitution game chose him, Sweet loves his high-rolling life. But when he unexpectedly becomes a father, will Sweet be able to choose between the family trade and his grown, not-so-innocent daughter? After ten years in prison, the drive-by Demarcus committed still haunts him. Determined to stay above the law, he’s found Allah, promised to change his ways forever, and finally do right by his girl, Zoey. But when an opportunity arises that will set him and Zoey right for life, Demarcus may have more faith in his killah reputation than the Koran….Kaseem runs every single drug going in and out of Bentley Manor. His empire provides clothes, cash, and his satisfaction of his wifey, Quilla — along with the company of other ladies, of course. But when Kaseem’s crew becomes more violent, will he be able to escape the life — and the gangsters — he created? The best playa on the block, Rhakmon can get a woman to do anything he wants. His latest girlfriend, Shaterica, lets him steal, lie, and cheat — smitten to be under his spell. But when Rhakmon’s devious deeds are finally brought to light, the revenge Shaterica plans may ultimately be more horrible than anything he could have imagined….From the ladies who brought you Desperate Hoodwives and Shameless Hoodwives, the streets of Atlanta are hotter than ever with drama, sex, and danger — profilin’ four men desperate for anything but their hood life.

     

14. 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.

     

15. 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.

     

16. Head Bangers: An APF Sexcapade 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.

     

17. The Company We Keep by Mary Monroe
    (Dafina, 03/01/09, Paperback)
    

    New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe-s extraordinary novel celebrates life, love, and the power of sisterhood-proving that friends, like fine wine, only get better with age-Gorgeous, successful executive Teri Stewart spends her days working for L.A.-s hottest record company-and her nights all alone. Her best friend Nicole is determined to find Teri a man, but she hasn-t had much luck…because Teri wants more than Mr. Maybe. She-s holding out for Mr. Right and won-t settle for anything less. Just when Teri is ready to give up, a man from her past returns to reignite their romance. With his sultry smile and easy-going charm, radio DJ Harrison Starr is one-of-a kind-and Teri can-t deny she-s fallen hard for him again. With her life finally falling into place, Teri thinks her dreams might come true after all. But Harrison may have a secret that could change everything-

     

18. Resurrecting Midnight by Eric Jerome Dickey
    (Dutton Adult, 08/25/09, Hardcover)
    

    International assassin Gideon spilled blood for the first time when he was seven years old, with a single shot to the head of a man who was attempting to kill the woman Gideon had known as his mother. The victim was none other than his own father, a man of unspeakable evil. This pivotal event shaped Gideon throughout his life, made him who he is, one of the fiercest, most feared hired guns in the world. And one of the most hunted. After nearly losing his life in Antigua during a mission that went terribly wrong, Gideon trusts no one. But when a former lover and grifter, Arizona, resurfaces in need of his skills, she reminds him he was indebted to a man who had once saved his life: the son of the legendary con-man Scamz. Gideon is forced to take on an assignment which will lead him to Argentina in pursuit of a briefcase containing one part of a larger puzzle. The “package” contains material that another group of assassins — the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse — will kill to obtain and protect. One of the leaders of the Four Horsemen has a connection to Gideon that neither man is aware of — a connection that will be exposed when they meet face-to-face and gun-to-gun. Each member of The Four Horsemen is a world-class killer, each with a dark and dangerous past, and nothing will stop that team of renegades from completing their mission. As Gideon struggles to keep promises and uncover information about his past, he finds himself at the center of the ultimate double-cross and he is forced to do what he must to protect himself and those closest to him. Set amidst the exotic and vibrant streets of Miami and Buenos Aires, Resurrecting Midnight is an action-filled, pulse- pounding thriller from bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey.

     

19. Something On The Side by Carl Weber
    (Dafina, 01/01/09, Paperback)
    

    Carl Weber–the New York Times bestselling author of The First Lady and So You Call Yourself a Man–represents with a straight-up novel about friendship and love, sex and betrayal, and how getting some on the side is never as simple as it seems… Meet Tammy, Egypt, Isis, Nikki, Coco, and Tiny–the bodacious women of the Big Girls Book Club. There’s only one rule to being a member. You must be at least a size 14… BGBC president Tammy loves everything about her life–her two kids, her fierce friends, her BMW. She especially loves taking care of business for her husband, Tim, for whom she’d do anything. This year, she intends to top all his past birthdays by having a threesome with her best friend, Egypt. Now, if only Egypt will agree to grant them this very special favor… Isis’s boyfriend, Tony, romances her every chance he gets–and he knows how to turn up the heat, which makes Isis willing to lay down and die for him. That is until a man from her past steps back into her life–with only one goal in mind: win back the woman he’s never been able to forget. But not every BGBC member is lucky with men. Once upon a time, single mom Nikki would have made love to her man in the middle of Times Square for the entire country to see. Now that he’s her ex, it takes everything she has not to kill him (or let her roommate, Tiny, do it for her), especially since he has a way of disappointing their son every chance he gets–and then making her look like the bad guy. And then there’s hot-to-trot Coco Brown, who has a habit of messing around with married men. It doesn’t bother her, as long as they don’t try to deny it. But now that she’s hooked up with a man who makes his living being every woman’s fantasy, all she cares about is making sure he doesn’t stray. As insatiable about books as they are about love–or lust–these friends are about to discover how tough it is to keep it real when they all have Something on the Side.

     

20. Defying Desire (Kimani Romance) by A.C. Arthur
    (Kimani, 04/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
    

    Fashion model Tia St. Claire keeps things light when it comes to men…no strings, just flings. She’s got her reasons, thank you. But even she finds Trent Donovan hard to resist — he’s sexy, successful, persistent and built for a woman’s wildest dreams. When their one-night stand leaves defiant longings, Tia isn’t sure whether to run, hide or surrender to the former navy SEAL’s rugged charms.The last of the successful and seriously single “Triple Threat” Donovan brothers still happily unattached, Trent Donovan has dedicated his career to duty and danger. Until desire and beautiful, spirited Tia change everything. Now he’s sleepless over an attraction too powerful to deny, and a secret dilemma with only one way out — following his heart.

     

Bestselling African American Books, March 2009

The Top 10 selling African American books, featuring African American issues and authors, published in March 2009 from Amazon.com (4/11/09).

1. Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine by Bryant Terry
   (Da Capo Press, 03/02/09, Paperback)
   

   The mere mention of soul food brings thoughts of greasy fare and clogged arteries. Bryant Terry offers recipes that leave out heavy salt and refined sugar, “bad” fats, and unhealthy cooking techniques, and leave in the down-home flavor. Vegan Soul Kitchen recipes use fresh, whole, high-quality, healthy ingredients and cooking methods with a focus on local, seasonal, sustainably raised food.Terry’s new recipes have been conceived through the prism of the African Diaspora — cutting, pasting, reworking, and remixing African, Caribbean, African-American, Native American, and European staples, cooking techniques, and distinctive dishes to create something familiar, comforting, and deliciously unique. Reinterpreting popular dishes from African and Caribbean countries as well as his favorite childhood dishes, Terry reinvents African-American and Southern cuisine — capitalizing on the complex flavors of the tradition, without the animal products.Includes recipes for: Double Mustard Greens & Roasted Yam Soup; Cajun-Creole-Spiced Tempeh Pieces with Creamy Grits; Caramelized Grapefruit, Avocado, and Watercress Salad with Grapefruit Vinaigrette; and Sweet Cornmeal-Coconut Butter Drop Biscuits.

    

2. Life is Short But Wide by J. California Cooper
   (Doubleday, 03/24/09, Hardcover)
   

   Beloved writer J. California Cooper has won a legion of loyal fans and much critical acclaim for her powerful storytelling gifts. In language both spare and direct yet wondrously lyrical, LIFE IS SHORT BUT WIDE is an irresistible story of family that proves no matter who you are or what you do, you are never too old to chase your dreams.Like the small towns J. California Cooper has so vividly portrayed in her previous novels and story collections, Wideland, Oklahoma, is home to ordinary Americans struggling to raise families, eke out a living, and fulfill their dreams. In the early twentieth century, Irene and Val fall in love in Wideland. While carving out a home for themselves, they also allow neighbors Bertha and Joseph to build a house and live on their land. The next generation brings two girls for Irene and Val, and a daughter for Bertha and Joseph. As the families cope with the hardships that come with changing times and fortunes, and people are born and pass away, the characters learn the importance of living one’s life boldly and squeezing out every possible moment of joy. Cooper brilliantly captures the cadences of the South and draws a picture of American life at once down-to-earth and heartwarming in this-as her wise narrator will tell you-”strange, sad, kind’a beautiful, life story.” It is a story about love that leads to the ultimate realization that whoever you are, and whatever you do, life is short, but it is also wide.

    

3. Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
   (Algonquin Books, 03/17/09, Paperback)
   

   In Jordan’s prize-winning debut, prejudice takes many forms, both subtle and brutal. It is 1946, and city-bred Laura McAllan is trying to raise her children on her husband’s Mississippi Delta farm — a place she finds foreign and frightening. In the midst of the family’s struggles, two young men return from the war to work the land. Jamie McAllan, Laura’s brother-in-law, is everything her husband is not — charming, handsome, and haunted by his memories of combat. Ronsel Jackson, eldest son of the black sharecroppers who live on the McAllan farm, has come home with the shine of a war hero. But no matter his bravery in defense of his country, he is still considered less than a man in the Jim Crow South. It is the unlikely friendship of these brothers-in-arms that drives this powerful novel to its inexorable conclusion. The men and women of each family relate their versions of events and we are drawn into their lives as they become players in a tragedy on the grandest scale. As Kingsolver says of Hillary Jordan, “Her characters walked straight out of 1940s Mississippi and into the part of my brain where sympathy and anger and love reside, leaving my heart racing. They are with me still.”

    

4. Life After Wifey by Kiki Swinson
   (Dafina, 03/01/09, Paperback)
   

   Nikki, is in possession of a lot of chilling information that could not only shed light on some unanswered questions, but could also put a lot of dangerous people behind bars for life — including her new boyfriend, Syncere, from New Jersey. Well aware that she is sleeping with the enemy, Nikki knows she must step up her game and take some precautionary measures to protect herself if she plans to seek out Kira shooter. What better place to start on her journey than with the man she shares her bed with? In Life After Wifey, Nikki is going to put herself in some very compromising situations but through it all, she knows that she must never implicate herself and Kira in the plans that ended Ricky and Russell lives. Nikki must suit up with everything Kira has ever taught her about the streets and then prepare for the worst.

    

5. More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (Issues of Our Time) by William Julius Wilson
   (W.W. Norton & Co., 03/09/09, Hardcover)
   

   A preeminent sociologist of race explains a groundbreaking new framework for understanding racial inequality, challenging both conservative and liberal dogma. In this provocative contribution to the American discourse on race, the newest book of the Issues of Our Time series edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr., William Julius Wilson applies an exciting new analytic framework to three politically fraught social problems: the persistence of the inner-city ghetto, the plight of low-skilled black males, and the fragmentation of the African American family. Though the discussion of racial inequality is typically ideologically polarized–conservatives emphasize cultural factors like worldviews and behaviors while liberals emphasize institutional forces–Wilson dares to consider both institutional and cultural factors as causes of the persistence of racial inequality. He reaches the controversial conclusion that, while structural and cultural forces are inextricably linked, public policy can change the racial status quo only by reforming the institutions that reinforce it. This book will dramatically affect policy debates and challenge many of the leaders.

    

6. Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America by Beryl Satter
   (Metropolitan Books, 03/17/09, Hardcover)
   

   Part family story and part urban history, a landmark investigation of segregation and urban decay in Chicago — and cities across the nationThe “promised land” for thousands of Southern blacks, postwar Chicago quickly became the most segregated city in the North, the site of the nation’s worst ghettos and the target of Martin Luther King Jr.’s first campaign beyond the South. In this powerful book, Beryl Satter identifies the true causes of the city’s black slums and the ruin of urban neighborhoods throughout the country: not, as some have argued, black pathology, the culture of poverty, or white flight, but a widespread and institutionalized system of legal and financial exploitation. In Satter’s riveting account of a city in crisis, unscrupulous lawyers, slumlords, and speculators are pitched against religious reformers, community organizers, and an impassioned attorney who launched a crusade against the profiteers — the author’s father, Mark J. Satter. At the heart of the struggle stand the black migrants who, having left the South with its legacy of sharecropping, suddenly find themselves caught in a new kind of debt peonage. Satter shows the interlocking forces at work in their oppression: the discriminatory practices of the banking industry; the federal policies that created the country’s shameful “dual housing market”; the economic anxieties that fueled white violence; and the tempting profits to be made by preying on the city’s most vulnerable population. A monumental work of history, this tale of racism and real estate, politics and finance, will forever change our understanding of the forces that transformed urban America.

    

7. Pitbulls In A Skirt 2 (The Cartel Publications Presents) by Mikal Malone
   (The Cartel Publications, 03/11/09, Paperback)
   

   The four gangstresses you love return to Emerald City more glamorous than ever! A passionate encounter causes Mercedes more than she realizes. With her guards down, her life is eventually put on the line. Always the tough one, Yvette softens her heart for the new love of her life. The problem is, she only expresses it behind closed doors.After a breech in security, Carissa realizes being a gangster is harder than she thought. Not in her right mind and during the worse time in Emerald City’s history, she makes a critical decision. The results will shock you! Influenced by loneliness and driven by love, Kenyetta makes a dangerous move. Bearing her secret alone, she hides her deceit despite the possibility of major chaos. When Cameron is rejected by Mercedes, he seeks assistance from Black Water, a former competitor, to regain control of Emerald. He quickly learns that goons are not to be controlled, they’re to be unleashed. Black Water, Tyland Tower’s drug lord, has been impregnating women for years to use his children to fight his wars. Never in Emerald City’s history has a more vicious man walked the Emerald City grounds. His selfishness rivals that of even Thick. Lil C grows up and gets a big dose of life when he dives head first into the drug game and his girlfriend get’s pregnant. But after a near death experience he transforms into something else. You’ll wonder if it’s for the better or worse?! Tamir, one of Black Water’s older sons, recites his father’s irrational quotes with precision. But when he doesn t get what he wants, he takes it. This small act marks the beginning of an unplanned war. Pitbulls in a skirt 2 is jammed packed with action, devious plots and murder. Find out if the girl’s friendship can keep their city together or be the cause of it falling apart.

    

8. Single Husbands by HoneyB
   (Grand Central Publishing, 03/16/09, Hardcover)
   

   Herschel Henderson said, “I do,” to gain access to his wife’s money, Lexington Lewis vowed for his better and her worse, and Brian Flaw meant until death do we part, yet none of them are dedicated to their wives. Herschel has a mistress that he sexes more than his wife, Lexington is making love to as many women as he can, and Brian is sexing women of every ethnicity because he’s become bored with his wife. The one thing these men do share, is the fact that neither of them will give up the sexual freedom they enjoyed as single men.

    

9. Nobody But You: A Grayson Friends Novel by Francis Ray
   (St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 03/03/09, Mass Market Paperback)
   

   NASCAR star Cameron Dunlap is poised to win this year’s Sprint Cup. But being a successful race-car driver comes with a price: His own life. Cameron knows that his profession puts him at high risk. Thankfully, his latest visit to the hospital left him intact. That is, until he bumps into Caitlin Lawrence…and is thrust back into his painful past.  The one-time love of his life who left him at the altar, Caitlin could never accept Cameron’s fast and furious existence. The threat of losing him on the racetrack was just too much for Caitlin — and the young son Cameron never knew he had. Now that this chance meeting has changed their lives forever, will Caitlin and Cameron find a way to recapture what might have been?

    

10. The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America by Raymond Arsenault
    (Bloomsbury Press, 03/31/09, Hardcover)
    

    Award-winning civil rights historian Ray Arsenault describes the dramatic story behind Marian Anderson’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial — an early milestone in civil rights history — on the seventieth anniversary of her performance. On Easter Sunday 1939, the brilliant vocalist Marian Anderson sang before a throng of seventy-five thousand at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington — an electrifying moment and an underappreciated milestone in civil rights history. Though she was at the peak of a dazzling career, Anderson had been barred from performing at the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Constitution Hall because she was black. When Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR over the incident and took up Anderson’s cause, however, it became a national issue. Like a female Jackie Robinson — but several years before his breakthrough — Anderson rose to a pressure-filled and politically charged occasion with dignity and courage, and struck a vital blow for civil rights. In the 1963 March on Washington, Martin Luther King would follow, literally, in Anderson’s footsteps. T his tightly focused, richly textured narrative by acclaimed historian Raymond Arsenault captures the struggle for racial equality in 1930s America, the quiet heroism of Marian Anderson, and a moment that inspired blacks and whites alike.

     

Bestselling African American Books, February 2009

The Top 10 selling African American books, featuring African American issues and authors, published in February 2009 from Amazon.com (3/15/09).

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
   (Putnam Adult, 02/10/09, Hardcover)
   Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone. Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken. Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women – mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends – view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.
    
2. Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line by Martha A. Sandweiss
   (Penguin Press HC, The, 02/05/09, Hardcover)
   The secret double life of the man who mapped the American West, and the woman he loved Clarence King is a hero of nineteenth century western history; a brilliant scientist and witty conversationalist, best-selling author and architect of the great surveys that mapped the West after the Civil War. Secretary of State John Hay named King – the best and brightest of his generation. But King hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent family in Newport: for thirteen years he lived a double life – as the celebrated white explorer, geologist and writer Clarence King and as a black Pullman porter and steel worker named James Todd. The fair blue-eyed son of a wealthy China trader passed across the color line, revealing his secret to his black common- law wife, Ada Copeland, only on his deathbed. King lied because he wanted to and he lied because he had to. To marry his wife in a public way — as the white man known as Clarence King — would have created a scandal and destroyed his career. At a moment when many mixed-race Americans concealed their African heritage to seize the privileges of white America, King falsely presented himself as a black man in order to marry the woman he loved. Noted historian of the American West Martha Sandweiss is the first writer to uncover the life that King tried so hard to conceal from the public eye. She reveals the complexity of a man who while publicly espousing a personal dream of a uniquely American race, an amalgam of white and black, hid his love for his wife, Ada, and their five biracial children. Passing Strange tells the dramatic tale of a family built along the fault lines of celebrity, class, and race – from the Todd’s wedding in 1888, to the 1964 death of Ada King, one of the last surviving Americans born into slavery.
    
3. Accountable: Making America as Good as Its Promise by Tavis Smiley
   (Atria, 02/17/09, Hardcover)
   Accountable provides real-life examples of how crucial issues — including health care, education, the economy, unequal justice, and the environment — manifest themselves in our communities. The book demonstrates the urgent need to hold politicians and ourselves responsible, because the stakes have never been higher. Accountable examines present-day conditions and the consequences for America. At its core, this book is a tool with which the community can evaluate the successes or failures of its political leaders and of itself. This insightful book acknowledges the mistakes of the past while offering hope and inspiration for a better future.
    
4. Up To No Good by Carl Weber
   (Kensington, 02/01/09, Hardcover)
   There’s always a man around the corner, and church trustee James Black should know–he’s usually that very man. The “New York Times”-bestselling author of “Something on the Side” introduces a deliciously dysfunctional family in this new page-turning novel filled with intrigue, sex, and surprises. Annotation: The Black family has a few issues to work out. The father, James, is finally ready to put his player days behind him and settle down, but his lover is the same age as his daughter, Jamie, who has problems of her own, as she tries to discover the mystery woman who has been stalking her man. Meanwhile, James’s son Darnel catches his fiance in bed with his best friend, Omar, and he finds himself in jail after exacting a brutal vengeance. This is only the beginning of the soap opera, as the family fights to stick together through a series of unbelievable twists and turns, both in the streets and between the sheets.
    
5. Trife Life 2 Lavish (A King Production Presents…) by Deja King
   (A King Production, 02/14/09, Paperback)
   Tierra Thompson has a chip on her shoulder and an ax to grind. She was born in the hood, and at twenty-one she has grown tired of calling it home. After hustling and being hustled by the dealers around the way, the hard truth is setting in and Tierra has to decide if she is willing to sell her soul to escape the grittiness of the streets.Nichelle Martin and Tierra have been best friends since childhood and used to be partners in crime until Nichelle lucked up and became wifey to Renaldo Renny ONeal. Renny is known in the borough of Queens, as being the man who is making all the paper. With Nichelle s new upgraded status, her lifestyle is in stark contrast to the one formerly shared with her best friend Tierra. Escaping the grimy projects that her man now reigns over is proving to be bittersweet for Nichelle.In the hood, with street fame comes greed and jealousy. The need to remain on top, births the most trivial behavior. Can these two best friends keep their bond since childhood intact as both set out to go from Trife Life 2 Lavish?
    
6. 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.
    
7. 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.
    
8. Little Black Girl Lost 4 (v. 4) by Keith Lee Johnson
   (Urban Books, 02/01/09, Paperback)
   
    
9. Secret Love (Arabesque) by Brenda Jackson
   (Kimani Press, 02/01/09, Mass Market Paperback)
   Celebrity actress Diamond Swain needs a peaceful place to hide out from the news-hungry paparazzi – a place like Whispering Pines. And yet from the moment she arrives at the remote Texas ranch, Diamond finds herself at odds with its rugged owner, Jake Madaris – man who challenges her to care about more than making it to the top.Jake doesn’t have time to babysit some Hollywood star. Then he comes face-to-face with beautiful, compassionate Diamond and is drawn into a whirlwind, secret romance. But is what he shares with her strong enough to overcome the media’s prying eyes? Together Jake and Diamond must discover what’s truly important – if they’re to claim a love that lasts a lifetime.
    
10. Obama: The Historic Journey: Young Reader’s Edition (New York Times Book) by The New York Times
    (Callaway, 02/16/09, Hardcover)
    Obama: The Historic Journey: Young Reader’s Edition brings readers the extraordinary story of Barack Obama’s voyage from childhood through his inauguration as the 44th president of the United States of America. His election marked an unprecedented step forward in American history, shattering racial barriers and forever altering the political landscape. No other news source has better captured his story than The New York Times, America’s premier newspaper and the winner of 96 Pulitzer Prizes for journalism. With an astounding array of visual imagery, along with in-depth reporting that has been specially adapted for young readers, this beautifully produced volume gives children a comprehensive portrait of the man whose inspiring message has touched people the world over. Children will be fascinated by the “skinny kid with the funny name” who rose to become America’s first African-American president.