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I Know Who Holds Tomorrow
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by Francis Ray
Format: paperback, 352 pages
ISBN: 0-312-30050-6
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: April 2002
Madison Reed, popular talk show host never imagined that her life would be turned upside down forever when her husband, Wesley dies in a tragic car accident. True they had been no more than polite strangers, but she is shocked to her core when Wes confesses that has a daughter, a nine-month-old daughter by his long-time lover, who also died in the car crash and begs her to care for Manda. Now she is not even sure if she can trust Zachary, her husband's best friend, the man who had been privy to all his secrets. But it's his strength that gets her through the rough times. And as she grows closer and closer to this child, she finds herself also drawn a man who's past is shrouded in lies. Together they must learn to face the truth if they ever hope to heal the pain.
"Definitely recommended." --- New York Times best-selling author, Eric Jerome Dickey
"With flair, Francis Ray gives each character immense heart and humanity. . ." --- Yolanda Joe, author of This Just In
Sisters of Theta Phi Kappa
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by Kayla Perrin
Format: paperback, 352 pages
ISBN: 0-312-30521-4
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: October 2002
Jessica, Ellie, Shereen, and Yolanda: four women who are the brightest stars of Theta Phi Kappa Sorority at Howard University. Jessica is the poised one: always ladylike, always saying the proper thing. Ellie is the quiet one, but still waters run deep. Shereen is the leader, the one to whom they all turn for advice. Yolanda is the rebel, desperately trying to escape her roots. When Jessica has an affair with a married professor, she becomes pregnant with his child. In order to save her reputation, she claims rape and the four women promise to stick by the story. But none of them anticipate the devastating consequences of their lie and they never guess that years later the lie will come back to destroy them.
"Kayla Perrin is a prolific writer that everyone should read. She combines mystery and romance with ease. Read and enjoy." -Eric Jerome Dickey
"Not just a story of female bonding and friendship but a skillfully written combination of romance and mystery." --Booklist
"Powerful...passionate, fast-paced romantic suspense." --Romantic Times
Rhythms
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by Donna Hill
Format: paperback, 336 pages
ISBN: 0-312-30069-7
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: September 2002
Rhythms begins in the Mississippi Delta in 1927, introducing three incredible women, Cora, the matriarch of two generations; Emma, her embittered and troubled daughter; and Parris, her beloved and talented granddaughter, both of whom are affected by Cora's seventy-five year old secret.
Effectively examining the themes of love, family ties, prejudice, and social barriers, Rhythms deftly reveals the challenges of growing up biracial in America, the destruction born of family secrets and betrayal, and of dreams deferred and reached. Ultimately, Rhythms is a novel that speaks to the power of love, hope and forgiveness.
"A moving saga of three generations of black women..."--Essence
"Heartfelt vividness. . ." --Kirkus
"An irresistible, one-sitting read." --Black Issues Book Review
"Hill's novel makes for dramatic reading." --Booklist
Ties that Bind
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by Brenda Jackson
Format: paperback, 360 pages
ISBN: 0-312-30611-3
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: November 2002
It all started in college, 1965, where two women and two men, Jenna and Randolph, Leigh and Noah, became lovers and the best of friends. They saw each other through final exams, the Vietnam War, the thrill of falling in love, the pain of broken hearts, the joy of new life, the sorrow of death--and, yes all the other drama that came in between that too. Their bonds were tested, but through it all their ties to each other remained true.
Told with her trademark passion and sensuality, Ties that Bind is a dramatic, moving story that examines the relationships between friends and lovers who eventually also become family.
Homemade Love
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by J. California Cooper
Format: paperback, 192 pages
ISBN: 0-312-19465-X
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: December 1998
Cooper's second collection of wise and exhilarating stories about small town life and people. Often compared to Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, Cooper's short work is filled with enthusiasm for life itself as well as the rural wisdom of the classic folk tale. One of the most significant black writers of our time, Cooper's work in HOMEMADE LOVE is timeless.
Some Soul to Keep
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by J. California Cooper
Format: paperback, 224 pages
ISBN: 0-312-19337-8
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: December 1998
Cooper's third collection of stories of simple people, stories of families and fate, of love and marriage, of death and triumph of the human spirit. Exuberant and heart-warming, Cooper is the living embodiment of the simple folk tradition in black writing associated most often with Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. The author of two novels and five story collections, it is her stories that have achieved the most acclaim and the broadest audience. SOME SOUL TO KEEP is amongst the finest and most enduring of her work.
Woman that I Am
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by D. Soyini Madison
Format: paperback, 720 pages
ISBN: 0-312-15296-5
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: March 1997
Selected to represent a diversity of voices, styles, and genres, The Woman That I Am gathers 126 works of contemporary fiction, poetry, drama, autobiography, and culture criticism by American women of color—African American, Asian American, Latina American, and Native American. This collection includes writings by new voices, as well as by Alice Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maxine Hong Kingston, Louise Erdrich, Paule Marshall, Amy Tan, Toni Morrison, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Leslie Marmon Silko, Maya Angelou, Rita Dove, June Jordan, Lucille Clifton, Ntozake Shange, Nikki Giovanni, and others.
"A precious and moving textbook of United States literary expression."—Judy Simmons, Ms. magazine
"Provide[s] rich examples of the art and thought of contemporary women of color."—The Seattle Times
"You can open this book of riches to almost any page and come away awed."—Lois Blinchorn, The Milwaukee Journal
"Richly diverse . . . it offers to all the chance to learn by rejoicing in and savoring a literary cornucopia."—Booklist
When All Hell Breaks Loose
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Format: paperback, 256 pages
ISBN: 0-312-26793-2
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: October 2000
A Number One Blackboard bestseller, WHEN ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE is a fast and funny debut novel about black twenty-somethings--and a peek into the minds of young black men. When Gregory Alston proposes to his girlfriend of three years, Adrian Jenkins, all hell breaks loose. His mother returns from abroad, where she's been living as a jazz singer since leaving her family twenty years before. His Holy Roller sister, Shreese, complains that Adrian is too worldly for him, even though she herself is falling for the shady, charismatic pastor of her church. And his friends react to the engagement with grief and disbelief. As if that's not enough, Adrian has more skeletons in her closet than a haunted house. What's a guy to do? Fast-paced, extremely sexy, and hilarious, WHEN ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE will strike a nerve--and a funny bone.
"A refreshing look at relationships...impossible to put down. Spencer takes a place with popular writer E.Lynn Harris." -- USA Today
"Spencer knows how to develop characters...Compelling."--Detroit Free Press
Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You
Made
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by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant
Format: paperback, 405 pages
ISBN: 0-312-28843-3
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: January 2002
Gayle Saunders and Patricia Reid were total opposites who chose each other as best friends when they were children. Through the years they were raised together, as close as sisters. Gayle, the beauty pampered by her working-class parents, believes a man will make her world complete. Pat, the brainy one, is the hand-me-down child whose mystery parentage haunts her. She's determined to finally make a home for herself: in the executive suite at the top of her career. And then there is Marcus Carter, linked to both women from the moment a childhood tragedy bonds them in secrecy. TRYIN TO SLEEP IN THE BED YOU MADE is more than a novel--it's the reading experience that swept the country. You will be drawn into the lives of these honest and believable characters from the first page--and they won't let you go until the last.
"Refreshingly honest" -Publishers Weekly
"An engaging novel" -Essence
"An intricate, exciting tale of success and twists of fate." -Boston Herald
"A moving story...vividly realistic" -Midwest Book Review
That's Blaxploitation: Roots of
the Baadasssss ‘Tude
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by Darius James
Format: paperback, 224 pages
ISBN: 0-312-13192-5
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: December 1995
Featuring funky soundtracks, pimp-suit fashions, and oodles of attitude, the "blaxploitation" movies of the 1970s gave audiences fast action within simple plots involving cartoonish characters straight out of a cultural garage sale. In this book, Darius James proudly runs through those and other defining characteristics of the sassy film genre, and in the process profiles such key players as modern black cinema pioneer Melvin Van Peebles; actor Richard Roundtree; underrated actress Tamara Dobson (Cleopatra Jones); and the ultimate godmother, the lubricious Pam Grier.
Profusely illustrated and engagingly written, this book features also offers analyses of individual films and, among the interviewees, the interesting inclusion of white cartoonist Ralph Bakshi (Coonskin, Fritz the Cat, etc.). All students and scholars of film and culture in America will be fascinated, for example, as Bakshi draws creative connections between his work and both George Herriman's comic strip, Krazy Kat, and the music of jazz giant John Coltrane.
This Mother's Daughter
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by Nelvia M. Brady
Format: paperback, 160 pages
ISBN: 0-312-27833-0
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: May 2001
A warm and engaging collection of African-American wisdom handed down from mother to daughter. "Life will offer you either lessons or blessings," is one mother's instructions in This Mother's Daughter. The author has interviewed women of all ages, from all walks of life and various stages of maternal relationships. Told from the daughter's perspective, the stories progress from early childhood to senior age. With stories that are alternately candid, humorous and painful, twenty daughters from all walks of life recount their rites of passage on topics such as maternal bonding, adoption, inter-racial family relationships, money, advice, promiscuity, and relationship violence. Women will be encouraged to open dialogue with their mothers to gain insight into their own lives.
Fathering
Words
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Format: paperback, 192 pages
ISBN: 0-312-27013-5
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: June 2001
With frank insight, Miller recreates the steps that led to his career choices. From his childhood in the South Bronx, to his college days at Howard University, to his own evolution into a father and husband, Miller explores how his family and friends shaped his life. In particular, his father Egberto, who came to the U.S. from Panama, and his older brother Richard, who became a monk and died young.
With straightforward honesty punctuated by humor and warmth, the quietly pensive Miller tells the original yet universal true story of fathers and sons.
"A poignant memoir that belongs in all collections of poetry and African American literature."--Library Journal
"Fathering Words is a book of many faces. It is an open-veined and honest thing, packed with poetic moves."--Washington Post
"Modest and sincere, this restrained memoir also succeeds as a superb document of the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s and the current African-American literary scene."--Publishers Weekly
The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White
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by Henry Wiencek
Format: paperback, 400 pages
ISBN: 0-312-25393-1
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: February 2000
The Hairstons is the extraordinary story of the largest family in America, the Hairston clan. With several thousand black and white members, the Hairstons share a complex and compelling history: divided in the time of slavery, they have come to embrace their past as one family.
The black family's story is most exceptional. It is the true account of the triumphant rise of a remarkable people--the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of slaves--who took their rightful place in mainstream America. In contrast, it has been the fate of the white family--once one of the wealthiest in America--to endure the decline and fall of the Old South.
As told in this remarkable book, the history of the Hairston family serves as a key for Americans to understand, and to help undo, the damaging legacy of slavery.
"A powerful testament...scrupulous and honest in all respects."- Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World
"Epic...enthralling...Wiencek creates a profound understanding of slavery."-Howard Kissel, New York Daily News
All on Fire:
William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery
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by Henry Mayer
Format: paperback, 704 pages
ISBN: 0-312-25367-2
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: February 2000
In All on Fire, William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) emerges as an American hero, arguably on par with Abraham Lincoln, who forced the nation to confront the explosive issue of slavery.
Mayer maintains that Garrison, a self-made man of scanty formal education who founded and edited the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, not only served as the catalyst for the abolition of slavery, but inspired two generations of activists in civil rights and the women's movement.
Through Garrison, tragically torn between pacifism and abolitionist advocacy, we also meet a rich pageant of great 19th-century historical figures, including Frederick Douglass, John Quincy Adams,and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Mayer's consequential biography will be read for generations to come.
"A spectacular achievement."-Jonathan Kozol
"This eloquent, powerful biography may well inspire the coming generation to do for our time what Garrison did for his."-Howard Zinn
"This is a masterpiece. Brilliantly written and intelligently constructed."
-Annette Gordon-Reed, author of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
Lazarus and the Hurricane: The
Freeing of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter
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by Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton
Format: paperback, 384 pages
ISBN: 0-312-25397-4
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: January 2000
This remarkable true story begins in a Brooklyn ghetto when a group of Canadians meet Lesra, an illiterate black teenager who won their hearts. They end up bringing him to Toronto to help with his education and, while learning to read, Lesra finds a copy of Rubin Hurricane's The Sixteenth Round.
Rubin Carter, the subject of Bob Dylan's song "Hurricane", was a #1 middleweight boxing contender, who had been wrongfully imprisoned after a white jury found him guilty of the murder of three whites in 1966. A huge public outcry followed the publication of Carter's book in 1974, culminating in a retrial, which was a virtual reenactment of the original travesty, with Carter receiving the same triple-life sentence.
Inspired by Lesra's passion, his adopted Canadian family made contact with Carter and reinvigorated the legal battle. Lazarus and the Hurricane is the moving story of the eight year struggle Carter and his Canadian friends waged to win his exoneration and freedom.
"Young Lazarus will win your heart and the Hurricane will inspire you."--Coretta Scott King
Blue vs. Black: Let’s End the Conflict Between Cops and Minorities
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by John L. Burris and Catherine Whitney
Format: paperback, 256 pages
ISBN: 0-312-26296-5
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: October 2000
Many of us believe that cases of police brutality are isolated events, having no bearing on our own lives. But incidents of cop violence against minority citizens have become far too common everywhere in America, and the problem affects us all.
In Blue vs. Black, John L. Burris, a nationally renowned civil rights attorney, tells the true, heartbreaking stories of many of them. Burris presents with compassion and insight a measured analysis of tensions between police and the people they are meant to protect, and he offers solutions for ending the cycle of police and civilian distrust.
"Constructive, measured in tone, it's a book all Blacks should read."--Essence Magazine
"An alarming chronicle of police brutality."--Washington Post
"Provides a promising call to action in the ongoing debate about this persistent societal blight."--Publishers Weekly
Terry
McMillan
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by Diane Patrick
Format: paperback, 240 pages
ISBN: 0-312-26785-1
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: December 2000
A biography of the best-selling author of Waiting to Exhale and other contemporary classics. Novelist Terry McMillan is widely considered the preeminent voice of young, professional, African- American women today. Her novels Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back have become touchstones for a culture that in the past has often been dismissed, or worse, ignored.
But the story of her life is as compelling and inspirational as any of her novels. McMillan was born in Port Huron, Michigan, and raised by her mother. Instead of staying in her small town, she gambled on a brighter future: with only a dream and meager savings, she moved to California where she began writing. Later she left for New York City, where she struggled as a single mother and office clerk before she finally found acceptance for her work. Through tireless promotion, McMillan found millions of fans, both black and white, and in the process changed the way the book industry looks at Black America.
Otis!: The Otis Redding
Story
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by Scott Freeman
Format: paperback, 272 pages
ISBN: 0-312-30297-5
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: September 2002
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, soul brother #1, Otis Redding exploded onto the music scene in 1963 with "These Arms of Mine," which went on to hit the top twenty on the R&B charts. Inspired by singers such as Sam Cooke and Little Richard, Otis was on his way with 14 more of his songs hitting the top twenty. His appearance in front of a predominantly white audience at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival sealed his crossover success. On December 10, 1967, only three days after recording his greatest hit ever, "[Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay," Otis Redding died in a fateful plane crash. Otis! is a celebration of this legend's life, music and of the man himself.
Boogie Man: The Adventures of
John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century
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by Charles Shaar Murray
Format: paperback, 512 pages
ISBN: 0-312-27006-2
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: March 2002
The authorized and authoritative biography of the last of the Mississippi Delta bluesmen and his times. Award-winning rock critic Charles Schaar Murray explores the life and times of a legend whose career has spanned more than half a century. The result is an unforgettable portrait of John Lee Hooker, as well as a comprehensive and compelling history of the blues and the southern black experience in America. Hits like "Boogie Chillen" and the best-selling album "Hooker 'n' Heat" assured Hooker's reputation as the foremost blues musician of the era. In 1989, came the Grammy-winning "The Healer," featuring Carlos Santana and Bonnie Raitt among other luminaries.
Murray has ferreted out every available source, interviewing everyone from Pete Townshend to Hooker's ex-brother-in-law, and, most remarkably, convincing Hooker himself to speak about nearly every aspect of his life.
"(A) meticulously researched portrait...Hooker comes to life as a petulant, triumphant figure: complex and sometimes just unknowable, but as a genius for whom blues is as vital as a heartbeat."--Rolling Stone
"Surely the most exhaustive biography of any bluesman."--Chicago Tribune
Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America
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by Lori L. Tharps and Ayana D. Byrd
Format: paperback, 208 pages
ISBN: 0-312-28322-9
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: February 2002
An entertaining, historical, and anecdotal exploration of the history of black hair. HAIR STORY is a chronological look at the culture and politics behind the ever-changing state of Black hair--from fifteenth-century Africa to the present-day United States, and it ties the personal to the political and the popular. HAIR STORY is the book that Black Americans can use as a benchmark for tracing a unique aspect of their history, and it's a book that people of all races will celebrate as the reference guide for understanding Black hair.
"An engaging look at what has become a major status symbol among African-Americans...an impressive work of cultural history"—Bookpage
Hidden Witness: African American
Images from the Dawn of Photography to the Civil War
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by Jackie Napolean Wilson
Format: paperback, 144 pages
ISBN: 0-312-26747-9
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: February 2002
A collection of incredibly rare images of African Americans taken just before, during and after the Civil War. As slaves African Americans were virtually invisible to history. Even after the civil war there were not many African American photographers, and very few black people had the time, money or freedom for a portrait sitting. Consequently only a few hundred such pictures have survived from that time to bear witness to slaves and the lives they led.
Jackie Napolean Wilson, whose own grandfather was born a slave in South Carolina between about l853 and l855, has assembled the most comprehensive and significant collection of such images ever brought together in one place. The concrete reality of daguerreotypes and tintypes presents these men and women in situations and attire that bring the truth of their daily lives much closer to us. Scenes of material affection, matrimony, war and the grim reality of the master/slave relationship help focus our perceptions of the African American experience in America in ways not otherwise available to the modern reader of history.
Making Callaloo: 25 Years
of Black Literature
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by Charles Henry Rowell
Format: paperback, 320 pages
ISBN: 0-312-28898-0
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: January 2002
A stunning anthology of African-American literature featuring some of the most prominent authors today. The Great Black Writers is a truly compelling collection of poetry and fiction by some of the most important names in Black literature today, all previously published within the pages of Callaloo. Founded in 1976 by Charles Henry Rowell, a professor at the University of Virginia, Callaloo has become national and international in scope and readership and is considered one of the premier literary journals of African-American and African arts and letters. In celebration of the journal's 25th anniversary and its history of great Black literature, comes an anthology featuring short stories and poetry from writers such as:
-
Alice Walker
- Ralph Ellison
-
Terry McMillan
- Edwidge Danticat
- Ernest Gaines
- Octavia Butler
- Rita Dove
- Sonia Sanchez
- and many more.
This anthology is sure to thrill all fans of African-American literature and poetry, as well as students and scholars.
Making of Kind of Blue: Miles
Davis and His Masterpiece
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by Eric Nisenson
Format: paperback, 256 pages
ISBN: 0-312-28408-X
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: October 2001
The recording sessions behind the greatest jazz album of all time are revealed. From the moment it was recorded more than 40 years ago, Miles Davis's Kind of Blue was hailed as a jazz classic. To this day it remains the best-selling jazz album of all time, embraced by fans of all musical genres. The Making of Kind of Blue is an exhaustively researched examination of how this masterpiece was born. Recorded with pianist Bill Evans, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, composer/theorist George Russell, Cannonball Adderly and Miles himself, the album represented a fortuitous conflation of some of the real giants of the jazz world, at a time when they were at the top of their musical game. The end result was a recording that would forever change the face of American music.
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