January 2008
Color Me Butterfly by L.Y. Marlow
Spanning over sixty years, this poignant well-written book tells the story of four generations of mothers and daughters who embrace a legacy of unconditional love, old-fashioned family values, and faith to triumph over a life plagued with unspeakable abuse and pain.
Written with the flow of a novel, with frank wisdom and wit, Color Me Butterfly encourages the reader to immerse themselves into this family's life and become an advocate for change. It will incite discussion, debate, and heightened awareness about intergenerational abuse and its impact on our society. In the end, it will leave readers applauding the women of this story for their courage and strength and wanting to champion change for all women whose story shares the same face.
February 2008
Passin' by Karen E. Quinones Miller
Shanika Ann Jenkins is the pride of her African-American family; smart, beautiful, and born with blue eyes and blonde hair.Though her grandmother and father are happy because she represents years of passing down light skin and marrying well, Shanika's mother insists on her name reflecting her African-American heritage so that she will always be proud of who she is.When Shanika gets the opportunity to work for a PR firm in New York, she finds that everyone assumes she is white; she also notices that being white has it advantages, from getting respect at work to getting picked up by a cab when other African-Americans are passed by.When she starts dating a successful white colleague, she continues with the lie, despite the guilt she feels at disappointing her mother and her heritage.When she falls for a handsome African-American business man, she must finally face who she is and what she's done, even if it means losing everything and everyone she loves.
March 2008
Man Up: Nobody is Coming to Save Us by Steve Perry
Man Up! is a hard hitting, hig, introspective look into what the Black community must do to save itself. Finally, a voice speaks to the complex relationship between personal and community responsibility. Steve Perry effectively calls to task organizations such as the NAACP and the Black church as well as talking heads like Michael Eric Dyson and Cornell West for their role in the retardation of the Black community. Ultimately Man Up! is about the simple solutions offered in each chapter.
April 2008
Suddenly Single by Shana Burton
How does a woman know when she's found the one? Most know after a few bad dates and broken hearts but for Vashti Hunter, it also took being left at the altar, arrested, the other woman, and an affair with her pastor before she finally figured it out.
Vashti Hunter knew that something was wrong when she received her fiancé's nervous phone call the night before their wedding. Her worst fears are confirmed when he leaves her alone and humiliated at the altar. After a bout depression, Vashti regroups and begins dating again, vowing to be married again within the next 365 days.
After a roller-coaster ride of dating disasters, Vashti not only discovers what she does not want in a mate, but who she is in the process. When she finally evolves into the woman she wants to be, she meets and falls for gentle and Christ-minded Lewis Brown, who is twenty years her senior. When Vashti is on the verge of accepting Lewis's marriage proposal, her long-lost fiancé returns, remorseful and wanting another chance. While Vashti's head tells her that she belongs with Lewis, her heart won't let her forget the past or the man who broke her heart.
May 2008
Orange Mint and Honey by Carleen Brice
Broke and burned-out from grad school, Shay Dixon does the unthinkable after receiving a “vision” from her de facto spiritual adviser, blues singer Nina Simone. She phones Nona, the mother she had all but written off, asking if she can come home for a while.
When Shay was growing up, Nona was either drunk, hungover, or out with her latest low-life guy. So Shay barely recognizes the new Nona, now sober and with a positive outlook on life, a love of gardening, and a toddler named Sunny. Though reconciliation seems a hard proposition for Shay, something unmistakable is taking root inside her, waiting to blossom like the morning glories opening up in Nona’s garden sanctuary.
Soon Shay finds herself facing exciting possibilities and even her first real romantic relationship. But when an unexpected crisis hits, even the wise words and soulful melodies of Nina Simone may not be enough for solace. Shay begins to realize that, like orange mint and honey, sometimes life tastes better when bitter is followed by sweet.
June 2008
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years-from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding-that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives-the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness-are inextricable from the history playing out around them.
Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love-a stunning accomplishment
July 2008
Too Little, Too Late by Victoria Christopher Murray
Jasmine Larson Bush returns to her devious ways in this tale of two marriages -- each threatened by lies and betrayal. She took marriage vows to be honest and true, but Jasmine's still hiding secrets to keep her husband, Minister Hosea Bush, by her side. When Hosea's ex-fiancée, Natasia, suddenly appears in New York, Jasmine knows it's not a coincidence. A former manstealer herself, Jasmine is very aware of Natasia's motives -- even if Hosea is not.
Complicating Jasmine's life is the secret she's kept from her baby's daddy. Luckily for her, Brian Lewis has problems of his own. His wife, Alexis, is convinced he's cheating on her -- but Brian's real betrayal is much worse. Revealing the truth to his wife could lead him back to the biggest mistake of his life...Jasmine.
Two marriages are in desperate jeopardy. Will Jasmine be able to scheme to save her own? Or will she have to choose between protecting her past and compromising her future? Even if Jasmine and Brian find the courage to stop the lies, it may be too little, too late....
August 2008
Some People, Some Other Place by J. California Cooper
An unborn child narrates Cooper's earthy fourth novel, which, through a minute exploration of the lives and loves of the residents of Dream Street in the town of Place, aims to unveil the vastness of human experience. At the heart of the novel is the narrator's future mother, Eula Too. Born to a poor African-American family in a small town outside of Chicago, Eula Too spent her early years caring for her numerous younger siblings, finding time to sneak away for lessons with a beloved teacher and letting an impotent chauffeur touch her for spending money. When she eventually flees home, hoping for a better life in Depression-era Chicago, she is raped and abandoned, only to be discovered by the rich owner of a high-class brothel. Madame LaFon takes Eula Too in, not as a future prostitute but as a friend. The years pass and Eula Too, now a loving, moral young woman, accompanies Madame to her hometown of Place, where she endeavors to turn the neighborhood into a haven of love and goodwill. A certain didacticism—about politics, rich-poor relations and the importance of morality—gives the tale added depth, if also a kind of heavy-handedness. Cooper's (The Wake of the Wind) simple, plain writing and unequivocal regard for all people stand out in a novel scattered in narrative but united in its humanity.
September 2008
Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess
With her father imprisoned, 15-year-old Meredith thinks she could live out her high-school days safely, but when he is released early for good behavior, her security is shattered. A popular youth baseball coach, her father has abused Mer as well as other boys and girls. With strict orders that he not be left alone with his daughter, he is returned to the condo complex where she and her mother live. In contrast to Mer's terror, her mother is giddy with delight at his return, and together the reunited couple plans to conceive another child. Yet in the shadows and stillness, Mer's nightmare begins anew. This is a gritty, terrifying novel about a father's abuse of power and trust, and the way two different teens, Meredith and her paraplegic friend, Andy, deal with that reality. Although not explicit, the novel is honest in its telling. Admittedly sensational, Wiess' story is a page-turner that ultimately sends a startling message of empowerment that, while improbable, is extremely satisfying.
November 2008
Them by Nathan McCall
Nathan McCall's novel, Them, tells a compelling story set in a downtown Atlanta neighborhood known for its main street, Auburn Avenue, which once was regarded as the "richest Negro street in the world."
The story centers around Barlowe Reed, a single, forty-something African American who rents a ramshackle house on Randolph Street, just a stone's throw from the historic birth home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Barlowe, who works as a printer, otherwise passes the time reading and hanging out with other men at the corner store. He shares his home and loner existence with a streetwise, twentysomething nephew who is struggling to get his troubled life back on track.
When Sean and Sandy Gilmore, a young white couple, move in next door, Barlowe and Sandy develop a reluctant, complex friendship as they hold probing -- often frustrating -- conversations over the backyard fence.
Members of both households, and their neighbors as well, try to go about their business, tending to their homes and jobs. However, fear and suspicion build -- and clashes ensue -- with each passing day, as more and more new whites move in and make changes and once familiar people and places disappear.
Using a blend of superbly developed characters in a story that captures the essence of this country's struggles with the unsettling realities of gentrification, McCall has produced a truly great American novel.
December 2008
Baby Proof by Emily Griffin
From the author of the smash hits Something Borrowed and Something Blue comes a novel that explores the question: is there ever a deal-breaker when it comes to true love?
First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes . . . a baby carriage? Isn’t that what all women want?
Not so for Claudia Parr. And just as she gives up on finding a man who feels the same way, she meets warm, wonderful Ben. Things seem too good to be true when they fall in love and agree to buck tradition with a satisfying, child-free marriage. Then the unexpected occurs: one of them has a change of heart. One of them wants children after all.
This is the witty, heartfelt story about what happens to the perfect couple when they suddenly want different things. It’s about feeling that your life is set and then realizing that nothing is as you thought it was---and that there is no possible compromise. It’s about deciding what is most important in life, and taking chances to get it. But most of all, it’s about the things we will do---and won’t do---for love.