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African American Fiction & Nonfiction May 2018
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Better Late Than Never by Kimberla Lawson RobyThe past never stays where it belongs...
Curtis Black is no stranger to scandal. Throughout the decades, he has done much in the public eye, both good and evil. But what most people don't realize is that Curtis has been hiding a horrific childhood that has affected him in countless, unspeakable ways.
His buried past returns in an unwelcome visit when his estranged sister becomes alarmingly ill and his youngest child, twelve-year-old Curtina, becomes the kind of problem daughter that he never imagined she could be. This is only the beginning. The horror of Curtis's childhood secrets, as well as Curtina's wild and rebellious behavior, takes a critical toll on Curtis and the entire Black family. All the public scandals they've experienced over the years now seem like child's play compared to the turmoil they are facing in private. Who could have known that the deepest wounds would come from within?
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How to Love a Jamaican : Stories by Alexia ArthursFrom a magnetic new voice, a debut story collection set in Jamaica and America for readers of Zadie Smith, Helen Oyeyemi, and Imbolo Mbue.
“There is a way to be cruel that seems Jamaican to me.”
Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret—Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life.
In “Light Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands,” an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In “Mash Up Love,” a twin’s chance sighting of his estranged brother—the prodigal son of the family—stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In “Bad Behavior,” a mother and father leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In “Mermaid River,” a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In “The Ghost of Jia Yi,” a recently murdered international student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in “Shirley from a Small Place,” a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother’s big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital.
The winner of The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize for “Bad Behavior,” Alexia Arthurs emerges in this vibrant, lyrical, intimate collection as one of fiction’s most dynamic and essential young authors.
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Black Panther : Long Live the King by Nnedi OkoraforHEAVY IS THE HEAD THAT WEARS THE CROWN! As the Black Panther and an Avenger, T'Challa has had to save the world time and again - but those duties pale in comparison to his responsibilities as king of Wakanda. As the nation rebuilds in the wake of revolution, T'Challa finds his people besieged by a massive monster tearing through the country, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake! From acclaimed novelist NNEDI OKORAFOR (Binti, Who Fears Death) and illustrator ANDRE LIMA ARAUJO (SPIDEY, The Wicked + The Divine) comes an adventure set in the world of Ta-Nehisi Coates' landmark BLACK PANTHER run and told in the Mighty Marvel Manner! Collects Black Panther - Long Live The King #1-6.
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When I'm With You by Donna HillThe bad-boy heir to the Lawson dynasty has found love!
Until his past threatens the future…
Longtime New Orleans bachelor Rafe Lawson is finally ready to tie the knot. His heart has been captured by gorgeous senator’s daughter Avery Richards. Then the media descends, jeopardizing her Secret Service career—and their imminent wedding. But it’s the unexpected return of Rafe’s first love that could cost the tycoon everything.
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It Must Be Love by Nicki NightJewel Chandler's list of boyfriend requirements is extensive--and Sterling Bishop doesn't meet any of them. Sure, the wealthy businessman is gorgeous, but he also has an ex-wife and a young daughter. Sterling knows he's the only man for Jewel, and the sexy heiress's efforts to keep him away only fuels his determination. When steamy days melt into desire-fueled nights, Jewel wonders if he's truly the one for her.
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Pleasure in His Kiss by Pamela YayeThey're living their most passionate dream…but will her scandalous secret cost her his love? Beauty blogger and owner of the Hamptons' hottest salon, Karma Sullivan has been swept off her feet by judge Morrison Drake. But she knows their passion–filled nights must end. She can't let her family secret derail Morrison's ambitious career plan. Even if it means giving up the man she loves…
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If Only for One Night by Victoria Christopher MurrayFrom the outside, Angelique has the perfect life - a rich husband who adores her and gives her the world, except for what she craves most - his attention. A workaholic, more concerned with his family's financial situation than emotional stability, Preston doesn't understand why his wife is so unhappy. Not one to stray, Angelique seeks comfort in the online game, Words With Friends. Blu has been living a life of loneliness since his wife settled into a depression she has no desire to shake. Frustrated and fed up, he loses himself in his favorite game - and the woman that has proven to be a formidable opponent. It's not long before their online connection turns flirtatious and troubles at home lead them to a face-to-face meeting. And eventually an addictive connection that will have them questioning if they're truly soulmates or if they were destined for only one night.
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Carl Weber's Kingpins: Dallas by Treasure HernandezShe has everything a girl could ever want, except a normal life. Not understanding that being the daughter of Dallas, Texas kingpin makes her a walking target, she does everything she can to defy her father, including losing her virginity when she falls hard for the charm of a boy she barely knows. She’s unaware of the boy’s true plans for her, and truths soon turn to deadly lies. Before she knows it, she is left alone, with nowhere to go. She is tossed into a world that she knows nothing about, and the cruelties are unimaginable.
Lost in the underworld, with no friends or family, she realizes that her father hadn't done her any favors by keeping her sheltered. He came up from the mud, and she wishes he would have shown her how messy it could get. But now it is too late. With his empire up for grabs, it turns the people that she once trusted into bloodthirsty hounds. Will she be able to reclaim what is rightfully hers, or will she be too broken to even stand up on her own two feet?
Follow Treasure Hernandez as she gives you the heartwrenching story of love . . . and blood.
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Carl Weber's Kingpins: Los Angelesby C. N. PhillipsEver since he was a child, the only thing Cyril Anderson wanted was to be down with his brother Cane's crew. Cane Anderson, leader of the notorious Bankroll Crips, was invincible--or so Cyril thought. On the night of Cyril's initiation, things take a terrible turn and leave Cane lying dead in a pool of his own blood. Now the leader of a blood-thirsty gang, there is only one thing that Cyril wants to do: seek revenge.
When he learns that the man behind Cane's death is none other than Arnell "Dubb" Lewis, the current kingpin of Los Angeles, it is up to Cyril to figure out why. He begins a bloody journey to redemption with a heart as black as the night sky and a team of loyal hitters behind him.
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In Make It Rain! Areva breaks the silence to reveal what insiders know about the power of media appearances to revolutionize a business and brand and get your core message out to the people who need it most.
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Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale HurstonA major literary event: a never-before-published work from the author of the American classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God which brilliantly illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade—illegally smuggled from Africa on the last "Black Cargo" ship to arrive in the United States.
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, to interview ninety-five-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation’s history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo’s firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States.
In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile founded by Cudjo and other former slaves from his ship. Spending more than three months there, she talked in depth with Cudjo about the details of his life. During those weeks, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjo’s past—memories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilde, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War.
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I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing BrownFrom a powerful new voice on racial justice, an eye-opening account of growing up Black, Christian, and female in middle-class white America.
Austin Channing Brown's first encounter with a racialized America came at age 7, when she discovered her parents named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. Growing up in majority-white schools, organizations, and churches, Austin writes, "I had to learn what it means to love blackness," a journey that led to a lifetime spent navigating America's racial divide as a writer, speaker and expert who helps organizations practice genuine inclusion.
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Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney CooperA leading young black feminist illuminates how organized anger, friendship and faith can be powerful sources of positive feminist change, explaining how targeted rage has shaped the careers of such African-American notables as Serena Williams, Beyoncé and Michelle Obama.
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Don't Give Up on Me: Shedding Light on Addiction With Darryl Strawberry by Shawn PowellDon’t Give Up on Me skillfully weaves Darryl’s story of childhood abuse, anxiety, drug and alcohol addiction, and ultimately, recovery, with easy-to-understand explanations of addiction from trained professionals. Presented through the eyes of a psychoanalyst, neuropsychiatrist, licensed clinical social worker, and addiction specialist, this book offers hope and a path to healing. By shedding the light on addiction, Don’t Give Up on Me speaks to all people – from those who are still trapped in the depths of addiction to those who are currently in recovery to caregivers, parents, friends, and therapists. This book also stresses the importance of good parenting–feelings of low self-esteem, low self-worth, bullying, as well as emotional and physical pain, can sow the seeds of substance abuse at an early age. Whether the addiction is to alcohol, heroin or other opiates, gambling, food, or sex, this book shares the hard truths and hopeful messages for anyone impacted by this deadly dilemma.
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New Hanover County Library201 Chestnut Street Wilmington, North Carolina 28401 910-798-6301www.nhclibrary.org/ |
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