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African American Fiction & Non-Fiction August 2014
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The more we read, the more prepared we are in today's society. ~ John M. Belk ~
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New and Recently Released Fiction
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Angels Make Their Hope Here: a Novel
by Breena Clarke
After arriving in Russell's Knob, New Jersey, via the Underground Railroad, Dossie Bird experiences and enjoys a new life with the Smoot family in a racially diverse town in this new novel from the author of Cross My Heart.
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The Choir Director 2: Runaway Bride
by Carl Weber
With his revitalized choir at his mentor's ministry receiving national attention and a potential recording contract, Aaron Mackie proposes to the church secretary, who jilts him at the altar, in the sequel to The Choir Director.
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Family of Lies
by Mary Monroe
"New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe weaves a stunning portrait of a family immersed in deceit.and the women whose happiness depends on the secrets they keep. After growing up poor in Texas, Vera Lomax used every gold-digging trick in the book to land a rich husband. Now living in the lap of luxury in San Francisco, her only job is to fawn over her much-older husband, so it's been easy for her to balance a life of shopping and affairs with younger men with a major secret: the sixteen-year bribery of one of her husband's mistresses to keep her pregnancy under wraps. Vera figures that a little hush money every month will ensure her husband's fortune is hers alone. Unfortunately for Vera, Sarah Cooper is the child Kenneth Lomax always wanted. When the father she never knew shows up at her mother's funeral to claim her, it's a fairy tale journey from the ghetto to a mansion on a hill. But Sarah's life is not as carefree as her father wants it to be.because Sarah knows from the start that her step-mother is as two-faced as they come. And after losing all the family she's ever known, she wants a life that's richer than what Vera's got planned for her. Neither woman can be sure who will win Kenneth's heart and fortune. But as Vera and Sarah scheme to get what they want, everyone they know will be choosing sides, taking chances, and gambling it all to come out on top"
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Forever an Ex
by Victoria Christopher Murray
Reunited years after helping each other to overcome heartbreak when their troublesome exes return, Sheridan, Kendall and Asia are forced to confront lingering insecurities, betrayals and deceptions that compromise their futures. By the award-winning author of The Ex Files.
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Finding Mrs. Wright
by Sherri L. Lewis
When he meets Cassandra, a good, church-going woman who is smart, sassy and sexy, Devon Wright wants to get to know her better, but wonders how he can handle his daughter, his crazy baby mama and a new girlfriend. Original.
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Forty Acres: a Thriller
by Dwayne Smith
Befriended by some of America's most successful and wealthy black men, a talented African-American lawyer working out of a Queens storefront accepts their invitation to a weekend getaway only to learn that they are part of a secret organization that would promote white slavery.
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Freeman: a Novel
by Leonard Pitts
Shortly after the Confederates surrender, a runaway slave leaves the safety of Philadelphia in search of his wife who he left in Mississippi 15 years earlier, but who has been taken by gunpoint to Arkansas by her former landowner.
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Games Divas Play
by Angela Burt-Murray
First lady of the NBA Vanessa King asks her friend Nia for help when "Golden Goddess" Laila James sets her sights on Vanessa's husband and a dangerous stalker threatens her family.
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Land of Love and Drowning
by Tiphanie Yanique
Chronicles the families of three siblings who survived a shipwreck off the Virgin Islands in 1916 and raised three generations on the islands, adapting to the unique language, rhythm and magic of island life over 60 years.
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More Than I Can Bear
by E. N Joy
Paige, feeling overwhelmed and suffering from mental, physical, spiritual, and sexual abuse at the hands of her husband, is pleased to have the help of Norman, a co-worker who is there for her when the worst news of all arrives.
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Pastor Needs a Boo
by Michele Andrea Bowen
"It was a regular New Jerusalem Gospel United Church work day for Reverend Denzelle Flowers when Veronica Washington, Keisha Jackson, and Marsha Metcalf showed up after losing their jobs on the same day, same morning, and almost at the same time. Denzelle struggled to solve that first problem. The other problem--the lovely Marsha--would be much harder to solve. Denzelle didn't even know how to fight wanting to turn in the playah's card and getting "booed" up with the poster girl for "church girls." Marsha Metcalf and her fellow unemployed church members aren't Denzelle's biggest problem, though. He is running for bishop, and his enemies--a more ruthless consortium of corrupted clergy--want power badly enough to go to rather extreme lengths for it becausethe stakes are just that high. Now, his ex-wife was back and sleeping with the enemy, digging for dirt. Reverend Denzelle can't fight this battle alone. This pastor needs a 'boo' who will stand by his side. Before the dust settles, both Marsha and Denzelle's faith and love will be put to the ultimate test"
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The Returned
by Jason Mott
When their son Jacob, who died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966, arrives on their doorstep, still eight years old, Harold and Lucille Hargrave must navigate a strange new reality as chaos erupts around the world as people's loved ones are returned from beyond.
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'Til the Well Runs Dry: A Novel
by Lauren Francis-Sharma
A tale set in mid-20th-century Trinidad and America follows the experiences of a gifted 16-year-old seamstress who raises two young boys alone and guards a family secret before meeting an ambitious policeman who both risks and enriches her existence.
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Troublemaker
by Trice Hickman
When her daughter Alexandria becomes engaged to the son of her former lover, successful businesswoman, devoted wife and loving mother Victoria Thornton finds her past mistake threatening her ordered life as both families are reunited for the upcoming wedding.
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New and Recently Released Non-Fiction
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Color Blind: the forgotten Team that Broke Baseball's Color Line
by Tom Dunkel
Taking readers back in time to 1947, an award-winning journalist chronicles an integrated baseball team in Bismarck, North Dakota that rose above a segregated society to become champions, delving into the history of the players, the town and baseball itself.
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Doc: a Memoir
by Dwight Gooden
One of the bad boys of the 1986 World Series-winning Mets discusses his life, from his Atlanta childhood with his alcoholic womanizing father, through his baseball career, self-destructive drug binges and experience on Celebrity Rehab.
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Instinct: the Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive
by T. D Jakes
The best-selling bishop reminds readers that knowing when to close a deal, when to take a risk and when to listen to your heart will become possible when you're in touch with the instincts that God gave you.
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Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner-City Funeral Home
by Sheri Booker
A darkly comic coming-of-age memoir of the author's teen experiences in an urban Baltimore funeral home describes how a beloved relative's death prompted a summer job that turned into a nine-year immersion in a business marked by regional gang violence, AIDS and other intimate tragedies.
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The Scorpion's Sting: Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War
by James Oakes
Explores the Civil War and the anti-slavery movement, specifically highlighting the plan to help abolish slavery by surrounding the slave states with territories of freedom and discusses the possibility of what could've been a more peaceful alternative to the war.
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We the Peoples: a UN for the 21st century
by Kofi A. Annan
Presents key speeches during Kofi Annan's term of office as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, providing a broad view of his concerns with development, health, climate change, the prevention of genocide, and the ideal of diversity
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White Girls
by Hilton Als
A collection of analyses on literature, art and music by the award-winning author of The Women shares cultural, meditative insights into race, gender and history that encompass a diverse range of subjects from Truman Capote and Louise Brooks to Malcolm X and Flannery O'Connor.
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The Yankee Way: Playing, Coaching, and My Life in Baseball
by Willie Randolph
In this highly anticipated memoir, the former New York Yankee co-captain, who was the starting second baseman on the 1977 and 1978 World Series Championship teams, shares memories of his rise from the projects to the house that Ruth built.
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Drake: a Novel
by Joy Deja King
Both Drake, a young thug who thinks he has it all figured out, and Cindy, an ambitious hustler looking to rule the drug trade, learn a hard lesson on the mean streets of Philadelphia.
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Kiss the Ring: an Urban Tale
by Meesha Mink
Living a life of independence and minimal responsibility after losing her parents in childhood, Naeema changes her identity to infiltrate and destroy the gang that murdered the son she gave up for adoption. By the award-winning author of the Real Wifeys series.
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Motor City Burning
by Bill Morris
While smuggling a carload of guns into Detroit on the opening day of the 1968 baseball season, a former black activist discovers he is wanted by the police for an unsolved murder during the riots of the previous summer.
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Nine Lives of a Black Panther: a Story of Survival
by Wayne Pharr
"In the early morning hours of December 8, 1969, hundreds of SWAT officers engaged in a violent battle with a handful of Los Angeles-based members of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP). Five hours and 5,000 rounds of ammunition later, three SWAT team members and three Black Panthers lay wounded. For the Panthers and the community that supported them, the shootout symbolized a victory, and a key reason for that victory was the actions of a 19-year-old rank-and-file member of the BPP: Wayne Pharr. Nine Lives of a Black Panther tells Pharr's riveting story of life in the Los Angeles branch of the BPP and gives a blow-by-blow account of how it prepared for and survived the massive attack. He illuminates the history of one of the most dedicated, dynamic, vilified, and targeted chapters of the BPP, filling in a missing piece of Black Panther history and, in the process, creating an engaging and hard-to-put-down memoir about a time and place that holds tremendous fascination for readers interested in African American militancy."
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African American Book Club
Thursday, Oct. 16; Nov. 20; Dec 18,
7:00 pm
South Regional Library - Children's Program Room
Join us for lively discussions on fiction and nonfiction books written by African Americans. We will be reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings for October, Kindred for November and The Coldest Winter Ever for December. Registration is required and will open one month prior to the meeting. Contact Ché Anderson at 919-560-7411 for more information.
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Down South Shuffle
Monday, August 18 & August 25,
6:30 pm
Southwest Library - Meeting Room
Need an excuse to get moving and get fit? Join Down South Shuffle for some line dancing and get some exercise. Down South Shuffle is open to all levels of dancers. Come for the first hour and practice your basic steps. Stay for the last half-hour to learn some advanced moves.
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Durham Soul Launch
Friday, August 15,
6:00 pm
Durham History Hub
The Durham County Library and Museum of Durham History collaborate to celebrate the exhibit Soul Souvenirs: Durham's Musical Memories from the 1960s and 1970s, on view at the Durham History Hub, and the launch of the web exhibit Durham Soul on the librarys North Carolina Collection web site. Join us for a panel discussion on the musics history in Durham and an evening of live soul (wear your dancing shoes!) performed by local musicians. Check www.modh.org for the schedule. Co-sponsored by The Museum of Durham.
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Karaoke: Open Mic Nite
Wednesday, August 20,
6:30 pm
Main Library - Auditorium
Come and sing karaoke to your favorite YouTube track. Hosted by the soulful songstress NAKIYASOUL. Come on out to the DCL, where everyone is a STAR! Enter at the side door of the library. (Ages 12-up)
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POETRY LIVE: Open Mic Nite
Thursday, August 21,
6:30 pm
Main Library - Auditorium
Join up-and-coming songstress NAKIYASOUL as she sings songs about love, life and soul. She will also share inspirational stories. The evening is sure to reset the balance and rhythm of your soul. Light refreshments will be provided.
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Health Awareness Information workshop
Saturday, August 30,
10:30 am
Main Library - Auditorium
Get informed about different health issues. Sponsored by the Cancer Institute.
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919-560-0100, 300 N. Roxoboro Street, Durham, NC 27702
librarywebmaster@durhamcountync.gov
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