Showing titles in African American

Until twenty-four hours ago, Mickey Hayward was living the life she’d always dreamed of: Working as a full-time writer for a trendy media company (tick). In a committed, loving relationship (tick). Now she’s fired, tossed aside for a more ‘agreeable’ younger Black writer. Sick of always being overlooked and undervalued, she responds with an online letter detailing the racism she’s faced within the industry. But when it’s met with overwhelming silence, and her girlfriend suggests they go on a break, Mickey’s carefully crafted life starts to fall apart.

As America recovers from the Second World War, two families’ journeys begin. James Vincent, born in 1942 to an Irish American family, escapes his parents’ turbulent marriage and attends law school in New York, where he moves up the social ladder as a prosperous and bright attorney. Meanwhile, Agnes Miller, a beautiful black woman on a date with a handsome suitor, is pulled over by the police on a rural road in Georgia. The terrible moments that follow make her question her future and pivot her into a hasty marriage and new life in the Bronx.

Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby Bell, 'the kind of pretty it hurt to look at', has suffered beyond imagining, so as soon as she can she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. Ruby quickly winds her way into the ripe centre of the city - the darkened piano bars and hidden alleyways of the village - all the while hoping for a glimpse of the red hair and green eyes of her mother.

Nona “Peaches” Davenport, abandoned by the man she loved and betrayed by family, left her Natchez, Mississippi, home fifteen years ago and never looked back. She’s forged a promising future in Chicago as a professor of African American Studies. Nona even finds her once-closed heart persuaded by a new love. But that’s all shaken when her father’s death forces her to return to everything she’s tried to forget.

Yana is a workaholic. She has noble aspirations but isn’t taking care of home. Meanwhile, Sasha, her new nanny, is more than ready to step in. Sasha and Yana’s husband, Shawn, get closer, arousing suspicion by Yana.

The Diamond family has survived murder, deceit, and betrayal. Through it all, they’re still standing tall, and a new era has begun. After surviving an attempt on her life, Breeze has moved into the queen’s position by Zyir’s side. Zyir has taken over the empire and locked down Miami’s streets; the world is in his hands. But there is always new blood ready to overthrow the throne. Young Carter has retired and moved away from the madness - that is, until he gets an unexpected visitor at his home. This person shakes up the whole family, causing chaos that threatens to bring down the Cartel for good.

From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity. With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself - and us - home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America - and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman. Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.

Ailey Pearl Garfield grows up between the City in the north and summers spent in her mother’s small hometown of Chicasetta, Georgia. From an early age, she finds herself in a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hurt in her past, as well as the whispers of women—her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries—that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead.

For the past several years, Jahzara Franklin has had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her mother suddenly passed away from a brain aneurysm, making her the sole caregiver for her teenage sister because their father wasn't in the picture. When she's unable to find a job that pays enough for her and her sister to live comfortably, she swallows her pride and does something she never thought she'd do. When she meets a man who appears to have good intentions, she gives him a chance, only to find out six months later that he's a fraud.

According to Max Disher, an ambitious young black man in 1930s New York, someone of his race has only three alternatives: "Get out, get white, or get along." Incapable of getting out and unhappy with getting along, Max leaps at the remaining possibility. Thanks to a certain Dr. Junius Crookman and his mysterious process, Max and other eager clients develop bleached skin that permits them to enter previously forbidden territory. What they discover in white society, however, gives them second thoughts.

Con man Deak O'Hara is out of the state penitentiary and back on the street working the scam of a lifetime. The $87,000 he has schemed to get has been hijacked and hidden in a bale of cotton. Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are on everyone's trail in one of their most entertaining thrillers.

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated outside of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. What happened inside room 306 on the evening of April 3 is the subject of Katori Hall's The Mountaintop. Hours after King's final speech, punctuated by his immortal line "I've been to the mountaintop", the celebrated reverend forms an unlikely friendship with a motel maid as they talk into the early hours of what will be his final day.

Four women. Two years.A friendship to last a lifetime.The only things that Sharita, Thursday, Risa, and Tammy have in common are their disastrous love lives. But the year three of them turn 30 will be different, they swear!Sharita, a plump and conservative accountant wants to make partner at her firm and find the man of her dreams. Thursday, the daughter of a formerly chart-topping political rapper, wants to stop being a serial one-month stander, and settle down into a stable life with a stable boyfriend.

With an introduction by the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James. Oreo has been raised by her maternal grandparents in Philadelphia. Her black mother tours with a theatrical troupe, and her Jewish deadbeat dad disappeared when she was an infant, leaving behind a mysterious note. Oreo’s quest is to find her father and discover the secret of her birth. What ensues in Fran Ross' opus is a playful, modernised parody of the classical odyssey of Theseus with a feminist twist, immersed in '70s pop culture and mixing standard English, black vernacular and Yiddish with wisecracking aplomb.

Liza B.—the only DJ who gives a jam—wants to take her neighborhood back from the soulless property developer dropping unaffordable condos on every street corner in DC. But her planned protest at a corporate event takes a turn after she mistakes the smoldering-hot CEO for the waitstaff. When they go toe-to-toe, the sparks fly—but her impossible-to-ignore family thwarts her every move. Liza wants Dorsey Fitzgerald out of her hood, but she’ll settle for getting him out of her head.

Genevieve Raymond is a workaholic. And after opening a hot new hotel chain location in Panama, she’s on track for a big promotion. But first, she needs a break. For two weeks, Gen is set to explore beautiful beaches, shimmering waters, and the scorching-hot attraction she shares with her driver, Adrián Nicolas. After a family tragedy, Adrián refuses to prioritise his work over his life and Gen can’t help but envy Adrián’s laid-back devotion to his family’s hometown hostel. When their holiday fling flourishes beyond sunsets and spice, Gen finds herself questioning the path laid in front of her.

Analicia Chase at one point had it all, a great family and a loving, talented boyfriend. But with the death of her father coming shortly after the loss of her boyfriend's dream, along with his usual tenacity, and a recently developed strained relationship with her sister, things have been rough. They only worsen when a stranger comes into her life, throwing it completely off course. With everything around Analicia crumbling by the day, defeat begins to consume her.

A young man treads delicate emotional waters as he navigates a series of sexually fraught encounters with two dancers in an open relationship, forcing him to weigh his vulnerabilities against his loneliness. In other stories, a young woman battles with the cancers draining her body and her family, menacing undercurrents among a group of teenagers explode in violence on a winter night, a little girl tears through a house like a tornado, driving her babysitter to the brink and couples feel out the jagged edges of connection, comfort and cruelty.

When the body of N’Gana Frimbo, the African conjure-man, is discovered in his consultation room, Perry Dart, one of Harlem’s 10 Black police detectives, is called in to investigate. Together with Dr Archer, a physician from across the street, Dart is determined to solve the baffling mystery, helped and hindered by Bubber Brown and Jinx Jenkins, local boys keen to clear themselves of suspicion of murder and undertake their own investigations.

Within the bounds of complacency, there exists a boring, beautiful sort of peace, and Khalida has found it. Welcomes it, in fact. A nice, comfortable life, with a great job, a good, albeit on and off again boyfriend, a great relationship with her younger sister...she has nothing to complain about. But that's only if she ignores the sense of unrest that has haunted her ever since she could remember, overshadowing her ability to connect in love. Only if she glosses over the fact that she’s leaning more toward a permanent off switch when it comes to Travis.