Forced to get on the grind non-stop by her madam, Cookie, after being abandoned by her dopefiend, HIV infected mother, there's nothing Kamone won't do to get that paper - drugs, murder, sex, lies and videotapes! That is, until she is scandalously set up to be raped, drugged and left for dead. Just when Kamone thinks it's the end, she finds what every bad girl longs for ' a bad boy with a heart, who literally picks her up out of the gutter. But will Lucci's thug passion be enough to satisfy Kamone's lustful habits? Or will she run back to the only life she knows?

    The owner of a successful Los Angeles financial services company, she is also prosperous in love, thanks to handsome writer Braxton Vance. True, they have real differences over their future and she must struggle at the same time to show her emotionally wounded cousin Sasha the right way in life. But Anya's faith in God's promise is unshakable... until the night she is brutally attacked in her office by a stalker.Reeling with anger and fear, she wrestles with soul-wrenching doubt and the temptation to rely more on her own strength. Even more devastating is Braxton's insistence that she trust his version of what God wants her to do. Facing heartbreak and disillusion-and answers she never could have expected-Anya must now come to terms with what she truly believes... and discover the joy that lies in God's surprising plan.

    One is editing his hot new urban style magazine Bling Bling. The other is more personal. As Zola and Raymond Tyler, Jr, Bling Bling's CEO, pursue their ambitions and search for love, secrets from the past and events out of today's headlines (plus the shenanigans of John Basil Henderson and Yancey B.) keep the action moving.

    While this momentous event showcased the uniqueness of her voice, the strength of her character, and the struggles of the times in which she lived, it is only part of her story. Like the operatic arias Marian would come to sing, Ryan's text is as moving as a libretto, and Selznick's pictures as exquisitely detailed and elaborately designed as a stage set. What emerges most profoundly from their shared vision is a role model of courage.

    Her red Valentino slip gown highlighted her honeyed complexion and chocolate brown eyes. The gown also picked up the red in Wes's vest and the red in the rose in his lapel.They were the perfect couple and it was show time. And she wanted to scream.Madison Reed, popular talk show host and America's darling and her husband, well-known TV correspondent Wes Reed is everyone's idea of the perfect couple. Bute knows that after the loss of their child, they became no more than polite strangers, maintaining the façade, revealing only picture perfect happiness. But Madison's world is turned upside down when Wes is critically injured in a car accident and a woman is killed. Before he dies, Wes confesses that the woman who was killed was his mistress---and that he is the father of her nine-month-old daughter, Manda. He begs Madison to raise the child. Unsure if she can, Madison struggles to take charge of her fate and put her life back together. Overwhelmed, she accepts the help of Zachary Holman, her husband's best friend, only to discover that his life is also shrouded by lies. Can she forgive and forget---not just once, but twice?

    Carmen Taylor finds her life spinning out of control when her best friend Desiree begins dating Chester Sheffield, the man Carmen has loved for years, and when Desiree gets pregant with his child, Carmen commits a reckless crime of passion that forces her, along with Desiree, to make some difficult choices that will change their lives forever.

    All her life, Hope has dreamed of becoming a lawyer and one day helping her people out of ghetto oppression. By some uncanny fate, Hope meets the handsome thug, Life, in the midst of his desperate attempts to elude a massive police manhunt. Their brief encounter leads to a liaison of lust and passion, but with vast differences they soon part ways. Years later, Hope and Life meet again on opposite sides of a courtroom. Life, one of the biggest drug kingpins in the United States, is on trial for his life. On the other side of the courtroom is Assistant US District Attorney Hope Evans, who is holding a deep, dark secret. The infamous kingpin, Life, is the father of her child. Life is the ultimate tale of murder, sex, drugs and betrayal.

    You’ll meet a high-paid multitasking career woman who gets her groove back in “When Opposites Attract.” You’ll take a ride with an adventurous couple who try something new in “The Subway—A Quickie.” You’ll discover a new way of celebrating Christmas in “The Santa Claus.” Spicing up real-life scenarios with over-the-top sexual fantasy, Zane gives readers the best time they’ve ever had between the pages of a book.Zane’s hottest collection yet, with all-new characters and settings, these stories are tailored to women—but perfect for lovers to share.

    One of the group's most noteworthy and enduring achievements was the Slave Narrative Collection, consisting of more than 2,000 transcripts of interviews with former slaves, who, in blunt, simple words, provided often-startling first-person accounts of their lives in bondage. This book reprints some of the most detailed and engrossing life histories in the collection. Each narrative is complete.Thirty-four gripping testimonies are included, with all slave occupations represented — from field hand and cook to French tutor and seamstress. Personal treatment reported by these individuals also encompassed a wide range — from the most harsh and exploitative to living and working conditions that were intimate and benevolent.An illuminating and unique source of information about life in the South before, during, and after the Civil War, these memoirs, most importantly, preserve the opinions and perspective of those who were enslaved. Invaluable to students, teachers, and specialists in Southern history, this compelling book will intrigue anyone interested in the African-American experience.

    Today, nearly every black woman writer of significance—including Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker—acknowledges Hurston as a literary foremother, and her 1937 masterpiece Their Eyes Were Watching God has become a crucial part of the modern literary canon. Wrapped in Rainbows, the first biography of Zora Neale Hurston in more than twenty-five years, illuminates the adventures, complexities, and sorrows of an extraordinary life. Acclaimed journalist Valerie Boyd delves into Hurston’s history—her youth in the country’s first incorporated all-black town, her friendships with luminaries such as Langston Hughes, her sexuality and short-lived marriages, and her mysterious relationship with vodou. With the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, and World War II as historical backdrops, Wrapped in Rainbows not only positions Hurston’s work in her time but also offers riveting implications for our own.

    An even better listener. And handsome as heaven on earth. He is God's Gift to Women. Julian Payne gets into bed with millions of women every night. As an after-hours radio talk-show host, Julian captivates his female audience with his deep voice and sensitive spirit. Women can't get enough: They call in, begging for his advice about love, lust, commitment, and betrayal. Julian provides his listeners with the blunt male perspective, and he always has the right thing to say. But when it comes to his own romantic life, or lack thereof, he's at a loss for words. A widower and father to ten-year-old Samantha, Julian wants nothing more than to settle down again with the right woman. Just when he thinks he's found her in Dr. Terri Ross -- smart, stunning, and with her own counseling practice -- Julian is confronted by a ghost from the past: Olivia Brown, a woman with whom he had a one-night stand. Suddenly Julian finds himself in a situation with a woman who's determined to win him over...or make his life a living hell. Michael Baisden's hottest offering yet, God's Gift to Women is a compelling tale about the consequences of sex with a stranger.

    They're sisters of the soul, two girlfriends hitting the clubs in search of that oh-so-rare commodity: single guys. Tempest sports a modest suit, while Janessa runs wild in a skintight minidress—but they both want the same thing: the heat, the passion, the spark to ignite the sensual fires inside. It takes time and patience to find such a special lover. But somewhere among the losers they know there's a match for each of them. The last thing Geren wants is a relationship—most women can't see past his money and his good looks. But when Dvontè—Geren’s best friend and total womanizer—talks Geren into going clubbing, fate leads them to Tempest and Janessa. Attractions flare, connections are made, lives are changed, and secrets come to light. Together, they are the heat seekers, four daring hearts willing to play with fire—and take the risk of getting burned.

    Rap Brown, chairman of the radical Black Power organization Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), came to symbolize the ideology of black revolution. This autobiography—which was first published in 1969, went through seven printings and has long been unavailable—chronicles the making of a revolutionary. It is much more than a personal history, however; it is a call to arms, an urgent message to the black community to be the vanguard force in the struggle of oppressed people. Forthright, sardonic, and shocking, this book is not only illuminating and dynamic but also a vitally important document that is essential to understanding the upheavals of the late 1960s. University of Massachusetts professor Ekwueme Michael Thelwell has updated this edition, covering Brown’s decades of harassment by law enforcement agencies, his extraordinary transformation into an important Muslim leader, and his sensational trial.

    Their mama has gone away many times before, but something tells them that this time she won't be coming back. Then a social worker comes and takes them to meet their Aunt Gracie. Beebee barely remembers her, and Mama never even told Johnson about her. They wonder where she's been all this time--and why she would want to take care of them. Warily, though, the children begin to trust Aunt Gracie. And in the process, they come to a better understanding of what it means to be a family.

    With visionary insight, hooks exposes the underlying reality that it has been difficult—if not impossible—for our nation to create a culture that promotes and sustains healthy self-esteem. Without self-esteem people begin to lose their sense of agency. They feel powerless. They feel they can only be victims. The need for self-esteem never goes away. But it is never too late for any of us to acquire the healthy self-esteem that is needed for a fulfilling life. hooks gets to the heart and soul of the African-American identity crisis, offering critical insight and hard-won wisdom about what it takes to heal the scars of the past, promote and maintain self-esteem, and lay down the roots for a grounded community with a prosperous future. She examines the way historical movements for racial uplift fail to sustain our quest for self-esteem. Moving beyond a discussion of race, she identifies diverse barriers keeping us from well-being: the trauma of abandonment, constant shaming, and the loss of personal integrity. In highlighting the role of desegregation, education, the absence of progressive parenting, spiritual crisis, or fundamental breakdowns in communication between black women and men, bell hooks identifies mental health as the new revolutionary frontier—and provides guidance for healing within the black community.

    Louis, Missouri, and rural Mississippi. As the fifth born of eight children, Odessa loses her innocence at first when her drunken father sexually abuses her, and then again when she alone witnesses her father taking the life of his own brother. Fifth Born is Zelda Lockhart's debut novel, lyrically written and powerful in its exploration of how secrets can tear apart lives and families. It is a story of love, longing, and redemption, as Odessa walks away from those whom she believes to be her kin to discover the true meaning of family.

    That's the lesson a fine brother with a wounded heart learns when an eccentric old woman grants him a wish for true love--if he's not too blind to see it--in Francis Ray's The Wish.Beverly Jenkins spins a soul-touching tale of a soldier reunited with the woman who deserted him as they discover that love isn't just sweeter the second time around, it's downright decadent in Homecoming.In Monica Jackson's The Way Back Home, a biracial young woman sets out to spend Kwanzaa with the African-American family she never knew and finds and extra gift in the strong, loving professor who wants to teacher her about her heritage...and so much more.When a mild-mannered high school principal battles small-town prejudice over a Kwanzaa celebration, he fins an unlikely ally in a fiery woman from his past in Geri Guillaume's moving story, The Seventh Principal.The love of a good man. The hope of a new family. The promise of a fantasy fulfilled. This soulful collection of holiday stories proves there's more than one reason for gettin' merry...and they all lead straight to the heart.

    Newton Reader combines now-classic texts ranging in topic from the formation of the Black Panthers, African Americans and armed self-defense, Eldridge Cleaver's controversial expulsion from the Party, FBI infiltration of civil rights groups, the Vietnam War, and the burgeoning feminist movement with never-before-published writings from the Black Panther Party archives and Newton's private collection, including articles on President Nixon, prison martyr George Jackson, Pan-Africanism, affirmative action, and the author's only written account of his political exile in Cuba in the mid-1970s. Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Geronimo Pratt all came to international prominence through Newton's groundbreaking political activism. Additionally, Newton served as the Party's chief intellectual engine, conversing with world leaders such as Yasser Arafat, Chinese Premier Chou Enlai, and Mozambique President Samora Moises Machel among others.

    She follows the moon into the woods, leading her loved ones away from their master under the quilt of night. Guided by the stars, they head north in the direction of freedom. At last, the girl sees a quilt with a center square made from deep blue fabric and knows it's a signal from friends on the Underground Railroad, welcoming her into their home. Can she bravely step forward and lead her family to freedom?

    She wants adventure and excitement–if such things exist for a pre-menopausal African American woman with three grown, deadbeat children.Juanita’s new life in Paper Moon, Montana, begins at a local diner where a culinary face-off with chef and owner Jess Gardiner finds Juanita in front of Jess’s stove serving up home cookin’ that lures the townsfolk like a magic spell. And suddenly Juanita, who was just passin’ through, now has a job by popular demand.Out here in this wide-open space, Juanita’s heart can no longer hide, especially when she sees herself through the eyes of the wonderful and eccentric people of this down-to-earth town. She’s happy in Paper Moon; she’s found a home, but can she stay? And then there’s Jess. She has always dreamed of romance, but she never planned on falling in love.From the Trade Paperback edition.

    Beginning with the turn-of-the-century writings of Angelina Welde Grimke and Alice Dunbar Nelson, it charts the evolution of black lesbian and gay fiction into the Harlem Renaissance of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen and the later postwar era, in which works by Audre Lorde and James Baldwin signal the emerging sexual liberation movements. The 40 authors featured also include Alice Walker, E. Lynn Harris, Audre Lorde, April Sinclair, Jewelle Gomez, Thomas Glave, and Jacqueline Woodson.

    The love that her parents and extended family lavish her with knows no bounds.When the Tsikata’s idyllic life style begins to take a turn for the worse, Abebe's father places a nine-year-old Abebe in a shrine, hoping that the sacrifice of his daughter will serve as religious atonement for the crimes of his ancestors. Unspeakable acts befall Abebe for the fifteen years she is enslaved.When Abebe is finally released back into the world and finds herself not only dealing with the newness of Ghana, but also the fast-paced world of New York, she is broken—emotionally, mentally, physically, sexually, and spiritually. But to live the rest of her years on earth, she must learn to overcome her past, endure familial secrets, and learn to love herself—the good, the bad, and the ugly.In the tradition of Chris Cleave's Little Bee, My Name Is Butterfly is a contemporary story that offers an educational, eye opening account into the practice of ritual servitude in West Africa. Spanning decades and two continents, My Name Is Butterfly will break and heal your heart ….

    A stellar collection of works from more than fifty hot names in fiction, Gumbo represents remarkable synergy. Edited by bestselling luminaries Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris, this collection spans new and previously published tales of love and luck, inspiration and violation, hip new worlds and hallowed heritage from voices such as:• Edwidge Danticat• Eric Jerome Dickey• Kenji Jasper• John Edgar Wideman• Terry McMillan• David Anthony Durham• Bertice Berry…and many, many moreAlso featuring original stories by Golden and Harris themselves, Gumbo heralds the debut of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards for Published Black Writers (scheduled for October 2002), and all advances and royalties from the book will support the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Combining authors with a variety of flavorful writing, Gumbo will have readers clamoring for second helpings.

    Not since Terry McMillan's Breaking Ice have so many African-American writers been brought together in one volume. A stellar collection of works from more than fifty hot names in fiction, Gumbo represents remarkable synergy. Edited by bestselling luminaries Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris, this collection spans new and previously published tales of love and luck, inspiration and violation, hip new worlds and hallowed heritage from voices such as: Edwidge Danticat , Eric Jerome Dickey, Kenji Jasper, John Edgar Wideman, Terry McMillan, David Anthony Durham, Bertice Berry, and many, many more. Also featuring original stories by Golden and Harris themselves, Gumbo heralds the debut of the Hurston / Wright Legacy Awards for Published Black Writers (scheduled for October 2002), and all advances and royalties from the book will support the Hurston/ Wright Foundation. Combining authors with a variety of flavorful writing, Gumbo will have readers clamoring for second helpings.

    Sex, teen pregnancy, STDs, alcoholism, low self esteem, dating, and love intertwine in this fascinating novel. About the Author:A native of Newark, New Jersey, Jackie Hardrick still resides in the East Coast. Her first young adult novel, Imani in Young Love & Deception, was recommended reading in EBONY magazine. Ms. Hardrick's passion is writing novels for teenagers that are positive, inspiring, entertaining, and enlightening.

    With the support of his dad, the barber, and the other men in the barbershop, Miles bravely sits through his first haircut.

    Her friends and family see her in many ways -- from a father's deserving princess to a mother's source of pride and strength, from a caring listener to a motivated student -- but does anyone know the true Leslie? When a series of murders befall her New Orleans community and increasingly points in Leslie's direction, her friends and relatives realize they've never really known her at all. Slowly, this complicated young woman emerges. She is terrified of failure, struggling with family secrets, praying for elusive security, and craving the power to change her fate. Her power was hidden from her until now...and it might be too late to stop her. Omar Tyree delivers another exciting tale filled with irresistible and authentic characters you won't soon forget.

    In that time, he has taken on dozens of groundbreaking cases and emerged as a pivotal figure in race relations in America. Cochran gained international recognition as one of America's best - and most controversial lawyers - for leading 'the Dream Team' defense of accused killer O.J. Simpson in the Trial of the Century. Many people formed their perception of Cochran based on his work in that trial. But long before the Simpson trial and since then Johnnie Cochran has been a leader in the fight for justice for all Americans. This is his story.Cochran emerged from the trial as one of the nation's leading African-American spokespersons - and he has done most of his talking through the courtroom. Abner Louima. Amadou Diallo. The racially-profiled New Jersey Turnpike Four. Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. Patrick Dorismond. Cynthia Wiggins. These are the names that have dominated legal headlines - and Cochran was involved with each of them. No one who first encountered him during the Simpson trial can appreciate his impact on our world until they've read his whole story.Drawing on Cochran's most intriguing and difficult cases, A Lawyer's Life shows how he's fought his critics, won for his clients, and affected real change within the system. This is an intimate and compelling memoir of one lawyer's attempt to make us all truly equal in the eyes of the law.

    Though she knows it won't be easy turning their bachelor-pad mansion into a home, she is determined to handle any obstacles, while maintaining a separate life for herself and her daughter. But Alexis isn't at all ready for the red-hot chemistry crackling between her and Telford—or the fact that she's suddenly caught in a maze of unexpected secrets and deep mistrust. But if she and Telford find their way through it—together—can they both embrace the love they so deeply desire?

    His new work, Hip Logic, is full of poetic tributes to the likes of Paul Robeson, Big Bird, Balthus, and Mr. T, as well as poems based on the anagram principle of words within a word. Throughout, Hayes's verse dances in a kind of homemade music box, with notes that range from tender to erudite, associative to narrative, humorous to political. Hip Logic does much to capture the nuances of contemporary male African American identity and confirms Hayes's reputation as one of the most compelling new voices in American poetry.

    And when Girlpie makes a mistake, the love of her mother and father lets her pick up the pieces and make everything right again. Shane W. Evan's resplendent artwork teems with "homemade love," one of the tender nicknames award-winning author bell hooks gives her young heroine.