Addicted to a Dirty South Thug


Shan - 2015
    Now that she's home, she's ready to move on with her life. Her cousin Tangie has a job waiting for her and gives her a place to stay. Everything is more than what she could've asked for. But when loneliness sets in, she feels like she's missing something. She vowed after her last relationship that she was done with thugs and all things hood, but when she runs into the sexy, Khi with the cocky and dirty south swag, she realizes that it's something about a bad boy that she can't get enough of. She's convinced herself that there is no need to stop what seems meant to be. But will it be another mistake and this time will she get away with her life?Khian "Khi" Prince is just one of the Prince brothers that has the ladies going crazy. He's a certified boss with what seems to be the weight of the world on his shoulders. His job is to ensure that he and his brothers maintain their status in the streets along with caring for his 2 baby mamas and the kids he shares with them. After failing at love twice, Khi's not ready to give up on finding his queen just yet and when running into Cuba, he's for certain he has finally gotten it right. But when Cuba mends his heart to only be the cause of shattering it all over again, will Khi give up on love once and for all, or will he fight to keep the woman that he feels is everything he's been looking for?Daelan "Dae" Prince is the ultimate bad boy with pretty boy looks and a no nonsense type of attitude. He's feared by many men and lusted after by plenty of women, which he can't get enough of. With the love of his life Amber by his side and their 5-year old son, Daelan seems to have his happily ever after but things are never what they seem. Daelan can't seem to stop messing up. After one bad decision after the other, his loved ones are always there to pick up the shattered pieces he constantly leaves behind. But what happens when Daelan makes a decision that puts he and the lives of everyone around him in danger, will his brothers be there to save him once again?Amber has been with Daelan for five long years. Her high school sweetheart was once sweet and charming, but the streets had a way of changing and hardening a person and that's exactly what happened to Daelan at least that's what Amber believes. With all the lies, cheating, and beatings amongst other things, Amber has always stuck by Daelan's side. She was addicted to him and always forgave him no matter how hurt it left her in the end. But when Daelan does the unthinkable, will Amber be able to walk away from the only love she's ever known or will she once again forgive him?Kaedee Prince, not only is he known in the streets along with his brothers, but also in the courtroom as one not to be messed with. With his wife Deonna by his side, they run the most sought out law firm in the city. Kaedee knew that getting his degree in law would somehow come in handy for he and his brothers, but never once did he think his wife Deonna would ever need his services. Hit with money laundering charges from business she did with her ex, Tyrin Walker, a drug kingpin out of Florida, Deonna learns that your past doesn't always stay behind you. When Tyrin shows up in her husband's office, Deonna finds herself in love with two men at the same time. Straddling both sides of the fence has never been good for anyone and Deonna finds that out the hard way. She's forced to pick the one to have her heart, but when that decision lands someone in a grave, are the Prince brothers ready for a war?Welcome to the life of the Prince Brothers and feel what it's like to be Addicted to A Dirty South Thug.

Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat


Patricia Williams - 2017
    You want to know what it takes to rise above your circumstances when all the cards are stacked against you? Ask me.Comedian Patricia Williams, who for years went by her street-name "Rabbit," was born and raised in Atlanta’s most troubled neighborhood at the height of the crack epidemic. One of five children, Pat watched as her alcoholic mother struggled to get by on charity, cons and petty crimes. At seven Pat was taught to roll drunks for money. At 12, she was targeted for sex by a man eight years her senior; by 13 she was pregnant. By 15 Pat was a mother of two. Alone at 16, Pat was determined to make a better life for her children. But with no job skills and an eighth-grade education, her options were limited. She learned quickly that hustling and humor were the only tools she had to survive. Rabbit is an unflinching memoir of cinematic scope and unexpected humor that offers a rare glimpse into the harrowing reality of life on America’s margins, resilience, determination, and the transformative power of love.

Pimp: The Story of My Life


Iceberg Slim - 1967
    It is the smells, the sounds, the fears and the petty triumphs in the world of the street pimp.

Life is So Good


George Dawson - 2000
    Richard Glaubman captures Dawson's irresistible voice and view of the world, offering insights into humanity, history, hardships, and happiness. From segregation and civil rights, to the wars, presidents, and defining moments in history, George Dawson's description and assessment of the last century inspires readers with the message that-through it all-has sustained him: "Life is so good. I do believe it's getting better."

The Crown Ain't Worth Much


Hanif Abdurraqib - 2016
    A regular columnist for MTV.com, Willis-Abdurraqib brings his interest in pop culture to these poems, analyzing race, gender, family, and the love that finally holds us together even as it threatens to break us. Terrance Hayes writes that Willis-Abdurraqib "bridges the bravado and bling of praise with the blood and tears of elegy." The poems in this collection are challenging and accessible at once, as they seek to render real human voices in moments of tragedy and celebration.

The Book of Negroes


Lawrence Hill - 2007
    The star-studded production includes lead actress Aunjanue Ellis (Ray, The Help), Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men), Oscar and Emmy winner Louis Gossett Jr. (A Raisin in the Sun, Boardwalk Empire), and features Lyriq Bent (Rookie Blue), Jane Alexander (The Cider House Rules), and Ben Chaplin (The Thin Red Line). Director and co-writer Clement Virgo is a feature film and television director (The Wire) who also serves as producer with executive producer Damon D'Oliveira (What We Have).In this "transporting" (Entertainment Weekly) and "heart-stopping" (Washington Post) work, Aminata Diallo, one of the strongest women characters in contemporary fiction, is kidnapped from Africa as a child and sold as a slave in South Carolina. Fleeing to Canada after the Revolutionary War, she escapes to attempt a new life in freedom.

The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood


David Simon - 1997
    But this notorious corner's 24-hour open-air drug market provides the economic fuel for a dying neighborhood. David Simon, an award-winning author and crime reporter, and Edward Burns, a 20-year veteran of the urban drug war, tell the chilling story of this desolate crossroad.Through the eyes of one broken family--two drug-addicted adults and their smart, vulnerable 15-year-old son, DeAndre McCollough, Simon and Burns examine the sinister realities of inner cities across the country and unflinchingly assess why law enforcement policies, moral crusades, and the welfare system have accomplished so little. This extraordinary book is a crucial look at the price of the drug culture and the poignant scenes of hope, caring, and love that astonishingly rise in the midst of a place America has abandoned.

The Sky Is Gray


Ernest J. Gaines - 1963
    A poor African American boy and his mother experience both discrimination and kindness during a trip to town to see the dentist.

Blueschild Baby


George Cain - 1970
    A black ex-convict and drug addict returns to his home in Harlem and experiences the agony of confronting his desperate present condition which contrasts with his promising youth.

Life of Black Hawk, or Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak: Dictated by Himself


Black Hawk - 1833
    Black Hawk, a complex, contradictory figure, relates his life story and that of his people, who had been forced from western Illinois in what was known as the Black Hawk War. The first published account of a victim of the American war of extermination, this vivid portrait of Indian life stands as a tribute to the author and his extraordinary people, as well as an invaluable historical document.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line


Martha A. Sandweiss - 2009
    Brilliant scientist and witty conversationalist, bestselling author and architect of the great surveys that mapped the West after the Civil War, King was named by John Hay “the best and brightest of his generation.” But King hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent family in Newport: for thirteen years he lived a double life—as the celebrated white explorer, geologist, and writer Clarence King and as a black Pullman porter and steelworker named James Todd. The fair, blue-eyed son of a wealthy China trader passed across the color line, revealing his secret to his black common-law wife, Ada King, only on his deathbed.Noted historian of the American West Martha Sandweiss is the first writer to uncover the life that King tried so hard to conceal from the public eye. She reveals the complexity of a man who while publicly espousing a personal dream of a uniquely American “race,” an amalgam of white and black, hid his love for his wife and their five biracial children. Passing Strange tells the dramatic tale of a family built along the fault lines of celebrity, class, and race—from the “Todds” wedding in 1888 to the 1964 death of Ada, one of the last surviving Americans born into slavery, to finally the legacy inherited by Clarence King’s granddaughter, who married a white man and adopted a white child in order to spare her family the legacies of racism.A remarkable feat of research and reporting spanning the Civil War to the civil rights era, Passing Strange tells a uniquely American story of self-invention, love, deception, and race

The Secret Life of Bees


Sue Monk Kidd - 2001
    When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together


Ron Hall - 2006
    . . and an East Texas honky-tonk . . . and, without a doubt, inside the heart of God. It unfolds at a Hollywood hacienda . . . an upscale New York gallery . . . a downtown dumpster . . . a Texas ranch.Gritty with betrayal, pain, and brutality, it also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.Bonus material in this special movie edition includes:

Empathy and Eyebrows: A Survivalist's Stories on Reviving Your Spirit After Soul-Crushing Sh*tstorms


Danni Starr - 2017
    

The Willie Lynch Letter And the Making of A Slave


Willie Lynch - 2011
    You see, survival of the colored race in America is at a difficult point where it has to be taught to our youth. The old practices of lynching and segregation which are thought to have been eradicated from our society lives on but in various other forms: police brutality, income inequality, unemployment and single motherhood… designs to keep our communities in perpetual turmoil and slavery.This book should be required reading for the youth and a lesson to any group that man’s inhumanity to man has not ended in America and is practiced around the world.