That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man—a fellow slave—seeks to gain favor by preaching the master’s gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel’s love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation’s harmony.With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr. fiercely summons the voices of slaver and the enslaved alike to tell the story of these two men; from Amos the preacher to the calculating slave-master himself to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminate in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets masterfully reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.

    There's just one problem with her picture-perfect life -- she's not got one eligible man in sight. Well, thank God she has her career . . . at least until she gets suspended from her job. To regain her sense of purpose, she plans a restorative girl's night out -- all the way to Europe.In this fresh and funny Los Angeles Times bestseller, Kia embarks on what becomes a defining journey to London, Paris, and Greece, where she finds a little bit of trouble, a whole lot of laughs, and what she didn't even know she was looking for -- herself.

    For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind.This year's Best American Short Stories features a rich mix of voices, from both intriguing new writers and established masters of the form like Michael Chabon, Edwidge Danticat, Richard Ford, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Arthur Miller. The 2002 collection includes stories about everything from illicit love affairs to family, the immigrant experience and badly behaved children -- stories varied in subject but unified in their power and humanity. In the words of this year's guest editor, the best-selling author Sue Miller, "The American short story today [is] healthy and strong . . . These stories arrived in the nick of time . . . to teach me once more what we read fiction for."Foreword --Introduction / Sue Miller --Along the frontage road / Michael Chabon --The sugar-tit / Carolyn Cooke --The red ant house / Ann Cummins --Seven / Edwidge Danticat --A house on the plains / E.L. Doctorow --Puppy / Richard Ford --The heifer / Melissa Hardy --Zilkowski's theorem / Karl Iagnemma --Nobody's business / Jhumpa Lahiri --Digging / Beth Lordan --In case we're separated / Alice Mattison --Billy goats / Jill McCorkle --Watermelon days / Tom McNeal --Nachman from Los Angeles / Leonard Michaels --Bulldog / Arthur Miller --The rug / Meg Mullins --Family furnishings / Alice Munro --Surrounded by sleep / Akhil Sharma --Love and hydrogen / Jim Shepard --Aftermath / Mary Yukari Waters --Contributor's notes --100 other distinguished stories of 2001 --Editorial addresses of American and Canadian magazines publishing short stories

    Nice Guy who's found companionship and comfort with Marsha.  The only problem is that he's become too comfortable.  Weighing seventy-five pounds more than when the courtship first began, the newly food-obsessed Sonny just can't stay away from Marsha's marvelous dishes, even in the middle of their breakup conversation.Determined to slim down and get his girlfriend back, Sonny joins the FutraSystem weight-loss center and meets potential love interest Kayla, as well as a host of other colorful characters. In a heartwarming tale that is alternately hilarious, wise, and ultimately self-affirming, Whitfield has created a thoroughly delicious and engaging novel sure to be enjoyed by those who have waged the battle of the bulge, or know someone who has.

    Will she get her man or destroy herself and everyone else in the process?

    Brady’s highly acclaimed and award-winning debut novel – the Winner of the 2010 Next Generation Indie Award for Multicultural Fiction and the Third Place Grand Prize Winner overall for fiction books. A “Top Read” for OOSA Book Club Reviewer’s Choice – Midwest Book Review “Ladies, ladies, ladies…don’t walk, RUN to get your copy of this book! The Bum Magnet…happily blends surprise, humor, and wit into 294 pages of wonderful . . . This book is FABULOUS.” —Uptown Girl’s Harlem Book Club “A hilarious, tell-it-like-it-is story . . . This novel screams perfection.” —AAMBC Book Reviews “K.L. Brady’s journey of one woman’s dating woes and self-discovery was entertaining and real…funny and uplifting. Charisse’s sarcasm is a perfect smoke screen for her inner struggles and insecurities.” —OOSA Online Book Club “K.L. Brady gives you reality checks in laugh-out-loud scenarios . . . Kudos!” —SistahFriend Book Club Charisse Tyson’s got it all going on . . . She’s a savvy, successful real-estate agent with a quick wit and a low tolerance for BS. Despite her dream house, luxury car, and appetite for life’s best, she seems to have her own special talent for attracting players—and, after 39 years, she's ready for a change. A holiday meltdown following a breakup with yet another Mr. Wrong prompts her to read a magazine article that holds the promise of changing her forever. Just five simple steps to transform her tedious love life to the stuff of legends. Her hilarious attempt to follow the illuminating wisdom snares her romantic life into entanglements she can’t imagine how to escape, but it’s her twenty-seven-year-old secret that threatens to keep her from finding "the one." Charisse learns the hard way: Your past can be the anchor that holds you back...or the fuel that propels you forward. Will her questionable choices seal her fate?

    Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families.Tass Hilson and Emmett Till were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit.Forty years later, after the death of her husband, Tass returns to Money and fantasy takes flesh when Emmett Till's spirit is finally released from the dank, dark waters of the Tallahatchie River. The two lovers are reunited, bringing the story to an enchanting and profound conclusion.Gathering of Waters mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well as the town's families, and threads their history over decades. The bare-bones realism--both disturbing and riveting--combined with a magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni Morrison's Beloved.

    She also has a weekly beauty-parlor date with Tina, who keeps Venus's long, processed hair slick and straight. But when Clint--who's been reluctant to commit over the past four years--brings home a puppy instead of an engagement ring, Venus decides to give it all up. She trades in her long hair for a dramatically short, natural cut and sends Clint packing.It's a bold declaration of independence--one that has effects she never could have imagined. Reactions from friends and coworkers range from concern to contempt to outright condemnation. And when Clint moves on and starts dating a voluptuous, long-haired beauty, Venus is forced to question what she really wants out of life. With wit, resilience, and a lot of determination, she finally learns what true happiness is--on her own terms. Told with style, savvy, and humor, Nappily Ever After is a novel that marks the debut of a fresh new voice in fiction.

    A chef. An interior decorator. A landscape architect, as well as a gardener. I’ve been a painter. A furniture restorer. A personal shopper. A veterinarian’s assistant and sometimes the veterinarian.... An accountant, a banker, and on occasion, a broker. I’ve been a beautician. A map. A psychic. Santa Claus. The Tooth Fairy. The T.V. Guide. A movie reviewer. An angel. God....For a long time I have felt like I inadvertently got my master’s in How to Take Care of Everybody Except Yourself and then a Ph.D. in How to Pretend Like You Don’t Mind. But I do mind." Since Terry McMillan’s breakout novel Waiting to Exhale surged onto the bestseller lists, critics and readers alike have been captivated by her irreverent, hilarious, pitch-perfect tales of women’s lives and contemporary issues. With The Interruption of Everything, her sixth novel, McMillan takes on the fault lines of midlife and family life, reminds us once again of the redeeming power of friendship, and turns her eye toward the dilemma of how a woman starts to put her own needs higher on the to-do list while not shortchanging everyone else.Marilyn Grimes, wife and mother of three, has made a career of deferring her dreams to build a suburban California home and lifestyle with her husband, Leon. She troubleshoots for her grown kids, cares for her live-in mother-in-law, Arthurine (and elderly poodle, Snuffy); keeps tabs on her girlfriends Paulette and Bunny and her own aging mother and foster sister—all the while holding down a part-time job. But at forty-four, Marilyn’s got too much on her plate and nothing to feed her passion. She feels like she’s about ready to jump. She’s just not sure where.Highly entertaining, deeply human, a page-turner full of heart and soul, The Interruption of Everything is vintage Terry McMillan—and a triumphant testament to the fact that the detour is the path, and living life "by the numbers" never quite adds up.

    She's a successful marketing executive who still believes in sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

    Facing a future of cooking, cleaning and unsatisfying sex, Trudy decides to make some changes while she still can.

    "The Flip Side of Sin" takes readers on a journey through the lives of a group of unforgettable characters who must overcome life's toughest challenges to find true happiness. It is a book in which worlds collide and people are forever transformed by the tumultuous changes that occur in one man's life. The story begins with Isaac Coleman, a man whose tragic mistakes cost him years away from everyone and everything that mattered to him -- especially his wife and son. Alone, confused, and bitter, Isaac can only become whole by learning to love again. But when he re-enters the world he left and attempts to get reacquainted with his now teenage son, Peyton, he finds heartbreaking rejection.As Isaac struggles to understand and change his plight, his only form of self-expression is found in the keys of his saxophone. When he later meets up with Miracall Lake, a woman with whom he shares a painful past, she surprisingly helps him to face his fears and reach for his dreams. In this case, love indeed conquers all -- or so it tries to in this tale of good versus evil and love versus hate. "The Flip Side of Sin" is a poignant and memorable work from a writer of immense talent.

    After the death of her best friend, determined to get out of her rut, she goes to Paris, leaving behind a marriage proposal. While there, Nicole chances upon an old photo of her father-lovingly inscribed, in his hand, to a woman Nicole has never heard of. What starts as a vacation quickly becomes an investigation into his relationship to this mystery woman. Moving back and forth in time between the sparkling Paris of today and the jazz-fueled city filled with expatriates in the 1950s, Passing Love is the story of two women dealing with lost love, secrets, and betrayal...and how the City of Light may hold all of the answers.

    And yet, like so many others in Corey's neighborhood, he finds the temptations of the lucrative drug trade too great to resist. While he makes fast money for a while, it is inevitable that it is he who has to pay, with his time and maybe even his life: by the age of sixteen Corey is locked up. Incarcerated in Riker's Island and then in prisons upstate, Corey lives through experiences that threaten to destroy his body, his mind, and eventually his spirit. But in the midst of his horrific imprisonment he discovers new strength to keep himself together and survive. Corey meets a few kind souls who mean him well, including a teacher who encourages him to get out of prison and make something of himself. The teacher also advises Corey to "never go home again." Though the homesick Corey does not immediately understand, he ultimately realizes the wisdom of his mentor's words. Unflinching and riveting, this story is the firsthand account of the brutal, unforgiving inner-city streets and prison life, as well as a difficult lesson in accepting responsibility and moving on.

    Hailed as a masterpiece of historical fiction, this classic by Jewel Parker Rhodes, the bestselling author of Voodoo Dreams, examines the role of the women in Frederick Douglass' life.