Above all, as a very young child she decided one day that even if there was no other person in the world who loved and wanted her, she was going to love and care for herself—and that decision changed the course of her life. Africa’s Child is the story of a mixed-race girl growing up in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania, East Africa. Raised in an orphanage with no knowledge of her origins or family, she endured abandonment, hardships, severe illnesses, and bullying. Her experiences as a child and teenager included physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, social stigma, and racial discrimination.Yet Nhambu tells her inspiring story with warmth and humor. Her questioning mind probes the African tribal realities and multi-cultural complexities that impacted her life both at the orphanage and schools run by German nuns as well as at an African high school with American nuns. Nhambu not only survived her childhood but triumphed. Her faith and resilience, along with a belief in learning and her tenacious pursuit of an education, sustained her through many challenges. Dance, especially African tribal dance, became the way she healed and nourished her spirit. Through the love and commitment of an American teacher she met in Africa, Nhambu was able to pursue her dream of education and a new life for herself. The first book in her three-part memoir ends as she is leaving Africa for university studies in America on a full scholarship.Maria Nhambu is the creator of Aerobics With Soul®, a fitness workout based on African dance.

    But when his expedition threatens the ambitions of billionaire industrialist Charles Bettencourt, Jonah’s survival depends on hijacking a hostile submarine and assembling an unproven crew who must simultaneously investigate the source of a mysterious oceanic plague and face down Bettencourt’s commandos.A thrilling, fast-paced adventure set in the world’s last frontier, THE WRECKING CREW will resonate with James Rollins and Clive Cussler fans alike.

    The deceptive, crooked path that led him to today began a few months back. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, nineteen-year old Fleming was a professional baseball pitcher with the Chicago White Sox. His successful first year in the minor leagues was waylaid when he received his draft notice. Through a series of misadventures, he ended up enlisting for four years in an elite unit called the A.S.A. or Army Security Agency; the army’s equivalent to the N.S.A. or the National Security Agency. Once in the army, Fleming learned that the recruiter had manipulated him with a host of untruths. Then, to his dismay, he learned that the army had lost his orders and he was placed in an infantry unit. Once in Vietnam, Platoon Sergeant, Levine questioned Fleming and dragged out of him the sad story of how he had enlisted for four years and ended up in an infantry unit. He became the butt of the platoon’s jokes and underwent vicious ribbing by the other platoon members. That day, the platoon was ordered back to their base camp: L.Z. English. Before leaving, they endured a mortar attack and then a ground probe. Fleming’s foxhole mate was critically wounded. Fleming did everything he could to save the man but his wounds were too severe and he died in Fleming’s arms. Repulsed by the ordeal, Fleming was left wondering if he could endure a whole year of this. Twelve-year old Van Phan Duc and his two friends twelve-year old Hoi Anh Vanh and Dan Tri Quang lived happily in their village until the day a N.V.A. invaded and forced them to join their struggle and fight the invading Americans. They were then assigned to a Viet Cong unit where they met Sergeant Chi, the man who would train them to be soldiers for the revolution and lead them into battle. Three American soldiers had been captured. Chi ordered the three boys to participate in brutally torturing the Americans. Dan embraced the torture and it turned him into a brutal fighting machine, much to Chi’s satisfaction. On the other hand, Hoi was repulsed by the events and a part of him died that day. He performed the torture but it wasn’t to Chi’s satisfaction. Van, a devout Buddhist, was also repulsed. He realized that life, as a soldier was three hundred and sixty degrees opposite of Buddha’s spiritual path. The 173rd’s area of operations was the Central Highlands. The 173rd’s home base was in and around the town of Bong Son, but they patrolled all over the province of Binh Dinh. For the next few months, Fleming and Van’s units met on numerous occasions. The first time they engaged each other in combat was in a simple ambush that lasted only two minutes. Both men were left repulsed by the carnage that could take place in only two minutes. Right after the ambush, Fleming’s company was deployed in a battalion-sized operation located in the Dak To mountain range. It was an area where numerous North Vietnamese soldiers infiltrated into South Vietnam from neighboring Cambodia and Laos. Fleming’s company was dropped into an area far from Dak To and the men were forced to march (hump) to their final destination. During the trek, they had to carve their way through impenetrable jungle and cross leach infested rivers to reach their destination, all the while suffering under Vietnam’s oppressive heat. Van’s Viet Cong unit was sent to the Dak To mountain range to do battle with Fleming and his company. Months passed with Van and Fleming’s units constantly meeting. Both men had similar personalities. Both men overcame their initial shock at war’s brutality and became highly competent soldiers who bravely fought the enemy. Both men were ultimately made into squad leaders. Both men continued to hate the war, yet were entrapped in the insanity that was war. They both recognized what war was—a brutally insane series of events where lives were lost and where dreams died.

    The first volume was featured in the "New York Times," which named it a Notable Book of the Year.ContentsFiction. Ibo landing / ihsan bracy --The quality of sand / Cherene Sherrard --Yahimba's choice / Charles R. Saunders --The glass bottle trick / Nalo Hopkinson --Desire / Kiini Ibura Salaam --Recovery from a fall / David Findlay --Anansi meets Peter Parker at the Taco Bell on Lexington / Douglas Kearney --The magical Negro / Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu --Jesus Christ in Texas / W.E.B. DuBois --Will the circle be unbroken? / Henry Dumas --'Cause Harlem needs heroes / Kevin Brockenbrough --Whipping boy / Pam Noles --Old flesh song / Ibi Aanu Zoboi --Whispers in the dark / Walter Mosley --Aftermoon / Tananarive Due --Voodoo Vincent and the astrostoriograms / Tyehimba Jess --The binary / John Cooley --BLACKout / Jill Robinson --Sweet dreams / Charles Johnson --Buying primo time / Wanda Coleman --Corona / Samuel R. Delaney --Maggies / Nisi Shawl --Excerpt from Mindscape / Andrea Hairston --Trance / Kalamu ya Salaam --Essays. The second law of thermodynamics: transcription of a panel at the 1997 Black speculative fiction writer's conference held at Clark Atlanta University / Jewelle Gomez --Her pen could fly: remembering Virginia Hamilton / Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu --Celebrating the alien: the politics of race and species in the juveniles of Andre Norton / Carol Cooper.

    South Africa is on the brink of total transformation and in Walmer Estate, a busy suburb on the slopes of Devil’s Peak, fourteen-year-old Alia Dawood is about to undergo a transformation of her own. She watches with fascination and fear as the national drama unfolds, longing to be a part of what she knows to be history in the making. As her revolutionary aspirations strengthen in the months before the elections, her intense, radical Uncle Waleed reappears, forcing her parents and sister Nasreen to confront his subversive and dangerous past.Nadia David’s first novel moves across generations and communities, through the suburbs to the city centre, from the lush gardens of private schools to the dingy bars of Observatory, from landmark mosques and churches to the manic procession of the Cape Carnival, through evictions, rebellions, political assassinations and first loves. The book places one family’s story at the heart of a country’s rebirth and interrogates issues of faith, race, belonging and freedom.An Imperfect Blessing is a vibrant, funny and moving debut.

    

    The people of Segu, the Bambara, are guided by their griots and priests; their lives are ruled by the elements. But even their soothsayers can only hint at the changes to come, for the battle of the soul of Africa has begun. From the east comes a new religion, Islam, and from the West, the slave trade. Segu follows the life of Dousika Traore, the king’s most trusted advisor, and his four sons, whose fates embody the forces tearing at the fabric of the nation. There is Tiekoro, who renounces his people’s religion and embraces Islam; Siga, who defends tradition, but becomes a merchant; Naba, who is kidnapped by slave traders; and Malobali, who becomes a mercenary and halfhearted Christian.Based on actual events, Segutransports the reader to a fascinating time in history, capturing the earthy spirituality, religious fervor, and violent nature of a people and a growing nation trying to cope with jihads, national rivalries, racism, amid the vagaries of commerce.

    The good life wasn't handed to him on a silver platter, though. Growing up in the Cleveland ghetto, his father was shot by a drug addict, he worked the streets to help his sister through college, and he made his fair share of enemies along the way.Yet not even his tough upbringing prepared him for the mysterious DVD that showed up on his doorstep, its contents revealing an explicit sexual encounter between his wife and another man, whose face was purposely blurred. Sierra's betrayal is heart wrenching, and Denmark's on the warpath to find out the identity of the man behind it. One thing's sure: It's someone close to him.Suddenly everyone is suspect, especially his two best buddies, and he'll stop at nothing to exact his revenge-even if it means sleeping with their wives to get it. But when Denmark takes justice into his own hands, he discovers a truth even more shocking than his wife's infidelity. . . .In this gritty revenge tale, Freddie Lee Johnson III takes us into the mind of a man consumed with grief and rage. Full of jump-off-the-page characters and fast-paced drama, Other Men's Wives is an explosive ride fueled by love, lust, and deceit.

    A brilliant first novel from Ghana portraying a crucial period in the nation's history--a poet's story of Africa that has already provoked critical attention in Britain.

    She retraces the history of the Atlantic slave trade from the fifteenth to the twentieth century and reckons with the blank slate of her own genealogy.There were no survivors of Hartman's lineage, nor far-flung relatives in Ghana of whom she had come in search. She traveled to Ghana in search of strangers. The most universal definition of the slave is a stranger--torn from kin and country. To lose your mother is to suffer the loss of kin, to forget your past, and to inhabit the world as a stranger. As both the offspring of slaves and an American in Africa, Hartman, too, was a stranger. Her reflections on history and memory unfold as an intimate encounter with places--a holding cell, a slave market, a walled town built to repel slave raiders--and with people: an Akan prince who granted the Portuguese permission to build the first permanent trading fort in West Africa; an adolescent boy who was kidnapped while playing; a fourteen-year-old girl who was murdered aboard a slave ship.Eloquent, thoughtful, and deeply affecting, Lose Your Mother is a powerful meditation on history, memory, and the Atlantic slave trade.

    Donna Hill introduces sisters long divided by their mother's favoritism--now reunited in Washington, D.C., one sister's sudden illness is the catalyst for a long waited reconciliation.Carmen Green takes two very different sisters to beautiful Martha's Vineyard, where a week in the warm and healing sun brings mutual understanding.Jamice Sims unites two estranged sisters in new York City where their childhood loyalty is tested, a new life is welcomed--and a family restored. From three favorite authors, Sister, Sister brings you three short stories about the trials and bonds of sisterhood.

    In the south of the island lies Port Victoria, dominated by the Governor’s palatial mansion; in the north, a settlement of mud huts shelter a hundred thousand natives; and in dense jungle live the notorious Maula tribe, kept under surveillance by a solitary District Officer and his young wife. When Chief-designate, Dinamaula, returns from his studies in England with a spirited desire to speed the development of his people, political crisis erupts into a ferment of intrigue and violence.

    Since 1971, Ploughshares has discovered and cultivated the freshest voices in contemporary American literature, and now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares “the Triton among minnows.” Available now are nine new Ploughshares Solos, longform stories and essays also collected in our annual fall issue. Edited by Editor-in-chief Ladette Randolph, the Fall 2019 collection of Solos features new longform work by Andrea Barrett, Kiley Reid, Lex Williford, and Tracy Daugherty, as well as Ian Stansel, Nancy Mays, Danielle Spencer, Christopher Peacock, and Susan Neville. The stories and essays in our longform issue are also available for individual purchase as e-books. Read "George Washington's Teeth" by Kiley Reid:

    We replaced it with the edited draft as soon as we were made aware. Please accept our apologies for the mistake. A legend of the deep guards the secret to eternal life! Dane Maddock just wants to hunt for treasure and leave his past behind. After a series of tragedies, the former Navy SEAL and his crew travel to the Bahamas in search of the wreckage of Maelstrom, the flagship of notorious pirate Riddick Blackwood. But what they find sets them on a hunt for one of the greatest legends of the New World—The Fountain of Youth! But has their discovery unleashed something terrible upon the world? As the deaths mount, Maddock and his partner Bones Bonebrake must prevent a dangerous shadow organization from seizing the power that lies beneath the waters. Classic archaeological adventure for the modern reader! Fans of Indiana Jones, Dirk Pitt, and National Treasure will love the Dane Maddock Adventures

    And so begins her new life with Noah Tuke.But instead of marital bliss, Harriet finds herself in the cramped farmhouse which Noah calls home, and in this overcrowded and angry household she meets with hostility and bitterness. The only person who offers her friendship is Noah's brother, Fletcher. Gradually she learns the true reasons behind Noah's desire to marry her - and realises that the only person she finds real companionship with is the person she can't possibly be with.