Book picks similar to
The Great Midland by Alexander Saxton


labor
novels-novellas
fiction-usa
proletarian-literature

The Great Gatsby


Margaret Tarner - 2005
    He is an extremely wealthy man, although no one knows where he or his money have come from. But Gatsby has a purpose: he is following a dream of love. Will his dream come true?

Big Booty


Cairo - 2013
    She learned how to make a way out of no way—from boosting clothes to credit card scams to sex, doing whatever she had to do to survive. Now, as a single mother, she’s is determined to give her children—and herself—a better life than the one she was forced to live on the streets—no matter how she has to finance it. Seducing men out of their money (and their minds) came easy. And it didn’t take much for a young Cassandra to have guys of all ages eating out of the palm of her hand. A blessing and a curse, the alluring sway of her hips commands attention—wanted and unwanted. But escaping the ghetto has never been a desire for her, she’d be happy just living a more ghetto-fabulous life. And she has no qualms about sleeping with anyone who is willing to satisfy her libido and help her in her in that quest—no matter the costs.

As Bees in Honey Drown


Douglas Carter Beane - 1998
    Book annotation not available for this title.

The story of my life / ჩემი თავგადასავალი


Akaki Tsereteli - 2012
    Born in the village of Skhvitori (Imereti region of western Georgia) on June 9, 1840, to a prominent Georgian aristocratic family; his father was Prince Rostom Tsereteli. Following an old family tradition, Akaki Tsereteli spent his childhood years living with a peasant’s family in the village of Savane. He was brought up by peasant nannies, all of which made him feel empathy for the peasants’ life in Georgia. He graduated from the Kutaisi Gymnasium in 1852 and the University of Saint Petersburg Faculty of Oriental Languages in 1863. The young adult generation of Georgians during the 1860s, led by Chavchavdze and Tsereteli, protested against the Tsarist regime and campaigned for cultural revival and self-determination of the Georgians. He is an author of hundreds of patriotic, historical, lyrical and satiric poems, also humoristic stories and autobiographic novel. Akaki Tsereteli was also active in educational, journalistic and theatrical activities.

Harbinger


Olan Thorensen - 2020
    Nothing will ever be the same.Humanity lurches into an uncertain future, dismissive of warning signs. Only the most naïve believe humanity will step back from the brink. Yet, in a place that doesn’t exist, a riddle, puzzle, hope, fear, danger, salvation—all come together.Zach Marjek has faced death in the far corners of the Earth . . . and survived where others failed. He is about to be thrust into an unimagined situation. Jaded mercenaries, an Inuit wanderer, a murderous Yupik, a young mother, a video game designer, a retired general, a new president, a Chinese marine, mathematics prodigies: these and others whose lives and fates will come together to revolve around a mystery whose consequences could range from disaster to salvation.As the mystery unravels, a danger unbeknownst to the players lurks and prepares to take what cannot be taken. Lives and the future hang by the thinnest of threads.

Not Without Laughter


Langston Hughes - 1930
    Sandy’s mother, Annjee, works as a housekeeper for a rich white family, while his father traverses the country in search of work. Not Without Laughter is a moving examination of growing up in a racially divided society. A rich and important work, Hughes deftly echoes the Black American experience with this novel.

Erasure


Percival Everett - 2001
    But as both a writer and an African American, he is offended and angered by the success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, the exploitative debut novel of a young, middle-class black woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days." Hailed as an authentic representation of the African American experience, the book is a national bestseller and its author feted on the Kenya Dunston television show. The book's success rankles all the more as Monk's own most recent novel has just notched its seventh rejection." "Even as his career as a writer appears to have stalled, Monk finds himself coping with changes in his personal life. In need of distraction from old memories, new responsibilities, and his professional stagnation, Monk composes, in a heat of inspiration and energy, a fierce parody of the sort of exploitative, ghetto wanna-be lit represented by We's Lives in Da Ghetto." But when his agent sends this literary indictment (included here in its entirety) out to publishers, it is greeted as an authentic new voice of black America. Monk - or his pseudonymous alter ego, Stagg R. Leigh - is offered money, fame, success beyond anything he has known. And as demand begins to build for meetings with and appearances by Leigh, Monk is faced with a whole new set of problems.

Madaris Saga: Tonight And Forever\Whispered Promises\Eternally Yours


Brenda Jackson - 2004
    Madaris Saga by Brenda Jackson released on Oct 25, 2004 is available now for purchase.

A Steady Rain


Keith Huff - 2010
    But when a domestic disturbance call takes a turn for the worse, their friendship is put on the line. The result is a difficult journey into a moral gray area where trust and loyalty struggle for survival against a sobering backdrop of pimps, prostitutes, and criminal lowlifes.A dark duologue filled with sharp storytelling and biting repartee, A Steady Rain explores the complexities of a lifelong bond tainted by domestic affairs, violence, and the rough streets of Chicago.

Dear Drama


Braya Spice - 2012
    Right is leading her down a dark path and bringing her nothing but pain.

Clotel: or, The President's Daughter


William Wells Brown - 1853
    The story begins with the auction of his mistress, here called Currer, and their two daughters, Clotel and Althesa. The Virginian who buys Clotel falls in love with her, gets her pregnant, seems to promise marriage—then sells her. Escaping from the slave dealer, Clotel returns to Virginia disguised as a white man in order to rescue her daughter, Mary, a slave in her father’s house. A fast-paced and harrowing tale of slavery and freedom, of the hypocrisies of a nation founded on democratic principles, Clotel is more than a sensationalist novel. It is a founding text of the African American novelistic tradition, a brilliantly composed and richly detailed exploration of human relations in a new world in which race is a cultural construct.

The Gettin Place


Susan Straight - 1996
    A. riots of the 1990s.Straight's brilliant story of the effects of violence in America on three generations of a family is told through the lives of the Thompsons, a large clan who live in Treetown, above downtown Rio Seco, California, and operate a car towing and repair business. Patriarch Hosea is a proud man, and a hardened one, whose father was killed in the violence that erupted in Tulsa many years earlier. All Hosea's memories come flooding black with ferocious force when the bodies of two white women are found engulfed in flames in an abandoned car on his property. These are the first signs that someone wants Hosea off his land; it is up to his son Marcus, the only one of the six children of Hosea and his half-Mexican wife who can negotiate with the white world, to help the family hold on to their home and their livelihood.But it is only when Marcus' nephew Motrice-a young man infatuated with guns and the power that they bring- comes back to Rio Seco from gang-ridden Los Angeles that the real secrets of the bodies found on Thompson land are revealed, as Rio Seco erupts in the same wave of trashing and looting that has engulfed the nearby metropolis.The Gettin Place is a powerful portrait of a family struggling to defend its turf in a changing world, to hold on to the gettin place, the source from which they derive the tools for survival.

All About Her Thighs


Lola Beverly Hills - 2015
    She shows off what her mother gave her in a scantily clad uniform, getting big tips at the restaurant where she works. Then, she encounters an old classmate with educational ambitions who invites her to his church, and she finds herself falling for him despite the fact that they come from two different worlds. Stuart Jacobs had always had feelings for Claire in high school, but never pursued her because his extracurricular activities would not permit him the time to have a relationship…nor was he her ideal. Now his mother is adamant on him meeting and pursuing a relationship with the daughter of a highly esteemed mayoral candidate, but after running into Claire after graduation, he sees it as fate and will stop at nothing to be with her. However, when he finds himself competing with a friend for her attention, she becomes the talk of every concerned mother at Renewal Baptist Church. Meanwhile, Cecelia Faulks, First Lady of Renewal, is dedicating her summer to instilling faith and wisdom into a group of young adults, all while trying to keep the church and her marriage together with a smile. Cecelia sees the bond forming between Claire and Stuart and tries to talk down the bad rumors swirling about her, but when the rumors are confirmed, will it be too late to change for the girl who was all about her thighs?

Cane


Jean Toomer - 1923
    The sketches, poems, and stories of black rural and urban life that make up Cane are rich in imagery. Visions of smoke, sugarcane, dusk, and flame permeate the Southern landscape: the Northern world is pictured as a harsher reality of asphalt streets. Impressionistic, sometimes surrealistic, the pieces are redolent of nature and Africa, with sensuous appeals to eye and ear.

22 and 50 Poems


E.E. Cummings - 2001
    Included are such favorites as "My father moved through dooms of love" and "anyone lived in a pretty how town," along with the usual Cummings dazzle of satirical epigrams, love poems, and syntactical anagrams.This edition is published in a uniform format with Is 5, Tulips & Chimneys, ViVa, XAIPE, and No Thanks.