Win a copy of The Devil in Silver

Hat tip to Twitter and author @matjohnson for the news that Victor LaValle is giving away a copy of his upcoming novel The Devil in Silver. I loved Big Machine, which was a little scary. This new one sounds really scary! (Devils are big this summer Devil's Wake, Tananarive Due's and Steven Barnes' zombie novel is out soon too!)

A few new books I'm excited about

Pym by Mat Johnson. It's out now and getting loads of great reviews. For example, Salon called "a blisteringly funny satire of contemporary American racial attitudes," which I believe because I follow Johnson on Twitter and his tweets crack me up.

 

If Sons, Then Heirs by Lorene Cary. I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of this. I wanted to send a blurb that said "Love, love, love, love, love, it. You should totally, totally, totally buy it." Yeah, not really articulate. What I ended up sending in was:

"Every single character pops off the page in this amazing story. This masterwork of a novel made me laugh and cry out loud. Important, enjoyable, and wonderfully moving. An absolute delight." It's out in April, and you should totally pre-order it.

Coming in May is Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones, and it's already generating great buzz.

I'm really interested More Than Words because it brings writers of different races together. What a novel concept! It sounds really good too: "Each and every one of us has the ability to effect change—to make our world a better place. The dedicated women selected as this year's recipients of Harlequin's More Than Words award have changed lives, one good deed at a time. To celebrate their accomplishments, some of our bestselling authors have honored the winners by writing stories inspired by these real-life heroines."

More Than Words is on sale today!  

Adding Open City by Teju Cole, which came out last month and skipped my radar screen, because Martha Southgate just told me via Twitter that "it rocks!" A quick Google search shows rave reviews, but Martha's endorsement is all I need.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but y'all know how important pre-orders and first months' sales are. So if you can, go ahead and place an order or pre-order at IndieBound or Amazon or pick up one of these at your local bookstore.

In other news: Zetta Elliott posts an important essay on Women Doing Literary Things. An excerpt:

When I learned that the goal of this blog was to “celebrate and reaffirm the depth and breadth of women’s involvement in literature,” I knew I wanted to participate. Yet when I reflect upon my involvement in the literary world, I find that little of my time and energy has gone toward addressing “the fundamental wrongness of gender disparities.” When everyone in your world is female, gender tends not to be the focus. For me, the main problem isn’t that men are impeding my progress as a writer. The truth is, behind every door that has been closed in my face…there’s another woman.
Sometimes that woman looks like me, but more often than not, she doesn’t. She belongs to a different race, a different class, and a different culture.

Meet: Jabari Asim, author of A TASTE OF HONEY

Note: The winners of Uptown are Dani and Ellie. Congratulations ladies!


Count on me to do things backwards. I'm starting out Women's History Month with a profile of a male author. But I'm actually excited because this blog is a little too female-oriented. I try to keep a balance. But just so's you knows: not everybody I approach wants to be profiled or is interested in online promotion. Anyway, I am thrilled to introduce you to Jabari Asim. You gotta love a guy who wrote Who's Toes are Those AND The N Word!

He is also editor-in-chief of The Crisis—the magazine of the NAACP—and former editor at and frequent contributor to the Washington Post. His writing has appeared on Salon.com and in Essence, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

His answers here sealed my interest in his latest work, a collection of interlocking short stories. Please read our Q&A and then go get the book. It's out today! Pick it up at your local indie, if you're lucky enough to still have one. Or you can get it everywhere: at Barnes and Noble or Borders or Amazon.


White Readers Meet Black Authors: Describe your work for someone unfamiliar with it. You've done nonfiction, fiction and children's books, right? Wow! What's your writing style like? What subjects/themes do you explore?

Jabari Asim: I’ve done three nonfiction books for adults, all of which address themes of race and American culture in some way. Not Guilty, an anthology I edited in 2000, collected the thoughts of a select group of black male intellectuals on matters of law and justice. That book was inspired by the 1999 acquittal of the police officers who shot Amadou Diallo to death. I followed that with The N Word, which traced the epithet through American popular culture from roughly 1619 to 2007. I wanted to explore the relationship between language and white supremacy and also look at the effect of racist ideas on blacks, whites and other Americans. What Obama Means attempts to look at ways in which our popular culture (books, movies, newspapers, music, sports, etc.) prepared for us a moment in which we could even take seriously the idea of a black presidential candidacy. (Check out his interview with Stephen Colbert.)

My first children’s book, The Road to Freedom, was a novel for middle-schoolers about a boy and his father trying to reunite their family after Emancipation. I’ve also done a picture book called Daddy Goes To Work, in which a little African-American girl accompanies her father to his job, and four board books for babies. My most popular book is called Whose Toes Are Those? Many people don’t connect it with the man who wrote The N Word, which occasionally leads to some amusing encounters.

A Taste Of Honey, my latest, is fiction written for an adult audience. Set in a small Midwestern city in the sixties, it looks at the effect of social and political change on a somewhat insular black community.

I strive for the qualities Edmund Wilson once called for in good writing: cleanliness, precision, ease and force. Like most writers, my success rate varies. I’m fond of lyricism because I started out as a poet. As I’ve progressed, I’ve worked increasingly toward a leaner, simpler aesthetic. I’m not there yet. As for subjects/themes, everything I write—and I do mean everything—is inevitably shaped by my experiences as a husband and father. Those are the only things I wanted to be even more than I wanted to be a writer, and I’ve been fortunate to experience both.

WRMBA: I'm curious, why did you choose interrelated short stories instead of a novel?

JA: I originally started writing the stories as a diversion while working on The N Word. That book took me six years and often required immersing myself in some depressing, hateful stuff. A Taste Of Honey allowed me to cleanse my palate if you will, while exercising my writing muscles. Janet Hill, who was then an editor at Doubleday, purchased the book based on a few of the stories. The idea of linking the stories emerged during conversations with her.

WRMBA: People ask me this question a lot, so I will pass it on: What was it like transitioning from nonfiction to fiction? Will you continue writing both?

I don’t really consider myself as someone who transitioned from nonfiction to fiction. My first appearances in major publications were short stories. I had one in In The Tradition, a 1992 anthology of young black writers edited by Kevin Powell and Ras Baraka, and another in Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America, edited by Herb Boyd and Robert Allen. The nonfiction actually came a little later. I’m committed to continuing to do both while dipping my toes into poetry every once in a while.

WRMBA: What's your goal(s) as a writer? Do you set out to educate? entertain? illuminate?

JA: I do feel an obligation to inform when I write, although the information I convey can be as simple as “this is how it was” or “this is how a particular group of people lived at a certain point in time.” In A Taste of Honey, for example, I wanted to examine black love (I’m very much a romantic) as I have often perceived it. My parents have been happily married for more than 60 years, and I’ve been ecstatically married for almost 25. That may be why I tried occasionally to function as a fly on the wall in A Taste Of Honey, providing intimate glimpses of domestic life both happy and horrific. For me, the larger motive also reflected a desire to offer snapshots of black family life in an urban community during the dawn of the civil rights revolution. Of course, no reader is going to stick around long enough to glean any lessons if the material isn’t entertaining. I tried to leaven my stories with humor wherever possible.

WRMBA: What's next for you?

JA: I’m at work on a couple of nonfiction projects that are too shapeless to describe in detail yet. I have a picture-book under contract with Little Brown. I’m also working on a novel that again looks at black romantic love during a specific historical period. I suppose I will always focus on love in some fashion.

WRMBA: Where can people find you online?

JA: I blog at Amazon.com and Goodreads.com, and folks can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

WRMBA: What's the best book (or whose the best writer) that not enough people know about?

A wonderful question. My answer is a tie: Mat Johnson and Ricardo Cortez Cruz. Both are terrific writers with unique styles.

Separate but Equal: African American Authors in Today's Bookstores

C. A. Webb host of Conversations LIVE recently broadcast an important two-part conversation with authors about their thoughts about the African American section of the bookstore. Authors Bernice McFadden, Gloria Mallette and Margaret Johnson Hodge gave their opinions in the first conversation.

Authors Evie Rhodes, Roy Glenn, Tony Lindsay and I, and blogger Joey Pinkney participated in part two of the discussion.

I encourage you to listen to them online (you'll need an hour for each program). I learned of a few authors I was unfamiliar with, and was referred to this 2006 article called "Why book industry still sees world as split by race" that y'all should read.

In the 2nd conversation Webb wondered if creating subsections for romance, mystery, literary, urban lit, religious, etc. would help encourage readers into the section? What do you think? Black readers who are turned off by street lit, would it help if you could go to a literary AA section? White readers, would it make you feel more welcome if there were genre subsections? Latino, Native American and Asian readers, what say you?

Of course, not all book stores are shelved this way. But for stores that are, in 2009 race still matters.

Books for our times

Newsweek printed a list of 50 books they suggest you read now as a way to understand the current state of affairs in our world. It's a good list, and includes Walking With the Wind, Cotton Comes to Harlem and Things Fall Apart. But seriously a list of books that shed light on our times and no Invisible Man or The Fire Next Time? So I asked my friends on Twitter and Facebook to help me develop a list of books by black authors that "White Readers Meet Black Authors" suggest you read now. All of these books can be purchased through your local, independent bookstore or ordered through the following African American bookstores, which really need your support:

Marcus Books, Oakland, CA

Eso Won Books, Los Angeles, CA

Hue-Man Experience, Harlem

And you can find other stores here. In no particular order, here are our suggestions:

Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell (I'd also add her books 72-Hour Hold and Brothers and Sisters). She tells a fair and balanced story about oppression of minorities, women & the poor in this country.

Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. From Amazon.com: Parable of the Sower is a hopeful tale set in a dystopian future United States of walled cities, disease, fires, and madness. Lauren Olamina is an 18-year-old woman with hyperempathy syndrome--if she sees another in pain, she feels their pain as acutely as if it were real. When her relatively safe neighborhood enclave is inevitably destroyed, along with her family and dreams for the future, Lauren grabs a backpack full of supplies and begins a journey north. Along the way, she recruits fellow refugees to her embryonic faith, Earthseed, the prime tenet of which is that "God is change." This is a great book--simple and elegant, with enough message to make you think, but not so much that you feel preached to.

Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama. Speaking of change, Obama's memoir has been on the NY Times list for a long while, so it doesn't need me to bring it to light but it really is must reading.

There is a River by Vincent Harding. An excellent exploration of slavery, and its spiritual and psychological effects on slaves and slaveholders and their descendants.

Invisible Life by E. Lynne Harris. One of the first books to deal with homosexuality in the black community in an accessible, readable way. Vibe said of this book, "What's got audiences hooked? Harris's unique spin on the ever-fascinating topics of identity, class, intimacy, sexuality, and friendship."

The works of Toni Morrison. Self-explanatory, I believe.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. In fast-moving times, how do we process information? Gladwell makes the surprising case for gathering less data and trusting first instincts.

Jump at the Sun by Kim McLarin. In these child-centric times, it's refreshing for a novel to take a real, hard look at the work of mothering.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith. A warm, humorous story about a mixed-race family of academics and America at the beginning of the 21st Century.

What Doesn't Kill You by Virginia Deberry and Donna Grant. A novel that puts a face on the economy, giving a real, and funny, account of what it's like to be laid off. From Freshfiction.com: "Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant have done it again. Every time I thought Tee had hit her lowest point—and Tee probably did too—the authors ramped up the stakes, finding yet another way to tilt Tee's world a few more degrees."

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. A haunting take on what it feels like to be a black man in America. From the book jacket: A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century.

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. "The way Baldwin sees the world for what it truly is, is just inspiring," said a friend on Twitter.

Black Boy by Richard Wright. Another classic.

Colored People by Henry Louis Gates Jr. From Library Journal: Laying out the social and emotional topography of a world shifting from segregation to integration and from colored to Negro to black, Gates evokes a bygone time and place as he moves from his birth in 1949 to 1969, when he goes off to Yale University after a year at West Virginia's Potomac State College.

Reposition Yourself by T.D. Jakes. A Facebook friend recommended this for those looking for a little spiritual direction during tough times.

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage. Seems sometimes that a lot looks crazy lately, doesn't it? This story of an HIV-positive woman going back to her family home is enjoyable and relatable no matter your situation.

Caucasia by Danzy Senna. A great look at America during the 1970s and beyond. Glamour magazine called it, "Extraordinary....A cross between Mona Simpson's Anywhere But Here and James McBride's The Color of Water, this story of a young girl's struggle — to find her family, her roots, her identity — transcends race even while examining it. A compelling look at being black and being white, Caucasia deserves to be read all over."

I Asked for Intimacy by Renita Weems. This book of essays of "blessings, betrayals and birthings" is a lovely collection of writings about relationships, love and family.

The poetry of Yusef Komunyakaa. I was so happy when a Twitter friend suggested Komunyakaa and reminded me to include poetry on the list!

Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith. Poetry about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

Willow Weep for Me by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah. Anybody suffering from depression will relate to this beautiful memoir.

The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen Carter. From The Christian Science Monitor's review: "It's a light thriller for the beach; a wicked satire of academic politics; a stinging exposé of the judicial confirmation process; a trenchant analysis of racial progress in America...."

Erasure by Percival Everett. It's been discussed here on this blog before. From Bookreporter.com's review: "This book offers perhaps the first great protagonist of the new century. Thelonius "Monk" Ellison, college professor, author of 'dense' experimental novels, and recipient of 17 rejection letters, is forced to leave L. A. and return to his childhood home in D. C. to care for his ailing mother. He parlays his frustrations into 'My Pafology,' an exploitive novel that represents everything he hates about the publishing industry. The novel, written under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh, catapults him to the forefront of the literary scene, causing Monk's wildest dreams and worst nightmares to unfold simultaneously."

Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon. A story in letters between young lovers while he's in prison. “Heart-wrenching and true. . .I’d read it again just for the power of the language.” - Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina and Cavedweller

Aya by Marguerite Abouet. From School Library Journal: "This realistic story immerses readers in the life of an Ivorian teen of the period. Yet for those familiar with the civil unrest occurring in this part of Africa during the ensuing years, the simplicity of life depicted can't help but be extra poignant; the subplot of one teen's unplanned pregnancy has universal elements."

The Air Between Us by Deborah Johnson. Listen to the author discuss her work here. Part mystery and part romance, this is a tale about black and white families in the south. From Freshfiction.com, "Deborah Johnson does a fantastic job in this, her debut novel, of developing characters which leap off the page, casting a spell such that the reader has to know what happens to each and every one of them."

Anything We Love Can Be Saved by Alice Walker. The well-known writer discusses her activism. This is a great book for when you're discouraged about human rights or the environment. Even just saying the title makes me feel better.

The Fall of Rome by Martha Southgate. "It’s hard to think of another novel that has put the varieties of black striving and white piety so relentlessly under the microscope. What we find squirming there is never exactly what we expect: Striving, it turns out, can be a kind of piety, and vice versa. The wonder is that, in Southgate’s hands, the characters who embody these ideas are never hollow constructions but painfully real people grinding toward (or away from) their fate. That they never waste our interest, or deserve less than our full attention, makes each of them—and makes Southgate too, for that matter—a figure to be reckoned with, a voice we had best get to know." —Jesse Green, author of The Velveteen Father

Money Hungry by Sharon Flake. A YA, middle-grade novel about a girl who lusts after money, and the consequences that come with that. (Sounds like a lot of adults need to check this one out!)

Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers. Another YA, middle-grade book. Publishers Weekly said in a starred review, "Here it is at last — the novel that will allow American teens to grapple intelligently and thoughtfully with the war in Iraq." But how many adult novels are dealing with the Iraq War, which is certainly one of the biggest issues of our time?

What Obama Means...For Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future by Jabari Asim. The 2008 election was something historians will be dissecting for ages. According to HarperCollins, this book "demonstrates how Obama turned the old civil-rights model of African American leadership on its head, and shows that Obama's election is evidence of the progress that has been made in healing wounds and broadening America's concept of leadership and inspiration."

Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston's autobiography. According to the HarperCollins website, "Hurston's very personal literary self-portrait offers a revealing, often audacious glimpse into the life -- public and private -- of an extraordinary artist, anthropologist, chronicler, and champion of the black experience in America. Full of the wit and wisdom of a proud, spirited woman who started off low and climbed high, Dust Tracks on a Roadis a rare treasure from one of literature's most cherished voices."

The works of J. California Cooper. Cooper is a sort of modern day Hurston, telling "deceptively simple" stories about people so real you believe you know them. Halle Berry's been quoted as saying, "My fifth-grade teacher...one day said, 'Instead of calling and asking me for advice, try reading J. California Cooper.'"

Race Matters by Cornel West. Publishers Weekly noted this important book is made up of "

eight cogent and profoundly moral essays on American race relations."

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Angelou's 1st volume of her autobiography. It regularly appears on banned books list, which, I'm sure, continues to keep it popular.

The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B. Dubois. "The book endures today as a classic document of American social and political history: a manifesto that has influenced generations with its transcendent vision for change." Change. There's that word again.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Because he helped black people see ourselves more clearly. Because he embraced Islam and after he did is when he began to champion people of all races. Because there would be no President Obama without him. Because he said, "People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book."

Every Goodbye Ain't Gone by Itabari Njeri. I loved this memoir and was happy to see a Facebook friend recommend it. I also love the internet because here you can see an interview with Njeri.

Them by Nathan McCall. This novel addresses gentrification and race, asking us all to consider the "other."

Mama Day by Gloria Naylor. The book jacket "On the island of Willow Springs, off the Georgia coast, the powers of healer Mama Day are tested by her great niece, Cocoa, a stubbornly emancipated woman endangered by the island's darker forces. A powerful generational saga at once tender and suspenseful, overflowing with magic and common sense." Because we could all use some magic and common sense right about now.

Assata: An Autobiography. Memoir of an activist.

Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson. Recommended by a Facebook friend.

What else would you suggest for a book that sheds light on current affairs or, perhaps, helps provide a good escape from troubled times?

Notables of 2008

Happy New Year! Below are lists of notable black books from 2008 I received via email and that I compiled. I thought instead of linking to each author or to a site like Amazon, I would suggest ordering any book that interests you from an independent book-seller such as Eso Won Books, in Los Angeles. They will ship anywhere in the country, and they're good people.

Bonnie Glover's list:

Fiction
All or Nothing by Preston Allen (NY Times review)
Trading Dreams at Midnight by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
The Sunday Brunch Diaries by Norma Jarrett
The Right Mistake by Walter Mosley
Midnight: A Gangster's Story by Sister Souljah
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Nonfiction
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Grace After Midnight by Felicia Pearson
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

Doret Canton's list:

Fiction
Slumberland by Paul Beatty
Trading Dreams at Midnight by Diane McKinney-Whetstone

Nonfiction
Definition by Cey Adams

Children's
Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
We are the Ship by Kadir Nelson
Hip Hop Speaks to Children by Nikki Giovanni
After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson


Carleen Brice's list:

Fiction
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Taking After Mudear by Tina McElroy Ansa
Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
Passing for Black by Linda Villarosa
Conception by Kalisha Buckhanon
Stand the Storm by Breena Clarke
The Air Between Us by Deborah Johnson
Song Yet Sung by James McBride
Incognegro by Mat Johnson
The Knees of Gullah Island by Dwight Fryer
Going Down South by Bonnie Glover




Nonfiction
The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon Reed (National Book Award winner)
Kinky Gazpacho by Lori Tharps
The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper
Step by Step by Bertie Bowman
Hiding in Hip Hop by Terrance Dean
Black Pain by Terrie Williams
All About Love by Susan L. Taylor
Standing Tall by C. Vivian Stringer

Poetry

Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith (finalist for National Book Award)

Acolytes by Nikki Giovanni

What did you think was notable this year? And no need to mention my novel. We'll assume that's been covered enough on this blog. :)

12 days of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa

I've already suggested a few books for Christmas (as did lots of readers in the comments), but a few people asked for more recommendations so here's another list. 12 books for the 12 days of whatever you celebrate in December. Before we get to it though, Bonnie Glover, author of Going Down South, has suggested we put together a list of notable black books for 2008 since the NY Times list was kinda skimpy on the black folks. Please leave your suggestions in the comments or email them to me and I'll post them on Dec. 23rd.

Now to the 12 books:

On the 12th day: The Warmest December by Bernice McFadden

There's a reason why Toni Morrison's name comes up when people think about good books. So if you like Morrison, check this out: Morrison called Bernice McFadden's The Warmest December "searing and experly imagined." From the Publisher's Weekly review: "McFadden's graphic, poignant second novel (following her praised debut, Sugar) charts the resonating legacy that alcoholic parents pass on to their children through the cycle of addiction and domestic violence. Narrator Kenzie Lowe, an African-American woman in her 30s on welfare, has used alcohol to repress the memories of abuse she suffered growing up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, caught in the physical and emotional grip of her whiskey-swilling father, Hyman Lowe. As Hy-Lo (a name that reflects his erratic mood swings) lies comatose in his hospital bed, dying of liver disease, Kenzie finds herself in the grip of buried memories."

Not necessarily light holiday reading, but come on: Toni Morrison liked it! And I'm telling you McFadden is a lovely, lyrical writer.

On the 11th day: This Side of the Sky by Elyse Singleton

This is one of my all-time favorite books. Think Toni Morrison only lighter and with lots of humor. From Publisher's Weekly: "This is a sprawling, ambitious saga about two women, lifelong friends, who live through World War II and its aftermath, and the men in their lives. That may sound overly familiar, but the novel offers a very important difference: the two women are black, from rural Mississippi; they spend the war as WACs in London and later in Europe and the lover of one of them is a thoroughly decent German prisoner of war sent to work in the fields in the Deep South."

Would make a good gift for your best friend. I've already given it to mine.

On the 10th day: Incognegro by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece

Because black people write graphic novels too, and this one sounds really cool. Fans of graphic novels, pulp fiction, and noirs should like this one. There's something about picture books during the holiday--feels real "presenty" to me. Put this on your list!

On the 9th day: Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell

Another favorite. Hard to believe, but this was Campbell's first novel. And it will. blow. you. away. I'm so sad we lost her last year, but I'm glad she wrote books that will live on. Read them all!



On the 8th day: Erasure by Percival Everett

Confession time: I haven't read this book. See, even black people sometimes miss a book by a black author! The novel gets to the heart of what this blog is about. The story? Again, from Publishers Weekly: "Everett's latest is an over-the-top masterpiece about an African-American writer who 'overcomes' his intellectual tendency to 'write white' and ends up penning a parody of ghetto fiction that becomes a huge commercial and literary success." A commenter recommended it and based on her recommendation and what I saw online I've ordered it. You should too.

On the 7th day: He's Got the Whole World in His Hands by Kadir Nelson

Nelson illustrates the spiritual with lovely, vibrant pictures. I wish I knew a little kid to give this book to. Maybe I'll get it just to look at the cover of the beautiful smiling African American boy every day. Seriously, it's worth framing. FYI, inside the book are people of all colors.

On the 6th day: You Got to Sin to Get Saved by J.D. Mason

This is one of those books that I bet white folks would look at and think: "Not for me." Well, they'd be wrong. Just because a black couple is on the cover doesn't mean this book is ONLY for black readers. As a matter of fact, the cover hints at just one aspect of the story, which does have it's steamy parts. But it's also a story of adult sisters and the mother who abandoned them, and J.D. is a real writer; she cares about words and character and story. This book should be just as popular as any commercial fiction out there.

On the 5th day: Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks

The first sentence of this book is "Where my panties at? I asks him." Makes you think this is another steamy one. Not really. This is literary fiction that's also funny as hell. Parks was the first black woman to win a Pulitzer for drama, and God does she know dialogue! She's also got great dreads, won a McCarthur Genius Grant and wrote the screenplay for Oprah's production of Their Eyes Were Watching God. If that's not enough to convince you to buy: I met her in L.A. when this book came out in hardback and she was really nice.





On the 4th day: The Tempest Tales by Walter Mosley

I heard Mosley describe this book in March at the Virginia Festival of the Book, and he cracked me up...yet I still haven't read it. Stoopid! Because I think I'm really going to like it. I always like Mosley. The story is a guy gets killed and is judged to go to hell, but he chooses not to. The book is funny but asks interesting questions about race, crime and punishment in our country. Another reason to support this book: it's published by a black publisher, Black Classics Press and is an example of a successful author looking out for an indie publisher.

On the 3rd day: Black Girl in Paris by Shay Youngblood


This book has one of the most lovely, eye-catching covers. I picked it up in hardcover based on the cover alone, and was delighted to find the writing equal to the art. I loved it and highly recommend it. It's the story of a young black woman writer who ups and goes to Paris. As reviewers pointed out, it could have been a very cliched story and was not. It's Youngblood's sophomore novel. We haven't heard from her in a while, which is too bad. She's a fantastic writer!

On the 2nd day: The Broke Diaries: The Completely True and Hilarious Adventures of a Good Girl Gone Broke by Angela Nissel

I can't think of a better topic for these times, can you? And funny, too? Mademoiselle said of the book: "...the deft way Nissel transforms the ordeals of poverty into funny, reassuring anecdotes makes it an almost enviable condition." Since more and more of us are ending up in this "almost enviable condition," seems like more and more of us should be reading this book! If you want proof that Nissel is funny, she's been an exec producer and writer for the TV show "Scrubs."

On the 1st day: My First White Friend by Patricia Raybon
Yes, yes, I'm being personal. Readers of my Pajama Gardener blog will know that I've already recommended some of these books. That's because I LOVE them! Raybon's book deserves to be as popular as Dreams From My Father. Go here for my review. (But please note this book is still in print--I screwed that up last time.)

Want more gift ideas?

The Root's Holiday Book Guide (thanks to Anika for the link)

Attend the Black Author Showcase Holiday Book Fair in D.C.
RAWSISTAZ Book Club's gift suggestions (books they gave 4.5 or 5 stars in 2008)
My American Melting Pot makes some recommendations