Black Page Turners

Mama’s Boy by: ReShonda Tate Billingsley
When her son is accused of a violent crime, church first lady Gloria Jones finds herself battling his prosecutor—as well as her own inner demons—to save him in this drama-filled novel from bestselling, award-winning author ReShonda Tate Billingsley.

Gloria Jones is living a mother’s worst fear. There’s a massive manhunt for her son after a regular night out with friends escalated into the fatal shooting of a police officer. Her husband, esteemed minister Elton Jones, is humiliated by the news, complicating an already strained relationship with his son. And everyone in Jasper, Texas, a town already ripe with racial tension, is up in arms. But the killer they’re searching for isn’t the son Gloria knows, and now she must decide whether to turn him in or help him run.

As the seventeen-year-old battles for his life, Gloria turns to the woman hell bent on bringing him to justice—prosecutor Kay Christiansen. Kay has built a solid record putting criminals behind bars and now, as she’s about to ride the record to the city’s top spot—Mayor of Houston—this new case could threaten everything she’s worked for.

But a mother’s love knows no boundaries, and Gloria will have to face an ugly past and tackle painful secrets in an effort to save her son.
Release:7/7/15
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The Sister’s Are Alright by:Tamara Winfrey Harris
What’s wrong with black women? Not a damned thing!

The Sisters Are Alright exposes anti–black-woman propaganda and shows how real black women are pushing back against distorted cartoon versions of themselves.

When African women arrived on American shores, the three-headed hydra—servile Mammy, angry Sapphire, and lascivious Jezebel—followed close behind. In the ’60s, the Matriarch, the willfully unmarried baby machine leeching off the state, joined them. These stereotypes persist to this day through newspaper headlines, Sunday sermons, social media memes, cable punditry, government policies, and hit song lyrics. Emancipation may have happened more than 150 years ago, but America still won’t let a sister be free from this coven of caricatures.

Tamara Winfrey Harris delves into marriage, motherhood, health, sexuality, beauty, and more, taking sharp aim at pervasive stereotypes about black women. She counters warped prejudices with the straight-up truth about being a black woman in America. “We have facets like diamonds,” she writes. “The trouble is the people who refuse to see us sparkling.”What’s wrong with black women? Not a damned thing!
Release: 7/7/15
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Big Freedia by:Big Freedia
From the eponymous star of the most popular reality show in Fuse TV’s history, this no-holds-barred memoir tells the story of a gay, self-proclaimed mama’s boy who exploded onto the formerly underground Bounce music scene—a hip-hop subgenre—and found acceptance, healing, self-expression, and stardom!

As the “undisputed ambassador” of the energetic, New Orleans-based Bounce movement, Big Freedia isn’t afraid to twerk, wiggle, and shake her way to self-confidence, and is encouraging her fans to do the same. In her engrossing memoir, Big Freedia tells the inside story of her path to fame, the peaks and valleys of her personal life, and the liberation that Bounce music brings to herself and every one of her fans who is searching for freedom.

Big Freedia immediately pulls us into the relationship between her personal life and her career as an artist; being a “twerking sissy” is not just a job, she says, but a salvation. A place to find solace. To escape from the battles she faced growing up in the worst neighborhood in New Orleans. To deal with losing loved ones to the violence on the streets, drug overdoses, and jail. To survive hurricane Katrina by living on her roof for two days with three adults and a child. To grapple with the difficulties and celebrate the joys of living.

In this eye-opening memoir that bursts with energy, you’ll learn the history of the Bounce movement and meet all of the colorful characters that pepper its music scene. With her own unique voice and unabashed enthusiasm, Big Freedia tells how she arrived at this defining moment in music, and how Bounce ultimately has allowed her to become her own version of diva, one booty-pop at a time.
Release: 7/7/15
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