Black Page Turners

Fiction

September (The Christina Dandridge Story) by:Adrienne Thompson
Born to an interracial couple in Arkansas circa 1960, Christina Dandridge’s life was tumultuous from the start with things only growing worse as the years passed. Wrought with abuse and abandonment, Christina’s life is a journey of ups and downs and trials and triumphs.

This is a companion novel to the Been So Long series, chronicling the life of Mona-Lisa’s mother and setting the stage for the dysfunction that plagued the lives of both Mona-Lisa and her sister, Cleo.
Release: 8/31/15
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Ghost Summer Stories by:Tananarive Due
Tananarive Due, a winner of the American Book Award and an Essence and Los Angeles Times bestselling author, brings you her debut short fiction collection! The title novella, Ghost Summer, won a Kindred Award from the Carl Brandon Society (originally published in The Ancestors). This collection includes Patient Zero, The Lake, The Knowing, Herd Immunity, and many other stories.
Release: 9/1/15
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Driven To Be Loved (The Carmen Sisters) by:Pat Simmons
On the surface, Brecee Carmen has nothing in common with Adrian Cole. She is a pediatrician certified in trauma care; he is a transportation problem–solver for a luxury car dealership (a.k.a., a car salesman). Despite their slow but steady attraction to each other, neither one of them is sure that they’re compatible. To complicate matters, Brecee is the sole unattached Carmen daughter when it seems as though everyone else around her—family and friends—is finding love. Through a series of discoveries, Adrian and Brecee learn that things don’t always happen by coincidence. Generational forces are at work, keeping promises, protecting family members, and perhaps even drawing Adrian back to the church he had strayed from. Is it possible that God has been playing matchmaker all along?
Release: 9/1/15
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Non-Fiction

The Spike Lee Brand by:Delphine Letart
A rare look at Spike Lee’s creative appropriation of the documentary film genre.

In this groundbreaking book, Delphine Letort sheds light on a neglected part of Spike Lee’s filmmaking by offering a rare look at his creative engagement with the genre of documentary filmmaking. Ranging from history to sports and music, Lee has tackled a diversity of topics in such nonfiction films as 4 Little Girls, A Huey P. Newton Story, Jim Brown: All-American, and When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Letort analyzes the narrative and aesthetic discourses that structure these films and calls attention to Lee’s technical skills and narrative-framing devices. Drawing on film and media studies, African American studies, and cultural theories, she examines the sociological value of Lee’s investigations into contemporary culture and also explores the ethics of his commitment to a genre characterized by its claim to truth.
Release: 9/1/15
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Providential by:Colin Channer
Channer’s debut poetry collection achieves an intimate and lyric meditation on family, policing, loss, and violence, but the work is enlivened by humor, tenderness, and the rich possibilities that come from honest reflection. Combined with a capacity to offer physical landscapes with painterly sensitivity and care, a graceful mining of the nuances of Jamaican patwa and American English, and a judicious use of metaphor and similie, Providential is a work of “heartical” insight and vulnerability.

Not since Claude McKay’s Constab Ballads of 1912 has a writer attempted to tackle the unlikely literary figure of the Jamaican policeman. Now, over a century later, Channer draws on his own knowledge of Jamaican culture, on his complex relationship with his father (a Jamaican policeman), and frames these poems within the constantly humane principles of Rasta and reggae. The poems within Providential manage to turn the intricate relationships between a man and his father, a man and his mother, and man and his country, and a man and his children into something akin to grace.
Release: 9/1/15
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Prayers for Victory in Spiritual Warfare by:Tony Evans
Spiritual victory is a privilege to be enjoyed by every Christian. Why then do you seem to encounter so many obstacles in your daily life?

One answer may be that you have not yet learned how to stand strong in the victory that is already yours in Christ. The enemy of your soul has gained the upper hand and you feel defenseless against his attacks.

But are you really defenseless? No, says Dr. Tony Evans. God has given you powerful weapons to help you withstand the onslaught of Satan’s lies.

These prayers, based on Dr. Evans’s life-changing book Victory in Spiritual Warfare, will help you stand against the enemy’s attacks on your:

spiritual life
family relationships
alcohol and drug-related strongholds
financial crisis
sinful compulsions

Prayers of victory that cover these and other vital areas of your life will help you retake the ground Satan has wrongly usurped in your life.
Release: 9/1/15
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Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time by:James Kilgore
We all know that orange is the new black and mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow, but how much do we actually know about the structure, goals, and impact of our criminal justice system? Understanding Mass Incarceration offers the first comprehensive overview of the incarceration apparatus put in place by the world’s largest jailer: the United States.Drawing on a growing body of academic and professional work, Understanding Mass Incarceration describes in plain English the many competing theories of criminal justice—from rehabilitation to retribution, from restorative justice to justice reinvestment. In a lively and accessible style, author James Kilgore illuminates the difference between prisons and jails, probation and parole, laying out key concepts and policies such as the War on Drugs, broken windows policing, three-strikes sentencing, the school-to-prison pipeline, recidivism, and prison privatization. Informed by the crucial lenses of race and gender, he addresses issues typically omitted from the discussion: the rapidly increasing incarceration of women, Latinos, and transgender people; the growing imprisonment of immigrants; and the devastating impact of mass incarceration on communities.

Both field guide and primer, Understanding Mass Incarceration will be an essential resource for those engaged in criminal justice activism as well as those new to the subject.
Release:9/1/15
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Why I Hate Religion: 10 Reasons to Break Free from the Bondage of Religious Tradition by: Creflo Dollar

Religion has broken churches, fueled wars, and driven people away from the true Gospel of Jesus. WHY I HATE RELIGION is a clarion call for people to ditch religion and embrace relationship as it explores the top ten reasons why God hates religion, such as:

Religion makes people try to earn their way into heaven–but Christ offers grace.

Religion says God uses calamity to teach his people–but Christ comforts us.

Religion blames problems on God–but Christ helps people learn from their mistakes.

Religion makes prayer a powerless “form of godliness”–but Christ hears every word.

WHY I HATE RELIGION offers an empowering understanding of true Christianity, one that transforms church into full, authentic, meaningful relationship with Jesus.
Release: 9/1/15
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Shot in the Dark (Lorimer Sports Stories) by:Janet Whyte
Eighth-grader Micah is psyched to have made the junior goalball team—even though he gets the news while in the hospital, dealing with a flare-up of his degenerative eye condition. What he’s not happy about is his parents’ decision to get him a guide dog, and the possibility of losing his independence.
When Liam, a first-rate player, joins the goalball team, Micah’s frustration with his vision spills onto the court. It’s only with the help of Cam, his orientation and mobility specialist, that Micah starts to get a handle on his aggression. But with the team’s big junior tournament quickly approaching, Micah has to become a real team player—both on and off the court—and help his team win the championship.
Release: 9/1/15
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Thug Notes: A Street-Smart Guide to Classic Literature by:Sparky Sweets Ph D
Sparky Sweets, PhD, and Wisecrack proudly present this outrageously funny, ultra-sharp guide to literature based on the hit online series, Thug Notes. Inside, you’ll find hilarious plot breakdowns and masterful analyses of sixteen of literature’s most beloved classics, including: Things Fall Apart, To Kill a Mockingbird, Hamlet, The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, Pride and Prejudice, and more!

The series Thug Notes has been featured on BET, PBS, and NPR and has been used in hundreds of classrooms around the world. Whether you’re a student, teacher, or straight-up literary gangster like Dr. Sweets, Thug Notes has got you covered. You’ll certainly never look at literature the same way again.
Release: 9/1/15
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Kids & Teens

Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation by:Edwidge Danticat
A touching tale of parent-child separation and immigration, from a National Book Award finalist.

After Saya’s mother is sent to an immigration detention center, Saya finds comfort in listening to her mother’s warm greeting on their answering machine. To ease the distance between them while she’s in jail, Mama begins sending Saya bedtime stories inspired by Haitian folklore on cassette tape. Moved by her mother’s tales and her father’s attempts to reunite their family, Saya writes a story of her own—one that just might bring her mother home for good.

With stirring illustrations, this tender tale shows the human side of immigration and imprisonment—and shows how every child has the power to make a difference.
Release: 9/1/15
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Age Range: 5 – 8 years

Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton by:Don Tate
In the nineteenth century, North Carolina slave George Moses Horton taught himself to read and earned money to purchase his time though not his freedom. Horton became the first African American to be published in the South, protesting slavery in the form of verse.
Release: 9/1/15
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Doc McStuffins Pet Vet by Disney Book Group
Donny’s new toy dog, Fetchin’ Findo, stops doing what he does best: fetching! Can Doc the vet find out what’s wrong with the little pup? This pet-tastic story is based on a special Pet Vet episode and includes lots of fun stickers!
Release: 9/1/15
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Doc McStuffins A Good Case of the Hiccups by Disney Book Group
When Doc and Emmie are playing with Emmie’s new karaoke microphone, Millie Mic, Emmie becomes upset when Millie starts skipping and repeating the same line. Can Doc help? Read and watch-along with Doc with this illustrated storybook that includes a DVD of the episode!
Release: 9/1/15
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