Black Page Turners

Love Under Contract by:Sharon C. Cooper
Timing is everything.

Sumeera Robinson refuses to settle for less than she desires, even if what she craves is the sexy, smart, and charming Nicolas Jenkins-Moore. At her age, she wants marriage and a family, not the empty promises Nick offers. Yet, there is just something about the man that makes moving on nearly impossible.

As the new senior manager of Jenkins & Sons Construction, Nick’s five-year plan is on track with marriage and starting a family at the bottom of the list. Sumeera is as beautiful inside as she is on the outside, but not even she can entice him to abandon his carefully plotted road to success. That is until she walks away without looking back, leaving him yearning for her presence in his life.

Nick is determined to convince Sumeera that he wants the same things she wants. But will an unexpected development keep them from the life they desire? Or will fate bring them closer than they’ve ever been before?
Release: 3/17/17
Click to purchase: (Kindle)

Dragons and Marshmallows (Zoey and Sassafras) by:Asia Citro
With magical animals, science, mystery, and adventure — the brand new series Zoey and Sassafras has something for everyone! Easy-to-read language and illustrations on nearly every page make this series perfect for a wide range of ages.

In the first book of this series, Zoey discovers a glowing photo and learns an amazing secret. Injured magical animals come to their backyard barn for help! When a sick baby dragon appears, it’s up to Zoey and Sassafras to figure out what’s wrong. Will they be able to help little Marshmallow before it’s too late?
Release: 3/14/17
Click to purchase: (Hardcover), (Paperback), (Kindle)

Merhorses and Bubbles (Zoey and Sassafras) by:Asia Citro
With magical animals, science, mystery, and adventure — the brand new series Zoey and Sassafras has something for everyone! Easy-to-read language and illustrations on nearly every page make this series perfect for a wide range of ages.

In the third book of this series, Zoey and Sassafras head to the stream only to make a terrible discovery. Things get even more urgent when they learn that the magical creatures living in the stream are in danger! Can Zoey and Sassafras solve the mystery of the stream and save the Merhorses?
Release: 3/14/17
Click to purchase: (Hardcover), (Paperback), (Kindle)

Monsters and Mold (Zoey and Sassafras)by:Asia Citro
With magical animals, science, mystery, and adventure — the brand new series Zoey and Sassafras has something for everyone! Easy-to-read language and illustrations on nearly every page make this series perfect for a wide range of ages.

In the second book of this series, a forest monster shows up looking for help with an embarrassing problem and Zoey is sure it will be a simple fix. But her first two tries at helping him fail and she has a sobbing monster on her hands! Will Zoey and Sassafras solve the problem in time for Gorp to go to the annual Monster Ball?
Release: 3/14/17
Click to purchase: (Hardcover) , (Paperback), (Kindle)

The State Vs. Albert by:Albert ‘Prodigy’ Johnson
The followup to Prodigy’s critically acclaimed My Infamous Life, detailing the legal squabbles and hurdles endured following his prison sentenceIn 2011 famed rapper Albert “Prodigy” Johnson released his memoir, My Infamous Life–his journey from his time as a member of legendary rap duo Mobb Deep to his three-and-a-half year prison sentence. However, the real story began once he was released.As discussed in his previous memoir, the NYPD hip-hop task force played a major role in Prodigy’s arrest. Their presence remained, even following his time served. Prodigy didn’t help the cause, finding himself in a series of situations that were partly avoidable, partly inevitable. They say hindsight is 20/20, and The State vs. Albert “Prodigy” Johnson is full of retrospective tales. Fans of Prodigy’s rap legacy will enjoy the stories his followup memoir details, but true-crime fans unfamiliar with his music will also be intrigued by what Prodigy has in store in this nonstop ride through life in the fast lane.
Release: 3/14/17
Click to purchase: (Audio CD) or (Paperback)

Thabo Mbeki (Ohio Short Histories of Africa) by:Adekeye Adebajo
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki is a complex figure. He was a committed young Marxist who, while in power, embraced conservative economic policies and protected white corporate interests; a rational and dispassionate thinker who was particularly sensitive to criticism and dissent; and a champion of African self-reliance who relied excessively on foreign capital.

As a key liberation leader in exile, he was instrumental in the ANC’s antiapartheid struggle. Later, he helped build one of the world’s most respected constitutional democracies. As president, though, he was unable to overcome inherited socioeconomic challenges, and his disastrous AIDS policies will remain a major blotch on his legacy.

Mbeki is the most important African political figure of his generation. He will be remembered as a foreign policy president for his peacemaking efforts and his role in building continental institutions, not least of which was the African Union. In this concise biography, ideally suited for the classroom, Adekeye Adebajo seeks to illuminate Mbeki’s contradictions and situate him in a pan-African pantheon.
Release: 3/15/17
Click to purchase: (Paperback)

In the Black: My Life by:B. Denham Jolly
A remarkable memoir about achieving prosperity in the face of relentless prejudice.

In the Black traces B. Denham Jolly’s personal and professional struggle for a place in a country where Black Canadians have faced systematic discrimination. He arrived from Jamaica to attend university in the mid-1950s and worked as a high school teacher before going into the nursing and retirement-home business. Though he was ultimately successful in his business ventures, Jolly faced both overt and covert discrimination, which led him into social activism. The need for a stronger voice for the Black community fuelled Jolly’s 12-year battle to get a licence for a Black-owned radio station in Toronto. At its launch in 2001, Flow 93.5 became the model for urban music stations across the country, helping to launch the careers of artists like Drake.

Jolly chronicles not only his own journey; he tells the story of a generation of activists who worked to reshape the country into a more open and just society. While celebrating these successes, In the Black also measures the distance Canada still has to travel before we reach our stated ideals of equality.
Release: 3/14/17
Click to purchase: (Kindle) or (Hardcover)

Civil Rights, Culture Wars: The Fight over a Mississippi Textbook by:Charles W. Eagles
Just as Mississippi whites in the 1950s and 1960s had fought to maintain school segregation, they battled in the 1970s to control the school curriculum. Educators faced a crucial choice between continuing to teach a white supremacist view of history or offering students a more enlightened multiracial view of their state’s past. In 1974, when Random House’s Pantheon Books published Mississippi: Conflict and Change (written and edited by James W. Loewen and Charles Sallis), the defenders of the traditional interpretation struck back at the innovative textbook. Intolerant of its inclusion of African Americans, Native Americans, women, workers, and subjects like poverty, white terrorism, and corruption, the state textbook commission rejected the book, and its action prompted Loewen and Sallis to join others in a federal lawsuit (Loewen v. Turnipseed) challenging the book ban.

Charles W. Eagles explores the story of the controversial ninth-grade history textbook and the court case that allowed its adoption with state funds. Mississippi: Conflict and Change and the struggle for its acceptance deepen our understanding both of civil rights activism in the movement’s last days and of an early controversy in the culture wars that persist today.
Release: 3/13/17
Click to purchase: (Hardcover) or (Kindle)