Behind Her Lives by: Briana Coles
“That’s not my sister.” Overwhelmed by shock and relief, those are the only words Deven can muster when she is called to identify the body of a suicide victim. A body she was informed was her sister, Kennedy. But as she stares at the lifeless stranger, she’s filled with questions: Who is this woman? Why was Deven listed as family? And most important, where is Kennedy? Her intuition tells her just one thing: this can’t be a total coincidence.
Desperate to put the pieces together, Deven launches her own investigation. Soon, she finds herself tangled in a web of secrets and lies so twisted that it blurs the lines between fact and fiction. And between the sister she thought she knew and the one who seems to have many hidden, dangerous lives. But only Kennedy would have the answers to increasingly urgent questions. Just one possibility is clear: Kennedy isn’t missing. Maybe she just doesn’t want to be found. And maybe you can never truly know another person. Even your own sister.
Evidence Uncovered by: Jacquelin Thomas
A string of unsolved murders…
An FBI agent out for justice…
With young New Orleans women turning up dead, FBI agent Lanier Barrow is sure that the Crescent City Strangler is back. But proving it to distrustful lead detective Daniel Jordan means she must hide her tragic connection to the case. And with their uneasy partnership already troubled, even more dangerous secrets will put their lives on the line…
Inside Out by: Caprice Hollins
Essential steps for leaders working to build an antiracist organization.
Providing a roadmap to workplace and organizational change, Inside Out is packed with practical tools for working collectively towards racial justice and dismantling institutional racism.
This essential guide includes:
An adaptive approach to moving race conversations forward with authenticity and genuine curiosity.
Concrete strategies to help unpack the painful legacies of power, privilege, and oppression.
A framework including awareness, knowledge, skills, and action/advocacy.
Key components for engaging effectively, calling people in, bridging the divide, identifying and addressing microaggressions, and guiding difficult interactions
Critical cross-cultural skills for facilitators and leaders faced with fears, worries, conflicts, and concerns that surface in PoC and White participants.
Helpful suggestions for equity leaders trying to find their why and identify their foundational beliefs, as well as tips for practicing self-care to lessen burnout and fatigue.
How to establish an equity team and bring decision makers on board.
Checklists, discussion questions, recommended readings, best practices, and many other valuable resources.
Inside Out is written specifically for prospective leaders championing diversity, equity, and inclusion in their workplace. It is a must-read for anyone guiding the challenging work of becoming an anti-racist organization where no one’s identity is a barrier to access or opportunity and everyone belongs.
Release: 10/25/22
Click to Read: (Kindle) or (Paperback)
The Way Home by: Kardea Brown
The breakout star of Food Network’s hit show Delicious Miss Brown celebrates the Gullah/Geechee culinary traditions of her family in this spectacular cookbook featuring 125 original mouthwatering recipes and gorgeous four-color photos.
In April 2015, Kardea Brown made a leap of faith, quitting her job as a social worker in New Jersey to pursue a career in the food industry. She opened the New Gullah Supper Club, a restaurant and social destination centered around the food she grew up eating at her grandmother’s house on South Carolina’s Wadmalaw Island.
After an appearance on Food Network, Kardea caught the attention of executives at the cooking channel and over the course of nearly four hardworking years became a star—sparring with chefs on hit shows like Beat Bobby Flay and hosting Cupcake Championship. Viewers fell in love with her Southern warmth, love of family, and awe-inspiring New Gullah meals, and Kardea quickly landed her own show, the top-rated Delicious Miss Brown.
In this, her first cookbook, Kardea shares her multi-generational “passed down” recipes and innovative takes on Gullah classics with home cooks everywhere. “Gullah” and “GeeChee” refer to a distinct group of African Americans living in the coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia who have preserved much of their West African language, culture, and cuisine. The Way Home is an unabashed love letter to her family’s roots, packed with dishes that combine West African herbs, spices, and grains with traditional Southern cooking. “Gullah people laid the foundation for Southern cooking. Before farm-to-table was a fad, it was what Gullah people did,” Kardea explains. “I want to show the world that soul food is not monolithic. It’s so much more than fried chicken and vegetables cooked in pork. It’s seasonal, fresh and delicious! ”
Filled with more than 100 mouth-watering recipes for starters, main courses, sides, desserts, and more, The Way Home brings a taste of the Lowcountry South home, offering flavor-packed dishes everyone will enjoy such as:
Kardea flavors her recipes with cherished family anecdotes, memories, and helpful tips. A perfect blend of the modern and the traditional, The Way Home honors her proud heritage and shows off her own signature class and sass. The result is a marvelous, big-hearted collection of recipes and stories that will nourish you, body and soul.
Carl Weber’s Kingpins: The Ultimate Hustle by: T. Friday
Being the daughter of a pastor, Erica Collins never got a chance to live a normal life. When she lost her mother at a very young age, she questioned her faith in the Lord. Pastor Collins tried to rescue her faith by tying her everyday life even more closely to the church.
Now 21 years old, Erica’s only escape from her father and his Bible is when she hooks up with her best friend, Nicole. She finds a little freedom through Nicole’s wild stories, with most of them being about her boyfriend, Mekco. Erica is all in, craving the attention and the lifestyle that Nicole has.
Mekco is the leader of The Detroit Brick Boyz. Now that his best friend and the former leader of the crew, Pierre AKA P, is out of jail, Mekco is ready to put his boy back on without stepping down as the leader.
Before getting knocked, Pierre was used to living the fast lifestyle and making money. After he’s released, he is introduced to the beautiful Erica Collins. Once Erica enters his life, he questions if he has been living wrong all along. He soon finds himself falling for a young lady who didn’t have any business looking his way. He wants to do right by her, but pursuing his position as the leader of the Brick Boyz and dealing with snakes from the past cause him to push her away.
This pastor’s daughter has some choices to make. Does she return to the flock, or fully enter the world of these kingpins?
Cinderella Masquerade by: LaQuette
Is the woman behind the mask the one this rancher’s been waiting for? Find out in LaQuette’s installment of the Texas Cattleman’s Club: Ranchers and Rivals series.
After a stunning makeover, Dr. Zanai James barely recognizes herself. The reserved, no-nonsense therapist even dared to kiss rancher Jayden Lattimore in the middle of the dance floor. Though a mask had hidden her identity, Jayden tracks down his mysterious Cinderella, claiming he can’t forget her. But Zanai isn’t sure about the motives of a dashing man like Jayden, who’s never looked twice at her before. With their meddling families causing all kinds of trouble, will Zanai finally go after what she really wants?
Dear Diary by: Niko Michelle
Something’s always been off with Eva Moss, but in the African-American community, everything is prayed away, including “crazy.”
What happens when the answer to prayer is therapy and medication? According to Eva’s mother, that’s taboo. All it takes is a little more Jesus, and Eva will be normal.
After Eva’s brother, Michael, is killed in a car accident, she is finally admitted to the psych ward for help. Stabilization seems within reach, until a quick trip to the pharmacy brings her face to face with Myles, the man responsible for taking her brother away from her.
When Myles turns up dead, Eva has to prove her innocence. According to her, she didn’t kill Myles, her deceased brother did. Can she stand trial? Should she stand trial? The question remains: was Myles’ murder really a result of her mental health disorder or premeditated murder?
Tanya Holland’s California Soul by: Tanya Holland
80+ comfort-filled recipes that trace the roots of modern California soul food to the Great Migration—from the acclaimed chef and author of Brown Sugar Kitchen.
“The new California Cuisine is California Soul.”—Questlove
“California Soul is a book that will live on my kitchen counter with drips of California olive oil and splats of buttermilk on every page.”—Bobby Flay
Through more than 80 seasonally inspired recipes, Tanya Holland’s California Soul showcases modern soul food from the acclaimed chef of Brown Sugar Kitchen and host of Tanya’s Kitchen Table. Tanya’s inventive cuisine—rooted in a Black Southern cultural repertoire with a twenty-first-century sensibility using local, sustainable, chef-driven, seasonal ingredients—is showcased in recipes for every season, such as Collard Green Tabbouleh, Zucchini–Scallion Waffles with Toasted Pecan Romesco, Grilled Shrimp and Corn with Avocado White BBQ Sauce, Fried Chicken Paillards with Arugula and Pea Shoots Salad, Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake, and Honey Lavender Chess Pie.
The recipes—influenced by the historical migration of African American families, including Tanya’s own—reveal the key ingredients, techniques, and traditions that African Americans brought with them as they left the South for California, creating a beloved version of soul food. Beyond recipes, Tanya spotlights fifteen contemporary Black Californian foodmakers—farmers, coffee roasters, and other talented artisans—whose work help defines California soul food, with stunning portraiture and stories. Filtered through the rich history of African American migration that brought her own family from the Deep South to the West Coast, Tanya’s recipes are as comforting and delicious as they are steeped in history.
Release: 10/25/22
Uphill by: Jamele Hill
An empowering, unabashedly bold memoir by the Atlantic journalist and former ESPN SportsCenter co-anchor about overcoming a legacy of pain and forging a new path, no matter how uphill life’s battles might be.
Jemele Hill’s world came crashing down when she called President Trump a “white supremacist”; the White House wanted her fired from ESPN, and she was deluged with death threats. But Hill had faced tougher adversaries growing up in Detroit than a tweeting president. Beneath the exterior of one of the most recognizable journalists in America was a need—a calling—to break her family’s cycle of intergenerational trauma.
Born in the middle of a lively routine Friday night Monopoly game to a teen mother and a heroin-addicted father, Hill constantly adjusted to the harsh realities of not only her own childhood but the inherited generational pain of her mother and grandmother. Her escape was writing.
Hill’s mother was less than impressed with the brassy and bold free expression of her diary, but Hill never stopped discovering and amplifying her voice. Through hard work and a constant willingness to learn, Hill rose from newspaper reporter to columnist to new heights as the co-anchor for ESPN’s revered SportsCenter. Soon, she earned respect and support for her fearless opinions and unshakable confidence, as well as a reputation as a trusted journalist who speaks her mind with truth and conviction.
In Jemele Hill’s journey Uphill, she shares the whole story of her work, the women of her family, and her complicated relationship with God in an unapologetic, character-rich, and eloquent memoir.
Release: 10/25/22
Get the Book: (Kindle); (Audiobook); (Hardcover)
Aquarian Dawn by: Ebele Chizea
In Nigeria-born, America-based author Ebele Chizea’s stunning debut novel, teenager Ada and her mother flee the civil war of their West African home and come to America in 1966, where Ada soon discovers—and blossoms within—the US counterculture movement, developing a drive for anti-war activism which she takes with her back to Nabuka only to uncover new truths about herself as well as family secrets that threaten to shatter her plans for the future.
While protesting the Vietnam war in America, Ada forges friendships with other nonconformist youth: free-spirited Stacey, a boisterous hippie, and Sal, a philosophical wanderlust. Soon she seeks independence from her mother, love on her own terms, as well as sexual autonomy. College provides Ada with opportunities for academic success, personal experimentation, and full independence, as well as heartbreak. Despite loss and grief over a decade, Ada’s heart becomes her own true compass and guides her to fully become the leader and activist she’d always been deep inside.
Chizea’s brilliant prose and storytelling skills are fully apparent as she reveals a young woman’s struggle to find balance in her life and in herself while straddling physical and social borders of two distinctly different cultures.
Release: 10/25/22
Ages: 14 And Up; Grades: 9 And Up
The Outlaw’s Claim by: Brenda JacksonThese friends with benefits are about to become parents…and all bets are off! A Westmoreland Legacy: The Outlaws story from
New York Times bestselling author Brenda Jackson.
From friends to lovers to…
having a baby?
Maverick Outlaw is a man who knows his own mind—and he knew from the beginning that a fling with longtime friend Sapphire Bordella would be more than just sizzling, mind-blowing sex. That is, until Phire says they should go back to being just friends—and then announces that she’s pregnant with Maverick’s child and her father expects her to marry someone else! Maverick may not be ready to give his heart, but nothing will stop him from claiming what’s his…
Release: 10/25/22
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