#BookReview: SEEDS OF DECEPTION by Arlene Walker

Synopsis: A clash between Cherokee Indians and their former African slaves comes to a head in the tribal town of Feather Falls. On the same day Sput Louie McClendon is evicted by reviled town tycoon Goliah Lynch, her husband mysteriously vanishes. Has he fallen prey to bushwhackers or timber thieves? Or is Lynch behind his disappearance? Alone and desperate, Sput Louie turns to town elder for help, but are his intentions pure? As Sput Louie’s frantic search for her husband intensifies, she stumbles onto a dark twisted family secret – one that could not only have devastating implications for her, but the entire town of Feather Falls. Review: Iyanla Vanzant always talks about people "doing the work." Nothing comes to anyone easily, you must prepare so when an opportunity presents itself, you're ready to seize your moment. Arlene Walker has done her work and has been preparing for this moment. Seeds of Deception is well researched historical fiction about Africans formerly enslaved by Native American tribes and their quest to be recognized as tribal members. Recognition of such would allow them to receive land, stipends, etc. from the U.S. government, especially important in the post-Civil War era. It should be noted that descendants of formerly enslaved Africans are still fighting for tribal recognition. Walker's characters are well developed and multidimensional. Their story lines are intriguing, and she's really out to teach her readers aspects of history they never knew about or provide a deeper understanding of that which you thought you knew. Her writing style is reminiscent of J. California Cooper, specifically The Wake of the Wind, and Leonard Pitts, Jr. (Freeman). Fans of either author will greatly enjoy Seeds of Deception. I've followed Arlene on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for quite awhile, so I've been aware that she was working on a book, but I didn't know it would be this book and that it would be so good. Honestly, I'm so envious of everyone who hasn't read her debut novel yet. I wish I could go back and meet her characters all over again. I haven't stopped thinking about their stories yet. Seeds of Deception is easily one of my favorite reads this year. Seeds of Deception by Arlene L. Walker My rating: 5 of 5 stars View all my reviews June 19, 2019 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://bit.ly/2KsrJJA

#BookReview: NATALIE TAN'S BOOK OF LUCK AND FORTUNE by Roselle Lim

Synopsis: At the news of her mother's death, Natalie Tan returns home. The two women hadn't spoken since Natalie left in anger seven years ago, when her mother refused to support her chosen career as a chef. Natalie is shocked to discover the vibrant neighborhood of San Francisco's Chinatown that she remembers from her childhood is fading, with businesses failing and families moving out. She's even more surprised to learn she has inherited her grandmother's restaurant. The neighborhood seer reads the restaurant's fortune in the leaves: Natalie must cook three recipes from her grandmother's cookbook to aid her struggling neighbors before the restaurant will succeed. Unfortunately, Natalie has no desire to help them try to turn things around--she resents the local shopkeepers for leaving her alone to take care of her agoraphobic mother when she was growing up. But with the support of a surprising new friend and a budding romance, Natalie starts to realize that maybe her neighbors really have been there for her all along. Review: There's a lot going on in Natalie Tan's life: resentment for her mother and a bit of shame about their fractured relationship; proposed gentrification of the neighborhood she couldn't wait to escape but has come to love; and a bit of romance. Initially Natalie wants to sell the building so she can hit the road and continue to drift from place to place as she has since she first left home, but soon comes to realize Chinatown is exactly where she's meant to be. Roselle Lim deftly weaves all of these elements into one of the most magical reads I've come across this year. I can't wait to see what she does next. Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim My rating: 4 of 5 stars

View all my reviews on Goodreads! June 12, 2019 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://bit.ly/2XPHWv2

New Books Coming Your Way, March 26, 2019

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam 368 p.; Fiction Professor Chandra is an internationally renowned economist; divorced father of three (quite frankly, baffling) children; recent victim of a bicycle hit-and-run—but so much more than the sum of his parts. In the moments after the accident, Professor Chandra doesn’t see his life flash before his eyes, but his life’s work. He’s just narrowly missed the Nobel Prize (again), and even though he knows he should get straight back to his pie charts, his doctor has other ideas. All this work. All this success. All this stress. It’s killing him. He needs to take a break, start enjoying himself. In short, says his doctor, Professor Chandra should just follow his bliss. He doesn’t know it yet but he’s about to embark on the trip of a lifetime. What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays by Damon Young 320 p.; Memoir For Damon Young, existing while Black is an extreme sport. The act of possessing black skin while searching for space to breathe in America is enough to induce a ceaseless state of angst where questions such as “How should I react here, as a professional black person?” and “Will this white person’s potato salad kill me?” are forever relevant. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker chronicles Young’s efforts to survive while battling and making sense of the various neuroses his country has given him. It’s a condition that’s sometimes stretched to absurd limits, provoking the angst that made him question if he was any good at the “being straight” thing, as if his sexual orientation was something he could practice and get better at, like a crossover dribble move or knitting; creating the farce where, as a teen, he wished for a white person to call him a racial slur just so he could fight him and have a great story about it; and generating the surreality of watching gentrification transform his Pittsburgh neighborhood from predominantly Black to “Portlandia … but with Pierogies.” And, at its most devastating, it provides him reason to believe that his mother would be alive today if she were white. Murder with Collard Greens and Hot Sauce by A.L. Herbert 288 p.; Mystery When the chicest hair convention of the year gets cooking in town, so does business at Mahalia’s Sweet Tea. Halia can barely handle the influx of customers looking to satisfy their appetites after spending the day surrounded by outrageous runway styles. As buzz builds around beauty mogul and pop culture icon Monique Dupree, collard greens start moving out of the kitchen faster than models strutting down the catwalk… But the glitz fades the moment Monique is found shot to death. Turns out, the glamorous entrepreneur’s vanity empire was stained by bitter rivalries, explosive affairs, and backstabbers scheming for fame and fortune. With more suspects than ingredients listed on a bottle of deep conditioner, Halia and her cousin Wavonne rush to discover who pulled the trigger—before the conniving culprit dishes another deadly surprise… Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal by Yuval Taylor 304 p.; Literary They were best friends. They were collaborators, literary gadflies, and champions of the common people. They were the leading lights of the Harlem Renaissance. Zora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Langston Hughes, the author of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “Let America Be America Again,” first met in 1925, at a great gathering of black and white literati, and they fascinated each other. They traveled together in Hurston’s dilapidated car through the rural South collecting folklore, worked on the play Mule Bone, and wrote scores of loving letters. They even had the same patron: Charlotte Osgood Mason, a wealthy white woman who insisted on being called “Godmother.” Paying them lavishly while trying to control their work, Mason may have been the spark for their bitter and passionate falling-out. Was the split inevitable when Hughes decided to be financially independent of his patron? Was Hurston jealous of the young woman employed as their typist? Or was the rupture over the authorship of Mule Bone? Yuval Taylor answers these questions while illuminating Hurston’s and Hughes’s lives, work, competitiveness, and ambition, uncovering little-known details. The Other Americans by Laila Lalami 320 p.; Fiction Late one spring night, Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant living in California, is walking across a darkened intersection when he is killed by a speeding car. The repercussions of his death bring together a diverse cast of characters: Guerraoui’s daughter Nora, a jazz composer who returns to the small town in the Mojave she thought she’d left for good; his widow, Maryam, who still pines after her life in the old country; Efraín, an undocumented witness whose fear of deportation prevents him from coming forward; Jeremy, an old friend of Nora’s and an Iraq War veteran; Coleman, a detective who is slowly discovering her son’s secrets; Anderson, a neighbor trying to reconnect with his family; and the murdered man himself. As the characters—deeply divided by race, religion, and class—tell their stories, connections among them emerge, even as Driss’s family confronts its secrets, a town faces its hypocrisies, and love, messy and unpredictable, is born. March 22, 2019 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com https://ift.tt/2OseQyl

New Books Coming Your Way, March 19, 2019

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams 336 p.; Fiction/UK Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth. As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her. A People's History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian 304 p.; Fiction/India Welcome to Heaven, a thirty-year-old slum hidden between brand-new high-rise apartment buildings and technology incubators in contemporary Bangalore, one of India's fastest-growing cities. In Heaven, you will come to know a community of people living hand-to-mouth and constantly struggling against the city government who wants to bulldoze their homes and build yet more glass high-rises. These families, men and women, young and old, gladly support one another, sharing whatever they can. A People's History of Heaven centers on five best friends, girls who go to school together, a diverse group who love and accept one another unconditionally, pulling one another through crises and providing emotional, physical, and financial support. Together they wage war on the bulldozers that would bury their homes, and, ultimately, on the city that does not care what happens to them. Can't Escape Love by Alyssa Cole 128 p.; Romance novella Regina Hobbs is nerdy by nature, businesswoman by nurture. She's finally taking her pop culture-centered media enterprise, Girls with Glasses, to the next level, but the stress is forcing her to face a familiar supervillain: insomnia. The only thing that helps her sleep when things get this bad is the deep, soothing voice of puzzle-obsessed live streamer Gustave Nguyen. The problem? His archive has been deleted. Gus has been tasked with creating an escape room themed around a romance anime…except he knows nothing about romance or anime. Then mega-nerd and anime expert Reggie comes calling, and they make a trade: his voice for her knowledge. But when their online friendship has IRL chemistry, will they be able to escape love? Bombay Brides by Esther David 216 p.; Fiction/India When Juliet and Romiel get married and relocate to Israel, they rent out their Apartment 107 in Ahmedabad’s Shalom India Housing Society to Jews. Each character who inhabits the house has a story to tell: about run-ins with the other residents, the diminishing community of Jews, cross-cultural conflicts, and the difficulty of choosing between India and Israel. Prophet Elijah, whom the Bene Israel Jews of western India believe in, plays an important role in their lives, appearing at critical or amusing moments and wreaking havoc with his mischief, but ensuring that ultimately peace prevails. March 15, 2019 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com https://ift.tt/2F6Sjmk

#BookReview: MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Synopsis: When Korede's dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what's expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This'll be the third boyfriend Ayoola's dispatched in "self-defence" and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating a doctor at the hospital where Korede works as a nurse. Korede's long been in love with him, and isn't prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other... Review: I know older sisters are supposed to look out for their younger siblings, but Korede really goes above and beyond. In this quick moving story, Korede goes through a range of emotions related to her care free, devil may care sister. And while she initially willingly helps her sister out of sticky situations, she comes to resent her. But we should explore why Korede feels so obliged to protect Ayoola from herself. Oldest daughters play a special role in most families, right? They're almost like the second mother in these households. Parents drill this into the oldest daughter, and her siblings typically resent her for this role, but still turn to her when they're in trouble but unwilling to go to their parents. Korede takes this role very seriously, almost to her detriment. Braithwaite packs a lot into 226 pages. Readers will find themselves sympathizing with Korede sometimes, and questioning her logic at other times. I don't think I found Ayoola likable at any point because I recognize the selfishness and self-centered ways the baby of the family tends to possess. Had Ayoola transformed into a more caring individual, my opinion of her might have changed. As it is, there are no heroes here, only acceptance and conformity. February 27, 2019 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com https://ift.tt/2SrKE6N

#BookReview: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO FANNIE DAVIS:My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers by Bridgett M. Davis

Synopsis: Offering a daughter's perspective on her larger-than-life mother, Bridgett Davis traces her family's story as part of the Great Migration, showing how her mother and father arrived in Detroit from Tennessee carrying with them not just their own hopes but also those of their families. A child gifted with extraordinary powers of perception and understanding, Davis breaks the code of secrecy around her mother's business and in so doing reveals both her mothers' extraordinary sacrifices as well as her seemingly endless generosity. We come to understand just how keenly Fannie Davis believed in the power of money, and family, to make the world right. Review: Black mothers are amazing. Don't hit me with "all mothers are amazing" because while they might be good, black mothers are amazing because they're tasked with preparing black children to face a life that won't always be kind to them and won't think they're amazing. Fannie Davis created a blueprint for life that showed her kids, the author in particular, that they were special, there was nothing they couldn't do and no one could place limitations on them. I grew up with a granny who loved playing the lottery. I have vivid memories of going to the neighborhood liquor store (because no one batted an eye in the 80s when kids bought lottery tickets and cigarettes) to play her numbers, straight and boxed. And though she never told me, I suspect that my granny, a Tennessee transplant living in East St. Louis, IL, played the numbers long before the lottery became an official entity. So I understood how important the numbers were to the black community - a chance to pay a little for a potentially big payout, a little hope for a few dollars, and the excitement when your number hit. I was immediately drawn into Fannie Davis's story, learning the flip side of how the numbers worked and the ability to turn that knowledge and ingenuity into a life long enterprise that afforded her and her family nice houses in good neighborhoods, education at private college, luxury vacations, and the ability to walk away from a marriage that was no longer working for her, because she could afford to do so. I love the example she set for her children, her daughters especially. I'm so glad Bridgett M. Davis shared the story of her family and her mother with us and I think you will be too. February 20, 2019 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com https://ift.tt/2T4iUJH

New Books Coming Your Way, Feb. 19, 2019

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray 224 p.; Fiction/African-American The Butler family has had their share of trials—as sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian can attest—but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives. Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband Proctor are arrested, and in a heartbeat the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace. The worst part is, not even her sisters are sure exactly what happened. As Althea awaits her fate, Lillian and Viola must come together in the house they grew up in to care for their sister’s teenage daughters. What unfolds is a stunning portrait of the heart and core of an American family in a story that is as page-turning as it is important. The Object of Your Affections by Falguni Kothari 368 p.; Fiction/Indian American A young widow agrees to be the surrogate for her workaholic best friend, whose husband is pressuring her to finally start the family she’s promised him. As the pregnancy progresses, the dynamic between the couple and the widow changes in both surprising and unsurprising ways, forcing each to confront truths about themselves and their relationships with each other. Negrophobia: An Urban Parable by Darius James 208 p.; Satire/African-American Darius James’s scabrous, unapologetically raunchy, truly hilarious, and deeply scary Negrophobia is a wild-eyed reckoning with the mutating insanity of American racism. A screenplay for the mind, a performance on the page, a work of poetry, a mad mix of genres and styles, a novel in the tradition of William S. Burroughs and Ishmael Reed that is like no other novel, Negrophobia begins with the blonde bombshell Bubbles Brazil succumbing to a voodoo spell and entering the inner darkness of her own shiny being. Here crackheads parade in the guise of Muppets, Muslims beat conga drums, Negroes have numbers for names, and H. Rap Remus demands the total and instantaneous extermination of the white race through spontaneous combustion. By the end of it all, after going on a weird trip for the ages, Bubbles herself is strangely transformed. Note: First published in 1992, out of print since 1993. The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America, edited by Nikesh Shukla & Chimene Suleyman 336; Essays From Trump's proposed border wall and travel ban to the marching of White Supremacists in Charlottesville, America is consumed by tensions over immigration and the question of which bodies are welcome. In this much-anticipated follow-up to the bestselling UK edition, hailed by Zadie Smith as "lively and vital," editors Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman hand the microphone to an incredible range of writers whose humanity and right to be here is under attack.

Chigozie Obioma unpacks an Igbo proverb that helped him navigate his journey to America from Nigeria.

Jenny Zhang analyzes cultural appropriation in 90s fashion, recalling her own pain and confusion as a teenager trying to fit in.

Fatimah Asghar describes the flood of memory and emotion triggered by an encounter with an Uber driver from Kashmir.

Alexander Chee writes of a visit to Korea that changed his relationship to his heritage.

These writers, and the many others in this singular collection, share powerful personal stories of living between cultures and languages while struggling to figure out who they are and where they belong. By turns heartbreaking and hilarious, troubling and uplifting, the essays in The Good Immigrant come together to create a provocative, conversation-sparking, multivocal portrait of America now. February 15, 2019 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://bit.ly/2X5VAug

#BookReview: SECOND TIME AROUND by D.L. White

Synopsis: Potter Lake, GA is a small town filled with life and love, where the hustle and bustle slows down just enough to notice what— and who is around you. For recent transplants Sage Owens and Bennett Alexander, their greatest losses marked the end of to have and to hold. While time marches on, it doesn’t move in reverse; it doesn’t bring back the love of your life. These two souls are drawn together in this quaint town and discover that their meeting is not so accidental but fated. What time may bring this holiday season is a second chance at love. Review: I love, love, LOVE romances with seasoned characters. Seasoned being my kind way of saying older characters. I love that the characters have lived so there's no falling in love at the drop of a hat. They've seen some things and they know some things and their romances or, in some instances their situationships, seem to be more realistic than the typical knight in white armor riding in to save some damsel in distress. Sage and Bennett are such a cute couple and even though we only meet them in the initial stages of their new romance, I feel like they're going to be a successful couple. Sage's relationship with her daughter is also adorable and I'm hoping (from my fingers to the author's eyes) that she stars in her own Potter Lake romance soon. D.L. White's Potter Lake romances are quickly becoming some of my favorites. They rank right up there with Farrah Rochon's Moments in Maplesville and Beverly Jenkins' Blessings series, set in Henry Adams, KS. It's obvious I love a good, small town romance, right? I can't wait to see what happens in Potter Lake next. February 13, 2019 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://bit.ly/2UUW848

New Books Coming Your Way February 12, 2019

Living on the Borderlines by Melissa Michal 250 p.; Fiction/Native American For the loosely connected Seneca community members living in Upstate New York, intergenerational memory slips into everyday life: a teenager struggles to understand her grandmother's silences, a family seeks to reconnect with a lost sibling, and a young woman searches for a cave that's called to her family for generations. With these stories, debut writer Melissa Michal weaves together an understated and contemplative collection exploring what it means to be Native.

Elsewhere Home by Leila Aboulela 224 p.; Short stories/Global

A young woman’s encounter with a former classmate elicits painful reminders of her former life in Khartoum. A wealthy Sudanese student studying in Aberdeen begins an unlikely friendship with a Scottish man. A woman experiences an evolving relationship to her favorite writer, whose portrait of their shared culture both reflects and conflicts with her own sense of identity. Shuttling between the dusty, sunbaked streets of Khartoum and the university halls and cramped apartments of Aberdeen and London, Elsewhere, Home explores, with subtlety and restraint, the profound feelings of yearning, loss, and alienation that come with leaving one’s homeland in pursuit of a different life. The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo 384 p.; Historical fiction/Malaysia Smart, vivacious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been hoping for. Across town, 11-year-old houseboy Ren is on a mission of his own, racing to fulfill his former master’s dying wish: that Ren find the man’s severed finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever. As the days tick by, a series of unexplained deaths wreak havoc on the town, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Ji Lin and Ren are pulled together in ways they couldn’t have imagined, as their increasingly dangerous paths lead them from lush plantations, to hospital storage rooms, to a ghostly dreamscape. The Night Tiger draws us into a world of servants and masters, ancient superstition and modern ambition, sibling rivalry and forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzlingly ambitious, propulsive novel is the intimate coming of age of a boy and a girl, each searching for their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible.

Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima 192 p.; Fiction/Japan

It is spring. A young woman, left by her husband, starts a new life in a Tokyo apartment. Territory of Light follows her over the course of a year, as she struggles to bring up her two-year-old daughter alone. Her new home is filled with light streaming through the windows, so bright she has to squint, but she finds herself plummeting deeper into darkness, becoming unstable, untethered. As the months come and go and the seasons turn, she must confront what she has lost and what she will become. At once tender and lacerating, luminous and unsettling, Yuko Tsushima’s Territory of Light is a novel of abandonment, desire, and transformation. It was originally published in twelve parts in the Japanese literary monthly Gunzo, between 1978 and 1979, each chapter marking the months in real time. February 08, 2019 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://bit.ly/2UITXke

Mahalia Watkins Soul Food Mysteries by A.L. Herbert

The Hallmark Channel and Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote) might have you convinced that cozy mysteries are strictly for and about white women. Dear readers, I'm here to tell you they are not! During my extended hiatus from blogging, I took the time to read a diverse array of books and discovered not only do I love cozy mysteries, there are a numbers of series featuring black protagonists, written by black authors.

Welcome to Mahalia's Sweet Tea--the finest soul food restaurant in Prince George's County, Maryland. In between preparing her famous cornbread and mashed potatoes so creamy "they'll make you want to slap your Momma," owner Halia Watkins is about to dip her spoon into a grisly mystery. . .

The titles are a bit kooky, but I love A.L. Herbert's Mahalia Watkins Soul Food Mysteries. While most cozies are set in small towns, Herbert sets hers in Washington DC and Prince George's County in Maryland. Halia, full-time restaurateur and part-time detective, and her quirky cousin Wavonne find themselves in a number of predicaments. And, as is usually the case, there's a police detective who hates their interference, but has to admit the cousins are pretty good at figuring things out. I love the realness of the characters: Halia is serious and focused on making her restaurant a success; younger cousin Wavonne is focused on designer clothes and snagging a rich man (providing well-timed comic relief; and Halia's mother, Celia, is focused on getting Halia married off so she can give her grandkids. One more thing to love about the series is the  recipes the author sprinkles throughout the book. They're not at the end of every chapter, so you don't feel like you're reading a cookbook, but there are enough recipes for you to know the author loves food and loves cooking. I'm dying to trip out a few of the recipes myself, the butter pecan cake in particular. Murder with Fried Chicken and Waffles and Murder with Macaroni and Cheese are out now. Murder with Collard Greens and Hot Sauce is out March 26 and I promise you're going to love it like a red velvet cupcake! February 06, 2019 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://bit.ly/2DbXxMC

Is This Thing Still On?

It’s been so long since I’ve reviewed a book over here or even thought about blogging that I had to take a minute to remember my password. I can’t remember exactly when I decided to give up on blogging, but from the looks of things, it was almost a year ago. There was no particular reason, there were a variety of reasons. Life got extremely busy, books got a little boring and you guys weren’t necessarily responsive, so I didn’t think my voice would be missed. And, honestly, it probably hasn’t been. But I enjoy talking about what I’ve read, even if I can’t do it consistently. So, I’ll be back February 9th and I’m going to try to share reviews, even if they’re just mini reviews, with you weekly. See you then. January 22, 2019 at 04:03PM from ReadInColour.com http://bit.ly/2FJyTXb

New Books Coming Your Way, March 13, 2018

What Drowns the Flowers in Your Mouth: A Memoir of Brotherhood by Rigoberto González 208 p.; Memoir Burdened by poverty, illiteracy, and vulnerability as Mexican immigrants to California's Coachella Valley, three generations of González men turn to vices or withdraw into depression. As brothers Rigoberto and Alex grow to manhood, they are haunted by the traumas of their mother's early death, their lonely youth, their father's desertion, and their grandfather's invective. Rigoberto's success in escaping—first to college and then by becoming a writer—is blighted by his struggles with alcohol and abusive relationships, while Alex contends with difficult family relations, his own rocky marriage, and fatherhood. Descending into a dark emotional space that compromises their mental and physical health, the brothers eventually find hope in aiding each other. This is an honest and revealing window into the complexities of Latino masculinity, the private lives of men, and the ways they build strength under the weight of grief, loss, and despair. We Kiss Them With Rain by Futhi Ntshingila 172 p.; Fiction Life wasn’t always this hard for 14-year-old Mvelo. There were good times living with her mother and her mother's boyfriend. Now her mother is dying of AIDS and what happened to Mvelo is the elephant in the room, despite its growing presence in their small shack. In this Shakespeare-style comedy, the things that seem to be are only a façade and the things that are revealed hand Mvelo a golden opportunity to change her fate. We Kiss Them With Rain explores both humor and tragedy in this modern-day fairy tale set in a squatter camp outside of Durban, South Africa. Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories by Kanishk Tharoor 256 p.; Short stories In one of the singularly imaginative stories from Kanishk Tharoor’s Swimmer Among the Stars, despondent diplomats entertain themselves by playing table tennis in zero gravity—for after rising seas destroy Manhattan, the United Nations moves to an orbiting space hotel. In other tales, a team of anthropologists treks to a remote village to record a language’s last surviving speaker intoning her native tongue; an elephant and his driver cross the ocean to meet the whims of a Moroccan princess; and Genghis Khan’s marauding army steadily approaches an unnamed city’s walls. With exuberant originality and startling vision, Tharoor cuts against the grain of literary convention, drawing equally from ancient history and current events. His world-spanning stories speak to contemporary challenges of environmental collapse and cultural appropriation, but also to the workings of legend and their timeless human truths. Not My White Savior: A Memoir in Poems by Julayne Lee 128 p.; Poetry Not My White Savior is a memoir in poems, exploring what it is to be a transracial and inter-country adoptee, and what it means to grow up being constantly told how better your life is because you were rescued from your country of origin. Following Julayne Lee from Korea to Minnesota and finally to Los Angeles, Not My White Savior asks what does "better" mean? In which ways was the journey she went on better than what she would have otherwise experienced? Go Home! edited by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan 320 p.; Literary collection Go home!" is always a slur, but often also an impossibility; this collection explores the words' personal and political dimensions. Asian diasporic writers imagine “home” in the twenty-first century through an array of fiction, memoir, and poetry. Both urgent and meditative, this anthology moves beyond the model-minority myth and showcases the singular intimacies of individuals figuring out what it means to belong. A Reckoning by Linda Spalding 320 p.; Fiction It’s 1855, and the Dickinson farm, in the bottom corner of Virginia, is already in debt when a Northern abolitionist arrives and creates havoc among the slaves. Determined to find his mother and daughter, who are already free in Canada, Bry is the first slave to flee, and his escape inspires a dozen others. Soon, the farm, owned by one brother and managed by another, is forfeited to the bank. One of the brothers, who is also a circuit-riding preacher, gathers his flock into a wagon train to find a new life in the west. But John Dickinson has a dangerous secret that compels him to abandon the group at the last minute, and his wife, two daughters, and thirteen-year-old son, Martin, now face life on the trail and an unknown future alone. After a fateful encounter along the way, Martin and Bry will hatch a plot to get Bry safely to Canada, but each member of the family will be changed, tormented, excited, and exposed by the journey. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "lisarbobbitt-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_title = ""; amzn_assoc_linkid = "27e418f010ed55b9ba40bb2914e7a429"; amzn_assoc_asins = "0299316904,1946395048,125016012X,1945572434,1936932016,B074LTCZ3C"; March 09, 2018 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://ift.tt/2Dfu6qR

#BookReview: WHISKEY & RIBBONS by Leesa Cross-Smith

Summary: Evi—a classically-trained ballerina—was nine months pregnant when her husband Eamon was killed in the line of duty on a steamy morning in July. Now, it is winter, and Eamon's adopted brother Dalton has moved in to help her raise six-month-old Noah. Whiskey & Ribbons is told in three intertwining, melodic voices: Evi in present day, as she’s snowed in with Dalton during a freak blizzard; Eamon before his murder, as he prepares for impending fatherhood and grapples with the danger of his profession; and Dalton, as he struggles to make sense of his life next to Eamon’s, and as he decides to track down the biological father he’s never known. Review: When a book is really good, it can be difficult to put into words what you want to say about it. I wasn't prepared to love Whiskey & Ribbons as much as I did. I was ready to choose sides and dislike characters and that's not at all what happened. One of the reasons I like Jodi Picoult books is because they're told from the perspectives of several characters. I do believe Leesa Cross-Smith has outPicoulted Picoult. Evi is a perfectly lovely woman. Readers would be hard pressed to find much fault with her, and I imagine that's exactly why Eamon falls so fast and hard for her. Theirs is a storybook courtship and marriage, right up until Eamon's death. But even in death, he's a hard act to follow, as Dalton, his best friend and confidante, well knows. Eamon is a man who respects his father, loves his mother and worships his wife. He cherishes his relationship with Dalton, the son of his mother's deceased best friend. Practically raised as brothers, he's the yin to Dalton's yang. As happy as he is with Evi, he truly wants the same for Dalton and his girlfriend, Frances.

"Women, you are sleek and gorgeous. You hold us together, you're the ribbons. We're men. Dangerous only if you take us too seriously. We're the whiskey. To whiskey and ribbons," Eamon said, lifting his glass.

For so many reasons, Dalton and Eamon's relationship reminds me of Tommy and Ghost on Power. Dalton is happy for his friend, but he wants the relationship Evi and Eamon have. And like Tommy, he always seems to be on the fringe observing and waiting to step in to help where needed, no questions asked. Oh, I wanted to hate him so much, but I couldn't because Eamon's death affects him just as much, if not more, than it does Evi. She's lost a husband but he's lost a life long friend who was like a brother to him. Whiskey & Ribbons is beautifully written. From the characters to the scenery to the little nuances, it's absolutely perfect.

272 p. Released: March 2018 Disclaimer: Copy of book received from publisher, opinions are my own. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "lisarbobbitt-20"; amzn_assoc_search_bar_position = "bottom"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "search"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_title = ""; amzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = "leesa cross-smith"; amzn_assoc_default_category = "All"; amzn_assoc_linkid = "246e95c103af9371a26096c3e662258a"; March 07, 2018 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://ift.tt/2IcMkgA

New Books Coming Your Way, March 6, 2018

Whiskey & Ribbons by Leesa Cross-Smith 272 p.; Fiction Evi—a classically-trained ballerina—was nine months pregnant when her husband Eamon was killed in the line of duty on a steamy morning in July. Now, it is winter, and Eamon's adopted brother Dalton has moved in to help her raise six-month-old Noah. Whiskey & Ribbons is told in three intertwining, melodic voices: Evi in present day, as she’s snowed in with Dalton during a freak blizzard; Eamon before his murder, as he prepares for impending fatherhood and grapples with the danger of his profession; and Dalton, as he struggles to make sense of his life next to Eamon’s, and as he decides to track down the biological father he’s never known. Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao 320 p.; Fiction When Poornima first meets Savitha, she feels something she thought she lost for good when her mother died: hope. Poornima's father hires Savitha to work one of their sari looms, and the two girls are quickly drawn to one another. Savitha is even more impoverished than Poornima, but she is full of passion and energy. She shows Poornima how to find beauty in a bolt of indigo cloth, a bowl of yogurt rice and bananas, the warmth of friendship. Suddenly their Indian village doesn't feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond the arranged marriage her father is desperate to lock down for her. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend again. Her journey takes her into the darkest corners of India's underworld, on a harrowing cross-continental journey, and eventually to an apartment complex in Seattle. Alternating between the girls’ perspectives as they face relentless obstacles, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who never lose the hope that burns within them. Happiness by Aminatta Forna 368 p.; Fiction Attila has arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver a keynote speech on trauma, as he has done many times before; and to contact the daughter of friends, his “niece” who hasn’t called home in a while. Ama has been swept up in an immigration crackdown, and now her young son Tano is missing. When, by chance, Attila runs into Jean again, she mobilizes the network of rubbish men she uses as volunteer fox spotters. Security guards, hotel doormen, traffic wardens—mainly West African immigrants who work the myriad streets of London—come together to help. As the search for Tano continues, a deepening friendship between Attila and Jean unfolds. Meanwhile a consulting case causes Attila to question the impact of his own ideas on trauma, the values of the society he finds himself in, and a grief of his own. In this delicate tale of love and loss, of cruelty and kindness, Forna asks us to consider the interconnectedness of lives, our co-existence with one another and all living creatures, and the true nature of happiness. Children of Blood and Bone: The OrÏsha Legacy by Tomi Adeyemi 544 p.; Young adult/Fantasy In a world where magic has disappeared and magis, once revered, are targeted by a ruthless king, Zélie has always feared she would share the fate of her mother, killed at the hands of the king’s guards when Zélie was just a child. Now, at seventeen, Zélie has a chance to bring magic back to the land of Orïsha. With the help of her brother Tzain and the fugitive Crown Princess Amari, she sets off on a journey to restore her people’s magical abilities. In order to succeed, they’ll have to outwit and outrun Prince Inan, who is hell-bent on ridding the world of magic. In the face of danger, death, and a star-crossed romance, Zélie must grapple with the ramifications of bringing magic back to her people -- and come to terms with her own powers. Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan 336 p.; Fiction Ren Ishida has nearly completed his graduate degree at Keio University when he receives news of his sister’s violent death. Keiko was stabbed one rainy night on her way home, and there are no leads. Ren heads to Akakawa to conclude his sister’s affairs, failing to understand why she chose to turn her back on the family and Tokyo for this desolate place years ago. But then Ren is offered Keiko’s newly vacant teaching position at a prestigious local cram school and her bizarre former arrangement of free lodging at a wealthy politician’s mansion in exchange for reading to the man’s ailing wife. He accepts both, abandoning Tokyo and his crumbling relationship there in order to better understand his sister’s life and what took place the night of her death. As Ren comes to know the eccentric local figures, from the enigmatic politician who’s boarding him to his fellow teachers and a rebellious, captivating young female student, he delves into his shared childhood with Keiko and what followed. Haunted in his dreams by a young girl who is desperately trying to tell him something, Ren realizes that Keiko Ishida kept many secrets, even from him. Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala 224 p.; Fiction On the surface, Niru leads a charmed life. Raised by two attentive parents in Washington, D.C., he’s a top student and a track star at his prestigious private high school. Bound for Harvard in the fall, his prospects are bright. But Niru has a painful secret: he is queer—an abominable sin to his conservative Nigerian parents. No one knows except Meredith, his best friend, the daughter of prominent Washington insiders—and the one person who seems not to judge him. When his father accidentally discovers Niru is gay, the fallout is brutal and swift. Coping with troubles of her own, however, Meredith finds that she has little left emotionally to offer him. As the two friends struggle to reconcile their desires against the expectations and institutions that seek to define them, they find themselves speeding toward a future more violent and senseless than they can imagine. Neither will escape unscathed. The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea 368 p.; Fiction In his final days, beloved and ailing patriarch Miguel Angel de La Cruz, affectionately called Big Angel, has summoned his entire clan for one last legendary birthday party. But as the party approaches, his mother, nearly one hundred, dies herself, leading to a farewell doubleheader in a single weekend. Among the guests is Big Angel's half brother, known as Little Angel, who must reckon with the truth that although he shares a father with his siblings, he has not, as a half gringo, shared a life. Across two bittersweet days in their San Diego neighborhood, the revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of Big Angel and his mother, and recounting the many inspiring tales that have passed into family lore, the acts both ordinary and heroic that brought these citizens to a fraught and sublime country and allowed them to flourish in the land they have come to call home. Wrestling with the Devil: A Prison Memoir by Ngugi wa Thiong'o 272 p.; Biography Wrestling with the Devil, Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s powerful prison memoir, begins literally half an hour before his release on December 12, 1978. In one extended flashback he recalls the night, a year earlier, when armed police pulled him from his home and jailed him in Kenya’s Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, one of the largest in Africa. There, he lives in a prison block with eighteen other political prisoners, quarantined from the general prison population. In a conscious effort to fight back the humiliation and the intended degradation of the spirit, Ngugi—the world-renowned author of Weep Not, Child; Petals of Blood; and Wizard of the Crow—decides to write a novel on toilet paper, the only paper to which he has access, a book that will become his classic, Devil on the Cross. Written in the early 1980s and never before published in America, Wrestling with the Devil is Ngugi’s account of the drama and the challenges of writing the novel under twenty-four-hour surveillance. He captures not only the excruciating pain that comes from being cut off from his wife and children, but also the spirit of defiance that defines hope. Ultimately, Wrestling with the Devil is a testimony to the power of imagination to help humans break free of confinement, which is truly the story of all art. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "lisarbobbitt-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_title = ""; amzn_assoc_linkid = "59e4390029c59bed0b87f28a867b431d"; amzn_assoc_asins = "193823538X,1250074258,080212755X,1250170974,1616958553,0061284920,0316154881,1620973332"; March 02, 2018 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://ift.tt/2F8L4ci

#BookReview: THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL by Sujata Massey

Summary: Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father’s law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a legal education from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes women’s legal rights especially important to her. Mistry Law has been appointed to execute the will of Mr. Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen examines the paperwork, she notices something strange: all three of the wives have signed over their full inheritance to a charity. What will they live on? Perveen is suspicious, especially since one of the widows has signed her form with an X—meaning she probably couldn’t even read the document. The Farid widows live in full purdah—in strict seclusion, never leaving the women’s quarters or speaking to any men. Are they being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous guardian? Perveen tries to investigate, and realizes her instincts were correct when tensions escalate to murder. Now it is her responsibility to figure out what really happened on Malabar Hill, and to ensure that no innocent women or children are in further danger. Review: I loved this book like Oprah loves bread! Historical fiction with a first to ever do it character? Yes, ma'am! The Widows of Malabar Hill contains two mysteries, making this a must read: a murder on Malabar Hill and Perveen Mistry herself. Set in 1920s Bombay, a time when being a woman wasn't necessarily an advantage, Perveen uses it to her advantage. Religious law prevents men from being alone or sometimes in the presence of women who aren't related to them. So it falls on Perveen to speak with the three widows of a recently deceased wealthy businessman. While the mystery of what has happened at the house would be enough of a story, the mystery of Perveen is a bonus. A mysterious figure stalking Perveen holds the key to her back story and explains how she came to be studying law at Oxford. The introduction of Oxford also introduces her best friend, a spoiled, wealthy white woman whose father is employed by the British government in India. It was nice for Perveen to have a side kick to reminisce with, which allowed readers a glimpse into her history, but ugh! Go away, colonizers! Between Perveen's history and the widow's mystery, I couldn't stop turning the pages (or swiping my screen). I was excited to find the author intends to bring us more of Perveen in a series of books. The only thing that would make this better would a TV series.

400 p. Published: January 2018 amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "lisarbobbitt-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_title = "Suggested Reading"; amzn_assoc_linkid = "be46529f89ce5ea5238af9f4ea3f0b39"; amzn_assoc_asins = "1616957786,1400034779,0399140271,0765336375"; February 28, 2018 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://ift.tt/2F2raQa

New Books Coming Your Way, February 27, 2018

Black Girls Rock!: Owning Our Magic. Rocking Our Truth. edited by Beverly Bond 256 p.; Photoessays Fueled by the insights of women of diverse backgrounds, including Michelle Obama, Angela Davis, Shonda Rhimes, Misty Copeland Yara Shahidi, and Mary J. Blige, this book is a celebration of black women’s voices and experiences that will become a collector’s items for generations to come. Maxine Waters shares the personal fulfillment of service. Moguls Cathy Hughes, Suzanne Shank, and Serena Williams recount stories of steadfastness, determination, diligence, dedication and the will to win. Erykah Badu, Toshi Reagon, Mickalane Thomas, Solange Knowles-Ferguson, and Rihanna offer insights on creativity and how they use it to stay in tune with their magic. Pioneering writers Rebecca Walker, Melissa Harris-Perry, and Joan Morgan speak on modern-day black feminist thought. Lupita Nyong’o, Susan Taylor, and Bethann Hardison affirm the true essence of holistic beauty. And Iyanla Vanzant reinforces Black Girl Magic in her powerful pledge. Through these and dozens of other unforgettable testimonies, Black Girls Rock! is an ode to black girl ambition, self-love, empowerment, and healing. A Princess in Theory: Reluctant Royals by Alyssa Cole 384 p.; Romance Between grad school and multiple jobs, Naledi Smith doesn’t have time for fairy tales…or patience for the constant emails claiming she’s betrothed to an African prince. Sure. Right. Delete! As a former foster kid, she’s learned that the only things she can depend on are herself and the scientific method, and a silly email won’t convince her otherwise. Prince Thabiso is the sole heir to the throne of Thesolo, shouldering the hopes of his parents and his people. At the top of their list? His marriage. Ever dutiful, he tracks down his missing betrothed. When Naledi mistakes the prince for a pauper, Thabiso can’t resist the chance to experience life—and love—without the burden of his crown. The chemistry between them is instant and irresistible, and flirty friendship quickly evolves into passionate nights. But when the truth is revealed, can a princess in theory become a princess ever after? Those Children by Shahbano Bilgrami 368 p.; Fiction When ten-year-old Ferzana Mahmud and her three older siblings lose their mother to cancer, everything changes. Their heartbroken father moves them from their familiar Chicago suburb to a city thousands of miles away in his native Pakistan. To help them adjust to life in Karachi and to the eccentricities of their extended clan, Ferzana, Fatima, Raza and Jamila escape into a fantasy world of their own making. As superhuman creatures with incredible powers, they investigate the members of their grandfather’s household. In the process, they discover astonishing facts not only about the Mahmuds but also about the nature of family, love and loss in the troubled yet beguiling city that is now their home. Told from the perspective of an adult Ferzana reflecting over that fateful year, we see Karachi through the impressionable eyes of a ten-year-old child as she negotiates everything from religious schism and genealogy to patriotism and puberty. Ferzana’s love of sleuthing helps her to piece together her family’s complicated history, a history that brings with it the promise of hope and redemption. The Night's Baby: A Black Vampire Story by Stina 288 p.; Fiction When she entered school at a recently integrated college in North Carolina, Adirah Messa was looking forward to a bright future. Then she met a man of another kind who turned her world upside down. After being turned into a blood-sucking being and then giving birth to a child fathered by the King of Vampires, Adirah thinks that life can’t get any stranger. But when her ancient past becomes a part of the present, she learns that her son has a destiny that is out of her control. With the eyes of very powerful and new enemies set on him, the only way to protect him is for old enemies to put their differences behind them. If the opposing vampire clans don’t come together as one, it could mean the end of their kind altogether. Promise by Minrose Gwin 400 p.; Historical fiction A few minutes after 9 p.m. on Palm Sunday, April 5, 1936, a massive funnel cloud flashing a giant fireball and roaring like a run-away train careened into the thriving cotton-mill town of Tupelo, in northeastern Mississippi. Measured as an F5—the highest on the Fujita scale—the tornado killed more than 200 people, not counting an unknown number of black citizens, one-third of Tupelo’s population, who were not included in the official casualty figures. When the tornado hits, Dovey, a local laundress, is flung by the terrifying winds into a nearby lake. Bruised and nearly drowned, she makes her way across Tupelo to find her small family—her hard-working husband, Virgil, her clever sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Dreama, and Promise, Dreama’s beautiful light-skinned three-month-old son. Slowly navigating the broken streets of Tupelo, Dovey stops at the house of the despised McNabb family. Dovey hates Judge Mort NcNabb, a powerful man who cannot control his eldest son, a violent and sadistic youth who has left his mark on her own family, linking their fates. Inside, she discovers that the tornado has spared no one. The mother, Alice, a schoolteacher, is severely injured. The shell-shocked judge has gone to look for baby Tommy, blown from Alice’s arms. And Jo, the McNabbs’ dutiful teenage daughter, has suffered a terrible head wound. When Jo later discovers a baby in the wreckage, she is certain that she’s found her baby brother, Tommy, and vows to protect him. During the harrowing hours and days of the chaos that follows, Jo and Dovey will struggle to navigate a landscape of disaster and battle both the demons and the history that link and haunt them. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "lisarbobbitt-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_title = ""; amzn_assoc_linkid = "c4f5a40453307fbfabbfe53790401898"; amzn_assoc_asins = "1501157922,0062685546,9352641574,1622866770,0062471716"; February 23, 2018 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://ift.tt/2GGYUmF

New Books Coming Your Way, February 20, 2018

All the Names They Used for God by Anjali Sachdeva 272 p.; Fiction Anjali Sachdeva’s debut collection spans centuries, continents, and a diverse set of characters but is united by each character’s epic struggle with fate: A workman in Andrew Carnegie’s steel mills is irrevocably changed by the brutal power of the furnaces; a fisherman sets sail into overfished waters and finds a secret obsession from which he can’t return; an online date ends with a frightening, inexplicable disappearance. Sachdeva has a talent for creating moving and poignant scenes, making the unexpected and surreal feel true and inevitable, and depicting how one small miracle can affect everyone in its wake. The Undressing by Li-Young Lee 96 p.; Poetry The Undressing is a tonic for spiritual anemia; it attempts to uncover things hidden since the dawn of the world. Short of achieving that end, these mysterious, unassuming poems investigate the human violence and dispossession increasingly prevalent around the world, as well as the horrors the poet grew up with as a child of refugees. Lee draws from disparate sources, including the Old Testament, the Dao De Jing, and the music of the Wu Tang Clan. While the ostensive subjects of these layered, impassioned poems are wide-ranging, their driving engine is a burning need to understand our collective human mission. Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad by Krystal A. Sital 352 p.; Memoir There, in a lush landscape of fire-petaled immortelle trees and vast plantations of coffee and cocoa, where the three hills along the southern coast act as guardians against hurricanes, Krystal A. Sital grew up idolizing her grandfather, a wealthy Hindu landowner. Years later, to escape crime and economic stagnation on the island, the family resettled in New Jersey, where Krystal’s mother works as a nanny, and the warmth of Trinidad seems a pretty yet distant memory. But when her grandfather lapses into a coma after a fall at home, the women he has terrorized for decades begin to speak, and a brutal past comes to light. In the lyrical patois of her mother and grandmother, Krystal learns the long-held secrets of their family’s past, and what it took for her foremothers to survive and find strength in themselves. The relief of sharing their stories draws the three women closer, the music of their voices and care for one another easing the pain of memory. Violence, a rigid ethnic and racial caste system, and a tolerance of domestic abuse—the harsh legacies of plantation slavery—permeate the history of Trinidad. On the island’s plantations, in its growing cities, and in the family’s new home in America, Secrets We Kept tells a story of ambition and cruelty, endurance and love, and most of all, the bonds among women and between generations that help them find peace with the past. Bingo Love by Tee Franklin 88 p.; Comic/Graphic Novel When Hazel Johnson and Mari McCray met at church bingo in 1963, it was love at first sight. Forced apart by their families and society, Hazel and Mari both married young men and had families. Decades later, now in their mid-’60s, Hazel and Mari reunite again at a church bingo hall. Realizing their love for each other is still alive, what these grandmothers do next takes absolute strength and courage. Down the River Unto the Sea: Detective, Heal Thyself by Walter Mosley 336 p.; Fiction Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD's finest investigators, until, dispatched to arrest a well-heeled car thief, he is framed for assault by his enemies within the NYPD, a charge which lands him in solitary at Rikers Island. A decade later, King is a private detective, running his agency with the help of his teenage daughter, Aja-Denise. Broken by the brutality he suffered and committed in equal measure while behind bars, his work and his daughter are the only light in his solitary life. When he receives a card in the mail from the woman who admits she was paid to frame him those years ago, King realizes that he has no choice but to take his own case: figuring out who on the force wanted him disposed of--and why. Running in parallel with King's own quest for justice is the case of a Black radical journalist accused of killing two on-duty police officers who had been abusing their badges to traffic in drugs and women within the city's poorest neighborhoods. Joined by Melquarth Frost, a brilliant sociopath, our hero must beat dirty cops and dirtier bankers, craven lawyers, and above all keep his daughter far from the underworld in which he works. All the while, two lives hang in the balance: King's client's, and King's own. Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper 288 p.; Social Science So what if it’s true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the right to be. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to keep on fighting. Far too often, Black women’s anger has been caricatured into an ugly and destructive force that threatens the civility and social fabric of American democracy. But Cooper shows us that there is more to the story than that. Black women’s eloquent rage is what makes Serena Williams such a powerful tennis player. It’s what makes Beyoncé’s girl power anthems resonate so hard. It’s what makes Michelle Obama an icon. Eloquent rage keeps us all honest and accountable. It reminds women that they don’t have to settle for less. When Cooper learned of her grandmother's eloquent rage about love, sex, and marriage in an epic and hilarious front-porch confrontation, her life was changed. And it took another intervention, this time staged by one of her homegirls, to turn Brittney into the fierce feminist she is today. In Brittney Cooper’s world, neither mean girls nor fuckboys ever win. But homegirls emerge as heroes. This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and faith in one's own superpowers are all we really need to turn things right side up again. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "lisarbobbitt-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_title = ""; amzn_assoc_linkid = "e5f5b3db61c60b2010254712f5c53043"; amzn_assoc_asins = "0399593004,039306543X,039360926X,1534307508,0316509647,1250112575"; February 16, 2018 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://ift.tt/2GlPKvo