Table Of Content

' = Nosed CHICAGO BLUES Black Is... Hugh Holton Police Commander Larry Cole con- 1997 nects a cop to a 15-year-old murder case. The 1997 edition of Black Is... con- DONE WRONG tinues the Boston Public Library’s tra- Eleanor Taylor Bland dition of publishing a selected list of Homicide cop Marti MacAlister recent books concerning Blacks as investigates her detective husband’s part of the Library’s observance of murder. Black History Month in February of every year. FLIGHT OF THE BLACKBIRD “Recommended for Young Adults Faye M. Smith An upper middle class African- American family’s problems start Black Is... Fiction when the mother is “downsized.” *AIN’'T GONNA BE THE SAME GO THE WAY YOUR BLOOD FOOL TWICE BEATS: An Anthology of Lesbian April Sinclair and Gay Fiction by African- After college, Stevie moves to San American Writers Francisco. From the author of COF- Ed. by Shawn Ruff FEE WILL MAKE YOU BLACK. *GOOD HAIR *AND THIS TOO SHALL PASS: A Benilde Little Novel Will wealth, status, and “good hair” E. Lynn Harris eliminate Alice’s insecurities? A gay quarterback is charged with sexual harassment by a female THE HAND | FAN WITH: A Novel sportscaster. Tina McElroy Ansa At 45, Lena wants a little romance, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY but what she gets is a 100-year-old MOTHER ghost. Jamaica Kincaid My mother died at the moment | was *KNOWING born, and so for my whole life there Rosalyn McMillan was nothing standing between A wife is unfulfilled despite her high myself and eternity. paying job and loving family. *BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY A LITTLE YELLOW DOG: An Easy Connie Briscoe Rawlins Mystery Harsh realities intrude in the life of a Walter Mosley young woman coming of age in the A job as a schoo! custodian involves 1970s. Easy Rawlins in a search for a miss- ing teacher. *BLOODCHILD: And Other Stories Octavia E. Butler THE PRICE OF A CHILD: A Novel Award-winning title story features a Lorene Cary pregnant man. Based on the true story of abolition- ist Jane Johnson, a slave who CAUGHT UP IN THE RAPTURE gained her freedom but lost a child. Sheneska Jackson A fairy tale romance between a grad- *PUSH uate student and a South Central Sapphire gang banger. Pregnant for the second time by her father, 16-year-old Precious turns her life around with the help of an TUMBLING inspiring teacher. Diane McKinney-Whetstone A gentle portrait of a close-knit com- SARAH’S PSALM munity in South Philadelphia in the Florence Ladd 1940s and 1950s. A sixties tale of an African-American woman who achieves success in WHERE EVIL SLEEPS academia and then abandons it for Valerie Wilson Wesley life in Islamic Senegal. Tamara Hayle has a week of sun, fun, and murder while on vacation in THE SEVEN LEAGUE BOOTS Jamaica. Albert Murray A barnstorming band of black musi- *THE WHITE BOY SHUFFLE cians looking for adventure. Paul Beatty After leaving white bread Santa SHORT STORIES OF LANGSTON Monica, can street stupid Gunnar HUGHES learn how to talk black and get down Ed. by Akiba Sullivan Harper with the homies in West Los Includes stories that have long been Angeles? out of print. *ZENZELE: A Letter for My SO GOOD Daughter Venise Berry J. Nozipo Maraire Three thirtysomethings search for A mother reminds her lvy League independence, financial success, daughter of her Zimbabwean roots. and true love. SOME LOVE, SOME PAIN, SOME- Black Is... History TIME: Stories J. California Cooper Short stories. *BLACK PROFILES IN COURAGE: A Legacy of African American STARLIGHT PASSAGE Achievement Anita R. Bunkley Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Alan Kiana’s family secrets may be tied to Steinberg the decorative glassware created by From Estevanico to Rosa Parks. her slave ancestor. HARLEM AT WAR: The Black THE SUN, THE SEA, A TOUCH OF Experience in WWII THE WIND Nat Brandt Rosa Guy Poor treatment of segregated troops Haiti is the background for a talented and the frustrations of discrimination woman’s struggle to find her place in resulted in the Harlem Riot of 1943. the world. HIS PROMISED LAND: The *TELL ME A TALE: A Novel of the Autobiography of John P. Parker, Old South Former Slave and Conductor on James McEachin the Underground Railroad Posing as a journalist, a 17-year-old Ed. by Stuart Sprague former slave uncovers the truth A male Harriet Tubman. behind the arson and murder that shattered his childhood. ONE BLOOD: The Death and Resurrection of Charles R. Drew TOUCH Spencie Love Charlotte Watson Sherman The myths and realities surrounding A woman finds new life and love after his death. she is diagnosed with HIV. *SOJOURNER TRUTH: A Life, a COMPOSITION IN BLACK AND Symbol WHITE: The Life of Philippa Nell Irvin Painter Schuyler Debunking the myth. Kathryn Talalay This musical prodigy never accepted TO SERVE MY COUNTRY, TO her biracial identity and blamed it for SERVE MY RACE: The Story of the limiting her career. Only African American WACS Stationed Overseas during World DIGNITY War Il Jean-Bertrand Aristide Brenda L. Moore His three years in exile. “WORSE THAN SLAVERY”: Parch- DON’T BLOCK THE BLESSINGS: man Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Revelations of a Lifetime Crow Justice Patti LaBelle David M. Oshinsky Personal losses and fears have pro- This Mississippi prison has been pelled her to live life to the fullest. called “Destination Doom.” AN EASY BURDEN: The Civil Rights Movement and_ the Transformation of America Andrew Young Black Is... His life up to his election to Congress in 1972. Personalities GO AND TELL PHARAOH: The *BAD AS | WANNA BE Autobiography of the Reverend Dennis Rodman withTim Keown Al Sharpton “lve been homeless, I’ve worked at The Reverend Al Sharpton and 7-Eleven, I’m a real person, with real Anthony Walton experiences, not some image that “...from pulpit prodigy to street somebody in the NBA office created.” activist to statesman.” BLUES ALL AROUND ME: The *GOOD GIRL, BAD GIRL: An Autobiography of B. B. King Insider’s Biography of Whitney B. B. King with David Ritz Houston Also a musical history—the evolution Kevin Ammons with Nancy Bacon of the blues from country acoustic to An expose: why she married Bobby, urban electric. why she hates Kevin Costner, Oprah, and Madonna and much BONE BLACK: Memories. of more. Girlhood bell hooks HIDING MY CANDY: The Auto- Coming of age in the 1950s in “...a biography of the Grand Empress rich magical world of southern black of Savannah culture that was sometimes paradisi- The Lady Chablis with Theodore cal and at other times terrifying.” Bouloukos Contains pictures, “down home” THE COLOR OF WATER: A Black recipes, and tips for transvestite Man’s Tribute to His White Mother beauty and fashion. James McBride Two stories: a mother overcomes her JACKIE ROBINSON: An Intimate painful, long-buried past and a son Portrait comes to terms with his Jewish Rachel Robinson with Lee Daniels roots. A tribute by his widow, including never before published family pho- tographs. JESSE: The Life and Pilgrimage of NO FREE RIDE: From the Mean Jesse Jackson Streets to the Mainstream Marshall Frady Kweisi Mfume with Ron Stodghill II To his detractors, a man of enormous A hustler and a fighter—first as a ego and insatiable appetites. To his young man in Baltimore, then as the admirers, one of the great moral Chairman of the Congressional leaders of our time—a study that rec- Black Caucus and now as the CEO onciles both views. of the NAACP. *JOYCELYN ELDERS, M.D.: From PROPHET OF RAGE: AL ife of Sharecropper’s Daughter’ to Louis Farrakhan and His Nation Surgeon General of the United Arthur J. Magida States of America By the editorial director of Jewish M. Joycelyn Elders with David Lights Publishing. Chanoff Her professional and _ private REPOSSESSING ERNESTINE: A tragedies and triumphs. Granddaughter Uncovers’ the Secret History of Her American LONG TIME GONE: A Black Family Panther’s True-Life Story of His Marsha Hunt Hijacking and Twenty-Five Years Was Ernestine committed to a men- in Cuba tal institution by her husband and William Lee Brent ignored by her family for 52 years To escape prosecution, he hijacked because she was too dark? an airliner and never returned. SAMMY DAVIS JR., My Father LUSH LIFE: A Biography of Billy Tracey Davis with Dolores A. Barclay Strayhorn He missed her birthday parties, was David Hajdu late for her high school graduation Not only the difficult life of Duke and didn’t show up at all for her col- Ellington’s collaborator but also a lege graduation—but he did send history of New York’s black and gay cash. artists in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. *SOARING ABOVE SETBACKS: The Autobiography of Janet *MAMA’S GIRL Harmon Bragg, African-American Veronica Chambers Aviator Though she grew up amid abuse and Janet Harmon Bragg as told to rejection, a young woman reconciles Manorie M. Kriz with her cold and indifferent mother. The first African-American female commercial pilot. MISS RHYTHM: The Autobio- graphy of Ruth Brown, Rhythm WE FLEW OVER THE BRIDGE: The and Blues Legend Memoirs of Faith Ringgold Ruth Brown with Andrew Yule Faith Ringgold “This is the lady...who started it all. The preemininent artist and award- Wasn't for Ruth Brown, there wouldn't winning children’s book author. be no Aretha, wouldn't be nobody.” Illustrated with black and white pho- —Stevie Wonder tographs and full color plates. *MOUNTAIN, GET OUT OF MY WAY: Life Lessons and Learned Truths Montel Williams with Daniel Paisner Inspirational, no nonsense guide- lines for achieving success. Black Is... SEARCH AND DESTROY: African- American Males in the Criminal Contemporary Issues Justice System Jerome G. Miller By a former director of the Massachu- THE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION DE- setts juvenile justice detention sys- BATE tem. Ed. by George E. Curry All sides are represented in this col- TAKING BACK OUR STREETS: lection of articles. Fighting Crime in America Willie L. Williams ALL GOD’S CHILDREN: The The case for community policing, by Bosket Family and the American the first black police chief of the Tradition of Violence LAPD. Fox Butterfield To increase understanding of violent crime, one family’s history is traced Black Is... Expression back to pre-Civil War. THE COMPLETE KWANZAA: CALL TO HOME: African Americans Celebrating Our Cultural Harvest Reclaim the Rural South Dorothy Winbush Riley Carol Stack More than a how-to: the traditions, And find that little has changed. foods, ceremonies, and history of this truly African-American holiday. GANGSTA: Merchandising the Rhymes of Violence ESSENCE: 25 Years Celebrating Ronin Ro Black Women Gansta rap—a perversion of hip-hop? Ed. by Patricia Mignon Hinds A photographic and historical collec- JOURNEY TO JUSTICE tion of the best of the magazine. Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. THE FAMILY OF BLACK AMERICA IN CONTEMPT Michael H. Cottman and Deborah Christopher Darden Willis O.J.... Two of many. Family life seen through the lens of black photographers—from 1900 to 1995. MILLION MAN MARCH/DAY OF ABSENCE: A Commemorative GOSPEL CHOIRS: Psalms of Anthology: Speeches, Commen- Survival for an Alien Land Called tary, Photography, Poetry, Illustra- Home tions, Documents Ed. by Haki R. Madhubuti and Derrick Bell Parables explore racism and sexism. Maulana Karenga *THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE THE OPEN SORE OF A CONTI- Jim Haskins NENT: A Personal Narrative of the A readable introduction with pho- Nigerian Crisis tographs, illustrations, quotations, Wole Soyinka and short biographies. SEASON OF BLOOD: A Rwandan 1 WAS NEVER HERE AND THIS Journey NEVER HAPPENED: Tasty Bits and Fergal Keane Spicy Tales from My Life Get beyond the newspaper accounts Dorinda Hafner of ethnic conflict in two African Part autobiography—part cookbook— nations. part folklore—all from the host of “A Taste of Africa” cooking show. *MARSALIS ON MUSIC THE FUTURE OF THE RACE Wynton Marsalis Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cornel A joyful introduction to classical and West jazz music for the whole family. What are the moral responsibilities of black leadership? Two approaches. *MY MOTHER HAD A DREAM: African-American Women Share INTEGRITY Their Mothers’ Words of Wisdom Stephen L. Carter Ed. by Tamara Nikuradse Can America survive its current phi- losophy of winning at any cost? *NOT SO SIMPLE: The “Simple” Stories by Langston Hughes LIVING TO TELL ABOUT IT: Young Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper Black Men in America Speak Their New perspectives on Hughes and his Piece well-loved characters. Darrell Dawsey Interviews with members of the hip- THE SELECTED POEMS OF NIKKI hop generation, interspersed with his GIOVANNI own musings. Nikki Giovanni More than 25 years of her verse. RACE RULES: Navigating the Color Line SOULFIRES: Young Black Men on Michael Eric Dyson Love and Violence “... We cannot overcome the history of Ed. by Daniel J. Wideman and Rohan racial oppression in our nation without B Preston understanding and addressing the Artists, poets, journalists, filmmakers, subtle subversive ways race contin- and others speak. ues to poison our lives.” THE SPIRIT OF AFRICAN DESIGN SHOWING MY COLOR: Impolite Sharne Algotsson and Denys Davis Essays on Race and Identity Afrocentric home decorating. Clarence Page Another thinker grapples with the per- THE WEATHER THAT KILLS: sistence of the color line in America Poems and what to do about it. Patricia Spears Jones The first book of poetry from a new SPEAK MY NAME: Black Men on voice. Masculinity and the American Dream Ed. by Don Belton Biack Is... Opinions Essays on the unique pressures they face. THE COMING RACE WARP IN AMERICA: A Wake-up Call THINKING BLACK: Some of the Carl T. Rowan Nation’s Best Black Columnists Is a clash between white militias and Speak Their Minds armed urban youth gangs likely? Ed. by DeWayne Wickham On mothers, men, history, and more. DARK WITNESS: When Black People Should Be _ Sacrificed (Again) Ralph Wiley Outrageous satire. FAITH OF OUR FATHERS: African- Anerican Men Reflect on Father- hood Ed. by Andre C. Willis Essays. 6 This selected list was compiled by: Moonyean Carlton, General Library, Adult Reader and Information Services; Marylou Coveney, Dudley Branch Library; Jacquelyn Hogan, Grove Hall/Egleston Square Branch Libraries; Sarah Markell, Codman Square Branch Library; Marilyn Poindexter, Chairperson, General Library, Young Adult Services. Boston Public Library, 1997 African textile on cover courtesy of Treasured Legacy, Boston.