Black Issues Book Review articles from July 2004

Black Issues Book Review archives from July 2004

Cultural rhythms of summer reading.(from the editor-in-chief)(Editorial)
July 1, 2004... This summer has the most promising crop of black books ever. It is exciting to discover that as many titles are being published this summer as were formerly published in Black History Month, but I am even more excited to see that institutions...

To everything a season.(executive editor's view)(Editorial)
July 1, 2004... As we celebrate the great tradition of summer reading (See "Hot Summer Reads," page 16), we could not help but notice a phenomenon here: Books by and for African Americans are no longer relegated to the February--only, Black History Month,...

Lighting up lives.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2004... Thank you for reviewing my book Imani in Never Say Goodbye (YOUNG ADULT, "Adventures in Growing Up,' May-June 2004). More importantly, I'm glad that you see the value that this contemporary novel has for our black young adults. It is my...

Celebrating folk art and poetry.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2004... Sister Gertrude Morgan is such a remarkable figure and BIBR really captured her and and her wonderful artwork (EYE, "Divine Folk Art;' May-June 2004). I hope your readers will see her work and be inspired. Also, the March-April 2004 issue...

Call for submissions.(letters to the editor)(Museum of the African Diaspora seeks photography submissions )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Gordon Parks, Deborah Willis and Chester Higgins Jr., three of America's most-celebrated African American photographers, have announced an international call for photographs to help launch the new Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) set to...

P. Diddy fills the house.("A Raisin in the Sun")(Theater Review)
July 1, 2004... All eyes are on Sean "P. Diddy" Combs in his Broadway debut this summer in the $2.6 million revival of A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. While critics were not overly enthralled by his performance, Combs was receiving props for record...

Deals.(Between the lines: the inside scoop on what's happening in the publishing industry)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... * Dave Chappelle's How to Play the Race Card and Win!, the incomparable comedian's take on race in America, to Mark Chait at Hyperion, in a half-million-dollar-plus deal, by David Vigliano and Michael Harriot at Vigliano Associates. *...

Signings & sightings.(Calendar)
July 1, 2004... ANNAPOLIS, MD Sandra Kitt reads from and signs Southern Comfort, on July 17, at the Douglass Museum & Cultural Center from 1-3 P.M., 202 Wayman Ave. Highland Beach 410-267-6960 ATLANTA, GA Ingrid Sturgis will discuss and sign her...

Conversations with a post modern sister: actress-comedian Aisha Tyler is distinctive among celebrtiy authors: she wrote her own book proposal and her own book!(Interview)
July 1, 2004... LIKE A SANTA ANA WIND, AISHA TYLER blows into West Hollywood's Urth Caffe. It's not until she's seated that her molecules slow from blur to woman to the person I half-recognize from hours of watching her. As former host of" E! Entertainment's...

Hot summer reads: something hot, not too heavy: sizzling selections for summer: the books everybody will be reading and talking about this summer, or at least the ones the publishers hope will catch fire.(african american books )(Bibliography)
July 1, 2004... Summertime and reading go together like iced tea and lemon. From the time we are schoolchildren, we are hardwired to think of this season as one that stretches before us with hours of leisure to fill. Even when we grow up and realize we still...

High season for book fairs and festivals: Midsummer's Harlem Book Fair highlights a year-round calendar of events.
July 1, 2004... EVERY YEAR, THOUSANDS OF BOOKLOVERS GATHER AT FESTIVALS around the country to hear their favorite authors, buy more books and celebrate the solitary act of reading in a communal atmosphere. Those local and regional festivals, spaced throughout...

Black arts to the tenth power: living legend Sonia Sanchez is the literary headliner in the 10th season of the 10-day National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta.
July 1, 2004... THE LITERARY ARTS WILL BE WELL REPRESENTED AT THE 10TH season of the National Black Arts Festival (NBAF), a 10-day, citywide explosion of creative outpouring and cultural pride that drew 800,000 people from around the country last year. The...

Writing while white ... An unprecedented number of black characters inhabit today's mainstream fiction best-seller lists, but few of them are created by black authors.
July 1, 2004... CALIA H. RUFFIN IS THE LONE BLACK JUROR IN THE TRIAL OF A white man charged with murder in a small town in Mississippi. Miss Callie is certainly unlike any typical black woman you would expect to find in the rural South, where the "coloreds"...

Paving the way to publishing success: hard-won wisdom from authors who established their careers on the self-publishing platform.(self-publishing)
July 1, 2004... It has often been said that if you want to be successful, do what successful people do. Many authors who began their careers by self-publishing are going on to produce national best-sellers for mainstream publishers. All would agree that they...

Living the dream through life's challenges: lessons from Bishop Tutu, a successful African American businessman and other diverse followers of Dr. King.(God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time by Desmond Tutu Doubleday, March 2004 $16.95, ISBN 0-385-47784-8 Much of what Desmond Tutu says in this slim book, which he calls "the cumulative expression of my life's work, will be familiar...

Doing Business by the Good Book: 52 Lessons on Success Straight From the Bible.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Doing Business by the Good Book: 52 Lessons on Success Straight From the Bible by David L. Steward, Hyperion, January 2004 $19.95, ISBN 1-401-30062-6 Black Enterprise named David Steward's company, World Wide Technology, Inc., the largest...

Open My Eyes, Open My Soul: Celebrating Our Common Humanity.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Open My Eyes, Open My Soul: Celebrating Our Common Humanity by Yolanda King and Elodia Tate Foreword by Coretta Scott King McGraw-Hill, January 2004 $14.95, ISBN 0-071-43886-6 Calamity appears to be the main course in print, on television...

Mother Africa's hospitality.(Inside Africa)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Inside Africa: Deidi Von Schaewen, photographer Angelika Taschen, editor Text by Frederic Couderc and Laurence Dougier Taschen, February 2004, $125.00 ISBN 3-822-85771-8 Africans often welcome strangers into their homes. Whether it is in...

Celebrating the greatest.(GOAT: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... GOAT: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali by Howard L. Bingham Taschen, April 2004, $3,000 ISBN 3-822-83068-2 Coming in at 75 pounds and 792 pages, this "monument on paper" is available in two editions: the Collector's Edition costs $3,000, and the...

The fabric of her life.(Faith Ringgold: The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art, Vol. 3)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Faith Ringgold: The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art, Vol. 3 by Lisa E. Farrington, Pomegranate March 2004, $35.00 ISBN 0-764-92761-2 While Faith Ringgold's name has become synonymous with quilt making, the book Faith...

Black giants among the boys of summer: Hank Aaron's 715th home run, Richie Allen of the '64 Phillies, and the pride of the Negro League.(Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America)(September Swoon: Richie Allen the '64 Phillies, and Racial Integration)(Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America by Tom Stanton William Morrow, April 2004 $23.95 ISBN 0-060-57976-5 On April 23, 1954, Hank Aaron hit his first major league homer off Vic Raschi of the St. Louis Cardinals. On Monday, April...

Two icons of musical genius: Mary Lou Williams sought the sacred; Marvin Gaye probed the world, the flesh and the Devil.(Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams)(Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves & Demons of Marvin Gaye)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams by Tammy L. Kernodle Northeastern University Press, April 2004, $30 ISBN 1-555-53606-9 Like many geniuses, pianist Mary Lou Williams was ahead of her time. Born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in...

Out, no doubt: today's black gay and lesbian poets proudly proclaim their identities and show their varying talents to an increasingly receptive public. (poetic license).
July 1, 2004... Recent accomplishments by openly gay, lesbian and bisexual African American poets point to a rise in profile and stature of these writers. Carl Phillips, for example, won the 2002 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the $100,000 prize for his fifth...

Documenting a black gay and lesbian literary canon: for four years, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has been compiling an archive from underground, small press and self-published work--and the rest is history in the making.(out)
July 1, 2004... For most of the 20th century, the canon of writing by and about being black and gay in America may have seemed like scattered, uneven outbursts, whether it's the 1926 explicitly short story about cruising by Richard Bruce Nugent, "Smoke,...

How to market black gay and lesbian books: Southern California's Matais Books relies on the power of community and the appeal of a literary salon.(market buzz)
July 1, 2004... As the owner of Matais Books Cards & Art, in Long Beach, California, the only black gay and lesbian bookstore in the country, I interact with many gay and lesbian writers. And I've noticed that there seems to be three salient themes among them...

Recommended bookstores.(Brief Article)(Directory)
July 1, 2004... You can find (or special order) the titles reviewed and advertised in Black Issues Book Review at these fine independent booksellers: Black Images Book Bazaar 230 Wynnewood Village Dallas, TX 75224 214-943-0142 ...

Haiti's eloquent daughter: in the bicentennial year of the conflict-ridden land of her birth, Edwidge Danticat lives in Miami's "Little Haiti" and continues to write about "those things that haunt me.".(fiction)(Critical Essay)
July 1, 2004... When Breath, Eyes, Memory, Edwidge Danticat's first novel, debuted l0 years ago, reviewers predicted the then 24-year old writer would become an important literary voice. With five books and several literary prizes behind her, the author has...

The Dew Breaker.(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat Knopf, March 2004 $22.00, ISBN 1-400-04114-7 Edwidge Danticat's latest work of fiction is full of dark secrets. Some of the secrets belong to people who have committed unspeakable acts of violence. Other...

Strange lives and loves left behind: a season for fictional debuts and some rather unusual story lines.(Gotham Diaries, When Did You Stop Loving Me, The Full Matilda, Laelia, Snakepit, Blinking Red Light, The Team)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Gotham Diaries by Tonya Lewis Lee and Crystal McCrary Anthony Hyperion Publishing, July 2004 $23.95, ISBN 1-401-30119-3 Lee (coauthor of children's book Please, Baby Please, Simon & Schuster, 2002), and Anthony (coauthor of Homecourt...

Ten years of sizzling chocolate kisses and lasting love: now under BET Books, Arabesque celebrates a decade as black romance publisher.(the love scene)
July 1, 2004... The summer of 1994 began like any other summer: slowly, quietly, promising to be hot. But for some, the same summer would be lonely, with no possibility of excitement, no way for them to ease their intense desires... Until July. That's when...

Unsung heroes: my sole desire was to write a book on black veterans using their words, to pay tribute to soldiers, sailors and nurses who had never gotten recognition.(the writing life)("We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans From World War II to the War in Iraq")
July 1, 2004... My book We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans From World War II to the War in Iraq (Amistad, March 2004, $23.95, ISBN 0-060-54217-9) really began at my dinner table more than 30 years ago where my father, Albert Latty, a World War...

The vision to build wealth: a financial journalist deconstructs the making of a media mogul.(The Billion Dollar BET: Robert Johnson and the Inside Story of Black Entertainment Television)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... The Billion Dollar BET: Robert Johnson and the Inside Story of Black Entertainment Television by Brett Pulley John Wiley & Sons, Inc., April 2004 $24.95, ISBN 0-471-42363-7 Robert L. "Bob" Johnson became the world's first African American...

Bone to Pick: Of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Reparation, and Revenge.(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Bone to Pick: Of Forgiveness Reconciliation, Reparation and Revenge. by Ellis Cose, Atria Books, April 2004 $22.00, ISBN 0-743-47066-4 In 2000, my 17-year-old son was wrestling with self-identity. Hip hop and rap, spreading their accretive...

A Right Worthy Grand Mission: Maggie Lena Walker and the Quest for Black Economic Empowerment.(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... A Right Worthy Grand Mission: Maggie Lena Walker and the Quest for Black Economic Empowerment by Gertrude Woodruff Marlowe Howard University Press, October 2003 $24.95, ISBN 0-882-58211-9 If ever there was ever a subject crying out...

Cooking With Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics.(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Cooking With Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics by Donna Brazile Simon & Schuster, June 2004 $23.00, ISBN 0-743-25398-1 Autobiographies give us insight into what drives extraordinary people and help us understand history. For...

Meet Me at the Theresa: The Story of Harlem's Most Famous Hotel.(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Meet Me at the Theresa: The Story of Harlem's Most Famous Hotel by Dr. Sondra Kathryn Wilson, Atria Books February 2004, $27.50 IBSN 0-743-46688-8 Sondra Kathryn Wilson gives that old expression "if the walls could talk" new meaning in her...

Underground Codes: Race Crime, and Related Fires.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Underground Codes: Race Crime, and Related Fires by Katheryn Russell-Brown New York University Press, February 2004 $55.00, ISBN 0-814-77540-3 Katheryn Russell-Brown takes an evocative look at the role and function of race in the criminal...

Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary by Jasmine Guy Atria Books, February 2004 $25.00, ISBN 0-743-47053-2 Some biography subjects are smart, rich, powerful or lucky. They inspire. Not Afeni Shakur; mother of Tupac, the rap star and...

One Man's Castle: Clarence Darrow in Defense of the American Dream.(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... One Man's Castle: Clarence Darrow in Defense of the American Dream by Phyllis Vine, Amistad, April 2004 $24.95, ISBN 0-066-21415-7 Before Emmett Till, Rosa Parks and the Scottsboro Boys, there was Dr. Ossian Sweet. Unlike these successive...

Without Regard to Race: The Other Martin Robison Delany.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Without Regard to Race: The Other Martin Robison Delany by Tunde Adeleke University Press of Mississippi December 2003, $42.00, ISBN 1-578-06598.4 Martin Robison Delany (1812-1885) is a familiar name to most readers. He was a pivotal...

Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man From His Native Land.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man From His Native Land by Randall Robinson Dutton, February 2004 $23.95, ISBN 0-525-94758-2 Randall Robinson's place in the pantheon of 20th-century black thinkers is indisputable. From the time...

Love in the Driest Season: a Family Memoir.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Love in the Driest Season: A Family Memoir by Neely Tucker Crown, February 2004 $23.95, ISBN 0-609-60976-9 Knowing how the story ends does not diminish the intensity and drama of Neely Tucker's story. As a white man from small town...

Post-Soul Nation: The Explosive, Contradictory, Triumphant, and Tragic 1980's as Experienced by African Americans.(Previously Known as Blacks and Before That Negroes.)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Post-Soul Nation: The Explosive, Contradictory, Triumphant, and Tragic 1980's as Experienced by African Americans (Previously Known as Blacks and Before That Negroes.) by Nelson George Viking, January 2004 $23.95, ISBN 0-670-03275-1 ...

Booker T. Washington and Black Progress: Up From Slavery 100 Years Later.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Booker T. Washington and Black Progress: Up From Slavery 100 Years Later Edited by W. Fitzhugh Brundage University Press of Florida, December 2003 $5500, ISBN 0-813-02674-1 This new book may have readers rethinking, rediscovering and...

Soul on Bikes: The East Bay Dragons MC and the Black Biker Set.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Soul on Bikes: The East Bay Dragons MC and the Black Biker Set by Tobie Gene Levingston With Keith and Kent Zimmerman MBI Publishing Company, January 2004 24.95, ISBN 0-760-31747-X Many people know of the Hell's Angels and other...

Black Fiction's great griot master: John Oliver Killens (1916-1987) ushered in a new era of the African American novel in 1954 and subsequently mentored a whole generation of black fiction talent. So why is most of his work out of print?(tribute)(Biography)
July 1, 2004... JOHN OLIVER KILLENS's large, multilayered, debut novel, Youngblood, was published in May 1954, the same month that the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. As we note the 50th anniversary of that landmark act of...

Atlanta's August Book Club confab: Curtis Bunn's National Book Club Conference convenes for its second year.(books & clubs)
July 1, 2004... When hundreds of booklovers gather in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 6 for the second assembly of the National Book Club Conference (NBCC), the person at the center of the action will be Curtis Bunn, an Atlanta author who organized the event. ...

Watch for the DeBerry & Grant contest winner.(books & clubs)
July 1, 2004... Black Issues Book Review hopes your reading group entered the St. Martin's Press/BIBR contest for a conversation with Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant, who have jointly authored several popular novels. The contest was announced in the May-June...

What's the Hurry, Fox? and Other Animal Stories.(Brief Article)(Children's Review)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... What's the Hurry, Fox? And Other Animal Stories Collected by Zora Neale Hurston Adapted by Joyce Carol Thomas Illustrated by Bryan Collier HarperCollins Children's Books April 2004, $15.99 ISBN 0-060-00643-9, Ages 6 -10 Zora Neale...

Joe Louis, My Champion.(Brief Article)(Children's Review)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Joe Louis, My Champion by William Miller Illustrated by Rodney S. Pate Lee & Low Books, May 2004, $16.95 ISBN 1-584-30161-9, Ages 5 and up The 1937 heavyweight title fight between the great Joe Louis and James Braddock. It shows "... Joe...

Willimena Rules! Rule Book #2: How to Fish for Trouble.(Brief Article)(Children's Review)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Willimena Rules! Rule Book #2: How to Fish for Trouble by Valerie Wilson Wesley Illustrated by Maryn Roos Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, Apri1 2004 $3.99 ISBN 0-786-81807-7, Ages 7-10 The plucky heroine of this popular series...

Jason & Kyra.(Brief Article)(Young Adult Review)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Jason & Kyra by Dana Davidson. Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, June 2004, $16.99 ISBN 0-786-81851-4, Ages 12 and up All the nuances of an idyllic love story: struggle, fate, jealousy, separation and reunion, saturate the pages of this young-adult...

Shooter.(Brief Article)(Children's Review)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Shooter by Walter Dean Myers Amistad, May 2004. $15.99 ISBN 0-060-29520-1, Ages 9-12 Using "official interviews" and a fascinating handwritten diary, Myers deftly explores the minds of three socially ostracized and bullied teenagers whose...

I Shook Up the World: The Incredible Life of Muhammad Ali.(Brief Article)(Children's Review)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... I Shook Up the World: The Incredible Life of Muhammad Ali by Maryum "May May" Ali Illustrated by Patrick Johnson Beyond Words Publishing October 2003, $16.95 ISBN 1-582-70090-7, Ages 5-9 In a delightfully illustrated book, "May May" Ali,...

It's Test Day, Tiger Turcotte.(Brief Article)(Children's Review)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... It's Test Day, Tiger Turcotte by Pansie Hart Flood Pictures by Amy Wummer, Carolrhoda Books, February 2004, $14.95 ISBN 1-575-05056-0, Ages 4 to 8 A seven-year-old's ethnic mix is African American, Meherrin Indian and Hispanic. One...

The Gospel Cinderella.(Children's Review)(Book Review)(Brief Review)
July 1, 2004... The Gospel Cinderella by Joyce Carol Thomas Illustrated by David Diaz Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins May 2004, $15.99 ISBN 0-060-25387-8, Ages 5-10 Thomas and Diaz reinterpret the familiar story as a gospel tale.

A Wild Cowboy.(Brief Article)(Children's Review)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... A Wild Cowboy by Dana Kessimakis Smith Illustrated by Laura Freeman Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children April 2004 $14.99, ISBN 0-786-81931-6 Ages 3-6 A day in the life of this young "cowboy" as he and his "pardner" (little...

Flower Girl Butterflies.(Brief Article)(Children's Review)(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Flower Girl Butterflies by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard Illustrations by Christiane Kromer Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Publishers, March 2004, $15.99 ISBN 0-688-17809-X, Ages 3 and up Festively illustrated, this book captures the fun and...

Other titles of interest.(African American titles)(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
July 1, 2004... Taking Liberty: The Story of Oney Judge, George Washington's Runaway Slave by Ann Rinaldi, Simon Pulse, January 2004 $5.99, ISBN 0-689-85188-X, Ages 12 and up The story of Martha Washington's servant. I Came As a Stranger: The...

Blue-ribbon choices: a librarian-recommended, kid-approved summer reading list.(children's bookshelf)(African American books for children)(Bibliography)
July 1, 2004... Black Issues Book Review asked the Coretta Scott King Book Award Committee of the American Library Association for its summer reading recommendations for children. The Coretta Scott King Awards honor African American authors and illustrators of...

Flying off the shelves.(African American best sellers)
July 1, 2004... Hardcover Fiction 1. Skyscraper/ Zane (2) ($24.95, AtriaBooks, ISBN 0-743-45703-X) Drama unfolds right before an automobile manufacturer's annual Christmas party. 2. Nervous/ Zane (1) ($24.00, Atria Books, ISBN 0-743-45705-6)...