The Awkward Black Man is a collection of seventeen short stories penned by Walter Mosley, all featuring a Black man as the main character. While there may be no shortage of impressions of the everyday lives of African American men, I was intrigued to see how the author would distinguish between the characters, and how…
The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth | Book Review
Having read Sally Hepworth’s The Mother-In-Law last year and loved it, I had high expectations for this book. It didn’t quite wow me as much as the earlier read but I enjoyed the complicated bond between two sisters, one with a a psychological disorder that impacts not just how the siblings interact but how they…
Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem by Daniel R. Day | Book Review
Dapper Dan is not just an icon in the Harlem community, but his life, as a metaphor for the community, reflects its hutzpah and resilience, his memories uncoiling to reveal a heyday long gone and hailing a new, replacement dawn in its wake. Daniel R. Day shares his recollections in a new book entitled Dapper…
Loving Well In A Broken World by Lauren Casper | Book Review
In her new book, Loving Well In A Broken World, blogger Lauren Casper draws from the wealth of her own experiences with the missteps and fumbles that she had to overcome to learn how to love better and show how she now adopts those lessons to guide her children in a similar manner. She references…
A Dream Too Big by Caylin Louis Moore
See my Instagram post today The astounding, against-all-odds story of a young man’s rise from abject poverty in gang-ridden Los Angeles to the pinnacle of academic achievement as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. By all rights, Caylin Louis Moore should be dead, in prison, or stalking the streets of Compton with his…
The Doctor of Aleppo by Dan Mayland | Book Review
Intensely readable! Dan Mayland’s novel unfolds against the backdrop of the Syrian revolution in 2012 and perfectly captures the frustration and anger that turned regular citizens into protesters calling for change in their country. As government retaliation increased, children, women and men became martyrs and mourners meanwhile The Doctor of Aleppo risks his own safety to…
The Sirens of Mars by Sarah Stewart Johnson | Book Review
Sarah Stewart Johnson, in her book The Sirens of Mars, recounts her experience as a planetary scientist traveling to largely uninhabitable parts on Earth to better understand the challenge of exploring Mars. But while that alone makes for scintillating content, the focus of her book is on chronicling the studies that have yielded the information…
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson | Book Review
Isabel Wilkerson’s new release, Caste, is a textbook on racial inequality and the resulting social strata in which it persists in modern day United States. In this sweeping epic, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Warmth of Other Suns describes the centuries-old hierarchy, investigates its origins and discusses how it is manifested in our…
Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud | Book Review
In Love After Love, Trinidadian author Ingrid Persaud challenges the reader’s definitions of love and family by presenting Indo-Caribbean characters who are bound by intimacy as a means of comparison to the more traditional bonds of marriage and blood relations. The plot begins when a single man, Mr. Chetan, moves in to share a house…
Well Read Black Girl by Glory Edim | Book Review
The essays that Glory Edim compiled in Well Read Black Girl illustrates the need for diverse stories to speak to the multiplicity of readers. In Edim’s introduction, she describes hollowing out a place of her own in the world that she filled with books. In the first essay entitled Magic Mirrors, Jesmyn Ward describes seeking and almost…
Say It Louder by Tiffany D. Cross | Book Review
For Colored Girls Who Consider Journalism When Twitter Is Not Enough is the title of the first chapter in Tiffany D. Cross’ book entitled Say It Louder: Black Voters, White Narratives and Saving Our Democracy. Tiffany D. Cross is an on-air political analyst with decades of experience in cable news, working for media giants like CNN and…
All Things Reconsidered by Knox McCoy | Book Review
Popular podcaster and author Knox McCoy offers readers a unique blend of humor, Bible stories, pop culture references, and personal stories that show how asking tough questions and approaching life with a willingness to reconsider ideas can allow them to grow in their faith. What would it mean to really examine what you think you know…
