Table Of ContentBOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
BLACK IS... Chalktown
by Melinda Haynes.
2002 16-year-old Hezekiah Sheehand leaves his
abusive home and heads to Chalktown,
where residents communicate only by
writing on chalkboards.
FICTION
Child of God
*Recommended for Young Adults
by Lolita Files.
An incestuous relationship begins unravel-
Ain’t No River ing for two generations of a Tennessee
by Sharon Ewell Foster. clan, as they cope with homosexuality,
70-something Meemaw is keeping compa- voodoo, and murder.
ny with GoGo, a much younger retired
Church Folk
football player, and her granddaughter is
by Michele Andrea Bowen.
going to put a stop to it. Christian fiction.
The new preacher of the Greater Hope
Church discovers that the church leader-
Any Way the Wind Blows
ship is running a call-girl service out ofa
by E. Lynn Harris.
local funeral home.
Deceit, bed-hopping, and scandals are
revealed as jilted bride Yancey Harrington
Dangerous Dilemmas
Braxton and resident bisexual playboy
by Evelyn Palfrey.
John Basil Henderson continue their
Life is complicated for Audrey. Her hus-
adventures.
band is having an affair with a man, her
son is on trial for murder and she falls for
Awakening Mercy
his arresting officer.
by Angela Benson.
While doing community service at a *The Day Eazy-E Died
Christian charity, Cecelia finds herself by James Earl Hardy.
falling in love with the young director. Top model Raheim Rivers copes with
Christian fiction. fatherhood and relationship problems, while
he secretly awaits test results for his HIV
*Between Lovers status.
by Eric Jerome Dickey.
Sexually confused Nicole must decide Drop
between a successful male author and by Mat Johnson.
beautiful Ayanna. A product of a dysfunctional family,
Kenzie struggles to overcome alcoholism.
At her dying father’s bedside, she finds
Bloodroot
forgiveness and ultimately, recovery.
by Aaron Roy Even.
In 1930s small-town Virginia, an aging
Fire in Beulah
caretaker and his sister kill a white sheriff
by Rilla Askew.
who is acting on orders to turn them off
The intertwined lives of blacks and whites
their land.
during the Tulsa race riot of 1921.
Cane River
Forever
by Lalita Tademy. by Timmothy B. McCann.
Historical fiction based on four genera- Careers, pride, and smoldering infidelity
tions of the author’s family. mar the lives of two couples struggling to
decipher their puzzling relationships.
4 Guys and Trouble He Sleeps
by Marcus Major. by Reginald McKnight.
Promises made to a dying friend forever An anthropologist doing research in
bind these four fraternity brothers. Senegal, Bertrand faces his unresolved
conflicts about race and sexuality.
The Future Has a Past
by J. California Cooper. Hot Johnny (And the Women
Four stories about women who discover who Loved Him)
the transforming power of love. by Sandra Jackson-Opoku.
Who is Hot Johnny and why do women
*Gabriel’s Story love him so? Eighteen women, from his
by David Anthony Durham. grandmother to a lover twice his age,
In 1870s Kansas, a 15-year-old runs away recount their stories.
from home and joins a murderous band of
cattle thieves. *House of Light
by Joyce Carol Thomas.
God Don’t Like Ugly Dr. Abyssinia Jackson 1s blessed with the
by Mary Monroe. power to mend bodies and souls.
After enduring years of sexual abuse at
the hands of her mother’s tenant, Annette The Huntsman
and her friend Rhonda decide he must be by Whitney Terrell.
stopped. Clarissa, a white judge’s daughter, turns
up dead after dating ex-con Booker Short.
Got to be Real: Four Original He becomes the prime suspect.
Love Stories
I Wish I Had a Red Dress
by E. Lynn Harris et al.
by Pearl Cleage.
“Sex in the City” from the male point of
After five years of widowhood and hard
view.
work, Joyce Mitchell is ready for some
fun and romance.
Guys in Suits
by Van Whitfield.
It’s a Thin Line
Simon and Stuart, two lovelorn Lotharios,
by Kimberla Lawson Roby.
are in their 30s and ready to commit, but
Siblings Gina, Sydney and Rick come to-
somehow the ladies aren’t materializing.
gether around the crisis of their mother’s
stroke.
Hand-Me-Down Heartache
by Tajuana “TJ” Butler.
John Henry Days
Leo, a successful rapper, treats Nina well,
by Colson Whitehead.
but she still can’t forget Maurice, a
The legend of John Henry and the
promising basketball player who cheats
Industrial Revolution are juxtaposed
and flies into jealous rages.
against the life of a contemporary black
journalist and the Digital Revolution.
The Haunting of Hip-Hop
by Bertrice Berry.
*Jus/In Time
A contemporary music producer buys a
by Billy Dee Williams and Rob MacGregor.
haunted house in Harlem, and confronts
What happens when Calloway uses his
his ancestral spirits who don’t like the
psychic ability to help investigate a cult
messages in his music.
leader suspected of unleashing a lethal
virus? A sequel to PS//Net.
The Justus Girls Reinventing the Woman
by Slim Lambright. by Patty Rice.
Three women meet again at the funeral of Ignored by her parents as a child, Camille,
a “sister.” They rediscover love, laughter a battered woman, struggles to escape a
and kinship. violent relationship.
Little Boys Come from the Stars Resurrecting Mingus: A Novel
by Emmanuel Dongala. by Jenoyne Adams.
Coming of age in the Congo, as told by Mingus Browning, the daughter of biracial
14-year-old Matapari, a boy born two days parents, is torn between a sensitive and
after his twin brothers. stable white policeman and a sexy, but
erratic, black television producer. “A pas-
Mamzelle Dragonfly sionately erotic novel.”
by Raphael Confiant.
Adelise learns to detach her spirit from The Root Worker
her body when she 1s raped repeatedly by by Rainelle Burton.
the overseer of the cane fields. A voodoo priestess convinces a mother
that her 11-year-old daughter is responsi-
Mr. Commitment ble for all of the family’s misfortunes.
by Mike Gayle.
Benjamin is terrified of making a commit- *Sap Rising
ment to marriage, but his girlfriend of four by Christine Lincoln.
years has issued an ultimatum. A collection of twelve linked tales looking
at life in the rural South.
*Nappily Ever After
by Trisha R. Thomas. *Satin Doll
Venus Johnson, 1n her mid-30s, cuts her by Karen E. Quinones Miller.
long, processed hair, kicks her boyfriend After being shot and beaten, Regina
to the curb, and starts living for herself. decides to turn her life around, but her
past casts shadows on her future.
October Suite
by Maxine Clair. Sex and the Single Sister
In 1950s Kansas, single mother October by Maryann Reid.
Brown gives her new baby to her childless Five successful young women look for
sister, and then realizes what a terrible brothers and rank them by their suits and
mistake she has made. cars.
A Reason to Love Shades of Jade
by Marcia King-Gamble. by Gloria Mallette.
While running her friend’s dating service, Marissa is dating four married men.
Coffee Mates, Niki unexpectedly finds When one of their wives threatens to kill
love. her, she is forced to examine her choices.
*The Red Moon Shadow Dancing
by Kuwana Haulsey. by Louise Meriwether.
In modern-day Kenya, Nasarian dreams of Glenda and Mark fall in love, but he
living abroad and writing, but her brother comes with baggage: an estranged wife, a
wants her to be circumcised and take her son and haunting memories of Vietnam.
place in traditional tribal life.
3
The Shirt off His Back Where I’m Bound: A Novel
by Parry “Ebony Satin” Brown. by Allen B. Ballard.
Single father Terry Winston fights to retain Escaped slave Joe Duckett leaves his wife
custody of his twin girls when their mother and two sons when he joins a black regi-
returns after an eleven-year absence. ment during the Civil War.
Singsation The Wind Done Gone
by Jacquelin Thomas. by Alice Randall.
Discovered in her backwater Georgia con- A retelling of Gone with the Wind from a
gregation, Deborah struggles to keep her slave’s perspective.
faith surrounded by the temptations of sex
and money. Christian fiction.
Soul Mates Dissipate
by Mary B. Morrison. MYSTERIES
Jada and Wellington are soulmates. Will
his color-conscious mother derail their
The Cold Blue Blood: A Berger
romance?
& Mitry Mystery
by David Handler.
Soulcatcher and Other Stories
Police detective Desiree Mitry joins Mitch
by Charles Johnson.
Berger in investigating the death of his
Twelve short stories illustrate the brutality
landlady’s husband 30 years ago.
and terror of slavery in America.
Die upon a Kiss
Temptation
by Barbara Hambly.
by Victoria Christopher Murray.
During Carnival in 1935 New Orleans, as
Jefferson betrays Kyla and their marriage
a new production of “Othello” gets under-
vows. Can their faith repair this union?
way, assaults and murder in the cast lead
Christian fiction.
Benjamin January to investigate.
*This Side of Eternity
Fearless Jones: A New Mystery
by Rosalyn McMillan.
by Walter Mosley.
Poverty, racial strife, mental illness and
Made love to, beaten up, shot at and
addiction make survival all the more diffi-
robbed, and his bookstore torched - 24
cult for five siblings after the death of their
hours in the life of Paris Minton.
father.
High Hand: A Martha
West of Rehoboth
Chainey Mystery
by Alexs D. Pate.
by Gary Phillips.
Intrigued by the mysterious Uncle Rufus,
Showgirl-turned-courier-for-Vtehgea-s-
12-year-old Edward collects clues and dis-
Mob, Martha has 72 hours to return $7
covers the truth about the old man’s vio-
million or be “whacked.”
lent past.
If 6 Were 9
What You Owe Me
by Jake Lamar.
by Bebe Moore Campbell.
When a coed is found dead in a col-
A black woman’s dreams of a successful
league’s office, Professor Robinette is
cosmetics empire are dashed by the betray-
dragged in to the investigation and
al of her white business partner.
attempts to solve the crime.
4
The Lynching Tree Pipe Dream
by Michael Stein. by Solomon Jones.
Donald Gambell returns to his hometown Four addicts who witness a city council-
in Pompan, NJ, as the first black member man’s murder in a Philadelphia crack
of the police force in a town where a white house become the chief suspects.
man has been lynched.
Stormy Weather: A Charlotte
Paradise Interrupted: A Carole Ann Justice Novel
Gibson Mystery by Paula L. Woods.
by Penny Mickelbury. Is the death of a legendary filmmaker the
C.A. Gibson goes to the colorful Caribbean result of an encounter with the killer nurse
and encounters corruption and murder. “Angel of Mercy”?
This list was compiled by: Allen Knight,
Uphams Corner Branch Library
Marylou Coveney, Chairperson Janice Knight,
Dudley Branch Library Codman Square Branch Library
Denise DeBoer, Amy Manson,
Fields Corner Branch Library Connolly Branch Library
Jacquelyn Hogan, Margaret Phillibert,
CESO General Library, Adult Services
Kathy Kire, Richard Wintergreen,
Young Adult Services Adams Street Branch Library
