You’re not planning on being shelfish. But seriously, you’ve been waiting months for the release of your favorite author’s newest book and it’s in stores NOW. You have your copy, you’ll be the first one to open it, your easy chair is ready, no bookmarks needed. As in the new book “Black-Owned” by Char Adams, you knew just where to find it. For many people, it’s a dream: owning a bookstore, talking about books all day, putting good reads into people’s hands. These are the kinds of stories Char Adams says she likes telling, and she was surprised when she…
Author: Terri Schlichenmeyer
Something weird is growing on your kitchen sink. It wasn’t there last night but today? Yeah, and it’s not intentional. You need to get rid of it somehow, wipe it off, kill it, eliminate it altogether or, as in the new book “Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless” by Maria Pinto, maybe study it and eat it. Junjo or duppy umbrella. When Maria Pinto was studying a mushroom species she found in a Target parking lot, her mother scoffed. In Jamaica, she said, there were just two kinds of mushrooms, which sent Pinto off on a search. The word “junjo” sounded like something…
c.2025, St. Martin’s Press $29.00 257 pages Face it: some scores can never truly be settled. You can try tit-for-tat, you can scheme and plan, but making things even? Not a chance; the other guy is probably scheming, too, so full pay-back ain’t happenin’. And besides, why let revenge live in your head? Life’s too short, you just can’t do it – and especially, as in the new book “A Thousand Ways to Die” by Trymaine Lee, you can’t do it with a gun. Eight years ago, Trymaine Lee almost died. Fortunately, the blood clot in his body, the…
Your favorite Uncle will want to hear from you in about six months, maybe sooner. He’ll want to talk about your wallet, first and foremost. He’ll be interested in your home and your workplace and he’ll check your memory and your math skills. Nice guy, he’ll probably ask after your family, too. You can’t avoid Uncle Sam’s inquisitiveness but with “The Double Tax” by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, you’ll see how to stop the “pink tax” from being worse if you’re black. When she was a young child, Anna Gifty Opoku-Ageyman noticed that when it was time to leave for church,…
School’s in session and you like that a lot. You have a nice teacher and you’re making new friends, doing things you’ve never tried before, and you’re learning, which is your job now. But sometimes, you just want something fun to read, so try these great books… Think about your grandma or grandpa. Are they quiet and calm? Or are they more like the grandparents inside “My Grandma and Grandpa ROCK!” by Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, illustrated by Tiffany Everett (Sourcebooks Jabberworky, $18.99)? Everybody’s grandparents are different. Some “wear funny clothes and have funny hair.” Most like music and…
One thousand, two hundred pounds and four legs. Put that between your knees and you’ll find out what real horsepower is. You’re five feet off the ground, moving as fast as a car on a downtown street, hooves pounding as hard as your heart. Dangerous? Maybe. But as you’ll see in “Mounted” by Bitter Kalli, your ancestors did it and so can you. When they were a young child, “around the age of six or seven,” someone gave Bitter Kalli a set of “pony books,” the kind that appeal to young girls, mostly white ones. Kalli wasn’t entirely comfortable identifying…
Okay, fun’s over. Summer is done, school’s back in session, fall is here, and it’s time to get serious. And guess what? You can still do that, and enjoy reading these great history books… First off, think about your ancestors and all they did. Now read, “The Black Family Who Built America: The McKissacks, Two Centuries of Daring Pioneers” by Cheryl McKissack Daniel with Nick Chiles (Black Privilege Publishing / Atria, $28.99). The story starts in West Africa, when Moses McKissack I was captured and enslaved in North Carolina. He became a craftsman and passed his talents down to his…
Keep your head down. Stay steady, mind your business, and don’t compare yourself to others. You are where you are for a reason, don’t lose sight of it. There’s a prize at the end, and endurance is the only way to get it. You have a job to do and, as in the new memoir “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” by Khadijah Queen, you’ll do it until you can’t. Khadijah Queen hated Inkster, Michigan. She had begged to stay in L.A. but her mother ignored her pleas and moved the family to Inkster to take care of…
Sometimes, you just don’t want to know any more. You’ve had it with bad news, up to your eyebrows and no more. So maybe it’s time for some good news. Maybe it’s time for some memoirs, biographies, and the goodness you’ll find inside these great books… What goes better with a warm summer evening than a few tunes? A book about a musician, that’s what, and “From the Shadow of the Blues: My Story of Music, Addiction and Redemption” by John Lee Hooker Jr. with Julia Simon (Rowman & Littlefield, $34) is a great summertime read. It’s the story of…
You fit right in. Whatever it takes, that’s alright. It’s human nature to change your mind and be one with the group. To relax your presence to maintain good will. To stay quiet and under the radar – but be careful. As in the new book, “The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery” by Clarence A. Haynes, denying who you really are can be deadly. Beautiful, talented, and driven, Gwendolyn Montgomery’s touch was magic. Everyone who wanted to be famous knew that she alone could make it happen, that her work at Sublime Creative could make someone a legend like Gwendolyn herself.…