It was a Sure Thing. A can’t-miss, a safe bet that you couldn’t possibly fail – or could you? Isn’t there always a danger of losing in a gamble, or at least not winning? What kind of odds would make you take a risky bet? As in the new book “Be Free or Die” by Cate Lineberry, would you put your family’s lives on the line? Because the law in 1839 said that a slave woman’s children were automatically enslaved, Robert Smalls was owned by Henry McKee the minute Smalls was born. Because his mother was a house slave, the…
Author: Terri Schlichenmeyer
Your feet sometimes have a mind of their own. You see your favorite foods, and they carry you toward lunch before you even realize you’re hungry. When you’re faced with danger, they take you in the right direction, away and safe. And when you read “Super Freak: The Life of Rick James” by Peter Benjaminson, your feet just gotta dance. James Ambrose Johnson Jr. was born in Buffalo, New York, on February 1, 1948, into a family filled with talent and power: little Rick (no explanation for the nickname) was related to politicians and journalists, actors and performers. Even his…
You got this. You know what’s up. You’ve been schooled and you know how things work, how it is, how it goes down. You can do it, no problem. You got this – except when, as in the new book “Jake the Fake Keeps It Real” by Craig Robinson and Adam Mansbach, art by Keith Knight, you don’t. Jake Liston plays the piano. But he really doesn’t. He made people think he does, though, just so he could get into the Music and Art Academy, a magnet school for creative kids. His older sister, Lisa, goes there so Jake’s parents…
Your friends follow what you have to say. Whether on social media or otherwise, they listen to you and understand, ask your opinion, seek your wisdom, and look to your lead. With them, you live a good life. Have followers like those, as you’ll see in “Madame President” by Helene Cooper, and you can change the world. “This child will be great.” Roughly translated, that’s what a local prophet said about Ellen Johnson when she was born in Liberia in October, 1938. Those words were repeated in praise and in sarcasm as Johnson grew up, but no one had any…
You are on a need-to-know basis. You’re told only what’s relevant, and nothing more. Rumors, innuendo, extra little details, none of that’s important; only what you need is what you get. But read “The Lost Eleven” by Denise George and Robert Child, and you may wonder what else you’re missing. Hitler reportedly did not want the 1936 Olympics in his Berlin. Not a sporting man, he didn’t see the point, until he was told that the games might be a good chance to showcase his Aryan athletes. He acquiesced, and openly seethed when African American star Jesse Owens snatched medals away…
Run, run, run. Some days, it feels like that’s all you do. Run the kids to school, dash to work, rush with errands, and run yourself ragged before bed. You’re always on the go, always moving, and in the new book “Never Caught” by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, your breath isn’t the only thing to catch. Twenty-one-year-old Mulatto Betty must’ve breathed a sigh of relief. When Martha Custis married George Washington, slaves were shuffled as the mistress moved to Mount Vernon; miraculously and notably, Betty moved and was allowed to keep her baby son with her. She was pregnant,…
Catch me if you can. You might have said that once, giggling. You may have yelled it at a game one afternoon. You said it, maybe, in a flirtatious manner on some romantic evening. Run, run, run, catch me if you can because, as in “Man on the Run” by Carl Weber, this chase may keep a man out of prison. The night Kyle Richmond learned that his best friend, Jay Crawford, had busted out of prison was unusually memorable: Kyle and his wife were naked in their hot tub when U.S. Marshalls broke in and surprised them. The Feds…
If you can’t say something nice… Sometimes, it’s hard to say nothing at all. There are times when you need to speak out, to confront, share your opinion, rant, or vent. And then there are times, as in the new book “Audacity” by Jonathan Chait, where you must praise. For perhaps the last few months of Barack Obama’s presidency, media outlets have debated about something that definitely matters: was he one of the best presidents, or one of the worst? It’s the former, says Chait, even though he admits there are times when it looks like the latter. Obama, he…