Your entire life has been filled with milestones to meet, and many firsts. Your first tooth and first steps were celebrated. Your first word and first day of school were recorded; graduations, proms, puppy love, and beyond, you’ve enjoyed years of achievement. It’s true that milestones are fewer as you age; still, as in the new book “The Peach Seed” by Anita Gail Jones” life sometimes throws you a pleasant surprise. There was no mistaking that perfume. He hadn’t smelled it in decades but Fletcher Dukes, on his weekly visit to Piggly Wiggly with his sister, Olga, knew that scent…
Author: Terri Schlichenmeyer
Someone who was older than you taught you to tie your shoes. An elder showed you around a kitchen, a car, a workplace, a classroom, and the inside of a library. A lot of what you know has thoughtfully come from someone with years – which might make you wonder, as in the new book, “The Talk” by Darrin Bell, why weren’t you taught the most important lessons of all? It was 1981 and little Darrin Bell wanted nothing more than a squirt gun. It seemed like everyone had a squirt gun, but the one Darrin’s mother bought him was…
Once upon a time, fairy tales were full of dragons and ogres and sprites. There were magic mice and talking frogs. There were wondrous spells. And there were kings and queens, princes, princesses, lords and ladies, all of them white. But in “Crowned” by Kahran and Regis Bethencourt, it’s time for a new kind of magic. Ask any kid about their favorite storybook character, and they’ll have a quick answer. They want to be like this princesss or that king. They want to dress the part, too. The thing is that “the images that surround us on a daily basis”…
You are never alone in this world. Reach out, and you can always get help. Look around, and you’ll find company. Pick up one of these great books, and you’ll read about someone whose life was fascinating, and who you can admire and aspire to be like… For anyone who likes to watch the ponies, or who thrills to the Triple Crown each year, “Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey” by Katherine C. Mooney (Yale University Press, $25) is a book filled with action and history. Isaac Murphy was born a slave in 1861 and became…
If only you could wave a magic wand. All your troubles would disappear, poof! One wave, and you’d have the money you need, the job you want, the family you’ve dreamed about, the life you deserve. Wave a magic wand and go on vacation or – as in the new book “Life and Other Love Songs” by Anissa Gray – you could wave it and just disappear. Between the time she met him, and 1989, Deborah held two funerals for her husband, Daniel Ozro Armstead Junior. He wasn’t at either one of them. The first was held not long after…
The role is yours, if you want it. You can play the part on a stage or in a film, but there are a few requirements: you have to be able to sing and dance and speak with an accent. Can you convince an audience that you’re someone you’re not? As in the new book, “House of Cotton” by Monica Brashears, can you play dead? Mama Brown wouldn’t have liked all the praying and singing, not at all. Nineteen-year-old Magnolia knew that for sure. Also for sure, Mama’s funeral was the last time Magnolia would go to church. Wasn’t anything…
Who’s in charge around here? That would be you, the person at the top of the chain, the head honcho, the Fearless Leader. Your desk is where the buck stops in your organization. Everything is in your hands and you’re in charge – but, as in the new book “A Fever in the Heartland” by Timothy Egan, don’t get too comfortable on that throne. When the Ku Klux Klan first appeared, they came in the night and people thought they were ghosts – which was the point. None of the six original founders, nor any of their subsequent followers wanted…
A good building starts with a substantial foundation. No matter where you go from there, that base is an opening action, an announcement, a public sign of things to come. Whether it’s a new home for human, hoopty, or heirlooms, or the future site of industry or ideas, the foundation is the start of something exciting. In a new business and as in the new book “Black Founder” by Stacy Spikes, it needs to be solid. With high school graduation on the horizon, Stacy Spikes was itching to move. His hometown of Houston, Texas, had become “too small” to hold…
The gas tank is full of fuel. The tires are new, you checked the oil twice, the speedometer’s calibrated, your headlights are intact, all good. The vehicle’s not flashy, so there’s absolutely no reason to attract attention. And yet, as in “Driving the Green Book” by Alvin Hall and as your ancestors did, you sweat that all-day roadtrip. In 2015, while doing research for a podcast, Alvin Hall discovered something that intrigued and surprised him: one of his sources mentioned The Negro Motorist Green Book. Granted, when he was small, his family didn’t travel much from their home on Florida’s…
You turned the TV on and look…. Nine hundred forty-eight channels and there’s still nothing you want to watch. Seen that, seen that, watched that twice, but it wasn’t always the case. Once, your Monday nights were spent with a show you never missed, featuring a young guy who made you laugh. And in the new book “The Fresh Prince Project” by Chris Palmer, he made America laugh, too. Born to solidly middle-class parents in West Philadelphia, young Will Smith gained a reputation early for being something of a class clown. Though he tried, he was not athletic; instead, his…