The African American Book Review

Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately. The eight-year-old narrator of "An Ex-Mas Feast" needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school. Even when his twelve-year-old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can't be granted. Food comes first. His family lives in a street shanty in Nairobi, Kenya, but their way of both loving and taking advantage of each other strikes a universal chord.
In the second of his stories published in a New Yorker special fiction issue, Akpan takes us far beyond what we thought we knew about the tribal conflict in Rwanda. The story is told by a young girl, who, with her little brother, witnesses the worst possible scenario between parents. They are asked to do the previously unimaginable in order to protect their children. This singular collection will also take the reader inside Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, revealing in beautiful prose the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa.
Akpan's voice is a literary miracle, rendering lives of almost unimaginable deprivation and terror into stories that are nothing short of transcendent. MORE

Labels: Uwem Akpan

From gang violence to an inspiring trip to Ghana, the life of the younger Williams sister has been about much more than tennis, says Tim Adams
"You know I was always really very, very good," Venus said at the time, grinning. "Serena, on the other hand, wasn't very good at all. She was small, really slim and the racket was way too big for her. Hopeless. She started playing especially good tennis at around 15, which was soon enough – I mean, she won the US Open two years later – but still it was quite late compared to me." She then summed up the distinction in shorthand: "You know," she said, "I was always Venus …"

Serena, though, as this memoir makes clear, wasn't always Serena. Her book allows us to see how the younger half of the greatest sister act sport has known came out of the shadow of "V" through a process of intense self-invention. Serena recalls at one point how she was once asked how many grand slam titles she thought she would have won had Venus, her greatest rival, not stood in her way. She answered that she did not think she would have won any at all; Venus was her spur – her great advantage in life was that she knew from a very early age that if she could just beat her sister then she could beat anybody in the world.

She learnt through this to be at her best when everything was against her. Throughout her career, Serena has been in the habit of writing down inspirational words on Post-it notes and sticking them to her racket bag. Sometimes they read like text messages from Martin Luther King: "Show no emotion," she will write, "UR black and U can endure anything. Endure. Persevere. Stand tall." Or: "Be strong. Be black. Now's your time 2 shine. Be confident. They want to see you angry. Be angry, but don't let them see it."More

Labels: Serena Williams

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http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FcQ4SRWUL._SL75_.jpgScreen Gems has acquired rights to turn comedian Steve Harvey's book "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man" into a feature.

Harvey wrote the humorous book of advice for women seeking to better understand their male counterparts, an exercise inspired by a segment on Harvey's syndicated morning radio show.

Will Packer will produce, and Harvey will be exec producer. Screen Gems prexy Clint Culpepper will begin canvassing writers to hear different pitches for an ensemble comedy about romantic relationships. Culpepper first worked with Harvey when the latter acted in "You Got Served.""Steve has always provided an easily relatable perspective on men, the way they view women and their seemingly complex but surprisingly simple emotional needs," Culpepper said. Culpepper and Packer flew to Dallas on Sunday to close the deal with Harvey.

Packer recently produced "Obsessed," is shooting "Takers" and prepping a remake of "The Big Chill" for Screen Gems. MORE

Labels: Act Like a Lady Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love Relationships Intimacy and Commitment, Steve Harvey

Born to slaves in 1862, Ida B. Wells became a fearless antilynching crusader, women’s rights advocate, and journalist. Wells’s refusal to accept any compromise on racial inequality caused her to be labeled a “dangerous radical” in her day but made her a model for later civil rights activists as well as a powerful witness to the troubled racial politics of her era. In the richly illustratedTo Tell the Truth Freely, the historian Mia Bay vividly captures Wells’s legacy and life, from her childhood in Mississippi to her early career in late nineteenth-century Memphis and her later life in Progressive-era Chicago.

Wells’s fight for racial and gender justice began in 1883, when she was a young schoolteacher who traveled to her rural schoolhouse by rail. Forcibly ejected from her seat on a train one day on account of her race, Wells immediately sued the railroad. Though she ultimately lost her case on appeal in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, the published account of her legal challenge to Jim Crow changed her life, propelling her into a career as an outspoken journalist and social activist. Also a fierce critic of the racial violence that marked her era, Wells went on to launch a crusade against lynching that took her across the United States and eventually to Britain. Though she helped found the NAACP in 1910 after resettling in Chicago, she would not remain a member for long. Always militant in her quest for racial justice, Wells rejected not only Booker T. Washington’s accommodationism but also the moderating influence of white reformers within the early NAACP. The life of Ida B. Wells and her enduring achievements are dramatically recovered in Mia Bay’s To Tell the Truth Freely.

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Labels: Ida B. Wells, Mia Bay, To Tell The Truth Freely

Outrageous, captivating, and unafraid to tell it like it is, Nene Leakes shares her wild journey from a scandalous past to the pinnacle of reality television stardom. Lauded by her fans for her refreshing honesty, infectiously genuine style, and clever sense of humor, Nene is an empowered, self-made woman who has not forgotten where she came from and knows exactly where she wants to go.

In this straight-talking and provocative memoir Nene charts her journey from family black sheep to single mother to making good and realizing her dreams. With her charm and bold, self-possessed voice, Nene tackles her painful childhood; the abuse she suffered at the hands of a violent boyfriend; her struggle to support her firstborn son; and her path to true love, self-acceptance, and pride.

In Never Make the Same Mistake Twice, Nene dishes on her cast mates; takes on the rumors about her past; and shares hard-earned and inspiring life lessons in her fierce, no-nonsense, and irreverent style.

Product Details
Touchstone, August 2009
Hardcover, 240 pages
ISBN-10: 1-4391-6730-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-4391-6730-4

Labels: Nene Leakes

E. Lynn Harris' book tour will go forward in honor of the author.

Harris honor: E. Lynn Harris wanted to do a "thank you" tour this fall, meeting with fans in small cities to get back to promoting his novels on a "grass-roots level," says Karen Hunter, whose Pocket Books imprint will publish his novel Mama Dearest in September. MORE

Labels: e lynn harris