Thirty-five interviews shed light on the bond between African-American men and their mothers. Malik Yoba, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, and other men of differing backgrounds speak candidly about their mothers' importance in their lives and shaping their understanding of race, identity, education, relationship, family, loss, and survival.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Little Brown ISBN 0-316-10556-2]

[William Morrow ISBN 0-688-14571-8]

This is an honest memoir from this important writer of how fame, illness, betrayal, and the Pulitzer Prize affected her life, her work, and her growth as an artist. [Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Scribner. 304p. ISBN: 0-684-81419-6]

A strong generation of impressive leaders emerged from the challenges of the civil rights movement and Williams sketches the lives of six, including Thurgood Marshall, Whitney M. Young, and Fannie Lou Hammer.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-312-16372-X]

Poet and lecturer Sanchez pays tribute to her father, writes of love, and inspires graduating seniors in her most recent anthology.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Beacon ISBN 0-8070-6850-0]

This history of Black women in America traces the accomplishments, trials, and triumphs of Black American women from servitude during colonial times through the antebellum plantations to the Harlem Renaissance and into the Civil Rights Movement.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Broadway Books ISBN 0-7679-0111-8]

The popular Campbell writes a tale about Maxine McCoy who made it from working class Philadelphian to become a successful television producer in Los Angeles. McCoy's life gets a little topsy-turvy when she receives a phone call that grandmother's caretaker she has to return to Philadelphia.

[Putnam ISBN 0-399-14298-3]

Tyree explores a single mom's influence on the three men in her life who hold different perspectives on their roles as fathers and lovers.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-684-85592-5]

[Viking Penguin ISBN 0-670-87144]

This ten-point plan to rescue your community is written by three cops who are making it hapen on the streets of Chicago as undercover policemen.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-684-83300-X]

This self-help work offers a creative regimen that helps readers ignite the spiritual and transform their lives.

[Avon ISBN 0-380-79142-0]

One hundred and fifty recipes with reflections of churchgoers from around the country captures the spirit of African-American women cooking for potluck suppers and after-church socials.

[HarperCollins ISBN 0-06-018716-6]

[Riverhead ISBN 1-57322-063-9]

Originally published in 1968, Cleaver's work challenged the way America saw the Civil Rights Movement and the Black experience. The former Black Panther Minister of Information wrote this collection of autobiographical essays while in California's Folsom State Prison.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Dell/Delta ISBN 0-385-33379-X]

If you ever needed advice, this book offers it for the road to financial security.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Perigee ISBN 0-399-52262-X]

[Syracuse University Press ISBN 0-8156-2730-0 (cloth) ISBN 0-8156-2731-9 (paperback)]

Through her knowledge of African spirituality learned in her homeland of West Africa, Somé shares ancient teachings in the ways of relationships. She shows how to make our intimate lives more fulfilling and reveals how marriage, friendship, and community relate.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Morrow ISBN 0688-16450-1]

Novelist and motivational speaker, Bunkley shows African-American women how to put themselves in the spotlight whether they are selling talent, a service, a product, or a dream.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[HarperPerennial ISBN 0-06-095288-1]

Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Perry writes a lyrical story about a young girl's descent into madness.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Hyperion ISBN 0-786-86408-7]

Based on a survey on Black female sexuality, Wyatt blends data and the voices of women to reveal the poisonous role of historical stereotypes and myth in contemporary images. She offers strategies to overcome the untruths and find greater sexual health and well-being.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[John Wiley ISBN 0-471-29717-8]

White is the style editor for the New York Times and here gives advice on cultivating a look that is modern, elegant, fun, and expressive of African culture.

[Perigee ISBN 0-399-52379-0]

Deane is a disabled Olympic ski medallist, a Rhodes scholar, a former White House official, and businesswoman. Her achievements are remarkable, and she shares her formula for success.

[Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-684-81853-1]

[Crown ISBN 0-517-88497-6]

Women have traditionally stayed silent after a rape to protect themselves and their race, but with the author's own account and those of the other women, this work will help to break down the walls. Voices of men who have long supported women in this area have been included.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Norton ISBN 0-393-04661-3]

Dr. Cornish is frank yet funny as she tells Black women how to stop making bad romantic choices. She maintains that six out of every ten Black women are in bad relationships, share a man, or is celibate. Some bad choices: sisters dissin' sisters; no-money no-honey approach; loving the married bachelor ; or using your finance to maintain his romance. Cornish relies on case studies, interviews, and letters she received to make her judgment.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Crown ISBN 0-609-600058-8]

Giving voice to their many joys and pains, a number of black columnists write some touching essays. Included are the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harold Jackson, Dorothy Gilliam, Dwight Lewis, and Betty Bay.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Crown ISBN 0-517-599376]

[Modern Library: Random House ISBN 0-679-45713-5]

Ladner draws on her Mississippi childhood and her experience as a Black sociologist at Howard University to suggest values for raising children today.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Wiley ISBN 0-471-19953-2]

Tiger Woods is not only the hottest person to enter professional golf, he is riding a wave and has become the most marketable of sports figures. This is truly an inside look at his life up to now.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-312-15672-3]

In its 30th anniversary of publication, this work is one of the few to present what it was like to be a slave in America in the words of Black men and women who lived it rather than through second-hand accounts.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[ISBN 0-8037-2347-4]

This is the first major biography of this courageous African-American woman who became most prominent because of her crusades against lynching in the 1890s. Wells championed civil rights in the post-Reconstruction era and was considered a rival to W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington for race leadership.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Oxford Univ. Press ISBN 0-19-508812-13]

A history of the struggle of Black women to attain equality and break away from exploitation. Century-long efforts of Black women to explain themselves as well as race and gender issues to white and Black men.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Norton ISBN 0-393-04667-2]

[Penguin USA/Mentor ISBN 0-451-62864-0]

With over 32 pages of Black and white photographs, this inspiring autobiography of the legendary singer takes us on his journey from a North Philadelphia ghetto to the Madison Square Garden stage. Prendergrass' near-fatal 1982 car accident left him partially paralyzed and wheelchair bound, but that did not stop him from returning to the stage in 1985.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Putnam ISBN 0-399-14420-X]

Bray was one of the first black women to attend Yale University; here she tells the story of growing up on welfare in Chicago in the 60s and why changes in the welfare system make it impossible for the same thing to happen today.

[Random House; ISBN: 0679425551]

She grew up poor in Chicago in the 1960s and was deeply affected by the Roman Catholic Church and the Civil Rights Movement. We follow Bray from the time she enters Yale University as a scholarship recipient through the successes of her postgraduate years.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Anchor Books ISBN 0-385-49475-0]

Cohen revisits slavery's historic and heroic escape route and traveled 1,000 miles under conditions similar to those of the slaves even mailing himself in a wooden crate from Pennsylvania to New York.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Hyperion ISBN 0-7868-6425-7]

With an upcoming series on PBS with the same title as the book, here Hafner teases the palates with recipes from African-American slaves, to immigrant Cajuns, and Chinese-Americans, including the stories behind them.

[Ballantine ISBN 345-41981-2]

[Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-684-82436-1]