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Emanuel
Veteran Poster
Username: Emanuel
Post Number: 72
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 14, 2004 - 11:54 am: | 
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Well folks, it’s almost the end of the year. As you may know, I am ending my review column at the Midwest Book Review and Rock Publications this year to focus on getting my new novel “Where is the Love?” published by next fall. I’ve compiled a list of the favorite books that I had a chance to review this year. This doesn’t mean that they are the overall best of the year. They’re just the best I’ve had the privilege of reviewing.
African-American Fiction
1. Blood on the Leaves by Jeff Stetson
2. The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips
3. Leaving Cecil Street by Diane McKinney-Whetsone
4. Jasminium by Jonathan Luckett
5. Counting Raindrops Through a Stained Glass Window by Cherlyn Michaels
African-American Non-Fiction
1. The Revolution of the Mentally Dead by Darrin Osborne
2. Slave: My True Story by Mende Nazer
3. The End of Blackness by Debra Dickerson
4. Check It While I Wreck It by Gwen Pough
5. Don’t Play in the Sun by Marita Golden
Non-African-American Non-Fiction
1. The Origin of Brands by Al & Laura Ries
2. Getting the Second Appointment by Anthony Parinello
3. Black Eye by Judith Strasser
4. The New Solution Selling by Keith Eades
Non-African-American Fiction
1. Cloud 8 by Grant Bailee
2. Careful! by Richard Madelin
3. Paranoia by Joseph Finder
4. Good Grief by Lolly Winston
5. The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper
I want to give an honorable mention to my wife Dr. Sheila Carpenter and her award-winning book “The Christian Walk.” Although I did not review the book due to a conflict of interest, I still recommend you pick this one up.
Take care,
Emanuel Carpenter
Author of “A Job Ain’t Nothing But Work”
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Steve_s
Newbie Poster
Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 11
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 14, 2004 - 03:54 pm: |
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NONFICTION:
"All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half Century of Brown v. Board of Education" by Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. -- An informative and very readable book, largely autobiographical, which I chose over James T. Patterson's recent book on Brown v. Board (which might also be a very good book, I don't know). You may have heard on the news that it contains an unattributed six-paragraph passage from another book, but I think the plagiarism issue has been addressed. Besides, it's a very original book, similar to a memoir.
"Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today" by Alan Huffman -- There's another current book called "Liberia: Portrait of a Failed State" by John-Peter Pham, however, Huffman's book is not strictly a history of Liberia, it's not a very political book, and despite the horrific and protracted civil war, neither the author nor anyone he spoke to who's knowledgeable about the country believes that Liberia is a failed state. I enjoyed it. The author is a youngish white southerner and I think he's written an excellent book.
Of last year's nonfiction which I've just gotten around to reading, I especially liked "Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy" by Carlos Eire and I'm currently reading "Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx" by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc.
FICTION:
I've read 45 books this year but these are the only ones published in 2004 by anyone regardless of race:
The Dew Breaker -- Edwidge Danticat
GraceLand -- Chris Abani
The Second Life of Samuel Tyne -- Esi Edugyan
The Madonna of Excelsior -- Zakes Mda
Still three months to go.
thanks! |
Tee
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tee
Post Number: 97
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 14, 2004 - 07:32 pm: |
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Emanuel, I don't read as much non-fiction, so I only have two of those listed below, but my top reads for the year (published this year) are below, in no particular order. You'll see it's kinda "slim" as I haven't read too many awesome books out of the 90 I've read thus far.
My Favorites
A Woman's Worth by Tracy Price-Thompson
Pretenses by Keith Lee Johnson
The Man in My Basement by Walter Mosley
The Tribe by Gregory Townes (Nov Release)
Success Never Smelled So Sweet by Lisa Price
Honorable Mentions
The Apostles by Y. Blak Moore
Inside of Me by Shellie Warren
Better Than I Know Myself by DeBerry & Grant
The Blackbird Papers by Ian Smith
-Tee
(P.S. I'm reading R. Barri Flowers new thriller, Persuasive Evidence now and am loving it, so it may be added to the list). |
Philly_bbw
Newbie Poster
Username: Philly_bbw
Post Number: 24
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 15, 2004 - 11:23 pm: |
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Fiction...
Little Ghetto Girl-?
Selah's Bed-Jenoyne Adams (<----Excellent Read!!!)
Dogism- Mark Anthony
One Day I Saw A Black King-?
Me and My Boyfriend-?
Minion & The Awakening- L.A. Banks
Bad Girls- Shannon Holmes
I read so many books this year...these are the few that I remember being excellent right off hand.
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Whistlingwoman
Veteran Poster
Username: Whistlingwoman
Post Number: 59
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 16, 2004 - 02:23 pm: |
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Hmmm. . .
The Last King - Nichelle D. Tramble
The Known World - Edward P. Jones
Property - Valerie Martin
Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Love and Death in Brooklyn - Glenville Lovell
The Man in the Basement - Walter Mosley
Daughter - Asha Bandele
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere - ZZ Packer
47th Street Black - ?
I know there's more but that's all I can think of right now.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1564
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, October 17, 2004 - 12:04 am: |
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Hi, whistling woman, I finally finished reading "Becoming Something," that biography of Canada Lee, the distinghished but long-forgotten black actor who as a youth had also been a jockey and a boxer, and who you mentioned being familiar with thanks to your mother having you watch his old movies. The book was a very interesting profile of a tragic figure whose intense and courageous dedication to speaking out about racial injustice in America ended up destroying not only his career but his health, leaving him to die an early death, a victim of the Communist witch hunts that ran rampant during the 1940s and 50s.
Next up for me is "Queen", the life story of Dinah Washington. |
Fool_onthe_hill
First Time Poster
Username: Fool_onthe_hill
Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, October 17, 2004 - 02:43 pm: |
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The Hurston/Wright Foundation has announced their winners for the fiction, non-fiction and debut fiction awards. Besides the honor of the prize, the winners get $10,000 and two semi-finalists recieve $5,000 each. Congratulations to them all!
Fiction
*WINNER* Hunting in Harlem
by Mat Johnson
(Bloomsbury)
Hottentot Venus
by Barbara Chase-Riboud
(Doubleday)
The Polished Hoe
by Austin Clarke
(Harper Collins/Amistad)
The Salt Roads
by Nalo Hopkinson
(Warner Books)
The Known World
by Edward P. Jones
(Harper Collins/Amistad)
A Distant Shore
by Caryl Phillips
(Alfred A. Knopf)
NON-FICTION
*WINNER* In Black and White: The Life of
Sammy Davis, Jr.
by Wil Haygood
(Alfred A. Knopf)
Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston
by Valerie Boyd
(Simon and Schuster/Scribner)
Mandela, Mobutu and Me
by Lynne Duke
(Doubleday)
Always Wear Joy
by Susan Fales-Hill
(HarperCollins/Amistad)
Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity
by E. Patrick Johnson
(Duke University Press)
Somebody’s Someone
by Regina Louise
(Warner Books)
DEBUT FICTION
*WINNER* Purple Hibiscus
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)
A Place Between Stations
by Stephanie Allen
(University of Missouri Press)
Daughter
by Asha Bandele
(Simon and Schuster/Scribner)
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
by ZZ Packer
(Riverhead)
Getting Mother’s Body
by Suzan-Lori Parks
(Random House)
Knee-Deep in Wonder
by April Reynolds
(Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Co.)
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