Bridgett M. Davis

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Michigan

My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers

As seen on the Today Show: This true story of an unforgettable mother, her devoted daughter, and their life in the Detroit numbers of the 1960s and 1970s highlights "the outstanding humanity of black America" (James McBride). In 1958, the very same year that an unknown songwriter named Berry Gordy borrowed $800 to found Motown Records, a pretty young mother from Nashville, Tennessee, borrowed $100 from her brother to run a numbers racket out of her home. That woman was Fannie Davis, Bridgett M. Davis's mother. Part bookie, part banker, mother, wife, and granddaughter of slaves, Fannie ran her numbers business for thirty-four years, doing what it took to survive in a legitimate business that just happened to be illegal. She created a loving, joyful home, sent her children to the best schools, bought them the best clothes, mothered them to the highest standard, and when the tragedy of urban life struck, soldiered on with her stated belief: "Dying is easy. Living takes guts." A daughter's moving homage to an extraordinary parent, The World According to Fannie Davis is also the suspenseful, unforgettable story about the lengths to which a mother will go to "make a way out of no way" and provide a prosperous life for her family -- and how those sacrifices resonate over time.

The World According to Fannie Davis

5e1778cb-8f92-4390-bb78-07eaae67bad6-1

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

A singular memoir highlighting "the outstanding humanity of black America" that tells the story of one unforgettable mother, her devoted daughter, and the life they lead in the Detroit numbers of the 1960s and 1970s (James McBride) In 1958, the very same year that an unknown songwriter named Berry Gordy borrowed $800 to found Motown Records, a pretty young mother from Nashville, Tennessee borrowed $100 from her brother to run a Numbers racket out of her tattered apartment on Delaware Street, in one of Detroit's worst sections. That woman was Fannie Davis, Bridgett M. Davis' mother. Part bookie, part banker, mother, wife, granddaughter of slaves, Fannie became more than a numbers runner: she was a kind of Ulysses, guiding both her husbands, five children and a grandson through the decimation of a once-proud city using her wit, style, guts, and even gun. She ran her numbers business for 34 years, doing what it took to survive in a legitimate business that just happened to be illegal. She created a loving, joyful home, sent her children to the best schools, bought them the best clothes, mothered them to the highest standard, and when the tragedy of urban life struck, soldiered on with her stated belief: "Dying is easy. Living takes guts." A daughter's moving homage to an extraordinary parent, The World According to Fannie Davis is also the suspenseful, unforgettable story about the lengths to which a mother will go to "make a way out of no way" to provide a prosperous life for her family -- and how those sacrifices resonate over time. This original, timely, and deeply relatable portrait of one American family is essential reading.

Indiana

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

New Jersey

New York

Texas

A young black woman visits Africa on a quest for peace, meaning, and love in "a beautiful allegory at the heart of a realist novel" (Chris Abani, author of The Secret History of Las Vegas).
 
In 1986 Detroit, twenty-one-year-old Angie is still mourning the death of her brilliant, radical sister, Ella, when she impulsively decides to pack up and go to the place where Ella tragically died four years before: Nigeria. There, Angie retraces her sister's steps, all the while navigating the chaotic landscape of a major African country on the brink of democracy and careening toward a coup d'état.
 
At the center of her quest is a love affair that upends everything Angie thought she knew about herself. Against a backdrop of Nigeria's infamous "go-slow"--traffic as wild and unpredictable as the country itself--Angie begins to unravel the mysteries of the past, and opens herself up to love and life after Ella.

Into the Go-Slow

87f5bd0d-20ff-473f-8de6-f2ea5ba89fa7-1

Kansas

For Rae Dodson, the early seventies are as hopeful and promising as the peace signs popping up everywhere. The signature sounds of Motown are filling Detroit's airwaves, and automobile factories are supporting a burgeoning black middle class, which works by day and plays bid whist by night. Rae's hip older sister, Kimmie, has moved home from New Orleans;her mother's nerves have calmed enough for her to stop taking her "vitamins"; her father has discovered new painkillers that ease his chronic migraines; and now, despite her parents' sleeping in separate rooms, the peace between them seems to be holding. All that shifts, however, when Rae's mother suddenly takes off with her lover down a stretch of highway.

Left to care for her ailing father, Rae grows up faster than any young girl should and is forced to admit that her mother may be incapable of love, that her father's love may be too all-consuming. What's most obvious is that neither seems fully capable of looking after Rae, who is searching not only for a way to make her family whole again but also for a way to make sense of her own budding sexuality.

With fully realized characters and an infinitely imaginative storyline, Shifting Through Neutral heralds the arrival of a promising new talent.

Shifting Through Neutral

7387bf9b-6509-4a4a-9091-e6a9cb693292-1

Browse by categories

Save this search

Bridgett M. Davis

The World According to Fannie Davis

Bridgett M. Davis

The World According to Fannie Davis

Bridgett M. Davis

The World According to Fannie Davis

Bridgett M. Davis

The World According to Fannie Davis

Bridgett M. Davis

The World According to Fannie Davis

Bridgett M. Davis

The World According to Fannie Davis

Bridgett M. Davis

The World According to Fannie Davis

Bridgett M. Davis

The World According to Fannie Davis

Bridgett M. Davis

Into the Go-Slow

Bridgett M. Davis

Shifting Through Neutral