Stories by Chunichi, Lakesa Cox, Meisha C. Holmes, Joy and Tysha, With Special Messages from Free and Wahida Clark. Bend in inside cover and sime pages as shown in pictures. Overall Pages are crisp and white.

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Nevada

Girls in the Game (Street Chronicals)

Ibi Zoboi

Yusef Salaam

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Connecticut

From award-winning, bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five comes a powerful YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. Perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds, Walter Dean Myers, and Elizabeth Acevedo. The story that I thought was my life didn't start on the day I was born Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he's seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. "Boys just being boys" turns out to be true only when those boys are white. The story that I think will be my life starts today Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal's bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it? With spellbinding lyricism, award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam tell a moving and deeply profound story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth, in a system designed to strip him of both.

Punching the Air

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Laura Warrell

A Novel

Passion and risk, fathers and daughters, wives and single women, jazz and soul: a provocative debut novel about the perennial temptations of dangerous love, told by the women who love Circus Palmer--trumpet player and old-school ladies' man--as they ultimately discover the power of their own voices.

 

"In an exceptional debut, Warrell turns love, or at least the love life of musician Circus Palmer, into the proverbial jazz club: dark and sexy, freeing and frightening, ecstatic and lonely.... A modern masterpiece." --Jason Reynolds, best-selling author of Look Both Ways


 

It's 2013, and Circus Palmer, a forty-year-old Boston-based trumpet player and old-school ladies' man, lives for his music and refuses to be tied down. Before a gig in Miami, he learns that the woman who is secretly closest to his heart, the free-spirited drummer Maggie, is pregnant by him. Instead of facing the necessary conversation, Circus flees, setting off a chain of interlocking revelations from the various women in his life. Most notable among them is his teenage daughter, Koko, who idolizes him and is awakening to her own sexuality even as her mentally fragile mother struggles to overcome her long-failed marriage and rejection by Circus.
 
Delivering a lush orchestration of diverse female voices, Warrell spins a provocative, soulful, and gripping story of passion and risk, fathers and daughters, wives and single women, and, finally, hope and reconciliation, in answer to the age-old question: how do we find belonging when love is unrequited? 

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm

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Tiphanie Yanique

New Mexico

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF FALL 2021 BY: NEW YORK TIMES ● VULTURE ● BOSTON GLOBE ● OPRAH DAILY SHEREADS ● KIRKUS REVIEWS ● HEY ALMA ● LITHUB ● AND MORE “Reveals on every page how love can persevere and take shape over time and space.”—Boston Globe “One of the most inventive and talented stylists of her generation.” —Vulture From the award-winning author of Land of Love and Drowning, an electric new novel that maps the emotional inheritance of one couple newly in love. When Fly and Stela meet in 21st Century New York City, it seems like fate. He's a Black American musician from a mixed-religious background who knows all about heartbreak. She’s a Catholic science teacher from the Caribbean, looking for lasting love. But are they meant to be? The answer goes back decades—all the way to their parents' earliest loves. Vibrant and emotionally riveting, Monster in the Middle moves across decades, from the U.S. to the Virgin Islands to Ghana and back again, to show how one couple's romance is intrinsically influenced by the family lore and love stories that preceded their own pairing. What challenges and traumas must this new couple inherit, what hopes and ambitions will keep them moving forward? Exploring desire and identity, religion and class, passion and obligation, the novel posits that in order to answer the question “who are we meant to be with?” we must first understand who we are and how we came to be.

Monster in the Middle

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North Dakota

#fiction #historical #historicalfiction #histfic #paperback #nonfiction #blackfiction #neworleans 

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Washington

An enthralling literary tour-de-force that pays tribute to Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and politics, Black Bottom Saints is a powerful blend of fact and imagination reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow's classic novel Ragtime and Marlon James' Man Booker Award-winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings. From the Great Depression through the post-World War II years, Joseph "Ziggy" Johnson, has been the pulse of Detroit's famous Black Bottom. A celebrated gossip columnist for the city's African-American newspaper, the Michigan Chronicle, he is also the emcee of one of the hottest night clubs, where he's rubbed elbows with the legendary black artists of the era, including Ethel Waters, Billy Eckstein, and Count Basie. Ziggy is also the founder and dean of the Ziggy Johnson School of Theater. But now the doyen of Black Bottom is ready to hang up his many dapper hats. As he lays dying in the black-owned-and-operated Kirkwood Hospital, Ziggy reflects on his life, the community that was the center of his world, and the remarkable people who helped shape it. Inspired by the Catholic Saints Day Books, Ziggy curates his own list of Black Bottom's venerable "52 Saints." Among them are a vulnerable Dinah Washington, a defiant Joe Louis, and a raucous Bricktop. Randall balances the stories of these larger-than-life "Saints" with local heroes who became household names, enthralling men and women whose unstoppable ambition, love of style, and faith in community made this black Midwestern neighborhood the rival of New York City's Harlem. Accompanying these "tributes" are thoughtfully paired cocktails--special drinks that capture the essence of each of Ziggy's saints--libations as strong and satisfying as Alice Randall's wholly original view of a place and time unlike any other.

Black Bottom Saints

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#nonfiction #paperback #history #fiction #blackfiction #historicalfiction #historical #neworleans Pristine condition, read once, smoke free home

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Michigan

Nic Stone

California

"When Rico sells a jackpot-winning lotto ticket, she thinks maybe her luck will finally change, but only if she and her popular and wildly rich classmate, Zan, can find the ticket holder who hasn't claimed the prize."--

Jackpot

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Sharon C. Cooper

Oregon

Two entrepreneurs compete for a property but secure the biggest win of all--each other--in this second chance romantic comedy by USA Today bestselling author Sharon C. Cooper.
 
Spoiled, fickle, and prissy are only a few of the adjectives that have been used to describe Morgan Redford. Though she's never had to worry about money, she's determined to make a name for herself on her own terms. Her new venture won't be an epic fail like her former professional cuddling service or the short-lived pet hotel. This time, through the nonprofit she cofounded, Morgan is doing something meaningful--helping teens who are aging out of foster care--and she's got her eye on a property that could house these kids. But the competition is steep, and one of the bidders is someone she never expected. . . .
 
When real estate developer Drake Faulkner learns that his ex--the one who ghosted him years ago--is a potential buyer for the property his eccentric mentor is selling, his competitive streak amps up. No way is he letting her win the property he wants. Bitter? Yes. Petty? Probably. But his mentor has a stipulation: potential buyers must participate in an Ironman competition of sorts for the property. Drake refuses to play along with this ridiculous demand, until he discovers Morgan has signed up. If Little Miss Can't Run a Block Without Gasping for Air is doing it, he will too. But as the gauntlet of games heats up and forces them to face the past, they are met with a pull that feels all too familiar.
 
Now, if only they could keep their eyes on the prize instead of on each other--but who's to say they can't do both?

In It to Win It

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Tolá Okogwu

New unread copy. No marks or creases on any pages. 

Ohio

Black Panther meets X-Men in this action-packed and empowering middle grade adventure about a British Nigerian girl who learns that her Afro hair has psychokinetic powers--perfect for fans of Amari and the Night Brothers, The Marvellers, and Rick Riordan!

Onyeka has a lot of hair­--the kind that makes strangers stop in the street and her peers whisper behind her back. At least she has Cheyenne, her best friend, who couldn't care less what other people think. Still, Onyeka has always felt insecure about her vibrant curls...until the day Cheyenne almost drowns and Onyeka's hair takes on a life of its own, inexplicably pulling Cheyenne from the water.

At home, Onyeka's mother tells her the shocking truth: Onyeka's psycho-kinetic powers make her a Solari, one of a secret group of people with super powers unique to Nigeria. Her mother quickly whisks her off to the Academy of the Sun, a school in Nigeria where Solari are trained. But Onyeka and her new friends at the academy soon have to put their powers to the test as they find themselves embroiled in a momentous battle between truth and lies...

Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun

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Denny S. Bryce

Virginia

A Captivating Novel of Historical Fiction Perfect for Book Clubs

At the height of the Civil Rights Movement amidst an America convulsed by the 1960s, a pregnant young woman and her brash, profane aunt embark upon an audacious road trip from Chicago to Los Angeles to confront a decades-old mystery from 1920's Black Hollywood in this haunting novel of historical fiction from the author of Wild Women and the Blues. A lime-gold Ford Mustang is parked outside my building. Unmistakable. My Aunt Daisy, the driver, is an audacious woman that no one in our family actually speaks to. They only speak about her--and not glowingly. Still, she is part of my escape plan... 1928, Los Angeles: The newly-built Hotel Somerville is the hotspot for the city's glittering African-American elite. It embodies prosperity and dreams of equality for all--especially Daisy Washington. An up-and-coming journalist, Daisy anonymously chronicles fierce activism and behind-the-scenes Hollywood scandals in order to save her family from poverty. But power in the City of Angels is also fueled by racism, greed, and betrayal. And even the most determined young woman can play too many secrets too far... 1968, Chicago For Frankie Saunders, fleeing across America is her only escape from an abusive husband. But her rescuer is her reckless, profane Aunt Daisy, still reeling from her own shattered past. Frankie doesn't want to know what her aunt is up to so long as Daisy can get her to LA--and safety. But Frankie finds there's no hiding from long-held secrets--or her own surprising strength. Daisy will do whatever it takes to settle old scores and resolve the past--no matter the damage. And Frankie will come up against hard choices in the face of unexpected passion. Both must come to grips with what they need, what they've left behind--and all that lies ahead ... RAVES FOR Wild Women and the Blues "The best kind of historical novel: immersive, mysterious and evocative." --Ms. Magazine "Vibrant. . . . A highly entertaining read!" --New York Times Bestselling author Ellen Marie Wiseman "The music practically pours out of the pages." --Oprah Daily

In the Face of the Sun

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Indiana

Tara M. Stringfellow

New York

READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter’s discovery that she has the power to change her family’s legacy. “I fell in love with this family, from Joan’s fierce heart to her grandmother Hazel’s determined resilience. Tara Stringfellow will be an author to watch for years to come.”—Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Oprah Daily, Essence, Glamour, Business Insider, Marie Claire, The Millions, She Reads, Book Riot, Bad Form Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected. As she grows up, Joan finds relief in her artwork, painting portraits of the community in Memphis. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who claims to know something about curses, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion, imagination, and relentless hope are, in fact, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition. Joan begins to understand that her mother, her mother’s mother, and the mothers before them persevered, made impossible choices, and put their dreams on hold so that her life would not have to be defined by loss and anger—that the sole instrument she needs for healing is her paintbrush. Unfolding over seventy years through a chorus of unforgettable voices that move back and forth in time, Memphis paints an indelible portrait of inheritance, celebrating the full complexity of what we pass down, in a family and as a country: brutality and justice, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice and love.

Memphis

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New Jersey

Leila Mottley

North Carolina

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB PICK * A dazzling novel about a young Black woman who walks the streets of Oakland and stumbles headlong into the failure of its justice system. This debut of a blazingly original voice "bursts at the seams of every page and swallows you whole" (Tommy Orange, author of There There).

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, TIME, GOODREADS

Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison

But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent--which has more than doubled--and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.

Rich with raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Nightcrawling marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before.

Nightcrawling

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#hardcover #fiction #youngadult #socialjustice #blackfiction #bipoc #ibizoboi #ya 

#paperback #fiction #youngadult #bipoc #blackfiction #ya #booktok

Pennsylvania

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Morgan Parker

"Unflinchingly irreverent, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartbreakingly honest." --Elizabeth Acevedo, National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X

In the vein of powerful reads like The Hate U Give and The Poet X, comes poet Morgan Parker's pitch-perfect novel about a black teenage girl searching for her identity when the world around her views her depression as a lack of faith and blackness as something to be politely ignored.

Trapped in sunny, stifling, small-town suburbia, seventeen-year-old Morgan knows why she's in therapy. She can't count the number of times she's been the only non-white person at the sleepover, been teased for her "weird" outfits, and been told she's not "really" black. Also, she's spent most of her summer crying in bed. So there's that, too.

Lately, it feels like the whole world is listening to the same terrible track on repeat--and it's telling them how to feel, who to vote for, what to believe. Morgan wonders, when can she turn this song off and begin living for herself?

Loosely based on her own teenage life and diaries, this incredible debut by award-winning poet Morgan Parker will make readers stand up and cheer for a girl brave enough to live life on her own terms--and for themselves.

"Morgan Parker put THIS song on--and I hope it never turns off." --Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out

"A triumphant first impression in the YA space." --Entertainment Weekly

"An incredibly heartfelt, deep story about a girl's coming of age." --Refinery29


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Nikki Turner

Girls in the Game (Street Chronicals)

Ibi Zoboi; Yusef Salaam

Punching the Air

Laura Warrell

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm

Tiphanie Yanique

Monster in the Middle

Ibi Zoboi; Yusef Salaam

Punching the Air

Alice Randall

Black Bottom Saints

Alice Randall

Black Bottom Saints

Nic Stone

Jackpot

Sharon C. Cooper

In It to Win It

Tolá Okogwu

Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun

Denny S. Bryce

In the Face of the Sun

Ibi Zoboi; Yusef Salaam

Punching the Air

Tara M. Stringfellow

Memphis

Ibi Zoboi; Yusef Salaam

Punching the Air

Leila Mottley

Nightcrawling

Ibi Zoboi; Yusef Salaam

Punching the Air

Nic Stone

Jackpot

Tara M. Stringfellow

Memphis

Tiphanie Yanique

Monster in the Middle

Ibi Zoboi; Yusef Salaam

Punching the Air

Morgan Parker

Who Put This Song On?

Ibi Zoboi; Yusef Salaam

Punching the Air

Tara M. Stringfellow

Memphis

Tara M. Stringfellow

Memphis