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Tags: black american fiction

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Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the... (more)
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Seraph on the Suwanee
by Zora Neale Hurston
This novel of turn-of-the-century white "Florida Crackers" marks a daring departure for the author famous for her complex accounts of black culture and heritage. Full of insights into the nature of love, attraction, faith, and loyalty, Seraph on the Suwanee is the compelling story of two people at once deeply in love and deeply at odds. The heroine, young Arvay Henson, is convinced she will never find true love... (more)
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The Tempest Tales
by Walter Mosley
Tempest Landry, an everyman African American, is accidentally killed by a cop. Denied access to heaven because of what he considers a few minor transgressions, Tempest refuses to go to hell. Stymied, Saint Peter sends him back to Harlem, where a guiding angel tries to convince him to accept Saint Peter's judgment, and even the Devil himself tries to win over Tempest s soul. Through the street-smart Landry, Mosley... (more)
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Rain Storm
by Vanessa Miller
Beautiful and lethal. Cynda Stephens' hatred for life and men grow as her addictions force her into prostitution. Keith Hosea Williams obeys God's call to marry Cynda. But as his love begins to open Cynda's heart in ways she never expected, her thoughts of unworthiness cause her to run away from a love she desperately wants to call her own. Then she discovers a love even greater than the love Keith gave her. A... (more)
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Beloved
by Toni Morrison
Set in rural Ohio several years after the Civil War, this profoundly affecting chronicle of slavery and its aftermath is Toni Morrison's greatest novel, a dazzling achievement, and the most spellbinding reading experience of the decade. "A brutally powerful, mesmerizing story . . . read it and tremble."--People.
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The BAP Handbook: The Official Guide to the Black American Princess
by Kalyn Johnson
"Finally, a book about the Black American Princess! If you're already a BAP or just want to act like one, this book is for you!" -- E. Lynn Harris, author of Not a Day Goes By In the bestselling tradition of The Official Preppy Handbook , here is a must-have manual for the BAP and those who love her. Black American Princess: 1 : a pampered female of African American descent, born to... (more)
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Diablerie
by Walter Mosley
In this icy noir from a master of American fiction, the darkest secrets are the ones we keep hidden from ourselves. Ben Dibbuk has a good job, an accomplished wife, a bright college-age daughter, and a patient young mistress. Even as he goes through the motions of everyday life, however, inside he feels nothing. The explanation for this emotional void lies in the years he spent as a blacked-out drunk before... (more)
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Native Son
by Richard Wright
Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness... (more)
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Tar Baby
by Toni Morrison
Ravishingly beautiful and emotionally incendiary, Tar Baby is Toni Morrison’s reinvention of the love story. Jadine Childs is a black fashion model with a white patron, a white boyfriend, and a coat made out of ninety perfect sealskins. Son is a black fugitive who embodies everything she loathes and desires. As Morrison follows their affair, which plays out from the Caribbean to Manhattan and the deep South,... (more)
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Killing Johnny Fry
A Sexistential Novel
by Walter Mosley
This bold new novel from Walter Mosley startles in both its rawness and its honest portrayal of a man on a quest for sexual redemption in midlife. When Cordell Carmel catches his longtime girlfriend with another man, the act that he witnesses seems to dissolve all the boundaries he knows. In that instant, the calm existence of this middle-aged New York City man becomes something unrecognizable: he wants revenge,... (more)
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Fearless Jones: Book 2
Fear Itself
by Walter Mosley
Paris Minton doesn't want any trouble. He minds his used bookstore and his own business. But in 1950s Los Angeles, sometimes trouble finds him, no matter how hard he tries to avoid it. When the nephew of the wealthiest woman in L.A. is missing and wanted for murder, she has to get involved-no matter if she can't stand him.What will her church think?She hires Jefferson T. Hill, a former sheriff of Dawson, Texas,... (more)
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SSSS We Sizzle
by Angela D. Lewis
In life, you can wait for your ship to come in or you can swim out there to it. Sharing her own successes and struggles, Angela Lewis offers practical and creative techniques and guidance on how any woman can enjoy a more exciting single life, while attracting and meeting lots of good single men in the process. In this insightful guide, you will discover: Why men place ladies in categories. Why it is... (more)
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Fearless Jones: Book 3
Fear of the Dark
by Walter Mosley
Fearless Jones and Paris Minton, stars of the bestsellers Fearless Jones and Fear Itself, return in a fast-paced thriller about family and revenge. For Paris Minton, a knock on his door is often the first sign of trouble. So when he finds his lowlife cousin, Ulysses S. Grant, or Useless, on the other side of his front door, Paris keeps it firmly closed. With family like Useless, who needs enemies?... (more)