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The Probability of Everything
By Sarah Everett. 2023
“One of the best books I have read this year (maybe ever).” —Colby Sharp, Nerdy Book ClubNPR Books We Love…
2023 | Publishers Weekly Best of 2023 | Winner of the Governor General's Literary Awards for Young People's LiteratureA heart-wrenching middle grade debut about Kemi, an aspiring scientist who loves statistics and facts, as she navigates grief and loss at a moment when life as she knows it changes forever.Eleven-year-old Kemi Carter loves scientific facts, specifically probability. It's how she understands the world and her place in it. Kemi knows her odds of being born were 1 in 5.5 trillion and that the odds of her having the best family ever were even lower. Yet somehow, Kemi lucked out.But everything Kemi thought she knew changes when she sees an asteroid hover in the sky, casting a purple haze over her world. Amplus-68 has an 84.7% chance of colliding with earth in four days, and with that collision, Kemi’s life as she knows it will end.But over the course of the four days, even facts don’t feel true to Kemi anymore. The new town she moved to that was supposed to be “better for her family” isn’t very welcoming. And Amplus-68 is taking over her life, but others are still going to school and eating at their favorite diner like nothing has changed. Is Kemi the only one who feels like the world is ending?With the days numbered, Kemi decides to put together a time capsule that will capture her family’s truth: how creative her mother is, how inquisitive her little sister can be, and how much Kemi's whole world revolves around her father. But no time capsule can change the truth behind all of it, that Kemi must face the most inevitable and hardest part of life: saying goodbye."My heart hurt as I raced through the last chapters of this unique book that shines a light on family, friends, grief, and love." —Lisa Yee, author of Maizy Chen's Last ChanceEl crossover: Crossover (spanish Edition), A Newbery Award Winner (Crossover series #01)
By Kwame Alexander. 2019
"Twin fourteen-year-old basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court, as their father…
ignores his declining health. Told in hip-hop style verse." -- Provided by NLSThe System of Dante's Hell: A Novel (AkashiClassics: Renegade Reprint Series #0)
By Amiri Baraka. 2016
"Much of the novel is an expression of the intellectual and moral lost motion of the age...the special agony of…
the American Negro."--New York Times Book Review"A fevered and impressionistic riff on the struggles of blacks in the urban North and rural South, as told through the prism of The Inferno....Other writers addressed race more directly, but for all its linguistic slipperiness, Baraka's language conveys the feelings of fear, violation, and fury with a surprising potency. A pungent and lyrical portrait of mid-'60s black protest."--Kirkus ReviewsWith a new introduction by Woodie King Jr.This 1965 novel is a remarkable narrative of childhood and youth, structured on the themes of Dante's Inferno: violence, incontinence, fraud, treachery. With a poet's skill Baraka creates the atmosphere of hell, and with dramatic power he reconstructs the brutality of the black slums of Newark, a small Southern town, and New York City. The episodes contained within the novel represent both states of mind and states of the soul--lyrical, fragmentary, and allusive.The Roving Tree: A Novel
By Elsie Augustave. 2013
One of the South Florida Times's Best Bets For Your Weekend!Essence Magazine: Summer Reading Pick!"Augustave, a first-time novelist, pens a…
well-balanced story about a young woman, caught between two worlds, who struggles to connect with her heritage...a polished narrative that addresses racism and cultural and class differences and provides a wealth of information about vaudou beliefs."--Kirkus Reviews"With her skillful incorporation of literary realism, Augustave brilliantly synthesizes the cultural richness of Haitian Vodou and the impoverished socio-political affairs of Haiti, along with the acidic polluted gush of racism that is deeply drenched in American society."--Haitian Times"Augustave creates a stunning tale with beautiful language that dwells in the realm of magical realism...The characters are rich, complicated and full of color and nuance."--Mosaic Magazine"A gorgeous new novel about a Haitian adoptee finding her way in many different corners of the world."--Edwidge Danticat, in the New York Times's By the Book feature"A fulfilling, exciting and ultra-lyrical read, The Roving Tree is really a novel about a lost soul's identity quest."--Kreyolicious.com"The Roving Tree is both a song and a social essay. It provides a window on a world and rounds out by circling back to the prologue."--Asheville Citizen-Times"Augustave...illustrates the devastating rootlessness of cultural disaffiliation."--World Literature Today"A fresh new voice who adds her own charming, beguiling brand of lyricism to the growing body of Haitian American stories. The Roving Tree is a unique and fascinating book, and I for one look forward to hearing more from this writer."--Lorna Goodison, author of From Harvey River"A beautiful, layered, nuanced story about a woman finding herself."--NBC COZI TV"A great journey...quite enjoyable well worth the read."--HIP Magazine"It's this attention to a blend of social issues, politics and transformation that enrich The Roving Tree and give it the kind of dimension and depth missing from singular stories of either adoptees or immigrants from other cultures."--Midwest Book Review"A well-written story with fleshed-out characters who are very much products of their time....This story made me realize how much of a force of nature ordinary people can be."--Idle Musings"I cannot begin to describe how deeply moved I was by The Roving Tree...completely worth a read. Simply stated, it's a blessing."--Read at Home MamaElsie Augustave's debut novel, The Roving Tree, explores multiple themes: separation and loss, rootlessness, the impact of class privilege and color consciousness, and the search for cultural identity. The central character, Iris Odys, is the offspring of Hagathe, a Haitian maid, and Brahami, a French-educated mulatto father who cares little about his child.Hagathe, who had always dreamt of a better life for her child, is presented with the perfect opportunity when Iris is five years old. Adopted by a white American couple, an anthropologist and art gallery owner, Iris is transported from her tiny remote Haitian village, Monn Neg, to an American suburb.The Roving Tree illuminates how imperfectly assimilated adoptees struggle to remember their original voices and recapture their personal histories and cultural legacy. Set between two worlds, suburban America and Haiti under the oppressive regime of Papa Doc's Tanton Macoutes, the novel offers a unique literary glimpse into the deeply entrenched class discrimination and political repression of Haiti during the Duvalier era, along with the subtle but nonetheless dangerous effects of American racism.Told from beyond the grave, Iris seamlessly shares her poignant and pivotal life experiences. The Roving Tree, underscored by the spiritual wisdom of Haitian griots, offers insightful revelations of the importance of significant relationships with family and friends. Years later, we see how these elements are transformative to Iris's inteListen!
By Stephanie S Tolan. 2006
A lonely summer spent regaining use of her injured leg becomes interesting when twelve-year-old Charley adopts a wild dog she…
finds in the woods. While Charley slowly tames the dog, he begins healing her heart, which is full of memories of her dead mother. For grades 4-7. Christopher Medal. 2006The song of the whales
By Uri Orlev. 2010
When his family moves to Israel, nine-year-old Michael bonds with his grandfather Raphael, who has strong convictions about being a…
vegetarian, helping others, and knowing the soul's dark secrets. Raphael bestows an unusual gift on Michael, dream sharing. For grades 4-7 and older readers. 2010Nine short stories set in Hawaii featuring the nuanced voices and interior lives of housewives, mechanics, cabdrivers, aging hippies, and…
bargirls. The worlds of Pak's Hawaiians, Asian locals, and the haoles sometimes intersect and collide and other times remain parallel, but each world is haunted by the past. Whether Pak evokes shadows of World War II, the Vietnam War, the radical 60's, or the military dictatorship of Chun Doo Hwan in Korea, the larger historical context looms ominously in the background. Contains explicit descriptions of sexPicture perfect (Fiction - Young Adult)
By Elaine Marie Alphin. 2003
Best friends Ian and Teddy meet regularly in an abandoned motel in the redwood forest, California, to take photographs. One…
day Teddy doesn't show up and Ian suspects his oppressive father has something to do with his friend's mysterious disappearance. Ian is questioned by the sheriff but he can't remember everything that happened that day. For grades 6-9She's Gone
By Kwame Dawes. 2007
A prominent Jamaican reggae singer falls in love with an African American woman while on tour in South Carolina. The…
two struggle to forge a relationship across a cultural and psychological divide in a story that spans from Jamaica to South Carolina to New York City.A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond, as told to Percival Everett & James Kincaid (A Novel): A Novel
By James Kincaid, Percival Everett. 2004
Praise for Percival Everett:"If Percival Everett isn't already a household name, it's because people are more interested in politics than…
truth."--Madison Smartt Bell, author of The Washington Square Ensemble"Everett's talent is multifaceted, sparked by a satiric brilliance that could place him alongside Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison . . ."--Publishers Weekly"I think Percival Everett is a genius. I've been a fan since his first novel. He continues to amaze me with each novel--as if he likes making 90-degree turns to see what's around the corner, and then over the edge . . . He's a brilliant writer and so damn smart I envy him."--Terry McMillan, author of MamaA fictitious and satirical chronicle of South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond's desire to pen a history of African-Americans--his and his aides' belief being that he has done as much, or more, than any American to shape that history. An epistolary novel, The History follows the letters of loose cannon Congressional office workers, insane interns at a large New York publishing house and disturbed publishing executives, along with homicidal rival editors, kindly family friends, and an aspiring author named Septic. Strom Thurmond appears charming and open, mad and sure of his place in American history.Percival Everett is the author of 15 works of fiction, among them Glyph, Watershed and Frenzy. His most recent novel, Erasure, won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and did little to earn him friends.James Kincaid is an English professor at the University of Southern California and has written seven books in literary theory and cultural studies. These books and Kincaid himself have gradually lost their moorings in the academic world, so there was nothing left for him to do but to adopt the guise of fiction writer. Writing about madness comes easy to him.All or Nothing: A Novel
By Preston L. Allen. 2007
Preston L. Allen's witty, charming, and very likable school bus driver--named P--is a desperate gambler. He has blown the hundred…
thousand dollars he won at the casino six months ago, but his wife and family still think he's loaded. P spins out of control on the addict's downward spiral of dependency, paranoia, and depression, as he must find ways to keep coming up with the money to fool his family and fund his growing addiction. The bets get bigger and bigger, until finally, faced with the ultimate financial crisis, he hits it really big. Yet winning, he soon learns, is just the beginning of a deeper problem.The one constant for P--who rises from wage-earner to millionaire and back again in his roller-coaster-ride of a life--is that he must gamble. That his son has died, that his wife is leaving him, that his girlfriend has been arrested, that he has no money, that he has more money than he could ever have dreamed--are all lesser concerns for P as he constantly seeks out new gambling opportunities.While other books on gambling seek either to sermonize on the addiction or to glorify it by highlighting its few prosperous celebrities, All or Nothing is an honest, straightforward account of what it is like to live as a gambler--whether a high-rolling millionaire playing $1,000-ante poker in Las Vegas or a regular guy at the local Indian casino praying for a miracle as he feeds his meager life savings into the unforgiving slot machine. All or Nothing is the first novel to dig beneath the veneer to explore the gambler's unique and complex relationship with money. If you've ever wanted to get into the heart and psyche of a compulsive gambler, here is your chance.Preston L. Allen is a recipient of a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship and author of the thriller Hoochie Mama, as well as the collection Churchboys and Other Sinners. His stories have appeared in numerous magazines and journals and have been anthologized in Brown Sugar (Penguin) and Miami Noir (Akashic). He lives in South Florida.New York Times Book Review, Sun., June 15, 2008"As a cartographer of autodegradation, Allen takes his place on a continuum that begins, perhaps, with Dostoyevsky's Gambler, courses through Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, William S. Burroughs's Junky, [and] the collected works of Charles Bukowski and Hubert Selby Jr...Like Dostoyevsky, Allen colorfully evokes the gambling milieu...Like Burroughs, he is a dispassionate chronicler of the addict's daily ritual, neither glorifying nor vilifying the matter at hand. Yet he never wallows like Lowry nor amuses like Bukowski. His spare, efficient prose could be called medium-boiled."Library Journal, Nov. 15, 2007"Allen's new novel poignantly depicts the life of P . . . Told without preaching or moralizing, the facts of P's life express volumes on the destructive power of gambling. This is strongly recommended and deserves a wide audience; an excellent choice for book discussion groups."Kirkus Reviews, Sept., 15, 2007"A gambler's hands and heart perpetually tremble in this raw story of addiction . . . Allen's brilliant at conveying the hothouse atmosphere of hell-bent gaming."ForeWord, Jan/Feb. 2008"All or Nothing is funny, relentless, haunting, and highly readable."The Hungered One: Short Stories (AkashiClassics: Renegade Reprint Series)
By Ed Bullins. 2012
"A richness of language and observation pervades this collection of short stories by a black writer about real black people."--The…
New York Times Book ReviewThese early writings from award-winning playwright Ed Bullins explore loneliness and despair in beautifully crafted stories.Ed Bullins has written numerous plays and fiction, including In the Wine Time, Goin' a Buffalo, Clara's Ole Man, and The Taking of Miss Janie, which received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play of the 1974-1975 season. His book of short fiction, The Hungered One: Early Writings, was originally published in 1971.The Lunatic
By Anthony C. Winkler. 2007
In this outrageously out-of-order, hilarious novel, the reader discovers that lunacy is by no means restricted to the village madman,…
and that goodness and forgiveness may be rarer qualities, found in unexpected places.Aloysius is tolerated by neighbors but forced to eke out a living by doing odd jobs, using the hospitable woodlands for shelter. He is starved of human companionship; instead he has running conversations with trees and plants. Then love, or a peculiar version of it, comes to Aloysius in the form of a solidly built German lady, Inga Schmidt, who has come to Jamaica to photograph the flora and fauna.Tales of the Out & the Gone: Short Stories
By Amiri Baraka. 2007
Comprising short fiction from the early 1970s to the twenty-first century—most of which has never been published—Tales of the Out…
& the Gone reflects the astounding evolution of America’s most provocative literary anti-hero. The first section of the book, “War Stories,” offers six stories enmeshed in the vola-tile politics of the 1970s and 1980s. The second section, “Tales of the Out & the Gone,” reveals Amiri Baraka’s increasing literary adventurousness, combining an unpredictable language play with a passion for abstraction and psychological exploration. Throughout, Baraka’s unique and constantly changing literary style will educate readers on the evolution of one of America’s most accomplished literary masters of the past four decades.Tales: Short Stories (AkashiClassics: Renegade Reprint Series)
By Leroi Jones. 2014
"We owe profound thanks to Akashic Books for reissuing this important collection of Amiri Baraka's short stories. Baraka was, without…
question, the central figure of the Black Arts Movement, and was the most important theorist of that movement's expression of the 'Black Aesthetic,' which took hold of the African American cultural imagination in earnest in the late sixties. While known primarily for his plays, poems, and criticism of black music, Baraka was also a master of the short story form, as this collection attests. Tales first appeared in 1967 and is an impressionistic and sometimes surrealistic collection of short fiction, showcasing Amiri Baraka's great impact on African American literature of the 1950s and 1960s. Tales is a critical volume in Amiri Baraka's oeuvre, and an important testament to his remarkable literary legacy."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr."A clutch of early stories from the poet, playwright, and provocateur, infused with jazz and informed by racial alienation...Worth reading to see the way [Baraka] feverishly tinkered with ways to explore a multiplicity of black experiences. An intense and button-pushing collection."--Kirkus ReviewsPraise for Amiri Baraka:"Baraka's stories evoke a mood of revolutionary disorder, conjuring an alternative universe in which a dangerous African-American underground, or a dangerous literary underground still exists...Baraka is at his best as a lyrical prophet of despair who transfigures his contentious racial and political views into a transcendent, 'outtelligent' clarity."--New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) on Tales of the Out & the GoneThe sixteen artful and nuanced stories in this reissue of Amiri Baraka's seminal 1967 collection fall into two parts: the first nine concern themselves with the sensibility of a hip, perceptive young black man in white America. The last seven stories endeavor to place that same man within the context of his awareness of and participation in a rapidly emerging and powerfully felt negritude. They deal, it might be said, with the black man in black America. Yet these tales are not social tracts, but absolutely masterful fiction--provocative, witty, and, at times, bitter and aggressive.Maame: The unique, unfiltered, unforgettable must-read debut of 2023
By Jessica George. 2023
THE debut of 2023. A blisteringly funny, heartbreaking novel about twenty-something British Ghanaian Maddie as she grapples with identity, love,…
loss, and becoming the woman she wants to be - for fans of Chewing Gum, Such a Fun Age and Queenie***Mum calls me Maame. It has many meanings in Twi, but in my case, it means woman.Meet Maddie.To her mostly-absent mum, she's Maame, the woman of the family. To her dad, she's his carer - even if he hardly recognises her. To her friends, she's the one who still lives at home, who never puts herself first.It's time to become the woman she wants to be.The kind who wears a bright yellow suit, says yes to after-work drinks and flirts with a thirty-something banker. Who doesn't have to google all her life choices. Who demands a seat at the table.But to put ourselves together, sometimes we have to fall apart...Heartbreaking, sharply funny and achingly relatable, Maame is an irresistibly fresh coming-of-age story with a heroine you'll never forget.'Honest, warm, heart-breaking and heart-healing. It felt truly modern, yet somehow timeless. I adored it'Nikki May, author of WAHALA'A poignant coming-of-age tale about finding strength, hope and courage . . . Maame's quiet confidence is true to life and liberating'Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, author of Yinka, Where is your Huzband?(P)2023 Hodder & Stoughton LimitedI'm Just a Teenage Punchbag: POIGNANT AND FUNNY: A NOVEL FOR A GENERATION OF WOMEN
By Jackie Clune. 2020
Warning!! This novel may lead you to make rash and life-changing decisions!**Probably don't read if you fear you may be…
ripe for liberation. Or if you sometimes wee when you laugh...First there was Having It All, then there was Bridget Jones' s Diary and I Don't Know How She Does It. Now there is Teenage Punchbag.I'm Just A Teenage Punchbag is a laugh-out-loud, sob-on-the bus journey through the so-called life of a middle-aged woman.Ciara is mother to three ungrateful, entitled teenagers, is married to steady Martin, a man with hairy udders, and is grieving for her mum who now lives in the wardrobe in a cardboard box from the crematorium. She finds solace in her anonymous blog, and in the daily chats she has with her mum's ashes (often the best conversations she has all day.)Despite the menopause, the invisibility of middle age and the daily self-esteem bashings, courtesy of her kids, Ciara manages to navigate the stormy waters of grief and family life - until her mask slips and she is cast out from the family bosom. She embarks on a mission to fulfil her mum's dying wishes to have her remains sprinkled from the top of the Empire State Building, finding company, distraction and - ultimately - herself in the process.If motherhood is a job - who says you can't resign?(P) 2020 Hodder & Stoughton LtdThe Spook Who Sat by the Door, Second Edition (African American Life Series)
By Sam Greenlee. 1969
A classic in the black literary tradition, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is both a comment on the…
civil rights problems in the United States in the late 1960s and a serious attempt to focus on the issue of black militancy. Dan Freeman, the "spook who sat by the door," is enlisted in the CIA's elitist espionage program. Upon mastering agency tactics, however, he drops out to train young Chicago blacks as "Freedom Fighters" in this explosive, award-winning novel. As a story of one man's reaction to ruling-class hypocrisy, the book is autobiographical and personal. As a tale of a man's reaction to oppression, it is universal.Call Him Mine: A Telegraph Thriller of the Year
By Tim MacGabhann. 2019
Jaded reporter Andrew and his photographer boyfriend, Carlos, are sick of telling just another story. From cartel massacres to corrupt…
politicians, sifting the dregs of Mexico's drug war, they think they've seen it all. But when they find a body even the police are too scared to look at, what started out as just another reportage becomes the sort of story all reporters dream of.Until Carlos pushes for answers too fast, and winds up murdered, leaving Andrew grief-stricken and flailing for answers, justice, and revenge. Caught in a web of dirty money that stretches from the boardrooms of the United States to the death squads of El Salvador, Andrew must decide whether to save himself - or find out who killed the man he loves, and destroyed the only home he's ever known.(p) Orion Publishing Group Ltd 2019The polished hoe: a novel
By Austin Clarke. 2003
Award-winning novel set on a small Caribbean island, mid-twentieth century. Mary-Mathilda, servant and mistress of the village's plantation owner, summons…
detective Percy Stuart to confess to murder. Her nightlong statement, complicated by Percy's romantic feelings, reveals a sordid history. Explicit descriptions of sex, strong language, and some violence. 2003