Search:

Such a fun age : a novel / by Reid, Kiley,author.;
Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humilated. Alix resolves to make things right. But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix's desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix's past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.
Subjects: African American women; Race relations; Self; Babysitters; Malicious accusation; Interpersonal relations;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
unAPI

All that she carried : the journey of Ashley's sack, a Black family keepsake / by Miles, Tiya,1970-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Sitting in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is a rough cotton bag, called "Ashley's Sack," embroidered with just a handful of words that evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. In 1850s South Carolina, just before nine-year-old Ashley was sold, her mother, Rose, gave her a sack filled with just a few things as a token of her love. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter, Ruth, embroidered this history on the bag -- including Rose's message that "It be filled with my Love always." Historian Tiya Miles carefully follows faint archival traces back to Charleston to find Rose in the kitchen where she may have packed the sack for Ashley. From Rose's last resourceful gift to her daughter, Miles then follows the paths their lives and the lives of so many like them took to write a unique, innovative history of the lived experience of slavery in the United States. The contents of the sack -- a tattered dress, handfuls of pecans, a braid of hair, "my Love always" -- speak volumes and open up a window on Rose and Ashley's world. As she follows Ashley's journey, Miles metaphorically "unpacks" the sack, deepening its emotional resonance and revealing the meanings and significance of everything it contained. These include the story of enslaved labor's role in the cotton trade and apparel crafts and the rougher cotton "negro cloth" that was left for enslaved people to wear; the role of the pecan in nutrition, survival, and southern culture; the significance of hair to Black women and of locks of hair in the nineteenth century; and an exploration of Black mothers' love and the place of emotion in history"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Ashley (Enslaved person in South Carolina); Middleton, Ruth Jones, 1903-1942; African American women; African American women; Enslaved persons; Enslaved women; Enslaved women; Memory; Mothers and daughters.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Black girls must have it all : a novel / by Allen, Jayne,1978-author.;
"After a whirlwind year, Tabitha Walker's carefully organized plan to achieve the life she wanted--perfect job, dream husband, and stylish home--has gone off the rails. Her checklist now consists of diapers changed (infinite), showers taken (zero), tears cried (buckets), and hours of sleep (what's that?). Don't get her wrong, Tabby loves her new bundle of joy and motherhood is perhaps the only thing that's consistent for her these days. When the news station announces that they will be hiring outside competitors for the new anchor position, Tabby throws herself into her work. But it's not just maintaining her position as the station's weekend anchor that has her worried. All of her relationships seem to be shifting out of their regular orbits. Best friend Alexis can't manage to strike the right balance in her "refurbished" marriage with Rob, and Laila's gone from being a consistent ride-or-die to a newly minted entrepreneur trying to raise capital for her growing business. And when Marc presents her with an ultimatum about their relationship, coupled with an extended "visit" from his mother, Tabby is forced to take stock of her life and make a new plan for the future. Consumed by work, motherhood, and love, Tabby finds herself isolated from her friends and family just when she needs them most. But help is always there when you ask for it, and Tabby's village will once again rally around her as she comes to terms with her new life and faces her biggest challenge yet--choosing herself."--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; African American women journalists; African American women; Female friendship; Interpersonal relations; Man-woman relationships; Motherhood; Mothers-in-law;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Three girls from Bronzeville : a uniquely American memoir of race, fate, and sisterhood / by Turner, Dawn,author.;
"The three girls formed an indelible bond: roaming their community in search of hidden treasures for their "Thing Finder box," and hiding under the dining room table, eavesdropping as three generations of relatives gossiped and played the numbers. The girls spent countless afternoons together, ice skating in the nearby Lake Meadows apartment complex, swimming in the pool at the Ida B. Wells housing project, and daydreaming of their futures: Dawn a writer, Debra a doctor, Kim a teacher. Then they came to a precipice, a fraught rite of passage for all girls when the dangers and the harsh realities of the world burst the innocent bubble of childhood, when the choices they made could-- and would-- have devastating consequences. There was a razor thin margin of error -- especially for brown girls. With a keen investigative eye and intimate detail, Dawn chronicles the dramatic turns that send their lives careening in very different -- and shocking -- directions over the decades. The result is a powerful tour de force on the complex interplay of race and opportunity, class and womanhood and how those forces shape our lives and our capacity for resilience and redemption"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Trice, Debra.; Turner, Dawn; Turner, Dawn.; Turner, Kim, 1968-1994; African American women; African Americans; Journalists; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The vanishing half : [Book Club Set] / by Bennett, Brit,author.;
"The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect? Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins. As with her New York Times-bestselling debut The Mothers, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise"--
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Psychological fiction.; Twin sisters; African American women; African American families; African Americans; Passing (Identity); Race discrimination;
Available copies: 4 / Total copies: 4
unAPI

What have we here? : portraits of a life / by Williams, Billy Dee,1937-author.;
In 'What Have We Here?', film legend Billy Dee Williams recalls his remarkable life of nearly eight decades-a heralded actor who's played the roles he wanted, from 'Brian's Song' to Lando in the 'Star Wars' universe-unchecked by the racism and typecasting so rife in the mostly all-white industry in which he triumphed. In this intimate, joyful, and inspiring memoir, Williams reflects on his love of painting; his love of women; his full embrace of life; on being a husband and father; and on all that has sustained and carried him through a lifetime of dreams and adventure.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Williams, Billy Dee, 1937-; African American actors;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Entitlement [text (large print)] / by Alam, Rumaan,author.;
"Brooke Orr is on a mission to change her life and the world. Assisting an octogenarian billionaire in the quest to give away his vast fortune turns out to be deeply satisfying work, a noble life path. All you need to make the world a better place, it turns out, is the right ideals with the right amount of money. She and her billionaire make an uncommon pair: Brooke, 33, is a Black woman raised by a single mother in New York City; Asher Jaffee, 83, is a white business tycoon with an elaborate lifestyle. Each is exhilarated by the new friendship. Asher loves Brooke's willingness to spar with him, and Brooke finds her proximity to Asher's power intoxicating, even mind altering. As limits are increasingly pushed and unusual boundaries crossed, the line between need and want blurs dramatically."--
Subjects: Large print books.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; African American women; Billionaires; Charitable uses, trusts, and foundations; Charity organization; Desire; Entitlement attitudes; Interpersonal relations; Privilege (Social psychology); Rich people; Social classes; Wealth;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Recitatif : a story / by Morrison, Toni,author.; Smith, Zadie,writer of introduction.;
Includes bibliographical references."In this 1983 short story--the only short story Morrison ever wrote--we meet Twyla and Roberta, who have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only later to find each other again at a diner, a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and at each other's throats each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them. Another work of genius by this masterly writer, Recitatif keeps Twyla's and Roberta's races ambiguous throughout the story. Morrison herself described Recitatif, a story which will keep readers thinking and discussing for years to come, as "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial." We know that one is white and one is Black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage? A remarkable look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and how perceptions are made tangible by reality, Recitatif is a gift to readers in these changing times"--
Subjects: Short stories.; African American women; African Americans; Female friendship; Interpersonal relations; Interracial friendship; Whites; Women, White;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

We lie here / by Hall, Rachel Howzell,author.;
"TV writer Yara Gibson's hometown of Palmdale, California, isn't her first choice for a vacation. But she's back to host her parents' twentieth-anniversary party and find the perfect family mementos for the celebration. Everything is going to plan until Yara receives a disturbing text: I have information that will change your life. The message is from Felicia Campbell, who claims to be a childhood friend of Yara's mother. But they've been estranged for years-- drama best ignored and forgotten. But Yara can't forget Felicia, who keeps texting, insisting that Yara talk to her 'before it's too late.' But the next day is already too late for Felicia, whose body is found floating in Lake Palmdale. Before she died, Felicia left Yara a key to a remote lakeside cabin. In the basement are files related to a mysterious tragedy, unsolved since 1998. What secrets was Felicia hiding? How much of what Yara knows about her family has been true? The deeper Yara digs for answers, the more she fears that Felicia was right. Uncovering the truth about what happened at the cabin all those years ago will change Yara's life-- or end it." -- Dust jacket flap.
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; African American women; Death; Family secrets;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Hold my girl : a novel / by Carr, Charlene,author.;
"A heart-wrenching novel about two women whose eggs are switched during IVF. Katherine is a woman full of obsessions. Everything clean, everything perfect, all the time. After seven years of trying--and failing--to conceive, she finally gives birth to Rose, her IVF miracle child. But she's afraid that Rose may not be her daughter; her pale skin doesn't match Katherine's own. Tess never got her happy ending. She took on IVF alongside Katherine and a group of hopeful mothers, but her daughter, Hanna, was stillborn. After a series of poor choices, she's divorced, broke and stuck in a job that's below her skill set. Ten months later, Katherine and Tess get a call from the fertility clinic that reveals shocking news: the two women's eggs were switched. While Katherine's perfect life beings to crumble around her, for Tess it's the glimmer of hope she needs to get her life back on track. But it will take a custody battle to decide who deserves to be Rose's mother, a battle that will push both women to the brink. With themes of racial identity, loss and betrayal, this emotional novel centred around a difficult moral question beautifully explores the complexities of motherhood."--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; African American women; Custody of children; Families; Fertilization in vitro, Human; Infertility; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI