The Breakthrough by Gwen Ifil

Veteran journalist Gwen Ifill argues that the Black political structure formed during the Civil Rights movement is giving way to a generation of men and women who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the 1960s. She offers incisive, detailed profiles of such prominent leaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and U.S. Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama, and also covers up-and-coming figures from across the nation.

Drawing on interviews with power brokers like Senator Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and many others, as well as her own razor-sharp observations and analysis of such issues as generational conflict and the "black enough" conundrum, Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history.

The Black Girl Next Door by Jennifer Baszile

At six years of age, after winning a foot race against a white classmate, Jennifer Baszile was humiliated to hear her classmate explain that black people "have something in their feet to make them run faster than white people." When she asked her teacher about it, it was confirmed as true. The next morning, Jennifer's father accompanied her to school, careful to "assert himself as an informed and concerned parent and not simply a big, black, dangerous man in a first-grade classroom."

This was the first of many skirmishes in Jennifer's childhood-long struggle to define herself as "the black girl next door" while living out her parents' dreams. Success for her was being the smartest and achieving the most, with the consequence that much of her girlhood did not seem like her own but more like the "family project." But integration took a toll on everyone in the family when strain in her parents' marriage emerged in her teenage years, and the struggle to be the perfect black family became an unbearable burden.

We Take This Man by Candice Dow

Dwight and Tracey Wilson are living the ideal life with their two children in a brand new home in Florida. They are both excited when Dwight is offered a promotion at work, but the downside is that the job is located in Maryland. After much discussion, Tracey decides that she does not want to leave their new house. Dwight makes the decision to accept the position and return home on weekends.

Alicia Dixon has spent her life hating and not trusting men after her father mistreated her mother, but she can't help but fall for the new guy in her company...Dwight. They both try to fight their attraction to one another, but it proves to be a losing battle-Alicia is everything that his southern wife is not.

When Alicia ends up pregnant, Dwight decides to end things with Tracey, but the process proves not to be as easy as Dwight had hoped.

The Best of Everything by Kimberla Lawson Roby

Alicia Black Sullivan swore to never repeat her father's mistakes: she would never break any promises, she would never be unfaithful. And most important of all, when she got married, it would be for good.

And she really does love Phillip, the assistant pastor of her father's church. She just happens to love money—and the things it can buy—as well. Alicia was born to the good life, she's entitled to the best, and she'll do anything to get it. Even if it means piling up thousands of dollars in debt. Even if it means denying to everyone—even herself—that her love of shopping has gotten way out of control.

Before long, Phillip begins to wonder if marrying the woman of his dreams was a huge mistake. Alicia has similar thoughts. Deep down, though, she knows a whopper of an emotional bill is coming due. And all the regrets in the world won't change the fact that she may be more like her infamous father than she could have imagined—or feared.

Up to No Good by Carl Weber

There is always a man around the corner. And church trustee James Black should know—he’s usually that very man, carrying on affairs with married women and sleeping with one conquest after another. He has charm and good looks, and he knows how to use them. But when the tables turn and he suddenly finds himself in love with the woman of his dreams, he’s not the only one who’s surprised. And his marriage proposal quickly generates a ripple effect of shocking proportions...

The other women in James’s neighborhood have a thing or two to say about James’s new love. His daughter Jamie, only six months younger than his new fiancé, has every intention of dismantling his new relationship. But her plate becomes full when she discovers a mystery woman has been secretly calling her lover, Louis.

James’s son Darnel always swore he would not grow up to become a player like his father. His life is the picture of monogamy and devotion—until he catches his fiancée cheating and decides to follow in his father’s womanizing footsteps.

James knows he’s largely to blame for the turmoil that surrounds him and his loved ones. And now he’s going to have to find a way to bring peace to his loved one’s lives. But the only way he can do this is by facing some hard truths about himself and changing his own scandalous ways.

Basketball Jones by E. Lynn Harris

Aldridge James “AJ” Richardson is living the good life. He has a gorgeous town house in always-flavorful New Orleans, plenty of frequent-flier miles from jet-setting around the country on a whim, and an MBA—but he’s never had to work a regular job. He owes it all to his longtime lover, Dray Jones. Dray Jones the rich and famous NBA star. They fell in love in college when AJ was hired to tutor Dray, a freshman on the basketball team.

But Dray knew if he wanted to make it to the big time, he must juggle his public image and his private desires. Built on a deep, abiding love, their hidden relationship sustains them both, but when Dray’s teammates begin to ask insinuating questions about AJ, Dray puts their doubts to rest by marrying Judi, a beautiful and ambitious woman. Judi knows nothing about Dray’s “other life.” Or does she?

Freeman Walker by David Allan Cates

At the age of seven a mulatto slave boy with an indomitable spirit, Jimmy Gates, is freed by his owner-father, separated from his mother and everything he holds dear, and sent to England for an education. Four years later when his father drowns at sea, leaving him bereft, Jimmy is apprenticed to a London workhouse where he spends six hard years making saddles, reading heroic novels to his companions, finding the comfort of prostitutes, and discovering the inspirational speeches of an Irish revolutionary name Cornelius O Keefe, or O Keefe of the Sword.

At eighteen, dreaming himself a warrior and a hero, he returns to the states intending to rescue his mother. Both blessed and cursed by his late father s words-to-live-by and armed with his free papers and a copy of the Declaration of Independence, Jimmy grows into manhood while he s on the battlefields of the Civil War and in the gold camps of the American West, repeatedly forced to reckon the joys, terrors, and ironies of his freedom. He also discovers chameleon-like ability to shift identities and re-invent himself along the way.

Pecking Order by Omar Tyree

Starting with a simple plan to promote business network events among the rich, famous, and frivolous clients he works with, Ivan Davis begins to make a name for himself. He soon comes face-to-face with Lucina Gallo, the reigning diva of San Diego's nightlife culture. She needs a new partner she can trust, and one who knows everything about money.

For this dollar-hungry entrepreneur, the timing couldn't be better. Who wouldn't want to be partners with the most glamorous girl in the city? Ivan quickly teams up with her for business -- and for possible pleasure. However, for Lucina, business is business and nothing extra. Or is it?

After throwing a sizzling-hot birthday party for a popular San Diego Charger, Ivan finds himself babysitting Lucina's so-called girlfriends, some of the most spoiled and exotic women he has ever encountered. That's when the business deals begin to fall outside the bounds of simple promotion and parties. Ivan finds himself thrust into the limelight and lands at the doorstep of easy access to women, cash, cars, private jets, and multimillion-dollar real estate. But as the ridiculous amounts of money and power start to pile up, leaving a trail of broken hearts, fractured egos, and challenged loyalties, Ivan is forced to ask himself: How much money is enough?

Dying for Revenge by Eric Jerome Dickey

Hit man Giedon is finally back for another installment of murder, mayhem, and love. In this globe-trotting sequel and exciting sequel to Sleeping with Strangers and Waking with Enemies, Gideon enters the steamy, seedy underworld of crime and squares off with his most intriguing and and mysterious adversary yet.

Midnight by Sister Soulja

Souljah's follow-up to her bestselling novel, TheColdest Winter Ever, is another gritty coming-of-age tale, picking up the story of Midnight (a character in The Coldest Winter Ever) as he tries desperately to navigate American culture, Brooklyn streets and the dicey business of growing up. The novel begins as seven-year-old Midnight and his pregnant mother, Umma, are forced to leave their privileged life in Sudan for a hardscrabble American existence.

Midnight spends his formative years in Brooklyn guiding and translating for his loyal, loving and talented mother, helping her get a factory job while encouraging her to start a clothing line. Eventually, Midnight starts working at a Chinatown fish shop, finds love, joins a dangerous hustler's basketball league and tries to disentangle his ambivalent feelings toward romance, family and personal honor.

The Right Mistake by Walter Mosley

Living in South Central L.A., Socrates Fortlow is a sixty-year-old ex-convict, still strong enough to kill men with his bare hands. Now freed after serving twenty-seven years in prison, he is filled with profound guilt about his own crimes and disheartened by the chaos of the streets. Along with his gambler friend Billy Psalms, Socrates calls together local people of all races from their different social stations—lawyers, gangsters, preachers, Buddhists, businessmen—to conduct meetings of a Thinkers’ Club, where all can discuss the unanswerable questions in life.

The street philosopher enjoins his friends to explore—even in the knowledge that there’s nothing that they personally can do to change the ways of the world—what might be done anyway, what it would take to change themselves. Infiltrated by undercover cops, and threatened by strain from within, tensions rise as hot-blooded gangsters and respectable deacons fight over issues of personal and social responsibility. But simply by asking questions about racial authenticity, street justice, infidelity, poverty, and the possibility of mutual understanding, Socrates and his unlikely crew actually begin to make a difference.

Where the Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward

Joshua and Christophe are twins, raised by a blind grandmother and a large extended family in a rural town on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. They’ve just finished high school and need to find jobs, but in a failing post-Katrina economy, it’s not easy. Joshua gets work on the docks, but Christophe’s not so lucky. Desperate to alleviate the family’s poverty, he starts to sell drugs.

He can hide it from his grandmother but not his twin, and the two grow increasingly estranged. Christophe’s downward spiral is accelerated first by crack, then by the reappearance of the twins’ parents: Cille, who abandoned them, and Sandman, a creepy, predatory addict. Sandman taunts Christophe, eventually provoking a shocking confrontation that will ultimately damn or save both twins

Loving Cee Cee Johnson by Linda Leigh Hargrove

The shame had driven her away, prompted her to change her first name, and adopt a new hometown. Nothing good can come out of Pettigrew, at least that's what Celine "Cee Cee" Johnson, a successful TV reporter and journalist, thinks. Pettigrew loomed over Cee Cee like a huge animal that would not go away, and now she must deal with the past when she returns to her hometown on assignment.

Haunted by the traumatic events of her childhood, Cee Cee's mask begins to crack as she uncovers family secrets and finds out what really happened the night her black Jesues figurine as thrown into the fire. She is challenged as she discovers the truth about her life, and especially by the playwright who wants to tell the world about her past.

Circle of Stone by Verne Jackson

A group of friends fights to overcome severe opposition in this empowering novel, which takes place in Arkansas during the Great Depression. When Ralph, a young black boy from Colored Town, is unfairly accused of murdering two white people, his death by lynching seems inescapable. But when Dave Bailey and the group known as "The Circle" rescue Ralph and his family by giving them the resources to leave town before any arrest or real harm is done, an important shift of power occurs in Colored Town.

Tired of the brutality forced upon them, the men and women of The Circle are committed to unity and overcoming injustice by any means necessary. The success in their endeavors is a moving testament to the power of educated activism and the strength of taking a unified stand.

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu

Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution after witnessing soldiers beat his father to the point of certain death, selling off his parents' jewelry to pay for passage to the United States. Now he finds himself running a grocery store in a poor African-American neighborhood in Washington, D.C. His only companions are two fellow African immigrants who share his feelings of frustration with and bitter nostalgia for their home continent. He realizes that his life has turned out completely different and far more isolated from the one he had imagined for himself years ago.

Soon Sepha's neighborhood begins to change. Hope comes in the form of new neighbors-Judith and Naomi, a white woman and her biracial daughter-who become his friends and remind him of what having a family is like for the first time in years. But when the neighborhood's newfound calm is disturbed by a series of racial incidents, Sepha may lose everything all over again.

In the Night of the Heat by Blair Underwood

Threatened with death after acquittal for murder, football superstar T. D. Jackson asks struggling actor and former gigolo Tennyson Hardwick for protection. Tennyson has a reputation in Hollywood after solving the murder of rapper Afrodite, but politely turns Jackson down: His acting career is taking off with a new series, and he's trying to work out his personal life after a series of wrong turns.

But Tennyson's life is upturned when his seedy past catches up to him on the set of his TV series. Then T. D. Jackson is found dead in his home, the victim of an apparent suicide.

T.D.'s gorgeous cousin, Melanie, is sure the superstar was murdered, and Jackson's family offers Tennyson an irresistible fee to discover the truth. But prying into T. D. Jackson's death means answering the question that divided a nation and destroyed a film star and a football icon's life and career: Did T. D. Jackson kill his wife?

When the investigation takes an unexpected turn toward the governor's mansion and a long-forgotten football game in the segregated South of the 1960s, Tennyson uncovers secrets tearing at the heart of two dynasties and must rely on all of his assets -- his actor's heart, deadly hands, profiler's mind, and every other part of his body -- to keep from dying next.

The Sacred Place by Daniel Black

In the summer of 1955, fourteen-year-old Clement enters a general store in Money, Mississippi, to purchase a soda. Unaware of the consequences of flouting the rules governing black-white relations in the South, the Chicago native defies tradition by laying a dime on the counter and turns to depart. Miss Cuthbert, the store attendant, demands that he place the money in her hand, but he refuses, declaring "I ain't no slave!" and exits with a sense of entitlement unknown to black people at the time. His behavior results in his brutal murder. This event sparks a war in Money, forcing the black community to galvanize its strength in pursuit of equality.

Going Down South by Bonnie J. Glover

When fifteen-year-old Olivia Jean finds herself in the “family way,” her mother, Daisy, who has never been very maternal, springs into action. Daisy decides that Olivia Jean can’t stay in New York and whisks her away to her grandmother’s farm in Alabama to have the baby–even though Daisy and her mother, Birdie, have been estranged for years. When they arrive, Birdie lays down the law: Sure, her granddaughter can stay, but Daisy will have to stay as well. Though Daisy is furious, she has no choice.

Now, under one little roof in the 1960s Deep South, three generations of spirited, proud women are forced to live together. One by one, they begin to lose their inhibitions and share their secrets. And as long-guarded truths emerge, a baby is born–a child with the power to turn these virtual strangers into a real, honest-to-goodness family.

She Had it Coming by Mary Monroe

If there's one thing Dolores Reese knows, it's how to keep a secret. It's a skill she learned early in life, watching her best friend Valerie Proctor do whatever it took to protect her family from her violent stepfather. Back then, Dolores was in foster care-just like Floyd Watson, a local boy who intrigues Dolores from the moment they meet. Even in high school, Dolores knows with certainty that she and Floyd are soul mates. When one bad decision sends an innocent Floyd to prison for life, Dolores pays clandestine visits and-out of a mix of love and pity-promises to stick by him.

While Floyd's world stands still, Dolores's horizons open up in exciting new ways when she lands a position working for a cruise line. There, she meets Paul Dunne, an accomplished businessman who promises her the kind of future she's always wanted-the kind she once imagined having with Floyd. Dolores is sure she can continue to visit Floyd without revealing that she's now married to another man. But when Floyd is suddenly freed on new evidence, Dolores is torn and makes a fateful decision-to live a double lie, devoting herself to two different husbands in two different cities.

Satisfied with Nothin' by Ernest Hill

Jamie Ray Griffin is among the first students to integrate his local high school in 1970s rural Louisiana15 years after court-imposed desegregation. Despite harassment, Jamie internalizes his anger much better than does his best friend, Booger, whose volatile temper leads to a riot on the first day of school. Jamie's athletic abilities earn him a starring role on the football team and the apparent respect of local residents. Yet when his cousin is caught dating a white girl, Jamie witnesses a brutal assault and lynching, which he vows never to forget.

In pursuit of a pro football career, he attends a local black university; while struggling to balance academics and increasing athletic demands, he falls in love with Stacy Lefere, an accomplished, upper-class black woman. His exploitive coaches drive others to quit, but Jamie, intent on a pro career, plays hard while his grades slide. When a crippling injury ends his chances to remain in college, Jamie is overlooked in the NFL draft and fails in a subsequent tryout as a free agent when his knee again collapses. Unable to accept Stacy's love, and with academic failureabetted by counselors who urge him to take "bowling" and "sports injuries"a near certainty, he returns to a low-paying job at home