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1) Native son
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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, Richard Wright's novel is just as powerful today as when it was written -- in its reflection of poverty and hopelessness, and what...
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Banned Books That Shaped America
Juneteenth for All Ages
Nashville Reads 2023: Celebrating Our Freedom to Read!
Juneteenth for All Ages
Nashville Reads 2023: Celebrating Our Freedom to Read!
Description
In the course of his wanderings from a Southern college to New York's Harlem, an American Black man becomes involved in a series of adventures. Introduction explains circumstances under which the book was written. Ellison won the National Book Award for this searing record of a Black man's journey through contemporary America. Unquestionably, Ellison's book is a work of extraordinary intensity -- powerfully imagined and written with a savage, wryly...
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"After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus Crown returns home to Charon County, land of moonshine and cornbread, fist fights and honeysuckle. Seeing his hometown struggling with a bigoted police force inspires him to run for sheriff. He wins, and becomes the first Black sheriff in the history of the county. Then a year to the day after his election, a young Black man is fatally shot by Titus's deputies. Titus pledges to follow the truth wherever...
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Eric Jerome Dickey introduces a hit man like no other in this New York Times bestseller—the first “gritty, graphic...[and] amazing” (Booklist) novel in the Gideon series.
In a wicked world of sex and violence, where the wronged demand the ultimate revenge, his is the last face the offender sees....
Gideon is more than a contract killer—he's the master of the game. Now he's got the job of a lifetime....
In a wicked world of sex and violence, where the wronged demand the ultimate revenge, his is the last face the offender sees....
Gideon is more than a contract killer—he's the master of the game. Now he's got the job of a lifetime....
7) A red death
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A "fascinating and vividly rendered" (The Wall Street Journal) mystery featuring one of crime fiction's greatest protagonists—private investigator Easy Rawlins—as he agrees to a dangerous surveillance job.
It's 1953 in Red-baiting, blacklisting Los Angeles—a moral tar pit ready to swallow Easy Rawlins. Easy is out of the hurting business and into the housing (and favor) business when a racist IRS agent nails him...
It's 1953 in Red-baiting, blacklisting Los Angeles—a moral tar pit ready to swallow Easy Rawlins. Easy is out of the hurting business and into the housing (and favor) business when a racist IRS agent nails him...
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"Narrated by a man whose light skin enables him to 'pass' for white, the novel describes a journey through the strata of black society at the turn of the century--from a cigar factory in Jacksonville to an elite gambling club in New York, from genteel aristocrats to the musicians who hammered out the rhythms of ragtime"--Page 4 of cover.
9) Hoodlum
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He set out to be the good son, but the streets had a different plan. Born to one of the city's most notorious crime families, Shai Clark has always managed to be a good kid. A college hoops star, Shai shunned the world that his father had created and focused on his dreams of going pro. Tommy, Shai's trigger-happy older brother, is next in line for the throne and rules under his father through brute force. But Poppa has bigger plans for Shai. The situation...
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Betrayal is worse than slaughter. That's what Antonio Ameen Felder always instilled in his friends. When a murder at the prison threatens to incarcerate them all for life, one man decides to sacrifice himself to free the others. All he asks in return is for his family to be taken care of--P. [4] of cover.
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"Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncerain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions -- affection, despair, and hope."--Page 4 of cover
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"The Sleeping Car Porter brings to life an important part of Black history in North America, from the perspective of a gay man living in a culture that renders him invisible in two ways. Affecting, imaginative, and visceral enough that you'll feel the rocking of the train, The Sleeping Car Porter is a stunning accomplishment. Baxter's name isn't George. But it's 1929, and Baxter is lucky enough, as a Black man, to have a job as a sleeping car porter...
13) The Guardians
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In a small Florida town, a young lawyer is shot to death. A young black man, a former client, named Quincy Miller is charged and convicted. For 22 years, Miller maintains his innocence from inside prison. Finally, Guardian Ministries takes on Miller's case, but the Episcopal minister in charge gets more than he bargained for as powerful people do not want Miller exonerated.
Author
Description
Malik put a lot of love into the wrong woman, an exotic dancer named Sade. Nowadays he puts his heart into The Easter Club, a hood strip joint he owns that's also known as The Ratchet Bar. He still finds time to give love to his latest lady, Ebone, who's nothing like Sade. But then their relationship takes a turn when he comes home to guns drawn in his face -- and he takes a bullet to the head. While in a coma, he has to rely on his fellow team...
Author
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Langston Hughes's stories about Jesse B. Semple--first composed for a weekly column in the Chicago Defender and then collected in Simple Speaks His Mind, Simple Takes a Wife, and Simple Stakes a Claim--have been read and loved by hundreds of thousands of readers. In The Best of Simple, the author picked his favorites from these earlier volumes, stories that not only have proved popular but are now part of a great and growing literary tradition.
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