|
|
|
|
news@theliteraryclub
 Since 1993 TLC recommends 'Curtis Bunn and NBCC' 
Click here to see images of the First Annual National Book Club Conference  
TLC recommends 'Loving Donovan' and 'Camilla's Roses' by Bernice L. McFadden     Loving Donovan This bittersweet fourth novel by McFadden (Sugar) traces the lives of two damaged but resolute people destined for an ill-fated love affair. The reader meets protagonist Campbell as a sensitive eight-year-old living in a Brooklyn housing project. As she watches her mother weep and rant at her feckless, philandering father, Campbell promises herself that "ain't no man ever going to break my heart." At age 15, however, that promise is broken when she gets pregnant by a high school boyfriend who skips town. Donovan, meanwhile, also grows up listening to his parents' violent quarrels. When he's nine years old, he is assaulted by a pedophile in his building, an experience that impairs his future relationships with women. As an adult, he takes a city transit job and becomes a workaholic. The two meet when Campbell is a single mother in her 30s and a talented fledgling artist. She bumps into Donovan at an art show and promptly falls in love. But Donovan is threatened by Campbell's money and success. He brutally rejects her, leaving her to play out the scenes of bitter anguish she observed so often while growing up. McFadden's latest is heartfelt and competently written, with her usual flair for dialogue and well-paced narrative. Yet Campbell and Donovan respond predictably to their traumas and Campbell is not as vivid as some of McFadden's earlier heroines. In spite of her worldly success, Campbell is an archetypal female victim, too thinly drawn to carry the melodramatic scenes of despair that cap the book. The first section of this unconventional love story belongs to Campbell. Despite being born to a broken-hearted mother and a faithless father, Campbell still believes in the power of love...if she can ever find it. Living in the same neighborhood, but unknown to Campbell until a chance meeting brings them together, is Donovan, the "little man" of a shattered home-a family torn apart by anger and bitterness. In the face of these daunting obstacles, Donovan dreams of someday marrying, raising a family, and playing for the NBA. But, deep inside, Campbell and Donovan live with the histories that have shaped their lives. What they discover-together and apart-forms the basis of this compelling, sensual, and surprising novel. A deeply thoughtful novel about hope, forgiveness, and the cost of loving Donovan, this is certain to be another bestseller from a supremely gifted author. From Publishers Weekly Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Camilla's Roses The poignant tale of a woman who discovers the fragility of life and the strength of a family's love, from an author praised by Toni Morrison for “searing, expertly imagined scenes” Known for bringing to life a host of endearing characters who reveal tender truths about humanity, Bernice L. McFadden now turns her storytelling talents to an unforgettable and deeply troubled woman named Camilla. Unfolding in a progression of stirring and powerful chapters, Camilla's Roses presents a life haunted by the past. Camilla's childhood was immersed in chaos and love, and steeped in the myth of perfection. As an adult, she never looked back, refusing to acknowledge the people and places that had scarred her so many years ago. But a legacy of cancer proves inescapable, forcing Camilla to embrace the past—no matter how painful it may be—and to salvage what is left of her love in order to save her daughter. As Camilla discovers the bittersweet limitations of motherhood and reconciliation, she also awakens an inspiring message about the mortality issues we all must face. aalbc.com - African-American Literature Book Club TLC recommends 'October Suite' by Maxine Clair 
It is 1950
in Wyandotte County, Kansas, and October Brown is a happy lady. She has
her degree, a classroom full of third graders, and a good place to stay,
with other teachers for company. To top it all off, one day a man comes
to put on the storm windows and he waltzes right into her heart. He is
perfect, except for one thing --- he is married.All too late, October realizes she has been naive. James Wilson, already a father, will be the father of her child too. But a trip home to Chillicothe may provide the solution. Vergie, October's married sister, longs for a child. She and her husband will raise October's baby as their own --- in secret. The child is not to know, nor is the child's father. It seems like a sensible solution to the two sisters and Vergie's husband. They will welcome the baby and love it. There will be no regrets. In abbreviated form, this is the story of OCTOBER SUITE, though there is much more to tell. For one, there is the unfinished story of October and Vergie's mother and father. What happened in the weeks and days before they died, before their Ohio aunts came to claim the two girls? The star of the show is, indisputably, October. She adjusts and shoves depression aside by sewing at her beloved Singer. She makes a real relationship with a man worthy of her. She mends fences. Like October, most of the characters in OCTOBER SUITE are African Americans --- more specifically, African Americans in a changing society. The fashions, the furniture, the music, and other cultural artifacts provide the novel's setting, and the social and political push and pull provide the novel's depth. There are surprises in the last chapters, mostly happy, unexpected ones --- the best kind. Hats off to Ms. Clair. The hat I tip: 100% wool felt and classy, just like this novel. --- Reviewed by Jean Marchand © Copyright 2004, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved. TLC recommends 'Six Easy Pieces', 'Fearless Jones' and 'Fear Itself' by Walter Mosley 
 
Six Easy Pieces is a vibrant collection of Walter Mosley's short stories featuring Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, the senior head custodian of Los Angeles' Sojourner Truth Junior High School and a part-time investigator-without-a-license who "trades in favors." As we saw most recently in Mosley's outstanding Bad Boy Brawly Brown (2002), Easy answers the siren call for help from friends who can't expect the police to provide justice for black folks. The seven stories comprising this collection offer a primer both on the Rawlins character and Mosley's writing virtuosity, not the least of his talents being the way he conjures mood and constructs visceral characterizations. Six of these stories were published last year as lagniappes to Washington Square Press' paperback reissue editions of the first half-dozen Rawlins novels. But a seventh tale, "Amber Gate," is brand new. Mosley develops several plot threads early on in this volume, which then snake their way through the stories, giving a continuum of depth and transformation to Easy that takes him further into the 1960s and beyond where we found him in Brawly Brown. One thread picks up right where Brawly Brown left off, with Easy still in the throes of despair at the death of his old rodent-faced crony, Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, who presumably died in A Little Yellow Dog (1996). Easy's search for definite proof of Mouse's demise forms a subplot to two of the stories, "Crimson Stain" and "Lavender." There are no missteps in this collection; rather, Mosley demonstrates a sureness of voice and a firm grasp of the dramatic, easily making this volume equal to such classic crime fiction short-story compilations as The Name Is Archer (1955), by Ross Macdonald, and Trouble Is My Business (1934), by Raymond Chandler. Fearless Jones Once again, Walter Mosley goes the distance. His latest crime novel, Fearless Jones, puts his protagonists Paris Minton and title-character Fearless Jones in the literary dining room sitting right there at the head table along with Easy Rawlins. Sticking with the classic mystery-novel formula that has always worked for Mosley, Fearless Jones takes a beautiful damsel in distress and has her seek help from a seemingly innocent Everyman, in this case by the name of Paris Minton. By adding the prerequisite plot components of murder, mayhem, sex, and a felon for a best friend, Mosley drives straight on through the plot, teasing the reader by exposing facts and delivering coincidences with more than enough speed to keep the reader interested. Paris Minton owns a second-hand bookstore where he sells public library cast-offs. Enter the damsel, and, as the book jacket says, "Before he knows it, Paris has been beaten up, slept with, shot at, and robbed, and his bookstore has been burned to the ground." Obviously Paris is going to need some help dealing with this turn of events, so he gets the $500 needed to bail his buddy Fearless Jones out of jail to help him. To reveal more would spoil the book's surprises, but it involves storefront preachers, Jewish accountants, and post-WWII intrigue. How does he make it work? By letting us solve the mystery along with the characters, without subordinating those characters to the plot. Fear Itself Paris Minton doesn't want any trouble, 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 hires Jefferson T. Hill, a former sheriff of Dawson, Texas, to track him down and prove his innocence. When Hill goes missing too, she tricks his friend Fearless Jones and Paris Minton into picking up the case. Paris steps inside the world of the black bourgeoisie and it turns out to be filled with deceit and corruption. It takes everything he has just to stay alive through a case filled with twists and turns and dead ends like he never imagined. Written with the voice and vision that have made Walter Mosley one of the most entertaining writers in America, FEARLESS JONES and FEAR ITSELF marks the return of a master at the top of his form. Reviews by Anthony Rainone contributing editor of January Magazine, The Books and Valerie MacEwan, PopMatters Books Critic TLC recommends 'Harlem Redux' by Persia Walker  
“Walker demonstrates
... the complicated milieu of 1920s Harlem and has fun rendering its foibles.
Her best writing conveys in wistful detail the rent parties and speakeasies,
the snooty clannishness of the African American elite, the predatory white
patrons whom Zora Neale Hurston memorably dubbed Negrotarians. HARLEM
REDUX proves [Walker] more than capable of offering a penetrating dis-
section of the black upper crust.” —The Washington Post “A murder mystery set among the black bourgeoisie, it is also the heady tale of a bygone era…What distinguishes this novel is Walker’s attention to the workings and characters of the times, from the club stars to the numbers runners.”—The Boston Globe Author of the Year 2003 — Go On Girl! Book Club Among the Best Fiction for 2002 — BET.com Best Books of 2002 The National Book Club Conference - NBCC Victor Woods, Earl Caldwell Authors of "A Breed Apart" and some of the members of TLC Afrocentric Bookstore and Hennessy Sponsor A Fireside Chat  Check-out the "The African-American Book Club Summit"  
Please feel free to post any comments to our guestbook and please come again  Friends of TLC - Desiree and Wali from Afrocentric Bookstore - Chef Clifford Rome from DeJoie's Bistro - Victor Woods and Earl Caldwell "A Breed Apart" Last Updated by Nicholes - Webmaster On 
|
