African American Families

You just can't plan for this kind of thing. Diane Tate certainly hasn't. She never expected to slowly lose her talented husband to the debilitating effects of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. As a respected family court judge, she's spent her life making tough calls, but when her 68-year-old husband's health worsens and Diane is forced to move him into an assisted living facility, it seems her world is spinning out of control. As Gregory's memory wavers and fades, Diane and her children must reexamine their connection to the man he once was - and learn to love the man he has become.

Dr. Cade Mathis learned early that he was not the son of the man who raised him. His adoptive father, a cruel, bitter man, had always been quick to tell him that he was a bastard and an embarrassment to the rich society family whose daughter got pregnant with him. So when Cade received a full scholarship to college, he was only too happy to leave the only home he had ever known behind and never looked back. Now a successful doctor and one of the best neurosurgeons in the state, the only thing he still wants are answers about where he came from.

Patricia Ryan is a woman on a mission: rescuing the community center that serves as a lifeline for local kids. But when Mac Carter steps into her world, he’s more than just a gorgeous face—he’s the rich CEO whose business threatens to demolish everything she’s fighting for. Yet, the way he looks at her, the way his presence ignites her senses, Patricia can’t help but wonder: Can a man like Mac be trusted, or is he the enemy in disguise? With every encounter, Patricia’s resolve to keep her emotions and her life’s goal separate–weakens.

In How to Read the Air, Mengestu crafts a moving tale about one man’s search for identity. After his estranged Ethiopian immigrant father dies, Jonas hopes to answer questions about his heritage and culture. So he leaves his wife and home in New York and sets out across the trail his own parents took when they first arrived in America.

It was a long, hard-fought battle for Judge Kristen Catherine Bryant to be appointed by the President of the United States to a judgeship on the DC Circuit Federal Court of Appeals. She endured Congressional interrogations, press and news media interviews, speaking engagements, and grips and grins with intestinal fortitude and no little amount of patience and guile. That was all now behind her. She had a month to decompress before she had to move from Chicago, Illinois, to Washington, DC, to assume her new post.

Born in 1937 and raised by her physician great aunt, chorus-line dancing grandmother, and glamorous murdermystery writing mother, psychotherapist Carole Ione knew more about the men in her family than she did about her secretive female forbearers. This critically acclaimed memoir is the lyrical fruit of an 18-year quest for her maternal roots. This is the fascinating truth of the complexities of race and class that make up her family.

Rich Benjamin’s mother, Danielle Fignolé, grew up the eldest in a large family living a comfortable life in Port-au-Prince. Her mother was a schoolteacher, her father a populist hero—a labor leader and politician. The first true champion of the black masses, he eventually became the country’s president in 1957. But two weeks after his inauguration, that life was shattered. Soldiers took Danielle’s parents at gunpoint and put them on a plane to New York, a coup hatched by the Eisenhower administration. Danielle and her siblings were kidnapped, and ultimately smuggled out of the country.

James Beard award - winning author Adrian Miller vividly tells the stories of the African Americans who worked in the presidential food service as chefs, personal cooks, butlers, stewards, and servers for every First Family since George and Martha Washington. Miller brings together the names and words of more than 150 black men and women who played remarkable roles in unforgettable events in the nation's history.

A fun listen-aloud written in upbeat rhyming verse, Girl Dad is a book that honors the strong men who raise, love, and uplift strong girls.

Audio Journeys are exploring the National Civil Rights Museum Memphis Tennesse. Forty-one years ago on April 4 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated as he was leaving the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee to join the city's sanitation workers' striking for better working conditions and pay.

My mission in life is simple. Family. Food. Freedom. Most people don't question my love for my family. And I make my living as a celebrity chef. The freedom part? The thought of being confined-behind bars, at a desk, or in a monogamous relationship-is not something I want for myself. Unfortunately, it becomes a problem when women want to make me their Forever Bae. Even after I make it clear that I'm not looking for more than short interlude.

Blackboard and Essence best-selling author Francis Ray has been honored with the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, as well as the EMMA and Golden Pen Awards. Here, she continues the saga of the Grayson family with Morgan's story. Mother Ruth Grayson is pushing her son to get married, but he resists - until he meets Phoenix, a beautiful artist with a secret.

Penelope Grand has scrapped her failed career as an artist in Pittsburgh and moved back to Brooklyn to keep an eye on her ailing father. She's accepted that her future won't be what she'd dreamed, but now, as gentrification has completely reshaped her old neighborhood, even her past is unrecognizable. Old haunts have been razed, and wealthy white strangers have replaced every familiar face in Bed-Stuy. Even her mother, Mirella, has abandoned the family to reclaim her roots in the Dominican Republic. That took courage. It's also unforgivable.

The story carries a profound message about embracing unexpected events with a positive attitude. Lysis's brother is inspired by Nana's resilience and aspires to emulate her ability to find happiness even in challenging situations. With the story lingering in their hearts, the children snuggle up in their cozy blankets, cherishing the lessons of laughter and optimism.

The Turners have lived on Yarrow Street for over 50 years. Their house has seen 13 children grown and gone - and some returned; it has seen the arrival of grandchildren, the fall of Detroit's East Side, and the loss of a father. The house still stands despite abandoned lots, an embattled city, and the inevitable shift outward to the suburbs. But now, as ailing matriarch Viola finds herself forced to leave her home and move in with her eldest son, the family discovers that the house is worth just a 10th of its mortgage.

When her husband dies, Charlotte can’t face the things she’s done that could tear her family apart. Especially when her mama leaves her to grieve alone. So she drops a goodbye letter in the cookie jar and flees south to escape everything—her life, her three daughters, the mistakes she’s made, and the secrets eating her alive.

Here, Cheryl McKissack Daniel, CEO and president of McKissack & McKissack, reveals the full fascinating story of her family. So much more than an exploration of architectural achievements, The Black Family Who Built America is also a compelling illustration of how history rhymes and reverberates, and a celebration of the human spirit’s ability to overcome adversity and drive change. F

"Have to keep that smile", said Booker Wright in the 1966 NBC documentary Mississippi: A Self-Portrait. At the time Wright was a waiter in a Whites-only restaurant and a local business owner who would become an unwitting icon of the civil rights movement. For he did the unthinkable: Before a national audience, he described what life was truly like for the Black people of Greenwood, Mississippi.

Lina Henry is a wife and mother who likens herself to a pretty paper doll. She lives in a beautiful home in the Atlanta suburbs. Her husband, David, is a well-to-do investment banker. She’s raised two wonderful teenagers. To the outside world, the Henry family is perfect. What no one knows is that Lina’s paper doll life is being torn apart in a controlling and abusive marriage. Then Lina develops an unexpected friendship with another man, and reconnects with her former best friend. But as David senses his loss of control, he becomes more dangerous.

Roux is a novel that brims with family, secrets, and love. Award-winning author Tamika Christy writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of relationships, and the family ties that bond. Written in the vein of Steel Magnolias, the story takes us into the lives of African American families with their unique hardships, triumphs in relationships, culture, and values. It is relatable, comforting, and challenging.