Search Results: Authors starting with B from Oasis in the Diaspora

Viking, 1992. 1st. Pristine. Lively colors, big gatherings, tribal festivals, parents, grandparents, servants... for Remi, growing up in Nigeria is a celebration of love and family, eccentricity and old ritual. She feels confident in her privilege and grounded in the heart of her culture.But when she turns six, as if by some awful spell, she is sent to faraway England, to a posh all-girls' boarding school where she will stay for what seems like a desolate, lonely eternity. There, like the heroine of The Little Princess, she's left to find her own way - the only black in a school full of upper-class English girls whose rituals are as foreign to Remi as hers are to them.Through sheer inner exuberance, Remi triumphs over the dismal climate, social anomalies, and glaring affronts that are her English experience. She endures foreign holidays celebrated with strangers, and navigates the labyrinth of race, caste, and culture, taking nothing lying down, and emerges victorious - if changed forever.Yoruba… Read More

Dutton, 1996. 2nd. Fine. The Time is now. The place is Washington, D.C. Ph.D. candidate Lisa Allen is a success in everything she does - except finding a good man to marry. Thirtysomething and newly out of a long-term relationship, she meets charismatic Walter Henderson at her friend Sundi's wedding. He seems perfect - except for the scandalous baggage he carries from his recent divorce. To her complete surprise, Lisa catches the bouquet but loses her heart. New bride Sundiata Karif changed her name ten years ago when she got involved in the Pan-Africanist movement. Financially secure and spiritually independent, she is not ready for the kind of life her Nigerian husband, Chris, expects. His cultural traditions concerning the role of a wife will challenge Sundi's beliefs and values as their emotions are linked on a collision course. Advertising executive Danielle, Sundi's maid of honor and Lisa's big sister, is married to a wonderful guy. Roger is successful, passionate, and supportive of his… Read More

HarperCollins, 2007. Good. The official companion book featuring essays exploring the production of the film, Michael Bennett's legendary Broadway musical, and the historic Motown revolution that inspired both. Illustrated with more than 200 color stills, concept paintings, costume designs, album art, and archival photographs. Twenty-five years after first bringing Broadway audiences to their feet, the Tony Award-winning musical sensation Dreamgirls comes to the big screen, starring Academy Award® winner Jamie Foxx (Ray), BeyoncÉ Knowles (Austin Powers in Goldmember), Eddie Murphy (The Nutty Professor, Dr. Dolittle), Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), Jennifer Hudson (American Idol), and Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose (Broadway's Caroline or Change). Set in the turbulent 1960s to mid-70s, Dreamgirls follows the rise of a trio of women-Deena (BeyoncÉ Knowles), Effie (Jennifer Hudson), and Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose)-who have formed a promising singing group called The Dreamettes. At a talent… Read More

Strebor Books, 2007. 1st. Very Good. A sequel to Shattered Souls that is a steamy, page-turning story of friendship, drama, and love tossed about in the storms of life.Readers are brought back into the lives of friends and lovers Indera, Britton, Damascus, and Chyna, all who continue to struggle with their desires and demons in life. As their lives intertwine with others, delicious and dirty secrets start to overflow, threatening the orderly world they've worked to create for themselves. Indera is learning that some matters of the heart are beyond her control, and that, rather than clinging to revenge, her path to freedom is found in forgiveness. Damascus believes he's found his soulmate in Indera, but wonders if her crazy antics will send him running. Britton is recovering from yet another failed relationship and learns the disturbing truth about the mother of his twin boys. And Chyna and Sarina, mother and daughter, come to odds as Chyna must separate from her daughter or risk losing herself… Read More

Random House Publishing Group, 2006. 1st. Pristine. “A true urban novel filled with vivid images of the street.”–Black Issues Book ReviewTreasure E. Blue, street lit’s hottest newcomer, crafts characters that fly off the page and a story that burns with intensity. Set in Harlem, this searing novel is a poignant and gritty portrait of urban survival of the ghetto’s fittest . . . and most fierce.Silver Jones knows just how cruel life can be. Her mother was chewed up and spit out by its dark side–brutally murdered while turning a trick. Rather than live with her abusive grandmother, Silver runs away. Determined to escape the mean streets, Silver longs for an education. But after running into an old friend, a homeless youth named Chance whom she’d taken under her wing once upon a time, Silver puts her dreams of college on hold. Chance is grown now–and he’s a powerful drug overlord. But underneath the cool exterior is the same innocent boy Silver once loved. As they begin an affair,… Read More

Random House Publishing Group, 2008. 1st. Pristine. Treasure E. Blue–acclaimed author of Harlem Girl Lost and A Street Girl Named Desire–is back with a heartbreaking urban love story of two star-crossed lovers up against the dirtiest dealer Harlem has ever seen.Knocked up by a Southern preacher, Keyshia is sent to live with her aunt in New York, but after a horrific act of violence, the timid young woman becomes ice-cold–turning tricks and finding comfort in a crack vial.Clyde and his two brothers find themselves living with a family friend after their mother is shot by their own father–leaving her institutionalized and unable to communicate, and him behind bars. Clyde’s older brother leads a decent life, working as a bank manager and trying to keep Clyde off the streets, but Clyde’s younger bro is the coldest killer in Harlem and takes every opportunity to involve Clyde in his infamous robberies-turned-blood baths.When Keyshia and Clyde meet, they are instantly drawn to each other.… Read More

Scholastic Inc., 2014. Uncorrected proof. Fine. Jarrett doesn't trust Kevon.But he's got to share a room with him anyway.It was one thing when Jarrett's mom took care of foster babies who needed help. But this time it's different. This time the baby who needs help has an older brother -- a kid Jarrett's age named Kevon.Everyone thinks Jarrett and Kevon should be friends -- but that's not gonna happen. Not when Kevon's acting like he's better than Jarrett -- and not when Jarrett finds out Kevon's keeping some major secrets.Jarrett doesn't think it's fair that he has to share his room, his friends, and his life with some stranger. He's gotta do something about it -- but what?From award-winning author Coe Booth, KINDA LIKE BROTHERS is the story of two boys who really don't get along -- but have to find a way to figure it out. Uncorrected proof including ephemera
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Warner, 1989. 1st. Very Good. From the award-winning author of Parable of the Sower:After the near-extinction of humanity, a new kind of alien-human hybrid must come to terms with their identity -- before their powers destroy what is left of humankind. Since a nuclear war decimated the human population, the remaining humans began to rebuild their future by interbreeding with an alien race -- the Oankali -- who saved them from near-certain extinction. The Oankalis' greatest skill lies in the species' ability to constantly adapt and evolve, a process that is guided by their third sex, the ooloi, who are able to read and mutate genetic code. Now, for the first time in the humans' relationship with the Oankali, a human mother has given birth to an ooloi child: Jodahs. Throughout his childhood, Jodahs seemed to be a male human-alien hybrid. But when he reaches adolescence, Jodahs develops the ooloi abilities to shapeshift, manipulate DNA, cure and create disease, and more. Frightened and… Read More

Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993. 1. Fine. Parable of the Sower is the odyssey of one woman who is twice as feeling in a world that has become doubly dehumanized. The time is 2025. The place is California, where small walled communities must protect themselves from hordes of desperate scavengers and roaming bands of "Paints", people addicted to a drug that activates an orgasmic desire to burn, rape and murder. When one small community is overrun, Lauren Olamina, an 18 year old black woman, sets off on foot, moving north along the dangerous coastal highways. She is a "sharer", one who suffers from a hereditary trait called "hyperempathy", which causes her to feel others' pain as well as her own. Parable of the Sower is both a coming of age novel and a road novel, set in the near future, when the dying embers of our old civilization can either cool or be the catalyst for something new. Hardcover

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Beacon Press, 2004. Fine. From the New York Times bestselling author of Parable of the Sower and MacArthur "Genius" Grant, Nebula, and Hugo award winner The visionary time-travel classic whose Black female hero is pulled through time to face the horrors of American slavery and explores the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now. "I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm." Dana's torment begins when she suddenly vanishes on her 26th birthday from California, 1976, and is dragged through time to antebellum Maryland to rescue a boy named Rufus, heir to a slaveowner's plantation. She soon realizes the purpose of her summons to the past: protect Rufus to ensure his assault of her Black ancestor so that she may one day be born. As she endures the traumas of slavery and the soul-crushing normalization of savagery, Dana fights to keep her autonomy and return to the present. Blazing the trail for neo-slavery narratives like Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad and Ta-Nehisi… Read More