|
Search Results:
|
Displaying records 1 through 10 of 4000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Price: $26.00
|
|
Sale: $14.79
|
| |
|
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
Binding: Hardcover
|
|
Author: Paul Tough
|
|
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
|
|
Edition: 1
|
|
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.748097471
|
|
Publication Date: 2008-08-12
|
|
Reading Level: 304
|
|
|
Description: What would it take?
That was the question that Geoffrey Canada found himself asking. What would it take to change the lives of poor children—not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in big numbers, and in a way that could be replicated nationwide? The question led him to create the Harlem Children's Zone, a ninety-seven-block laboratory in central Harlem where he is testing new and sometimes controversial ideas about poverty in America. His conclusion: if you want poor kids to be able to compete with their middle-class peers, you need to change everything in their lives—their schools, their neighborhoods, even the child-rearing practices of their parents.
Whatever It Takes is a tour de force of reporting, an inspired portrait not only of Geoffrey Canada but also of the parents and children in Harlem who are struggling to better their lives, often against great odds. Carefully researched and deeply affecting, this is a dispatch from inside the most daring and potentially transformative social experiment of our time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $14.95
|
|
Sale: $8.04
|
| |
|
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
Binding: Paperback
|
|
Author: Barack Obama
|
|
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
|
|
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.04960730092
|
|
Publication Date: 2004-08-10
|
|
Reading Level: 480
|
|
|
|
Description: In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $35.00
|
|
Sale: $20.11
|
| |
|
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
Binding: Hardcover
|
|
Author: Annette Gordon-Reed
|
|
Publisher: W. W. Norton
|
|
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.460922
|
|
Publication Date: 2008-09-29
|
|
Reading Level: 800
|
|
|
Description: "Pathbreaking....and very moving" (Edmund S. Morgan)—the multigenerational story of Thomas Jefferson's hidden slave family.
This epic work tells the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president had been systematically expunged from American history until very recently. Now, historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed traces the Hemings family from its origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family's dispersal after Jefferson's death in 1826. It brings to life not only Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson but also their children and Hemings's siblings, who shared a father with Jefferson's wife, Martha. The Hemingses of Monticello sets the family's compelling saga against the backdrop of Revolutionary America, Paris on the eve of its own revolution, 1790s Philadelphia, and plantation life at Monticello. Much anticipated, this book promises to be the most important history of an American slave family ever written.
Advance Praise for Annette Gordon-Reed's The Hemingses of Monticello:
"Annette Gordon-Reed has broken a path into territory that has hitherto eluded historians: what happens to intimate human relations, those between lover and loved, parent and child, brother and sister, when one among them is enslaved to another. In a richly detailed narrative of events, public and private, she reconstructs the feelings of the participants: Thomas Jefferson, his slave mistress, and her blood relatives. The result is not simply a fascinating story in itself, but a new perspective on how the humanity of slaves and a slave owner could adjust and survive in circumstances designed to obliterate it. We have had other studies of master-slave relationships, but none that has penetrated to the depth of this one."—Edmund S. Morgan, author of American Slavery
"Thomas Jefferson often described his slaves at Monticello as 'my family.' Annette Gordon-Reed has taken that description seriously. Surely more seriously than Jefferson ever intended! The result, the story of the Hemings family, is the most comprehensive account of one slave family ever written. It is not a pretty story, but it is poignant beyond belief. And it demonstrates conclusively that we must put aside Gone With the Wind forever and begin to study Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom."—Joseph J. Ellis, author of American Sphinx
"This is not only a riveting history of a slave family on a grand scale, it is also a rarely seen portrait of the family in the Big House, with a remarkable account of the relationship of white and black families. This work catapults Gordon-Reed into the very first rank of historians of slavery."—John Hope Franklin, author of From Slavery to Freedom
"Jefferson's Monticello is a great American icon. But this book allows us to see the place as never before—as the Hemingses' Monticello. And when Jefferson is in Paris, so are James and Sally Hemings. From years of painstaking research and deep personal engagement with all the Jefferson controversies, Annette Gordon-Reed has crafted a brave, compelling, and moving family saga about slavery and freedom. This is a thoroughly human story about an inhuman institution, told from the inside looking out. Jefferson owned the Hemingses and fathered some of them as he tried to scientifically manage their lives and labor in minute detail; Gordon-Reed never lets us forget that. But more importantly, this work is a beautifully written, textured story about race, tragedy, and sometimes hope—America's story. If this country has a modern Shakespeare looking for material, Gordon-Reed has provided it."—David W. Blight, author of A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Narratives of Emancipation
"Annette Gordon-Reed is a prodigiously gifted historian and The Hemingses of Monticello is her masterpiece. Bringing the Hemings family out of the shadows and into vibrant life, Gordon-Reed restores them to their proper role at Thomas Jefferson's mountaintop home. As she reconstructs the lives and times of Elizabeth Hemings, her children, among them, James and Sally, and many, many other family members, Gordon-Reed illuminates the history of slavery and race in the Old Dominion. Jefferson's Virginia—and Jefferson himself—will never look the same again."—Peter Onuf, author of Jefferson's Empire: The Language of American Nationhood and The Mind of Thomas Jefferson
"Annette Gordon-Reed's splendid achievement will have the last word on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, for one cannot imagine another historian matching her exhaustive research and interpretive balance."—David Levering-Lewis, author of W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $25.00
|
|
Sale: $8.99
|
| |
|
Manufacturer: Crown
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
Binding: Hardcover
|
|
Author: Barack Obama
|
|
Publisher: Crown
|
|
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.04960730092
|
|
Publication Date: 2006-10-17
|
|
Reading Level: 384
|
|
|
Description: Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his second book The Audacity of Hope, Obama engages themes raised in his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, shares personal views on faith and values and offers a vision of the future that involves repairing a "political process that is broken" and restoring a government that has fallen out of touch with the people. We had the opportunity to ask Senator Obama a few questions about writing, reading, and politics--see his responses below. --Daphne Durham
20 Second Interview: A Few Words with Barack Obama
 Q: How did writing a book that you knew would be read so closely by so many compare to writing your first book, when few people knew who you were?
A: In many ways, Dreams from My Father was harder to write. At that point, I wasn't even sure that I could write a book. And writing the first book really was a process of self-discovery, since it touched on my family and my childhood in a much more intimate way. On the other hand, writing The Audacity of Hope paralleled the work that I do every day--trying to give shape to all the issues that we face as a country, and providing my own personal stamp on them.
Q: What is your writing process like? You have such a busy schedule, how did you find time to write?
A: I'm a night owl, so I usually wrote at night after my Senate day was over, and after my family was asleep--from 9:30 p.m. or so until 1 a.m. I would work off an outline--certain themes or stories that I wanted to tell--and get them down in longhand on a yellow pad. Then I'd edit while typing in what I'd written.
Q: If readers are to come away from The Audacity of Hope with one action item (a New Year's Resolution for 2007, perhaps?), what should it be?
A: Get involved in an issue that you're passionate about. It almost doesn’t matter what it is--improving the school system, developing strategies to wean ourselves off foreign oil, expanding health care for kids. We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result.
Q: You're known for being able to work with people across ideological lines. Is that possible in today's polarized Washington?
A: It is possible. There are a lot of well-meaning people in both political parties. Unfortunately, the political culture tends to emphasize conflict, the media emphasizes conflict, and the structure of our campaigns rewards the negative. I write about these obstacles in chapter 4 of my book, "Politics." When you focus on solving problems instead of scoring political points, and emphasize common sense over ideology, you'd be surprised what can be accomplished. It also helps if you're willing to give other people credit--something politicians have a hard time doing sometimes.
Q: How do you make people passionate about moderate and complex ideas?
A: I think the country recognizes that the challenges we face aren't amenable to sound-bite solutions. People are looking for serious solutions to complex problems. I don't think we need more moderation per se--I think we should be bolder in promoting universal health care, or dealing with global warming. We just need to understand that actually solving these problems won't be easy, and that whatever solutions we come up with will require consensus among groups with divergent interests. That means everybody has to listen, and everybody has to give a little. That's not easy to do.
Q: What has surprised you most about the way Washington works?
A: How little serious debate and deliberation takes place on the floor of the House or the Senate.
Q: You talk about how we have a personal responsibility to educate our children. What small thing can the average parent (or person) do to help improve the educational system in America? What small thing can make a big impact?
A: Nothing has a bigger impact than reading to children early in life. Obviously we all have a personal obligation to turn off the TV and read to our own children; but beyond that, participating in a literacy program, working with parents who themselves may have difficulty reading, helping their children with their literacy skills, can make a huge difference in a child's life.
Q: Do you ever find time to read? What kinds of books do you try to make time for? What is on your nightstand now?
A: Unfortunately, I had very little time to read while I was writing. I'm trying to make up for lost time now. My tastes are pretty eclectic. I just finished Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, a wonderful book. The language just shimmers. I've started Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which is a great study of Lincoln as a political strategist. I read just about anything by Toni Morrison, E.L. Doctorow, or Philip Roth. And I've got a soft spot for John le Carre.
Q: What inspires you? How do you stay motivated?
A: I'm inspired by the people I meet in my travels--hearing their stories, seeing the hardships they overcome, their fundamental optimism and decency. I'm inspired by the love people have for their children. And I'm inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $14.00
|
|
Sale: $6.85
|
| |
|
Manufacturer: Riverhead Trade
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
Binding: Paperback
|
|
Author: James McBride
|
|
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
|
|
Edition: 10 Anv
|
|
Dewey Decimal Number: 974.71004960730092
|
|
Publication Date: 2006-02-07
|
|
Reading Level: 352
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $15.00
|
|
Sale: $8.92
|
| |
|
Manufacturer: Strebor Books
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
Binding: Paperback
|
|
Publisher: Strebor Books
|
|
Edition: 1st Strebor Books Trade Pbk. Ed
|
|
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.01083538
|
|
Publication Date: 2008-05-06
|
|
Reading Level: 320
|
|
|
|
Description: Zane, the New York Times bestselling author and Queen of
Erotic Fiction, brings a new collection of lesbian erotica
that will blow the sheets off beds everywhere.
What happens when "The Finest Man" you have ever laid eyes on is a woman? What happens when a woman comes home to her man after a hard day's work with "Lipstick on Her Collar?" What happens when a married woman runs across the love of her life -- another woman -- who insists that "It's All or Nothing?" Is there such a thing as playing too "Hard to Get?" What happens when "Mom's Night Out" turns into group sex? What happens when you discover your true sexuality "At Last?" All of these questions and more are answered within the pages of Purple Panties. Written by women from all over the world, here is a new level of lesbian erotica, compiled by Zane, that promises the most exciting and steamy reading experience possible. These stories move beyond race, age, and all walks of life, including long-hidden passions, secret rendezvous with strangers, and May-December romances. With Zane's ever-growing popularity, and the need for increasingly quality erotica, Purple Panties will satisfy a long-standing demand for African-American lesbian literature. In the tradition of such successful erotica anthologies as Chocolate Flava and Caramel Flava, Purple Panties uncovers a new world of evocative risk-taking that has never been explored before from a lesbian perspective. The adventures in these stories are beyond everyone's wildest imaginations.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $15.95
|
|
Sale: $7.41
|
| |
|
Manufacturer: Basic Books
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
Binding: Paperback
|
|
Author: Beverly Daniel Tatum
|
|
Publisher: Basic Books
|
|
Edition: 5th Anniv., Revised
|
|
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.800973
|
|
Publication Date: 2003-01-07
|
|
Reading Level: 320
|
|
|
|
Description: Anyone who's been to a high school or college has noted how students of the same race seem to stick together. Beverly Daniel Tatum has noticed it too, and she doesn't think it's so bad. As she explains in this provocative, though not-altogether-convincing book, these students are in the process of establishing and affirming their racial identity. As Tatum sees it, blacks must secure a racial identity free of negative stereotypes. The challenge to whites, on which she expounds, is to give up the privilege that their skin color affords and to work actively to combat injustice in society.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $26.95
|
|
Sale: $17.79
|
| |
|
Manufacturer: Atria
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
Binding: Hardcover
|
|
Author: Sister Souljah
|
|
Publisher: Atria
|
|
Edition: 1st Atria Books Hardcover Ed
|
|
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
|
|
Publication Date: 2008-11-04
|
|
Reading Level: 512
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $7.99
|
|
Sale: $3.95
|
| |
|
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
|
|
Publisher: Ballantine Books
|
|
Dewey Decimal Number: 320.54092
|
|
Publication Date: 1992-11
|
|
Reading Level: 460
|
|
|
|
Description: Malcolm X's searing memoir belongs on the small shelf of great autobiographies. The reasons are many: the blistering honesty with which he recounts his transformation from a bitter, self-destructive petty criminal into an articulate political activist, the continued relevance of his militant analysis of white racism, and his emphasis on self-respect and self-help for African Americans. And there's the vividness with which he depicts black popular culture--try as he might to criticize those lindy hops at Boston's Roseland dance hall from the perspective of his Muslim faith, he can't help but make them sound pretty wonderful. These are but a few examples. The Autobiography of Malcolm X limns an archetypal journey from ignorance and despair to knowledge and spiritual awakening. When Malcolm tells coauthor Alex Haley, "People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book," he voices the central belief underpinning every attempt to set down a personal story as an example for others. Although many believe his ethic was directly opposed to Martin Luther King Jr.'s during the civil rights struggle of the '60s, the two were not so different. Malcolm may have displayed a most un-Christian distaste for loving his enemies, but he understood with King that love of God and love of self are the necessary first steps on the road to freedom. --Wendy Smith
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $14.95
|
|
Sale: $3.00
|
| |
|
Manufacturer: Anchor
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
Binding: Paperback
|
|
Author: Alex Kotlowitz
|
|
Publisher: Anchor
|
|
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.230977311
|
|
Publication Date: 1992-01-05
|
|
Reading Level: 336
|
|
|
|
Description: There Are No Children Here, the true story of brothers Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, ages 11 and 9 at the start, brings home the horror of trying to make it in a violence-ridden public housing project. The boys live in a gang-plagued war zone on Chicago's West Side, literally learning how to dodge bullets the way kids in the suburbs learn to chase baseballs. "If I grow up, I'd like to be a bus driver," says Lafeyette at one point. That's if, not when--spoken with the complete innocence of a child. The book's title comes from a comment made by the brothers' mother as she and author Alex Kotlowitz contemplate the challenges of living in such a hostile environment: "There are no children here," she says. "They've seen too much to be children." This book humanizes the problem of inner-city pathology, makes readers care about Lafeyette and Pharoah more than they may expect to, and offers a sliver of hope buried deep within a world of chaos.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Displaying records 1 through 10 of 4000
|
|
|
|
