African American Studies in The Books Store

Three prolific authors bring truth to the title of thisheart-wrenching book, Love Is Never Painless, with acollection of novellas that explores the deeper side oflove -- the side rarely explored in love stories.

In Eileen M. Johnson's "How the Other Half Lives," longtime friends Jamellah andFernecia are having trouble with the men in their lives. And as their worlds seem tocrumble, they must count on their friendship to keep it together.

In "Love Is 2 Blame," by V. Anthony Rivers, Malcolm is devastated after histwo-year relationship with Shaylisa ends. And trying to move on will not be easy -- but the lovely Zahara may be the perfect woman to show Malcolm what true love isall about.

In Zane's "Staring Evil in the Face," Robier has everything: a successful career,beautiful children, and the woman of his dreams. Having loved Tiphanie sincecollege, he is determined to keep his marital vows -- until Tiphanie is involved in ahorrible car accident that changes the entire course of their lives.

Steele writes of how Obama is caught between the two classic postures that blacks have always used to make their way in the white American mainstream: bargaining and challenging. Bargainers strike a "bargain" with white America in which they say, I will not rub America's ugly history of racism in your face if you will not hold my race against me. Challengers do the opposite of bargainers. They charge whites with inherent racism and then demand that they prove themselves innocent by supporting black-friendly policies like affirmative action and diversity.

Steele maintains that Senator Obama is too constrained by these elaborate politics to find his own true political voice. Obama has the temperament, intelligence, and background -- an interracial family, a sterling education -- to guide America beyond the exhausted racial politics that now prevail. And yet he is a Promethean figure, a bound man.

In this fast-paced, sexually charged thriller, a newly appointed judge is caught up in a gritty case involving a brutally murdered woman as well as a blackmail scheme involving an overzealous femme fatale determined to sleep her way to the top of Detroit's society page.

Detroit was once considered the murder capital of the nation, and as fresh-tothe-bench Judge Mathis discovers, it may be living up to its name. In one of the city's most horrific crimes ever, a young single parent has been discovered decapitated in an alleyway, with her head located several blocks away. The police are stumped until the arrest of a drug dealer promises to reveal vital information about the case. The only problem? The drug dealer won't talk to anyone but Judge Mathis.

The dealer demands privileges and assurances of safety from Mathis, who refuses to bend his moral code and give in to the conditions, setting the investigation back to square one. But Mathis isn't about to give up and finds himself unable to stop thinking about the case. So he sets out on the streets, using his savvy and connections to uncover the motives and means that led to the woman's death. Crossing paths with people from his past who have decided to benefit from criminal activity, Mathis stands up for the innocents who cannot defend themselves. From establishing a drug rehabilitation center to helping the youth through a mentoring program, Mathis is much more than a judge, for he once walked on the wrong side of the law as well.