Showing results for "Blues" in African American

Successful real estate agent and interior designer Zuri Benton has never been afraid to dance alone in the rain. Caring for her emotionally unstable mother most of her life left little time to have the type of relationship she desired, and she’d learned to do without. Love wasn’t required...

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea opens in the early 1970s with young César, a street tough of Afro-Cuban descent, standing outside a US Navy recruitment office at the crack of dawn. The Vietnam War is raging, the navy has only recently begun the serious process of integration, and the country is reeling from racial turmoil and unrest.

Can a person find true love more than once? Roman “Blue” Bluette doesn’t think so until she comes along. Zanetta is a smart, non-traditional woman who believes that women rule the world. She also believes in love but it seems to elude her until he comes along. Blue’s Beauty is a journey of love lost, love found and redemption.

Controversial relationship podcaster at night and psychology professor by day, Chicago Benton has never been afraid to follow his own rules. Raised by an emotionally unstable mother and dealing with women who played too many games taught him only to depend on himself. Love was only optional. Striving playwright Indigo Lyriq moved to New York on a wing and a prayer that her work would be seen on a Broadway stage one day. Raised by an aunt because her parents didn't want her, and dealing with an abusive relationship taught her to never rely on a man. Love was a luxury she couldn't afford.

Our narrator is a gifted photographer, an uncertain wife, an infertile mother, a biracial woman in an America that's coming undone. As she grapples with a lifetime of ambivalence about motherhood, yet another act of police brutality makes headlines, and this time the victim is Noah, a boy in her photography class. Unmoored by the grief of a recent, devastating miscarriage and Noah's fight for his life, she worries she can no longer chase the hope of having a child, no longer wants to bring a Black body into the world.

From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner, a passionate, profound story of love and obsession based on the hopes, fears, and deep realities of Black urban life. With a foreword by the author. “As rich in themes and poetic images as her Pulitzer Prize–winning Beloved.... Morrison conjures up the...

Being the girlfriend of a successful rapper isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Rhythm Baker, a successful occupational therapist, held it down for Raheem, her boyfriend of three years, without much complaining. After moving across the country to support his career and their relationship, Rhythm has grown increasingly uncomfortable with Raheem's inappropriate behavior and inflated ego. Feeling disrespected, unappreciated, and unheard, she moves out of the home they share, ending their relationship. Despite his recent moves, Raheem isn’t willing to let her go so easily.

Set in the sparkling 1920s jazz era, The Jewel of the Blues pulls back the curtain on all the romance, danger and drama in the bustling backstage life of a young performer. Billed as the Little Girl with the Big Voice, blues singer Lucille Arnetta Love always dreamed of life under the lights...

In her sexiest novel yet, acclaimed romance writer Zuri Day reveals how losing a double-dare can be oh-so satisfying. Eden Anderson is more than a little annoyed at her bad luck when she gets stuck with Jansen McKnight as a temporary roommate. Not only did he torment her as a child, but he’s also a meat-loving, gun-toting cop. So when Jansen bets he can seduce Eden, she can’t wait to show him up. But things aren’t quite black and white—and only time will tell who will come out on top.

Los Angeles, 1948: Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.

Exploring the diverse landscape of American life, the stories in Blues and Trouble: Twelve Stories capture the lives of people caught between circumstance and their own natures or on the run from fate. Tom Piazza’s debut short story collection, originally published in 1996, heralded the arrival of a startlingly original and vital presence in American fiction and letters. Set in Memphis, New Orleans, Florida, Texas, New York City, and elsewhere, the stories echo voices from Ernest Hemingway to Robert Johnson in their sharp eye for detail and their emotional impact.

A sizzling novel set against the backdrop of the Detroit car world. Champion Motors, one of Detroit's biggest auto manufacturers, is shutting down plants and laying off its workers. Tensions are mounting and violence is erupting. The lack of overtime to go around and a fatal attraction between employees at the plant ends in murder. Rife with scandal, drama, and passion—between and beyond the sheets—Blue Collar Blues is an explosive novel with piercing insight and humor.

A quietly influential force in African American literature and art, Clarence Major makes his Penguin Classics debut with the twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of Dirty Bird Blues The PRH Audio book of Dirty Bird Blues by Clarence Major won a 2022 EARPHONE AWARD. Narrated by Dion Graham. A Penguin...

Jazz-Age Chicago comes to vibrant life in Denny S. Bryce's evocative novel that links the stories of an ambitious chorus girl and a modern-day film student, both coming to grips with loss, forgiveness, and the limitations - and surprises - of love. 

Shante is an internationally known conference speaker and best-selling author who just received the shock of her life. Deandrea is an aggressive psychologist with two doctoral degrees who is struggling to keep her family together with her husband's busy schedule. Misha is a soft-spoken teacher who is in a battle to keep her child from being taken from her. All of them are facing challenges in their marriages and ministries. After a chance meeting at a First Ladies' conference, secrets of their pasts are revealed.

In the multibillion-dollar entertainment industry, there is a secret society of women all vying for the opportunity to live a lavish lifestyle by snagging a famous young millionaire. Betty Blaise, aka Fly Betty, was not in it to be a wife or the baby momma of a wealthy public figure - she set her sights much higher. While most of these women use sex as their weapon of choice, Betty, a psychology major, has developed a much more powerful weapon. But when she meets a man that she would never have anticipated falling for, her strict rules and standards are put to the test - and the tools she used so effectively against wealthy men begin to turn against her.

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...

“We need to talk.” There’s only one reason a woman says that three months after a one-night stand. She’s pregnant, and she plans on keeping the baby. Porter can handle that—he’s always planned on being a father, and doing better at the job than his own dad ever did. Sure, he's always envisioned the wife then kids, but he's used to fixing things that are broken.

Meet Rain, the eldest and most dangerous of Baltimore's most feared crime family - the Porters. Honing their skills to perfection since their youth, the siblings were introduced to the intricate world of armed robbery, diamond heists, and murder by their mentor and confidant, Smitty. Fearless and daring, the Porter family pulled off dozens of licks, reaping millions over the years.

Chicago-born Armstrong Tom is fifteen, black and unused to the segregated ways of the Deep South when his mother sends him to spend the summer with relatives in her native rural Mississippi. For speaking a few innocuous words in French to a white woman, Armstrong pays the ultimate price when her...