Search Results: Titles starting with R from Oasis in the Diaspora

Free Press, 2001. 1st. Very Good. "Resurrecting Mingus" is the story of a young woman lost -- striving to find her own identity while dealing with powerful and painful questions that force her to confront everything and everyone that matters to her. In this stunning debut novel, Jenoyne Adams, a PEN Center USA West Emerging Voices Fellow, displays a rare talent for a first-time author: the skill and courage to write about some of the most controversial issues today in an absorbing and compulsively readable manner. Mingus Browning is a successful, young, beautiful lawyer whose life is falling apart. After a thirty-five-year marriage, Mingus's African-American father has suddenly left her Irish mother for a black woman. A daddy's girl, Mingus is torn between the father she has always been closer to, the mother she may have to defend in divorce proceedings, and a sister hell-bent on winning their lifelong sibling rivalry. Mingus is caught in middle of the three, a woman alone, and, in turn,… Read More

Simon and Schuster, 2006. Fine. First introduced in Shelia P. Moses' award-winning The Legend of Buddy Bush, Pattie Mae Sheals continues her journey in The Return of Buddy Bush. Pattie Mae goes to Harlem to visit her sister after the death of their beloved grandfather and the disappearance of Uncle Buddy, who has been wrongly accused of a terrible crime. Harlem could not be more different from Rich Square, North Carolina-people speak differently, people dress differently, and black men and women work and run their own businesses, just like any white man would do. Harlem is magical to Pattie Mae, and a chance meeting with the black writer Richard Wright fully opens her eyes to the fact that anything is possible in her future. Pattie Mae is not only determined to soak up the Northern lifestyle, but she is on a secret mission to find her uncle. The rumors are that he is hiding out in Harlem, so Pattie Mae wants to bring him back. In her innocence she believes that once Uncle Buddy returns, he can… Read More

St. Martin's Press, 2001. It all began in 1927, in the small town of Rudell, Mississippi, after the sudden and tragic death of Cora Harvey's parents. She has nothing left except her burning desire to become a singer. But her dream will never come true in Rudell, especially if she marries the man she adores, Dr. David Mackey. So when she sets out for Chicago, everyone in the close knit community, including David believes that the next time they see Cora, her name will be in lights. However, it's not long before Cora finds herself back in Rudell and back in David's arms harboring a secret she dare not reveal. . .A secret that will cause her daughter, Emma to flee Rudell with no intention of ever looking back. And even when Emma finds the perfect man and happiness at last, she is determined to do whatever it takes to keep her family's shameful past at bay. Then the dream that began with Cora comes full circle with her beloved granddaughter Parris whose melodic voice fills the dimly lit nightclubs of… Read More

Doubleday, 1995. 1st. Fair. The stories contained here are as American as jazz, and as wise and multifaceted as their writer. Dorothy West's metier is the unique crucible in which America places its black middle class, but her themes are universal: the daily misunderstandings between young and old, men and women, rich and poor that can lead to tragedy; and the ways in which bonds of family and community can bring us together, and tear us asunder. Dorothy West's autobiographical essays explore the poles of her remarkable life - from growing up black and middle-class in Boston to her near-mythic trip to Moscow in 1933 with Langston Hughes and other Harlem Renaissance writers to life on her beloved Martha's Vineyard. They cohere into a beautiful and poignant memoir of a singular American life, a memoir that communicates with her short stories in a host of fertile ways. Taken as a whole, The Richer, The Poorer is a triumphant celebration of the life and work of one of America's genuine treasures.… Read More