“The American Dream is in dire need of a wake-up call… If only Uncle Sam could see us now. He’d roll up his sleeves, ball his hands into fists, and knock some sense into this nation of ours… But he’s not around. So some other proud American has to tell this country what it needs—not wants—to hear…

Help Me to Find My People
The African-American Search for Family Lost in Slavery
by Heather Andrea Williams
University of North Carolina Press
Hardcover, $30.00
264 pages
ISBN: 978-0-8078-3554-8   

“This is a book about slavery and family and loss and longing… It is about the forced separations of African-American families, about their grief and their determined hope to someday see each other again… It takes courage to look at the humiliation they suffered…It is worth saying that this is a book about separation, resilience and survival, and about the texture and contours of despair… In the end, it is a journey into their feelings... The stories I recount are raw, emotional and dramatic... That’s what these people’s lives were.”
-- Excerpted from the Introduction (pgs. xiii-xiv)

Walking Tall
A Memoir about the Upside of Small and Other Stuff
by Clay Rivers
Constant Rose Publishing
Digital, $7.99
270 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9791741-2-4
“Writing my memoir wasn’t my idea. I avoided the challenge for years. I’m a private person who’s most comfortable with one-on-one interactions…

My close friends have told me with earnest fervor that my life experiences would make for interesting reading, given my unique perspective on the world… Short. Black. Christian. And gay...

19 Years Old & 19 Men Later
A Memoir
by Tenisha Gainey 
Piners Press
Paperback, $20.00
140 pages, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-578-05536-7

“I wrote this book as a guide for young women so that they won’t make the same mistakes I’ve made… I really needed someone to step in and show me that I could be so much more…

Because I have been in the bottom of the barrel… I thought to myself, ‘You can’t just sit around and do nothing when so many of your home girls are getting pregnant, chasing these no-good guys, and going down that same road you were headed.’