Author Archive

I Do Not Come To You By Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

By Dera Williams • Apr 4th, 2010 • Category: Book of the Week

A deeply moving debut novel set amid the perilous world of Nigerian email scams, I Do Not Come to You by Chance tells the story of one young man and the family who loves him. nconditional family support may be the way in Nigeria, but when Kingsley turns to his Uncle Boniface for help, he learns that charity may come with strings attached.



Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

By Dera Williams • Mar 1st, 2010 • Category: Book Review 2010

Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet are regulars at Tawawa House. They have become friends over the years as they reunite and share developments in their own lives and on their respective plantations. They don’t bother too much with questions of freedom, though…



Interview with Author Elizabeth Nunez

By Dera Williams • Feb 28th, 2010 • Category: Book Club of the Week

Anna Sinclair, a New York senior editor, goes home for her annual vacation to the island of her birth where issues of family dynamics, social climate, political views, cultural identity and class values collide.



Searching for Tina Turner by Jacqueline Luckett

By Dera Williams • Feb 11th, 2010 • Category: Book Review 2010

When Randall decides that he’s had enough of marriage counseling, he offers his wife an ultimatum: “Be grateful for all I’ve done for you or leave.” Lena, realizing that money can’t solve her problems and that her husband is no longer the man she married, decides to choose the latter.



The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow

By Dera Williams • Dec 21st, 2009 • Category: Book Review 2009

In the tradition of Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, here is a portrait of a young girl— and society’s ideas of race, class, and beauty. It is the winner of the Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice.



A Mighty Long Way by Carlotta Walls Lanier

By Dera Williams • Dec 17th, 2009 • Category: Book Review 2009

At 14, Lanier was the youngest of the Little Rock Nine, who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1951; she went on to become the first African –American young woman to receive a diploma from the school. Her memoir provides a firsthand account of a seismic shift in American history.



Sins of the Father by Angela Benson

By Dera Williams • Aug 2nd, 2009 • Category: Book Review 2009

Angela Benson’s Sins of the Father is a powerful story of a house bitterly divided—a rich, multilayered family saga of betrayal and redemption, rage and compassion, faith, forgiveness, and ultimately, of love.



City Kid: A Writer’s Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success by Nelson George

By Dera Williams • Jul 22nd, 2009 • Category: Book Review 2009

City Kid introduces us to Nelson’s family: his absent wanna-be-hustler father; his tough-minded sister, who is seduced by the streets; and his mother, who dreams of becoming a teacher and returning to the South.



Sins of the Father by Angela Benson

By Dera Williams • Jul 17th, 2009 • Category: Book Review 2009

Successful media mogul Abraham Martin has great wealth, an elegant wife, Saralyn, and a rebellious son, Isaac. He also has a secret: a second family that no one knows about. Now, after thirty years—driven by the urging of his long dormant conscience—Abraham is determined to do the right thing by finally bringing his illegitimate children into the light…and into the family fold.



Where Did You Sleep Last Night by Danzy Senna

By Dera Williams • Jun 3rd, 2009 • Category: Book Review 2009

Where Did You Sleep Last Night? is at once a potent statement of personal identity, a challenging look at the murky waters of American ancestry, and an exploration of narratives—the narratives we create and those we forget. Senna has given us an unforgettable testimony to the paradoxes—the pain and the pride—embedded in history, family, and race.