Black by Popular Demand
Let’s fit in some reading before the fall comes! Enda’s Booktique of Duncanville, Texas has you covered.
Keep reading!
Forged by Blood
In the midst of a tyrannical regime and political invasion, Dèmi just wants to survive: to avoid the suspicion of the nonmagical Ajes who occupy her ancestral homeland of Ife; to escape the King's brutal genocide of her people--the darker skinned, magic wielding Oluso; and to live peacefully with her secretive mother while learning to control the terrifying blood magic that is her birthright.
But when Dèmi's misplaced trust costs her mother's life, survival gives way to vengeance. She bides her time until the devious Lord Ekwensi grants her the perfect opportunity--kidnap the Aje prince, Jonas, and bargain with his life to save the remaining Oluso. With the help of her reckless childhood friend Colin, Dèmi succeeds, but discovers that she and Jonas share more than deadly secrets; every moment tangles them further into a forbidden, unmistakable attraction, much to Colin's--and Dèmi's--distress.
The kidnapping is now a joint mission: to return to the King, help get Lord Ekwensi on the council, and bolster the voice of the Oluso in a system designed to silence them. But the way is dangerous, Dèmi's magic is growing yet uncertain, and it's not clear if she can trust the two men at her side.
A tale of rebellion and redemption, race and class, love and trust and betrayal, Forged by Blood is epic fantasy at its finest, from an enthusiastic, emerging voice.
The Girl in the Yellow Poncho: A Memoir
At five years old, Kristal Brent Zook sat on the steps of a Venice Beach, California, motel trying to make sense of her white father's abandonment, which left her feeling unworthy of a man's love and of white protection. Raised by her working-class African American mother and grandmother, Zook was taught not to count on anyone, especially men. Men leave. Men disappoint. In adulthood she became a feminist, activist, and "race woman" journalist in New York City. Despite her professional success, something was missing. Coming to terms with her identity was a constant challenge.
The Girl in the Yellow Poncho is Zook's coming-of-age tale about what it means to be biracial in America. Throughout, she grapples with in-betweenness while also facing childhood sexual assault, economic insecurity, and multigenerational alcoholism and substance abuse on both the Black and white sides of her family. Her story is one of strong Black women--herself, her cousin, her mother, and her grandmother--and the generational cycles of oppression and survival that seemingly defined their lives.
Setting out on an inner journey that takes her across oceans and continents, Zook tells the story of a little girl who never gives up on love, even long after it seems to have been destroyed. In the end she triumphs, reconciling with her father and mother to create the family of her dreams through forgiveness and sheer force of will. A testament to the power of settling into one's authentic identity, this book tells a story of a daughter's lifelong yearning, a mother's rediscovery of lost love, and the profound power of atonement and faith to heal a broken family.
Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe
Born into poverty and raised in a small town in the middle of South Georgia's so-called "Black belt," Jeezy realized at an early age that nothing was going to come easy, there were no handouts headed his way, and if he ever wanted anything in life, he was going to have to get out there and get it on his own. So that's what he did.
Now, for the first time, Jeezy retraces his steps, going back to day one to share how he turned nothing into something, stayed solid, survived the trap, and triumphed over adversity to become the successful artist, father, husband, entrepreneur, and philanthropist that he is today.
Adversity for Sale isn't a street memoir. Like his music, these pages are filled with lessons from his deeply personal story to motivate you to go out and get after your dream.
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe's theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.
As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community--heaven and earth--that sustain us.
My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
In these intimate and eloquent meditations, the award-winning poet Carl Phillips shares lessons he has learned about the writing life, an "apprenticeship to what can never fully be mastered." Drawing on forty years of teaching and mentoring emerging writers, he weaves his experiences as a poet with the necessary survival skills, including ambition, stamina, silence, politics, practice, audience, and community.
In the tradition of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, and Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, this is an invaluable companion for writers at every stage of their journey. Phillips's book serves as a partner in speculation and an invitation to embrace mystery.
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