Special Groups Books

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Anne Fadiman

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Amazon Marketplace: 259 new & used starting at $7.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Anthropology -> Cultural
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 210 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

What else can I add? Except this is my favorite book, ever. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

If anyone's been patient enough to read all hundred-plus reviews up to this point, they already know what this book is about, how well-written it was, how well researched, and how terribly humane.

All I can add is that, though I read (well, start, at any rate) about a hundred books a year, and have been doing so for about three decades now, this is the single best book I've ever read.

Editorial Review:

Lia Lee was born in 1981 to a family of recent Hmong immigrants, and soon developed symptoms of epilepsy. By 1988 she was living at home but was brain dead after a tragic cycle of misunderstanding, overmedication, and culture clash: "What the doctors viewed as clinical efficiency the Hmong viewed as frosty arrogance." The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions, written with the deepest of human feeling. Sherwin Nuland said of the account, "There are no villains in Fadiman's tale, just as there are no heroes. People are presented as she saw them, in their humility and their frailty--and their nobility."

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Barack Obama

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Three Rivers Press Amazon Marketplace: 147 new & used starting at $5.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> African-American & Black
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 271 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This man is a racist! 1 out of 5 stars.
7 of 12 people found this review helpful.

I think anybody who is thinking about voting for this man needs to read this book. Obama comes across as an angry black man who is extremely prejudice against whites. I can't figure out how so many people like him, he is truly a racist and to see so, all you have to do is read this book!

Nightmares 1 out of 5 stars.
7 of 16 people found this review helpful.

Would be a better title from his polygamist alcoholic father who abanonded everyone in his family. Read closely and you will see the roots of the radical rage that we will all inherit from this corrupt loser...the father and the son...if he is ever elected. I dare you to delve into his past and believe he is a good man. Chicago anyone?

Editorial Review:

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

Daniel H. Pink

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Riverhead Trade Amazon Marketplace: 95 new & used starting at $5.18

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> Leadership
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> Success

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 191 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

EVERY TEACHER SHOULD READ THIS BOOK 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I LOVE this book. I am an art teacher in Phoenix. I was able to discuss art integration through all subject matters with my students and I think that it's essentail! We are cutting our art programs down to nothing and we're creating a whole new generation of test takers -- our kids need to be problem solvers and CREATIVE problem solvers to compete in our new world. Our world that we live in now will NOT be the world our kids live in when they're grown up. Things are evolving fast and we need to give them tools to conquer tomorrow's problems. This book gives great insights! BUY IT! READ IT and give it to your school administrators! Thanks Mr. Pink!

Editorial Review:

The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: artists, inventors, storytellers-creative and holistic "right-brain" thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn't. Drawing on research from around the world, Pink outlines the six fundamentally human abilities that are absolute essentials for professional success and personal fulfillment-and reveals how to master them. A Whole New Mind takes readers to a daring new place, and a provocative and necessary new way of thinking about a future that's already here.

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

Barack Obama

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Three Rivers Press Amazon Marketplace: 140 new & used starting at $4.04

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> African-American & Black
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 546 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his second book The Audacity of Hope, Obama engages themes raised in his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, shares personal views on faith and values and offers a vision of the future that involves repairing a "political process that is broken" and restoring a government that has fallen out of touch with the people. We had the opportunity to ask Senator Obama a few questions about writing, reading, and politics--see his responses below. --Daphne Durham

---

20 Second Interview: A Few Words with Barack Obama

Q: How did writing a book that you knew would be read so closely by so many compare to writing your first book, when few people knew who you were?
A: In many ways, Dreams from My Father was harder to write. At that point, I wasn't even sure that I could write a book. And writing the first book really was a process of self-discovery, since it touched on my family and my childhood in a much more intimate way. On the other hand, writing The Audacity of Hope paralleled the work that I do every day--trying to give shape to all the issues that we face as a country, and providing my own personal stamp on them.

Q: What is your writing process like? You have such a busy schedule, how did you find time to write?
A: I'm a night owl, so I usually wrote at night after my Senate day was over, and after my family was asleep--from 9:30 p.m. or so until 1 a.m. I would work off an outline--certain themes or stories that I wanted to tell--and get them down in longhand on a yellow pad. Then I'd edit while typing in what I'd written.

Q: If readers are to come away from The Audacity of Hope with one action item (a New Year's Resolution for 2007, perhaps?), what should it be?
A: Get involved in an issue that you're passionate about. It almost doesn't matter what it is--improving the school system, developing strategies to wean ourselves off foreign oil, expanding health care for kids. We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result.

Q: You're known for being able to work with people across ideological lines. Is that possible in today's polarized Washington?
A: It is possible. There are a lot of well-meaning people in both political parties. Unfortunately, the political culture tends to emphasize conflict, the media emphasizes conflict, and the structure of our campaigns rewards the negative. I write about these obstacles in chapter 4 of my book, "Politics." When you focus on solving problems instead of scoring political points, and emphasize common sense over ideology, you'd be surprised what can be accomplished. It also helps if you're willing to give other people credit--something politicians have a hard time doing sometimes.

The Color of Water 10th Anniversary Edition

James McBride

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Riverhead Trade Amazon Marketplace: 159 new & used starting at $5.60

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> African-American & Black
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A soaring celebration of familial love 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Some reviews here say it all. This is indeed a remarkable biography/autobiography, so I would only add my praise for such a loving, touching homage to a very special lady and her remarkable family. I loved the forthright descriptions of this numerous mixed-race family and was touched by Mrs. McBride Jordan's personal tale, kept inside for so long. Her buried past and the author's own reminiscences entwine flawlessly, making this an emotion-stirring book. By writing it, James McBride is finally able to piece together his own past and that of his mother, thus quenching his desire to learn more about his origins.

The difference with the original edition is an interesting Afterword, summarizing the 10 years since its first publication (1996) and the impact its success had on the author himself, his family and, above all, his mother. I shall not disclose anything here, but it is worth to look into.

I truly think this is a standout among the various memoirs I have read so far, an inspiring and remarkable contribution to race-related literature.

A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America

Ronald Takaki

Amazon Price: $12.23 List Price: $17.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Back Bay Books Amazon Marketplace: 164 new & used starting at $7.94

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> Race Relations -> America

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Very Biased and Very Good 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

If one were to write a history of any nation exclusively from the perspective of minority groups would it be a fair, complete and accurate portrait of that nation's story, character and culture? Probably not, but nonetheless you would have a penetrating look inside the world view of those who may get overlooked in the panoramic style of many history books. This is what you walk away with from Ronald Takaki's wonderful book `A Different Mirror'.

The book is somewhat dated considering many newly published American history books include the tales of blacks, women, Indians, Jews and even gays but `A Different Mirror' remains valuable because Takaki provides nuggets of information about the contributions of particular groups that aren't well know but are important and deserve acknowledgement.

A downside to this book, and it's serious, is that with the use of Shakespearean and other literary references, Takaki weaves a common thread of victimhood among all groups, suggesting that American society is nothing close to what it claims to be in the preamble of the Constitution. No society is perfect and though groups in America may have been exploited, America does not hold a monopoly on exploitation. Yet millions of minorities continue to rush into this nation for its distinct qualities that are rare and non-existent in other parts of the world. It would have enhanced Takaki's goal, which was to tell the stories of minority groups, if he didn't overlook the positive factors that compelled many to select this country.

If you want an introduction into American history this shouldn't be the only book you read, but `A Different Mirror' is enjoyable and highly recommended for anyone who wants to get a fuller picture of the American story.

"Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?": A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity

Beverly Daniel Tatum

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Basic Books Amazon Marketplace: 252 new & used starting at $4.44

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Anthropology -> Cultural
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 78 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Amazing book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I love the way this book is written. It walks the reader through some very interesting and complicated social issues that are crucial. I recommend that ALL high school teachers read this book.

A truly amazing book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Mrs. Tatum's book is a demonstration of great craftmanship in the form of literature. This book will open your mind to a new understanding of race, racism, prejudice, and priviledge. If you are thinking about whether to buy this book or not go ahead and buy it, you will not regret it. "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria" is a masterpiece of a book.

Editorial Review:

Anyone who's been to a high school or college has noted how students of the same race seem to stick together. Beverly Daniel Tatum has noticed it too, and she doesn't think it's so bad. As she explains in this provocative, though not-altogether-convincing book, these students are in the process of establishing and affirming their racial identity. As Tatum sees it, blacks must secure a racial identity free of negative stereotypes. The challenge to whites, on which she expounds, is to give up the privilege that their skin color affords and to work actively to combat injustice in society.

Purple Panties: An Eroticanoir.com Anthology

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Strebor Books Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $8.94

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> African American -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> British -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Zane, the New York Times bestselling author and Queen of
Erotic Fiction, brings a new collection of lesbian erotica
that will blow the sheets off beds everywhere.

What happens when "The Finest Man" you have ever laid eyes on is a woman? What happens when a woman comes home to her man after a hard day's work with "Lipstick on Her Collar?" What happens when a married woman runs across the love of her life -- another woman -- who insists that "It's All or Nothing?" Is there such a thing as playing too "Hard to Get?" What happens when "Mom's Night Out" turns into group sex? What happens when you discover your true sexuality "At Last?" All of these questions and more are answered within the pages of Purple Panties.

Written by women from all over the world, here is a new level of lesbian erotica, compiled by Zane, that promises the most exciting and steamy reading experience possible. These stories move beyond race, age, and all walks of life, including long-hidden passions, secret rendezvous with strangers, and May-December romances.

With Zane's ever-growing popularity, and the need for increasingly quality erotica, Purple Panties will satisfy a long-standing demand for African-American lesbian literature.

In the tradition of such successful erotica anthologies as Chocolate Flava and Caramel Flava, Purple Panties uncovers a new world of evocative risk-taking that has never been explored before from a lesbian perspective. The adventures in these stories are beyond everyone's wildest imaginations.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 271 new & used starting at $1.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> African-American & Black
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 296 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Malcolm X's searing memoir belongs on the small shelf of great autobiographies. The reasons are many: the blistering honesty with which he recounts his transformation from a bitter, self-destructive petty criminal into an articulate political activist, the continued relevance of his militant analysis of white racism, and his emphasis on self-respect and self-help for African Americans. And there's the vividness with which he depicts black popular culture--try as he might to criticize those lindy hops at Boston's Roseland dance hall from the perspective of his Muslim faith, he can't help but make them sound pretty wonderful. These are but a few examples. The Autobiography of Malcolm X limns an archetypal journey from ignorance and despair to knowledge and spiritual awakening. When Malcolm tells coauthor Alex Haley, "People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book," he voices the central belief underpinning every attempt to set down a personal story as an example for others. Although many believe his ethic was directly opposed to Martin Luther King Jr.'s during the civil rights struggle of the '60s, the two were not so different. Malcolm may have displayed a most un-Christian distaste for loving his enemies, but he understood with King that love of God and love of self are the necessary first steps on the road to freedom. --Wendy Smith

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

Maxine Hong Kingston

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 424 new & used starting at $1.46

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Chinese
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 170 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Prepare for the unexpected. 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is a tremendous novel. The author threads the stories her mother told her when she was a child, through the retelling of her own life, using them to draw you into her own imagination. As she grows up, living half immersed in traditional myth and half in gritty reality, where mothers and daughters are only human, the reader grows up with her. The first person telling of her childhhood stories puts the reader directly in the shoes of a child/young adult working through the stories she has been told, using them to form her hopes and dreams and her understanding of the world.

(N.B. You may not think that your childhood stories influenced the way you live, but if you think for a minute, I am certain some will come back to you and you'll realize that just the other day you did something based on or combatting that belief. Maybe you even still wish on stars?)

Editorial Review:

The Woman Warrior is a pungent, bitter, but beautifully written memoir of growing up Chinese American in Stockton, California. Maxine Hong Kingston (China Men) distills the dire lessons of her mother's mesmerizing "talk-story" tales of a China where girls are worthless, tradition is exalted and only a strong, wily woman can scratch her way upward. The author's America is a landscape of confounding white "ghosts"--the policeman ghost, the social worker ghost--with equally rigid, but very different rules. Like the woman warrior of the title, Kingston carries the crimes against her family carved into her back by her parents in testimony to and defiance of the pain.