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 Since 1993 TLC recommends 'Curtis Bunn and NBCC' 
Click here to see images of the First Annual National Book Club Conference  
TLC recommends 'The Echo from Dealey Plaza' by Abraham Bolden   
ABRAHAM BOLDEN graduated cum laude from Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, with a B.A. in music
composition. He served in the U.S. Secret Service from 1960 to 1964. Bolden now lives in Chicago and is retired
after working for thirty years in the field of quality-control supervision.From the first African American assigned to the presidential Secret Service detail comes a gripping and unforgettable true story of bravery and patriotism in the face of bitter hatred and unthinkable corruption. Abraham Bolden was a young African American Secret Service agent in Chicago when he was asked by John F. Kennedy himself to join the White House Secret Service detail. For Bolden, it was a dream come true—and an encouraging sign of the charismatic president’s vision for a new America. But the dream quickly turned sour when Bolden found himself regularly subjected to open hostility and blatant racism. He was taunted, mocked, and disparaged but remained strong, and he did not allow himself to become discouraged. More of a concern was the White House team’s irresponsible approach to security. While on his tour of presidential duty, Bolden witnessed firsthand the White House agents’ long-rumored lax approach to their job. Drinking on duty, abandoning key posts—this was not a team that appeared to take their responsibility to protect the life of the president particularly seriously. Both prior to and following JFK’s assassination, Bolden sought to expose and address the inappropriate behavior and negligence of these agents, only to find himself the victim of a sinister conspiracy that resulted in his conviction and imprisonment on a trumped-up bribery charge. A gripping memoir substantiated by recently declassified government documents, 'The Echo from Dealey Plaza' is the story of the terrible price paid by one man for his commitment to truth and justice, as well as a shocking new perspective on the circumstances surrounding the death of a beloved president. TLC recommends 'Nowhere Is A Place' by Bernice L. McFadden  
Sherry is
rootless. A well-educated bohemian, she feels at ease with people from
diverse cultures. But, she is not at ease with herself. Over the years,
she has gone through many men, jobs, and cities looking for satisfaction.
Sherry is stuck in the past. She cannot let go of an incident from her
childhood in which her mother slapped her without provocation--or at least
a reason that she could understand. Now Sherry has an idea of how to come
terms with herself and her past. She invites her mother (nicknamed Dumpling)
on a road trip from Nevada to the family reunion in Georgia. Given the
emotional distance between her and her daughter, Dumpling is suprised
by the invitation. However, she accepts it. As they travel, Sherry asks
Dumpling to respond to a story that she has written about the family history.
Usually impatient with Sherry's many questions, Dumpling opens up about
the past. By the end of their journey, mother and daughter have uncovered
a legacy of strength that provides them hope and inspiration. TLC recommends 'In Search Of Satisfaction', 'Some People, Some Other Place and Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime by J. California Cooper   
  The
folk flavor of her storytelling has earned her constant comparison to
Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, but through four collections of
short stories and two novels, J. California Cooper has proven that hers
is a wholly original talent --one that embraces readers in an ever-widening
circle from one book to the next.With In Search Of Satisfaction, Cooper gracefully portrays men and women, some good and others wickedly twisted, caught in their individual thickets of want and need. On a once-grand plantation in Yoville, "a legal town-ship founded by the very rich for their own personal use", a freed slave named Josephus fathers two daughters, Ruth and Yinyang, by two different women. His desire, to give Yinyang and himself money and opportunities, oozes through the family like an elixir, melding with the equally strong yearnings of Yoville's other residents, whose tastes don't complement their neighbors'. What Josephus buries in his life affects generations to come. J. California Cooper's unfettered view of sin, forgiveness, and redemption gives In Search Of Satisfaction a singular richness that belies its universal themes. Some People, Some Other Place Some People, Some Other Place is Cooper's biggest, most far-reaching novel to date. A multigenerational tale, it is set in a town called "Place," on a street named "Dream Street." In the words of the novel's narrator, "the block surely had about it a feeling of long accumulation of history, of life, of many lives intertwined." As she chronicles the interlocking lives of the residents of Dream Street, Cooper places the stories of the individuals and their families within the wider context of America's social and economic history. We meet the narrator's great grandparents, who left the poverty of the Deep South in 1895 and made their way to a farm in Oklahoma; her grandparents, who continued the northward journey with their eyes on the promised jobs of the industrial Midwest but were forced to settle without reaching their goal; and her mother, who finishes the journey and discovers that life at 903 Dream Street carries new burdens as well as rewards. The neighbors on the block are people of all colors, all striving to overcome personal troubles and disappointments, and all holding fast to their dreams of a better life. Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime The author of In Search of Satisfaction employs her characteristic themes of romance, heartbreak, struggle and faith in Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime. Her characters offer inspiration, laughter, instruction and pure enjoyment. Homemade Love Awed, bedevilled, and bemused, all Cooper's characters are borne up by the sheer power of life itself in these wise and exhilarating stories from Cooper's newest book. The stories in this second collection from the author of A Piece of Mine are all about love. About sex and family too, and life when it is lived with wonder and relish. Told in first-person, in a lively, unobtrusive black dialect, these tales, set in both country and city, are lit with wisdom and high-spirited humor. TLC recommends 'Little Scarlet', 'Cinnamon Kiss', 'Killing Johnny Fry' and 'Blond Faith' by Walter Mosley      Little Scarlet - - It is 15 years since Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins strolled into our consciousness as the troubled, part-time private eye operating on the borderline of black and white society in Los Angeles. Little Scarlet is the ninth of Easy's adventures, and admirers of Walter Mosley's spare prose and understated observation will be pleased to hear that it is among the sharpest and richest. Cinnamon Kiss As usual, Easy Rawlins is stuck between a rock and a hard place and it’s getting tougher all the time for Walter Mosley’s oft-wounded private detective. Poor Ezekial, no stranger to the blistering inferno of Los Angeles, is now reaping his own private hell as he begins Cinnamon Kiss, the tenth installment of the long-running detective series. Killing Johnny Fry This bold new novel from Walter Mosley startles in both its rawness and its honest portrayal of a man on a quest for sexual redemption in midlife. Blond Faith It is hard to envision Easy Rawlings as being down and out but this is how he appears in Walter Mosley's latest novel. In Blonde Faith, we see a very different Easy Rawlings compared to the man we know. His emotional state comes through loud and clear. Things have not been going very well for Easy and his feeling of depression is not getting any better. Rawlings is spending his time trying to track down two of his friends. One is Ray Mouse Alexander who is running from a murder charge and the other is Christmas Black, a Vietnam veteran, who is involved in illegal activities and now fears for the safety of his daughter. That explains why Easy comes home and finds Easter, Christmas Black’s daughter, at his house. TLC recommends 'Song Yet Sung', 'Miracle at St. Anna' and 'Color Of Water' by James Mcbride    
Song Yet Sung is not a simple tale
of noble slaves fleeing from evil whites. It's a detailed portrait of
the complex--and rarely acknowledged--interrelationships and loyalties
that keep slaves with their masters and give whites second thoughts about
the legitimacy of slavery. Beyond its nuanced treatment of “the web of
relationships” (as McBride puts it) between blacks and whites, Song Yet
Sung is distinguished from other novels about slavery by two main factors:
its detailed treatment of the secret “code" that blacks used to help one
another chase freedom on the Underground Railway and other paths north,
and its focus on the future, seen in the dreams of main character Liz
Spocott. Together, these features help make Song Yet Sung a unique and
fascinating historical novel that says as much about the present as it
does about the past.Miracle at St. Anna In Miracle at St. Anna, James McBride, the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed memoir The Color of Water, brings his celebrated talent as a storyteller to bear on an unforgettable novel about war, the bonds of love, and redemption. Drawing inspiration from the stories he heard as a child from family members who had fought on the battlefields of Italy and elsewhere during the Second World War, McBride's first foray into fiction is inspired by a historical incident, an unspeakable massacre in a small village in Tuscany, St. Anna Di Stazzema and on the experiences of the famed Buffalo soldiers of the all-black, segregated 92nd Division. McBride tells the story of four GI's who find themselves cut off from the rest of their unit, the villagers with whom they take refuge, a band of partisans, and an Italian boy who teaches them about the power to love unconditionally, to forgive, to live after the worst of atrocities, and, most of all, the power amid carnage and destruction to believe once more in God's miracles. Color of Water James McBride grew up one of twelve siblings in the all-black housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn, the son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white. The object of McBride's constant embarrassment, and his continuous fear for her safety, his mother was an inspiring figure, who through sheer force of will saw her dozen children through college, and many through graduate school. McBride was an adult before he discovered the truth about his mother: the daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi in rural Virginia, she had run away to Harlem, married a black man, and founded an all-black Baptist church in her living room in Red Hook. In this remarkable memoir, she tells in her own words the story of her past. Around her narrative, James McBride has written a powerful portrait of growing up, a meditation on race and identity, and a poignant, beautifully crafted hymn from a son to his mother. The National Book Club Conference - NBCC Victor Woods, Earl Caldwell Authors of "A Breed Apart" and some of the members of TLC Afrocentric Bookstore and Hennessy Sponsor A Fireside Chat  Check-out the "The African-American Book Club Summit" 
Please feel free to post any comments to our guestbook and please come again  Friends of TLC - Desiree and Wali from Afrocentric Bookstore - Chef Clifford Rome from DeJoie's Bistro - Victor Woods and Earl Caldwell "A Breed Apart" Last Updated by Nicholes - Webmaster On 
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