I’m not sure why it never occurred to me till now to write an annual review of non-fiction 1st editions published by black authors. Afterall, my film Blacktrospective has proven to be a popular feature. Maybe my reservation with books had to do with the fact that only a fraction of the people invest in a best seller compared to the millions who run out to see a movie.
Regardless, as a voracious speed reader, I’ve covered considerable literary ground over the pass 12 months. So, I’ve compiled a list of my personal favorites which cut across all genres, ranging in focus from the academic to art to self-help to history to cook book to tell-all to politics to memoir. Just to prove that I’m no easy mark, I’ve also taken the liberty to include my infuriating foursome, a quartet of equally-disappointing offerings.
The 10 Best
1: Confessions of a Video Vixen by Karrine Steffans
2. Creating Black Americans by Nell Irvin Painter
3. Real Men Cook by K. Kofi Moyo
4. 50 Years after Brown by Anthony Asadullah Samad
5. Keepin’ It Real by Prudence L. Carter
6. Social Crisis and Social Demoralization by Ronald Kuykendall
7. Life Is Not a Fairy Tale by Fantasia
8. How to Grow As a Musician by Sheila E. Anderson
9. Michael Jackson: The Man Behind the Mask by Bob Jones
10. Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man by Charles Barkley
The Infuriating Foursome
1. Driven from Within by Michael Jordan
2. Is Bill Cosby Right? by Michael Eric Dyson
3. Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop by Bakari Kitwana
4. Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America by Scott Poulson-Bryant
To see my original book reviews and interviews with some of the authors, visit www.AALBC.com