Celebrating love, honor and achievement: gifts for bookloving moms and dads, newlyweds and grads

Black Issues Book Review, May-July, 2004 by Gwendolyn E. Osborne

Special occasion keepsake box: Initials, dates, quotations, or the occasion itself can be engraved on the cover of this keepsake box of natural cherry; $59.95 from www.levenger.com.

For the visionary: For a desk at home or at work, Levenger's multitask lamp combines incadescent and halogen bulbs to shed strong light when it is needed; $199 from www.levenger.com.

The blacker the college, the sweeter the knowledge: In 1988, Judith Boswell Griffie wrote an inspirational letter to her daughter, Kelly, then a student at Prairie View A&M University. Hallmark's Mahogany greeting card line has captured Griffie's sentiments highlighting the legacy and achievement of historically black colleges and universities in a very special graduation card for HBCU grads.

Five Gift Volumes of Wisdom--Practical and Spiritual

7 Money Mantras for a Richer Life: How to Live Well With the Money You Have by Michelle Singletary Random House, December 2003 $24.95, ISBN 0-375-50753-1

Michelle Singletary, whose Washington Post personal finance column "The Color of Money" is syndicated in 120 newspapers, offers seven down-to-earth, timeless truths about money management. The philosophical inspiration is the example of her Big Mama who raised Michelle and her four siblings, "on a salary that never exceeded $13,000." There's plenty of nuts-and-bolts knowledge as well as common sense.

Aunties: Thirty-Five Writers Celebrate Their Other Mother Edited by Ingrid Sturgis Ballantine Books, April 2004 $13.95; ISBN 0-345-45269-0

Sturgis, editor of Essence.com and author of The Nubian Wedding Book: Words and Rituals to Celebrate and Plan an African-American Wedding (Crown, 1997), has collected essays from women and men of various cultures to create an inspirational and loving tribute to aunts everywhere. About the women who supplement, complement and sometimes succeed the one who give us birth, share it with mom, siblings and cousins, too.

Rise Up Singing: Black Women Writers on Motherhood Edited by Cecelie Berry Doubleday, April 2004 $24.95, ISBN 0-385-50903-0

A variety of tributes from black women to the occupation and calling of motherhood, ranging from Maya Angelou's deeply moving poem, "Our Grandmothers," to Dawn Turner Trice's story of her young daughter's recovery from a brain infection. As Marian Wright Edelman writes in the Foreword: "1 am inspired by these mothers who work every day to give their children, too, the best they can."

Spoonbread & Strawberry Wine: Recipes and Reminiscences of a Family by Norma Jean Darden and Carole Darden Harlem Moon, January 2004 $18.95, ISBN 0-3853-47270-6

This 25th anniversary edition of a classic of African American culinary history. Norma Jean, a former model and now a caterer/restaurateur, and her sister Carole, a real-estate agent, retrace their family history in rural North Carolina. They serve up such culinary delights as Papa Darden's homemade fruit wines, Grandad Sampson's honey concoctions, Aunt Annie's endless sweat potato repertoire, and Aunt Lillie's kitchen beauty products. Spoonbread records dozens of once-treasured African American specialities from farms, rural villages and small town gardens.

Vows: The African-American Couples Guide to Designing a Sacred Ceremony by Harriette Cole photographs by George Chinsee Simon & Schuster, February 2004 $20.00, ISBN 0-684-87313-3

The author of Jumping the Broom: The African-American Wedding Planner (Henry Holt, 1993) focuses on scripting the ceremony itself, choosing the words to say. An appropriate gift for the just-engaged or those renewing vows. Parents, clergy and wedding planners should find this book helpful.