BIBR best of 2004

Best Black History Books

African American Lives Edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (Oxford University Press, April 2004, ISBN 0195-16024-X)

The biographies of more than 6,000 noteworthy African Americans are collected in this comprehensive and ambitious project.

I'll Find a Way, or Make One: A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities by Juan Williams and Dwayne Ashley (Amistad/HarperCollins, November 2004 ISBN 0-060-09453-2)

A reference book on the 108 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, highlighting their cultural, historical and social significance.

Meet Me at the Theresa: The Story of Harlem's Most Famous Hotel by Sondra Kathryn Wilson (Atria Books February 2004, ISBN 0-743-46688-8)

Fidel Castro, Dorothy Dandridge, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Billie Holiday and Malcolm X were just a few of the guests who stayed at Harlem's elegant Hotel Theresa. Wilson examines the illustrious history of this New York City landmark.

Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform by Derrick Bell (Oxford University Press April 2004, ISBN 0-195-17272-8)

Bell, a professor of law at New York University (he was previously a member of the Harvard Law School faculty and lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense), points out that groundbreaking court decision left many racial barriers to confront.

Best Title

A History of the African-American People [Proposed] by Strom Thurmond: A Novel As Told to Percival Everett and James Kincaid (Akeshio Books, April 2004 IBBN 1-888-45157-2)

And the novel itself is damned funny, too. Such satire is a fitting memorial to o1' Strom.

Most "Prized" Fiction of 2004

The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad/HarperCollins August 2003 ISBN 0-060-55754-0)

This well-crafted and engaging novel tells the story of Henry Townsend, a black bootmaker and former slave who becomes a slave owner during the 1800s in Virginia. Truly worthy of every accolade bestowed upon it, including the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and most recently the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (see BETWEEN THE LINES, page 10).

Most Expensive Book

GOAT: A Tribute to Muhammad All by Howard L. Bingham (Taschen, April 2004 ISBN 3-822-83068-2)

The Collector's Edition of this book, which celebrates the life and career of the Greatest of All Time, costs a whopping $3,000. The Champ's Edition will set you back $7,500. Photographer Bingham met Ali in 1962 and traveled around the globe with him, documenting his life. GOAT contains more than 3,000 photographs, runs 792 pages and weighs 75 pounds.

Our Favorite White Author

Bill Clinton My Life, (Alfred A. Knopf, June 2004 ISBN 0-375-41457-6)

The sales of Clinton's massive memoir in black bookstores surpassed Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life's according to FLYING OFF THE SHELVES.

Most Patient Bookbuyer of the Year Mahalia Watson

No. 2,019: she was last in line at Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem to have her copy of My Life autographed.

Genre of the Year: Urban/HipHop/Street Life Fiction Simba Sana, co-owner of Karibu Books in Prince Georges County, Maryland, told The Washington Post this past summer, "Street fit is the hottest thing right now." Mainstream publishers such as Simon & Schuster and Kensington Publishing Corp.--plus black-owned entrepreneurial houses like Strebor Books, Triple Crown Publications and Urban Books--are steadily publishing edgy young writers preoccupied with thug life. They are all making big money.

Best Inspirational Book

What Matters Most: Ten Lessons in Living Passionately From the Song of Solomon by Renita J. Weems (Warner Books. Walk Worthy Press, April 2004 ISBN 0-446-53241-X)

The Biblical scholar and prolific author challenges women to think about passion in everyday life.

The Second Time's a Charm

Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama (Three Rivers Press August 2004, ISBN 1-400-08277-3)

Long before his awe-inspiring keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Obama had tongues wagging when he became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, a lawyer and Illinois state senator. Now, as he is poised to become the nation's only black U.S. senator, people are eagerly reading his memoir, which was first published in 1995.

Best Children's Books

Just Like Josh Gibson by Angela Johnson and illustrated by Beth Peck (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, January 2004, ISBN 0-68982662-8) Ages 5 to 8.

A love letter to baseball and tribute to the great Negro League player.

Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance by Laban Carrick Hill, Foreword by Nikki Giovanni (Little, Brown and Co., January 2004, ISBN 0-316-814113)

Brilliant photographs, paintings, show programs and other artifacts of the era attracts young readers and parents alike.

Best Young Adult Book

The Legend of Buddy Bush by Shelia P. Moses (Margaret K. McElderry Books, January 2004, ISBN 0-689-85615-6

Pattie Mae Sheals's favorite uncle returns to North Carolina in 1947 after living in Harlem and shakes things up in his hometown.

Best Original Subjects, Nonfiction

The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo by Clea Koff (Random House, April 2004 ISBN 1-400-06064-8)

A black female forensic anthropologist's account of her travels to devastating, war-torn regions to unearth and analyze the remains of genocide victims. She tells both the terrible and simple truths that her examinations reveal.

The Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon's Josephine by Andrea Stuart (Grove Press, April 2004 ISBN 0-802-11770-8)

A black British author of Caribbean descent examines the life of Martinique-born Rose de Tasher, who later became Josephine, the crown empress of France and then married the one and only Napoleon Bonaparte, in this first full biography.

Best New Writing Duo

Tonya Lewis Lee and Crystal McCrary Anthony Gotham Diaries (Hyperion Publishing July 2004, ISBN 0-802-11770-8)

Both lawyers and now high-flyin' coauthors, Lee and Lewis serve up an entertaining story of three ambitious people caught up in the glitz and glam of New York's black elite.

Best Poetry

MACNOLIA by A. Van Jordan (W.W. Norton & Company June 2004, ISBN 0-393-05907-3)

Jordan brings together many different tropes in the service of a compelling and transformative story.

Slave Moth: A Narrative in Verse by Thylias Moss (Persea Books February 2004, ISBN 0-892-55289-1)

Moss's narrative in verse breathes life and muscle into a young slave girl trapped within the peculiarities of the peculiar institution.

Best Cover

Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau by Martha Ward (University Press of Mississippi, March 2004, ISBN 1-578-06629-8)

Marie Laveau in the arresting illustration by Richard Lewis is as bewitching as a goddess.

Best of the Fine Arts

Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan by William A. Fagaly, et. al. (Rizzoli International Publications and the American Folk Art Museum March 2004 ISBN 0-847-92623-6)

In the faith-inspired art of 80-year-old Sister Gertrude, the folk artist made use of various materials to create her interpretations of the Bible. The book is revelatory.

See the Music, Hear the Dance: Rethinking African Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art by Frederick John Lamp (Prestel, March 2004, ISBN 3-791-33036-5)

A celebration of the collection of African artifacts at the Baltimore Museum of Art, which back in 1936 was one of the first museums in the U.S. to host such an exhibit.

Self-Publisher of the Year

Crystal Lacey Winslow, Melodrama Publishing

While many self-published writers have crossed over to mainstream publishers, 25-year-old Crystal Lacey Winslow remains true to her self-publishing vision. Her first novel, Life, Love & Loneliness (Melodrama Publishing, June 2002), became a best-seller, selling 80,000 copies. She turned down a two-book deal from Simon & Schuster to self-publish The Criss Cross (Melodrama Publishing, September 2004, ISBN 0-971-70212-8), the story about the impact of "chance meetings" on a young woman's life. Winslow also opened her bookstore in New York last year called Melodrama Books & Things. How's that for self-publishing moxie?

Best True Life Personal Narratives

Sleepaway School: Stories from a Boy's Life by Lee Stringer (Seven Stories Press June 2004, ISBN 1-583-22478-5)

In this heartrending memoir, Stringer, an accomplished writer (Grand Central Winter: Stories From the Street, Seven Stories Press, July 1998) and radio commentator, recounts his years spent in a New York state's Hawthorne Cedar Knolls, a school for at-risk youths.

Cooking With Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics by Donna Brazile (Simon & Schuster, June 2004 ISBN 0743-25398-1)

Brazile, former campaign manager for the Gore-Lieberman 2000 Presidential campaign, tells the story of her growing up in a "working-poor" family, and her rise to both personal and political accomplishments.

Best Biographies

Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde by Alexis De Veaux (W.W. Norton & Co. March 2004, ISBN 0-393-01954-3)

Alice Walker: A Life by Evelyn C. White (W. W. Norton & Co., September 2004, ISBN 0-393-05891-3)

Publisher W.W. Norton & Company this year released magnificently authoritative portraits of two black feminist voices that first emerged in the late 20th century: poet, essayist, and memoirist Audre Lorde, who died of cancer in 1992, and the novelist, poet and essayist Alice Walker, who this year published her seventh novel, Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart. Biographers Alexis De Veaux and Evelyn C. White each devoted a decade or more to crafting their books. Their brilliantly insightful finished products each reflect the benefits of the extra time and care.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Cox, Matthews & Associates
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group