Summer Reading

American Visions, June, 2000

Married life need not spell the end of summer love. American Visions asked six writers--three couples to tell us with which books they plan to wile away the hours.

TARESSA AND CALVIN STOVALL

Summer brings to mind guilty pleasures. We plan to curl up, stretchout, and dive into some long-awaited reads that have tempted us for months! Both of us are working on new books: TaRessa, on not one, but two novels, and Calvin, on a nonfiction work. So aside from our research for those projects, we look forward to reading for pure pleasure. OK, almost pure: We're always taking notes and seeking inspiration!

TaRessa: I plan to start with exciting works of fiction by two new authors: the military romance Black Coffee (i.Universe.com, 2000), by Tracy Price Thompson, and the political thriller Those Who Trespass Against Us (i.Universe.com, 2000), by Gretchen Cook. Then it's on to Sugar (E.P. Dutton, 2000), by Bernice McFadden, which friends of mine are raving about, and Black Girl in Paris (Riverhead Books, 2000), by Shay Youngblood, which seems just too, too intriguing.

Also on the list: Dark Secret (Forge, 2000), by Elizabeth Atkins Bowman, is sure to be as sweetly spicy as her debut novel, White Chocolate (Forge, 1998). All of Me: A Voluptuous Tale (E.P. Dutton, 2000), by Venise Berry, is a story I, as a full-figured sistah, can definitely identify with! For balance, I'll soak up undeniably male energy with Walter Mosley's Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (W.W. Norton & Co., 1997), and with the intriguing Juneteenth (Random House, 1999), by the late Ralph Ellison, edited by John F. Callahan.

For a dose of poetic insight into a hip-hop martyr, I look forward to The Rose That Grew From Concrete (Simon & Schuster, 2000), by Tupac Shakur and Nikki Giovanni. In nonfiction, I'll start with The New Color of Success (Prima Publishing, 1999), by Niki Butler Mitchell, to learn more about the lives and philosophies of super successful young black entrepreneurs. Then I plan to devour The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks (E.P. Dutton, 2000), by the always thought-provoking Randall Robinson, and finally nurture my soul with Welcoming Spirit Home: Ancient African Teachings to Celebrate Children and Community (New World Library, 1999), by Sobonfu E. Some.

No matter the season, I like sass and spice in my fiction, and I have a weakness for authors who create women I can relate to. Writers Pearl Cleage, April Sinclair, Kristen Hunter Lattany and Evelyn Coleman all get high marks for their female--and male--characters. I look for a novel to take me away, completely out of my world, for a while. I want to be caught up, swept away, mesmerized, and then deposited gently at home at journey's end.

As for nonfiction, I like crisp, to-the-point writing. I read lots of spiritual and self-help books, and my favorites blend wit, wisdom and usable information with a little flair.

Calvin: Being a journalist, I value solid research and reporting in nonfiction books and intelligent, fast-paced drama in the fiction I read. Walter Mosley is a favorite novelist. Reading, like writing, is an opportunity to learn and teach, to bend and reach, and to discover new facets of ourselves in relation to the words, the work and the lives of others.

As an avid reader and sports fan, I look forward to a championship summer season. Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season (Crown, 1999), by David Shields, will provide a glimpse into the black and white sides of pro hoops. Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism (W.W. Norton, 2000), by Walter Lafeber, will give me insight into the marketing of athletic mystique. Frazier Robinson's Catching Dreams: My Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues (Syracuse University Press, 1999) will keep me in touch with the history of black players, and with Outside the Lines: African Americans and the Integration of the National Football League (New York University Press, 2000), by Charles K. Ross, I'll tackle another perspective on the gridiron.

Once I've relaxed with the sports books, I'll move on to books with family themes, such as Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to (Longstreet Press, 1999), by Leonard Pitts Jr., and Reaching Up for Manhood: Transforming the Lives of Boys in America (Beacon Press, 1998), by Geoffrey Canada. I will also spend quiet time with inspiring titles--for instance, God's Little Devotional Book for Dads (Honor Press, 1998); Father Songs: Testimonies by African American Sons and Daughters (Beacon Press, 1998), edited by Gloria Wade Gayles; and Black Fatherhood: The Guide to Male Parenting (Impact Publishing, 1995), by Earl Ofari Hutchinson.

After we have both finished swimming through our summer reading lists, we'll be back at our computers, working on our latest projects--fueled and inspired, no doubt, by all of the excellent writing we've consumed for both work and pleasure. When you love words and books as much as we do, work and play are really the same thing!

TaRessa and Calvin Stovall are co-authors of A Love Supreme: Real Life Stories of Black Love (Warner Books, 2000). Calvin is managing editor of the Courier-Post newspaper in Cherry Hill, N.J., and TaRessa is a communications and speechwriting consultant.