Search Results: Authors starting with W from Oasis in the Diaspora

Ballantine Books, 2002. First edition
Box 6

ibooks, 1999. Fair. The time is 1964. The place is the Cabinet Room of the Where House. An unexpected accident and the law of succession have just made Douglass Dilman the first black President of the United States. This is the theme of what was surely one of the most provocative novels of the 1960s. It takes the reader into the storm center of the presidency, where Dilman, until now an almost unknown senator, must bear the weight of three burdens: his office, his race, and his private life. From beginning to end, "The Man is a novel of swift and tremendous drama, as President Dilman attempts to uphold his oath in the face of international crises, domestic dissension, violence, scandal, and ferocious hostility. Push comes to shove in a breathtaking climax, played out in the full glare of publicity, when the Senate of the United States meets for the first time in one hundred years to impeach the President. First ibooks printing
Softcover

Box 6

Chatto & Windus, 1992. 1st. Very Good. Inspired by "The Tempest", the novelist rewrites the drama of Ariel, Caliban and Sycorax in a Caribbean setting, exploring the colonial conflicts of an imaginary island and one family. Hardcover

Box 5

Dafina Books, 2001. "Full of flavor, wit, and drama." --QBRStep into the world of four married men whose vows didn't guarantee them a "happily ever after". . .Kyle runs a booming business, but his main job is hiding his wife from the sistahs who would skin him alive for marrying a woman like her. . .. Easy-going Allen can please his bossy Mama and his gold-digging fiancée--just not at the same time. . .. Big-hearted Wil's got a wife with a mouth so big she should consider a career in broadcasting. . ..And smooth and sexy Jay's "the man"--not only for his wife, but for all the other ladies he can't resist.But these lifelong friends find their lives turned upside-down when each one is shown the door by his furious woman. The result is a rowdy romp through no-tell motels, divorce court, and jail. And as they fend off strippers, trippers, psycho ex-football players, and worse, they know there's one thing they can always count on. . .each other.Praise For The Novels Of Carl Weber"A fast-paced mix of… Read More

Avon Books, 1999. 1st. Fine. Anybody lucky enough to have experienced the artistry of Valerie Wilson Wesley already knows that her ability to blend wry humor with stark reality is unsurpassed. And now she plies her talents in a new direction in an insightful, poignant story of family ties unraveling and lost loves regained.Eva is alone with an empty heart in a big, empty house. Hutch fears he is falling in love with the neglected wife of his wealthy, philandering best friend. Charley, Eva's law school-bound daughter, forgets her plans for school to become a stand-up comedian. Steven, Hutch's son, harbors a secret that will rock his father's world. And into the mix strolls Isaiah Lonesome, Charley's ex-boyfriend, a handsome hunk of a twenty-eight-year-old jazz musician who will teach Eva to play some lusty new riffs on love's oldest song. And in the end, everyone learns that when it comes to living life to the fullest, and in the quest for true love, it ain't nobody's business how one goes about… Read More

HarperCollins, 2002. 1. Fine. A trio of great single women is being driven to distraction; they have one thing in common -- Randall Hollis, a successful art dealer at the top of his game. Randall is rich, handsome, and charming -- the true-to-life dream lover of these smart, independent women who all find themselves passionately involved with him during the same seven-month period. There's Medora Jackson, an artist who has loved Randall since college and is now desperately trying to cut him loose. But turning Randall Hollis out of her life will end up being far more difficult than she thinks. There's Ana Reese-Mitchell, a wealthy widow and art collector who is haunted by the death of her best friend and the specter of her cruel late husband. She hopes Randall Hollis will be her second chance at love. And there's ambitious Taylor Benedict, a graduate student in art history who is coming to terms with her parents' divorce and problems from her childhood that she can't chase away. She's sure that… Read More

Doubleday, 1995. 1st. Fair. The stories contained here are as American as jazz, and as wise and multifaceted as their writer. Dorothy West's metier is the unique crucible in which America places its black middle class, but her themes are universal: the daily misunderstandings between young and old, men and women, rich and poor that can lead to tragedy; and the ways in which bonds of family and community can bring us together, and tear us asunder. Dorothy West's autobiographical essays explore the poles of her remarkable life - from growing up black and middle-class in Boston to her near-mythic trip to Moscow in 1933 with Langston Hughes and other Harlem Renaissance writers to life on her beloved Martha's Vineyard. They cohere into a beautiful and poignant memoir of a singular American life, a memoir that communicates with her short stories in a host of fertile ways. Taken as a whole, The Richer, The Poorer is a triumphant celebration of the life and work of one of America's genuine treasures.… Read More

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2000. Fine. This debut novel by the two time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys wowed critics and readers everywhere and marked the debut of an important American writer. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadIt is a time of calamity in a major metropolitan city's Department of Elevator Inspectors, and Lila Mae Watson, the first black female elevator inspector in the history of the department, is at the center of it.  There are two warring factions within the department:  the Empiricists, who work by the book and dutifully check for striations on the winch cable and such; and the Intuitionists, who are simply able to enter the elevator cab in question, meditate, and intuit any defects.  Lila Mae is an Intuitionist and, it just so happens, has the highest accuracy rate in the entire department.  But when an elevator in a new city building goes into total freefall on… Read More

Doubleday, 2001. 1. Fine. In a glowing review of Colson Whitehead's first novel, The Intuitionist, the New York Times Book Review concluded, "Literary reputations may not always rise and fall as predictably as elevators, but if there's any justice in the world of fiction, Colson Whitehead's should be heading toward the upper floors." With John Henry Days, Colson Whitehead delivers on the promise of his critically acclaimed debut in a magnificent new novel: a retelling of the legend of John Henry that sweeps across generations and cultures in a stunning, hilarious, and unsettling portrait of American society.Immortalized in folk ballads, John Henry has been a favorite American hero since the mid-nineteenth century. According to legend, John Henry, a black laborer for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, was a man of superhuman strength and stamina. He proved his mettle in a contest with a steam drill, only to die of exhaustion moments after his triumph. In John Henry Days, Colson Whitehead transforms… Read More

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012. Advance Reading Copy. Very Good. This debut novel by the two time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys wowed critics and readers everywhere and marked the debut of an important American writer. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadIt is a time of calamity in a major metropolitan city's Department of Elevator Inspectors, and Lila Mae Watson, the first black female elevator inspector in the history of the department, is at the center of it.  There are two warring factions within the department:  the Empiricists, who work by the book and dutifully check for striations on the winch cable and such; and the Intuitionists, who are simply able to enter the elevator cab in question, meditate, and intuit any defects.  Lila Mae is an Intuitionist and, it just so happens, has the highest accuracy rate in the entire department.  But when an elevator in a new city building… Read More

Dutton, 1992. 1. Fine. Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for American Fiction, and one of America's most talented novelists, Richard Wiley gives fresh proof of his scope and power in this major novel set in Africa.Jerry Neal, an American living in Lagos, is principal of an international school attended by children of Americans living abroad and the African elite. The wife he loved is dead, and guiding the education of the offspring of others is his chief source of satisfaction and self-esteem. He is a man floating free, with both the privileges and purposelessness of detachment. He remains a stranger in the teeming, tumultous city.But Neal's self-contained world is suddenly shattered. He finds himself in prison, the victim of a government power play and his involvement with a group of Nigerian dissidents. Stripped of his mantle of immunity, he becomes more emotionally human again, living in his own skin, feeling the chill of danger, the heat of desire. Against his will, schoolmaster Neal begins… Read More

G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1997. 1st. Fine. The Nigerian civil war was the watershed in the history of the Nigerian military. It demonstrated the need for a modern, professional army, navy and airforce, with sophisticated weaponry, and led to a huge increase in expenditure and personnel. It also demonstrated - very significantly - how the military could wield supreme political power.Peters traces the history of the Nigerian military from its colonial constabulary-type organization as part of the Royal West African Frontier Force, to the establishment of the military state. Revealing the extent to which the military is considered a glamorous calling and a passport to wealth, Peters shows how its officers are drawn from the educated elite and play leading roles in all aspects of life: political, economic and social.The military has succeeded in guaranteeing a measure of national cohesion, and has increased the number of states in Nigeria to ensure regional stability; its ranks include all ethnic groups;… Read More

Putnam's, 2002. Pristine. Evie Thomas is not who she used to be. Once she had a best friend, a happy home and a loving grandmother living nearby. Once her name was Toswiah. Now, everything is different. Her family has been forced to move to a new place and change their identities. But that's not all that has changed. Her once lively father has become depressed and quiet. Her mother leaves teaching behind and clings to a new-found religion. Her only sister is making secret plans to leave. And Evie, struggling to find her way in a new city where kids aren't friendly and the terrain is as unfamiliar as her name, wonders who she is. Jaqueline Woodson weaves a fascinating portrait of a thoughtful young girl's coming of age in a world turned upside down Hardcover


Box 1

Dutton, 1995. 1st. Fine. It is the Vietnam era, the "Brady Bunch" era, a time when men walk on the moon and families unravel. Brooklyn pulses with African American and Latino life, a world separated by invisible barriers from the white world. Through the eyes and ears of the unnamed narrator, we come to know - in all its sensuality and brutality - a world that is held together by a young girl's fragile perceptions and cautiously emerging desires. Autobiography of a Family Photo is a coming-to-consciousness, coming-of-age story of a young girl, told with passion and poetry, honesty and clear vision. Hardcover
Box 1

Simon and Schuster, 2000. 1st. Fine. Strength and resilience fuel an urban teen’s fight for survival in this acclaimed novel from Bil Wright that “delivers a knock-out punch” (Venus Magazine).Fourteen-year-old Louis Bowman lives in a boxing ring—a housing project circa 1968—and is fighting “just to get to the end of the round.” Sharing the ring is his mother, Jeanette Stamps, a ferociously stubborn woman battling for her own dreams to be realized; his stepfather, Ben Stamps, the would-be savior, who becomes the sparring partner to them both; and the enigmatic Ray Anthony Robinson, the neighborhood “hoodlum” in purple polyester pants, who sets young Louis’s heart spinning with the first stirrings of sexual longing. Bil Wright deftly evokes an unrelenting world with quirky humor and a clear-eyed perspective in this “deeply felt coming-of-age novel” that “reads like the best of memoirs” (School Library Journal). Includes publisher ephemera
Softcover

Box 7