5 on the Fifthteenth (August 2009)

Oops! We missed getting these out on the 5th this month, but wanted to make sure you still got your fill of Five on the Fifth(teenth).  Enjoy!

Love Trumps Game by D.Y. Phillips

LOVE TRUMPS GAME by D.Y. Phillips shows just how spoiled Neema is. If she asks her mother to babysit her children while she goes to a job interview, it might be more than a week later when she returns. Her mother wants to say “NO!”, but Neema will just wait until her mother is busy doing something else and run out of the house, leaving the children. Her lover, Topps Jackson, a drug dealer, a homicidal maniac, is cruel – mentally and physically – to Neema, but she sticks with him. He has money, a house and her two children are his. What Neema doesn’t realize is that Topps tracks her everywhere she goes. He uses her to deliver his drug. 

The Children of Children Keep Coming: An Epic Griotsong by Russell L. Goings

Alex Haley’s Roots brought to the screen a more thorough account of heritage, struggle and triumph. As I was reading the introduction to THE CHILDREN OF CHILDREN KEEP COMING: An Epic Griotsong, Roots immediately came to mind. THE CHILDREN OF CHILDREN begins with the spotlight on two runaway slaves. Their destiny is the Freedom Train where they have hopes of reaching freedom and liberation. 

Billy by Albert French

BILLY, written by Albert French, is an American literary classic that explores the racial dynamics of the conviction and execution of a ten-year-old black boy in rural Mississippi. French brilliantly weaves two racially segregated communities together and examines the hatred that threatens to diminish the reliance these two communities have on one another. Bold characters brighten the pages, weaving a colorful tale that will leave readers mourning Billy Lee Turner’s death for generations to come. 

Children Of The Waters by Carleen Brice

Out of separation bonding may come, but to get to the bonding stage a series of events must take place in order for the circle to be complete.  CHILDREN OF THE WATERS by Carleen Brice is an atypical account of two sisters, Trish and Billie, one white, one bi-racial and their journey towards each other.  Born to a drug addicted mother and black father, Billie was adopted at birth by a prominent Denver family.  Never knowing her parentage, her seemingly complete world is shattered when Trish comes along in search of her younger sister.  With a story to tell and hopefulness in her heart, Trish’s world is turned upside down when she is forced to deal with the issues of race, religion and abandonment. 

Three Lives by Joe Washington

THREE LIVES by Joe Washington is an account of Nicholas Gambit’s life, starting when he grew up in a Kansas City ghetto defending himself from thugs, until he went to the university and finally, what he did when he left higher education. His mother raised him to remember how smart he was and to not fall into the low life that others around him were into. Everything was fine and he was in college when Raymond Smalls, a local thug, caused Nicholas to give him a huge beat-down. After that, Raymond was on Nicholas’ trail, wanting to kill him. Nicholas knew it and was very worried. Then a man came along who gave him a way out. Will it work for Nicholas? Can he really escape the ghetto thugs?