NCW Libraries

"A dazzling, unforgettable novel about a young Black woman who walks the streets of Oakland and stumbles headlong into the failure of its justice system--a debut that announces a blazingly original voice. Kiara Johnson and her brother Marcus are barely scraping by in a squalid East Oakland apartment complex that calls itself, optimistically, the Royal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus...

The first installment in this exciting series followed Promise, Squeeze, and Show as they robbed, whored, and fought their way to adulthood on the mean streets of Brooklyn. Now, it's a year later. Promise is trying to get out of the gangsta life, but the streets have a powerful call. Squeeze and Show are making out like bandits with their hot new nightclub, the Brooklyn Café. Grindin' in the streets is no longer an option, but trouble still follows...

Tilo Adams thought she had finished with the Mendoza family when she left most of its members twitching on their living room floor. As an FBI agent, violence is nothing new to her, but this time it's murder, and the intended victim is her former lover, Victoria Mendoza. Now she's running from the memories that threaten to destroy her sanity. She has no idea of the danger surrounding her. Left for dead, Victoria is looking for her wayward lover,...

Double Standard My Ass! Hot Alpha Biker? Too damn bad. I am a badass biker babe extraordinaire and Chase better figure that out quick or I will walk. The Maker's of Peace Motorcycle Club is my family. They're all I know, but I about to leave it all behind and find my own Happily Ever After.Chase's past keeps slapping Ainsley in the face, but when the ghosts from her past rise up, jealousy and tempters flare and two stubborn as hell childhood friends...

"A one night stand with no names exchanged.Six years later, she comes face to face with her baby’s father again.Aurora Michaels isn’t the same girl she was that spring night. No longer homeless and living in the back room of a diner where she worked, she’s now a member of the wealthy Kingston family. She has her daughter, a career and has adjusted to her new normal.Billionaire Nick Dare is a man who takes charge. He runs the hotel arm of the...

A Black American longshoreman struggles to feel at home after returning from service in WWI in this classic Harlem Renaissance novel. When America joins World War I in 1917, Jake Brown enlists, ready to fight the Germans and become a hero. Yet when he arrives in France, he's treated more like a slave than a soldier. He spends his time toting around lumber and picking fights with his white comrades. After deserting his post, he finds work and contentment...

"The Blacker the Berry" is the provocative and illuminating 1929 novel by Harlem Renaissance author Wallace Thurman. The novel follows the life of Emma Lou Morgan, a young black woman with dark skin. She is born and raised by her single mother in the predominantly white community of Boise, Idaho. She often feels like an outsider, even among her family, as they are lighter skinned than she, and believes that her dark skin will keep her from marrying...

"Lo que llamamos en otros pecado, consideramos en nosotros como experiencia", Ralph Waldo Emerson. Así empieza todo, con una frase impresa en un marcapáginas que va pasando de mano en mano insertado entre las hojas de un libro o escondido en un cajón de un hotel. Ése es el eslabón de papel de la cadena que engarza a los personajes de esta novela. Cada persona que lo recibe lo lee y lo interpreta de una manera distinta según su forma de ser y...

The spiritually guided precepts of communal harmony and livelihood, often obscured by social injustices, are confronted with metaphysical change and the human condition. Dani, Dor and the monastic order decipher the universal message of preservation through camaraderie and root causes. An inevitable consequence of upheaval, struggling relations revert their prominence in everyday living.

A family of four individuals who somehow face loneliness and a sense of vacuum at one point of time in their lives are suddenly rekindled and excited when a juvenile pug enters the house. The ambiance of the house changes and so does the moods of family members as they sense a kind of purposeful engagement with the pet in the house. A Dog the House is one story that is sure to strike an emotional chord with all those who consciously or unconsciously...