NCW Libraries

"A stunning work of popular history-the story of how a crop transformed the history of slavery. Author Jori Lewis reveals how demand for peanut oil in Europe ensured that slavery in Africa would persist well into the twentieth century, long after the European powers had officially banned it in the territories they controlled"--

Born into a family of powerful witchdoctors, Arrah yearns for magic of her own. But each year she fails to call forth her ancestral powers, while her ambitious mother watches with growing disapproval. There's only one thing Arrah hasn't tried, a deadly last resort: trading years of her own life for scraps of magic. Until the Kingdom's children begin to disappear, and Arrah is desperate to find the culprit. She uncovers something worse. The long-imprisoned...

"This work centers on the life and writing of Omar Ibn Said, born in 1770 in a border region between Senegal and Mauritania that played a significant role in Islamic nations. Omar studied for 25 years at an Islamic seminary and was poised to become a leader in the faith, but after being captured by an invading army, he fell into the hands of transatlantic slave traders. He was sold to a plantation owner near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1808. What...

The Irishman: An epic saga of organized crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the twentieth century. Left behind by the world, former hit man and union truck driver Frank Sheeran looks back from a nursing home on his life's journey through the ranks of organized crime: from his involvement with Philadelphia mob boss Russell...

"A motley crew of outcasts finds themselves caught up in a deadly power struggle for control of an ancient artifact of immense power. This striking sci-fi love letter to the African continent whisks you from the neon-drenched megalopolis of Eko City, Nigeria, to the sun-kissed estuaries of the Niger Delta." --

"Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonial, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising half-caste children who will be sent abroad to be educated in England before returning to the Gold Coast to serve as administrators of the Empire. Her sister, Esi, will be imprisoned beneath...

After a decade of captaining diplomatic voyages for Frobisher Shipping, alongside covert missions for the Crown, Captain Robert Frobisher decides that establishing a home -- with hearth and wife -- should be his next challenge. But an unexpected mission intervenes.

Based on West African folklore, this is the story of a remarkable baby boy who is born with the ability to speak, amazing intelligence, and extraordinary physical abilities.