In 1960s Mississippi, Skeeter, a southern society girl, returns from college determined to become a writer but turns her friends' lives and a small Mississippi town upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families. Aibileen, Skeeter's best friend's housekeeper, is the first to open up, to the dismay of her friends in the tight-knit black community.

Letitia holds nothing more dear than the papers that prove she is no longer a slave. They may not cause white folks to treat her like a human being, but at least they show she is free. She trusts in those words she cannot read--as she is beginning to trust in Davey Carson, an Irish immigrant cattleman who wants her to come west with him. Nancy Hawkins is loathe to leave her settled life for the treacherous journey by wagon train, but she is so deeply...

"A vibrant and empowering history that emphasizes the perspectives and stories of African American women to show how they are--and have always been--instrumental in shaping our country. In centering Black women's stories, two award-winning historians seek both to empower African American women and to show their allies that Black women's unique ability to make their own communities while combatting centuries of oppression is an essential component...

This fourth autobiographical work by Maya Angelou tells of her entry into New York's circle of black artists and writers, her involvement in the civil rights movement, and changes in her personal life.

"Discovering she's pregnant--after she was told she may not be able to have biological children--Tabitha throws herself headfirst into the world of "single mothers by choice." When an unexpected turn of events draws Marc--her on and off-again ex-boyfriend--back into her world with surprising demands, and the situation at work begins to threaten her livelihood and her identity, Tabitha must make some tough decisions. It takes a village to raise a child,...

A divorced L.A. lawyer, Peter, thinks he has met the girl of his dreams online, until she shows up at his door and is a sassy, African American ex-con. She moves in and really begins to shake up his boring suburban lifestyle.

"Isabelle is completely lost. When she first began her career in publishing right out of college, she did not expect to be twenty-five, living at home, still an editorial assistant, and the only Black employee at her publishing house. Overworked and underpaid, constantly torn between speaking up or stifling herself, Izzy thinks there must be more to this publishing life. So when she overhears her boss complaining about a beastly high-profile author...

A woman expecting her third child with a philandering husband must come to grips with her self-esteem issues, her long-time secret addiction and the lack of diversity in the upper class New Jersey suburb where they just moved.

A collection of 50 new poems, sketches, and meditations charts new territory, including popular culture and life in America, the poet's own battle with illness, relationships between mothers and their children, legendary historical figures, the South, the recent terrorist attacks, and Giovanni's own childhood. When Nikki Giovanni's poems first emerged during the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements of the 1960s, she immediately took a place among...

Never in her life did Kitty make a decision for herself. She was raised on a South Carolina plantation as the pet of her white master's daughter. Now, as a young adult, she must find the strength and faith to make the biggest decision ever. Will she stay with her master and go south to avoid the Yankees or take off tonight for the north with Grady, the field slave she has come to love?