Instagram Facebook X-twitter Linkedin

Sign Up

Get the latest ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

All , , , Coverage

All Black History Coverage

NonfictionHistoryBlack HistoryAmerican History

The War Before the War

Review by Vanessa Willoughby

The general consensus about the origins of the Civil War point to one irrevocable catalyst: the institution of slavery in the South. With fine-combed research, Andrew Delbanco, the Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University and 2012 recipient of the National Humanities Medal, argues that the Fugitive Slave Act was the centralized fuse that sparked the Civil War in The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War.

The practice of slavery was threaded into American life from the United States’ inception. Following the end of the Revolutionary War, leaders in the colonies, including General George Washington, were concerned that Tories leaving the country would take fugitive slaves with them to freedom. Washington himself called for aid in locating his runaway slaves, unknowingly foreshadowing the Fugitive Slave Act.

By the time Lincoln became president, congressional attempts to appease opposing sides on the slavery issue had carved a path toward implosion, culminating in an attempt at uniting a fissured nation that utterly failed: the Compromise of 1850. Its inclusion of the Fugitive Slave Act, which decreed that fugitive slaves must be returned to their master even if they had reached a free state, was the divisive match that lit the powder keg.

As Delbanco convincingly argues, the Fugitive Slave Act not only put a microscope on America’s fractured moral psyche, but its consequences seem to have echoed into the current political and social landscape. Racism, simultaneously an agent of white supremacy and a symptom, routinely shapes national policies and national identity. Ultimately, the Fugitive Slave Act was not a salve for the deepening fissures in the country’s conscience, but a reflection of America’s inability to grapple with its moral ambiguities. In the hands of an author strictly committed to objective, hard-nosed facts, The War Before the War would read as coldly authoritative and dry. Yet Delbanco treats his subject matter as a historical artifact, a sprawling puzzle and psychological case study, viewing America’s past acts as a troublesome blueprint for America’s present and possibly its future.

The general consensus about the origins of the Civil War point to one irrevocable catalyst: the institution of slavery in the South. Although some would argue that the founding of the United States technically did not depend upon the issue of slavery, the practice had already been threaded into American life by the United States’ inception. With fine-combed research, Andrew Delblanco, the Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University and 2012 recipient of the National Humanities Medal, argues that the Fugitive Slave Act as the centralized fuse that sparked the Civil War.
NonfictionHistoryBlack History

The unfairly forgotten story of African-American pioneers

Review by Edward Morris

The role free black settlers played in opening up the Northwest Territory after the Revolutionary War remains virtually unmentioned—and certainly unexamined—in most general American histories. To show the extent of this migration toward supposed freedom, Anna-Lisa Cox, a fellow at Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, begins this study by citing the locales of 338 black farming settlements that were established between 1800 and 1860 in the territory that would ultimately become the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Cox then follows the story of how the ideals of racial equality enunciated in the Northwest Territorial Ordinance of 1787 were ever-so-slowly eroded by the same greed and assertions of white supremacy that were then prevalent in America’s slave-holding South.

There are three main strands in Cox’s narrative—a running account of attitudes and actions toward slavery at the Federal level throughout this period; a sampling of local and statewide laws restricting black voting, occupancy and land ownership in the frontier Northwest; and sketches of specific black families that focus on the harsh work they did to carve out their farms from the forests while simultaneously confronting thickets of prejudices.

Even though slavery itself was illegal is this area, enterprising whites asserted their control by chaining their black workers to indentured servitude (for spans as long as 90 years) and requiring even land-owning blacks to carry identity papers. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 made things even worse, enabling whites to seize and sell free blacks on the pretense that they were escaped slaves.

Conditions didn’t get measurably better in the region after the Civil War and the passage of the 15th Amendment, which guaranteed blacks the right to vote. Racial prejudice, envy and state-ignored violence continued. Today, evidence of the pioneering African-American presence exists only here and there in place names, still-functioning churches and local lore. The Bone and Sinew of the Land takes a step toward remembering it.

The role free black settlers played in opening up the Northwest Territory after the Revolutionary War remains virtually unmentioned—and certainly unexamined—in most general American histories. To show the extent of this migration toward supposed freedom, Anna-Lisa Cox, a fellow at Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, begins this study by citing the locales of 338 black farming settlements that were established between 1800 and 1860 in the territory that would ultimately become the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

NonfictionHistoryBlack History

A charming, fascinating exploration

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

If you only know Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. as the engaging host of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” you might at first be perplexed by what he calls “the retro title” of his new work. It was, in fact, chosen in homage to a 1957 book by Joel Augustus Rogers entitled 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof, which was billed at the time as a sort of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! about black history.

If Rogers was a black history teacher for the 20th century, Gates is certainly one for ours. Like Rogers, Gates aspires “to be ever curious, open, and alive,” and his writing here showcases those qualities. Rogers based his book on his newspaper columns. Likewise, Gates’ selections first appeared as essays in his online magazine The Root.

A series of 100 questions with short answers, the book is a freewheeling exploration of black history. Gates takes on questions such as “Who was the first black saint?” as well as “Who was the first black person to see the baby Jesus?” and “What happened to Argentina’s black population?” An essay about the first black fighter pilot is followed by a question about slave ownership. Topics range from sports to civil rights and the slave trade, the Civil War, piracy and even the Salem witch trials.

Gates is a historian, but he is also a consummate teacher. And one of the charms of the volume is that the essays appear in no particular order, making it ideal for dipping into at will or keeping on a bedside table to pick up before bed. But be forewarned: In the hands of a skilled storyteller like Gates, this fascinating history will definitely not put you to sleep.

 

This article was originally published in the November 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

If you only know Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. as the engaging host of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” you might at first be perplexed by what he calls “the retro title” of his new work. It was, in fact, chosen in homage to a 1957 book by Joel Augustus Rogers entitled 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof, which was billed at the time as a sort of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! about black history.

NonfictionHistoryBlack HistoryAmerican History

Be Free or Die

Review by Edward Morris

In the early morning of May 13, 1862, the side-wheel steamboat Planter left its dock in the Charleston, South Carolina, harbor and eased past an array of heavily armed Confederate fortifications toward the open sea. The Planter was a local vessel that regularly plied those waters. The only thing that made this morning’s passage remarkable was that the runaway slave Robert Smalls was piloting the boat. His “cargo” consisted of 15 other slaves, among them his wife and children.

It was a daring escape, minutely planned and flawlessly executed. And it was the beginning of Smalls’ life as a free man. After surrendering his craft to the Union navy, along with crucial military intelligence, he continued to serve the Union cause as a pilot and as a spokesman for black equality. Endlessly imaginative and resourceful, Smalls was able, within less than two years of his escape, to buy the “master’s house” in which he and his mother had recently been slaves. (To compound this irony, years after the war ended, he invited members of his former master’s family to his home—once theirs—for a prolonged visit. They accepted but refused to eat at the same table with his family.)

Smalls, who learned to read relatively late in life, did not leave voluminous written records behind. But in Be Free or Die, Cate Lineberry has pieced together a coherent arc of Smalls’ story through contemporary newspaper accounts—he was heralded as a hero throughout the North—military and government records and biographies of those who worked with Smalls and knew him well. Lineberry sets these collected, fascinating details into a larger narrative about how the Civil War played out in the Union-occupied coastal areas of South Carolina.

 

This article was originally published in the July 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Be Free or Die chronicles the extraordinary achievements of Robert Smalls, who escaped slavery, became a Union officer and served in the House of Representatives.
NonfictionBlack History

Wrongfully convicted in Jim Crow South

Review by Carla Jean Whitley

Caliph Washington was minding his own business. But life took a nasty turn when the black Army veteran was pulled over one evening in Bessemer, Alabama, in 1957.

Officer James "Cowboy" Clark struggled with Washington, and in the process, Clark's gun went off. The bullet ricocheted off the vehicle and pierced Clark's stomach. Although innocent, as a black man in the Deep South, Washington was left with one option: Run.

In He Calls Me By Lightning, history professor S. Jonathan Bass uncovers Washington's search for justice. Officers arrested Washington in Mississippi and returned him to Bessemer, where he would serve decades for a crime he didn't commit. And despite then-Alabama governor George Wallace's famous stance in favor of segregation, Wallace proved something of a saving grace for Washington. Because the governor was staunchly against the death penalty, Washington was able to avoid the electric chair.

“Caliph Washington’s life has come to symbolize the violence, corruption, and racism that dominated not only in this city but also in the larger South,” Bass writes in the book's introduction. Through Washington’s story, Bass draws parallels between Bessemer and the South as a whole. Bass' research is evident—the book's bibliography lists hundreds of sources, including dozens of interviews, court cases, books and more. Even so, He Calls Me By Lightning reads more like a novel. It's a compelling story of a man's search for justice in the midst of America's civil rights movement. Bass is also the author of Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and the 'Letter from Birmingham Jail,' and with He Calls Me By Lightning, he shows again that truth can be just as compelling as fiction.

Caliph Washington was minding his own business. But life took a nasty turn when the black Army veteran was pulled over one evening in Bessemer, Alabama, in 1957.
NonfictionSportsBlack History

Breaking barriers in the SEC

Review by Keith Herrell

As the first African-American basketball player in the Southeastern Conference, Perry Wallace earned plenty of headlines. But few of the articles under those headlines told Wallace’s real story, or described the emotions he felt as he made history almost half a century ago.

Andrew Maraniss, who graduated from Vanderbilt a generation after Wallace and first interviewed him for a black history class, takes readers behind the headlines with a meticulously researched book, Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South. The story is told unapologetically from Wallace’s side, but it’s a side that needs to be heard.

As valedictorian of his class at Nashville’s all-black Pearl High School in 1966 and leader of the state champion Pearl Tigers, Wallace was, on the surface, the perfect candidate to integrate the SEC. In many ways, Vanderbilt’s move succeeded, with Wallace starring on the court and, off the court, being chosen for Vanderbilt’s highest honor for a male student.

Unfortunately, the public only saw part of the story. Wallace was the target of vicious verbal abuse on the road and subtle and not-so-subtle racism in Nashville. A day after his graduation, Wallace gave a bombshell newspaper interview in which he described his Vanderbilt years as lonely and unfulfilling. Shortly thereafter, he left his hometown and settled in Washington, D.C., where he has enjoyed a successful career as a law professor.

Maraniss sets Wallace’s story against the backdrop of the civil rights movement. Strong Inside is superbly written, hard to put down and fascinating for sports fans and non-sports fans alike.

RELATED CONTENT: Read our Q&A with Andrew Maraniss on Strong Inside.

This article was originally published in the December 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

As the first African-American basketball player in the Southeastern Conference, Perry Wallace earned plenty of headlines. But few of the articles under those headlines told Wallace’s real story, or described the emotions he felt as he made history almost half a century ago.
NonfictionHistoryBlack HistoryAmerican History

A deeply personal look at King’s last year

Review by Henry L. Carrigan Jr.

On April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King Jr., stepped into the pulpit of Riverside Church in New York City and delivered a thunderous sermon opposing the war in Vietnam. In that now-famous moment, King denounced the strident militarism of the American government—describing it as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today"— and outlined what he saw as the connections between the war effort, racism and poverty.

In Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year, television host Tavis Smiley provides a "you-are-there" account of King's political, moral and personal struggles from the time of the Riverside sermon to his assassination exactly one year later. By the summer of 1967, the fabric of the civil rights movement had started to fray; rival factions within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) challenged what they viewed as King's betrayal of purpose as he moved to focus more on the war than the struggles against racism. Younger black leaders, including H. Rap Brown and Jesse Jackson, moved away from King's nonviolent strategies, dividing the black community, especially in northern cities like Chicago and Detroit where poverty fueled race riots. By the time of King's assassination, Smiley shows that chaos more than community reigned among civil rights activists.

Drawing on new interviews with King's family and closest associates, Smiley recreates not only the cultural and political strife of King's final months but also his deep weariness from having to stay constantly on the move to meet with other leaders or participate in acts of civil protest. Unlike other, more definitive, biographies of King, such as Taylor Branch's Parting of the Waters, Smiley's account takes King off his pedestal and offers glimpses of the high personal costs King paid for his commitment to the moral callings of his conscience.

 

On April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King Jr., stepped into the pulpit of Riverside Church in New York City and delivered a thunderous sermon opposing the war in Vietnam. In that now-famous moment, King denounced the strident militarism of the American government—describing it as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today"— and outlined what he saw as the connections between the war effort, racism and poverty.
NonfictionHistoryBlack History

The Holy Cross hero of the Civil Rights movement

Review by Henry L. Carrigan Jr.

Echoing loudly down the corridors of history, several events in 1968 and the years just before it rang incessantly in the ears of Americans, and African Americans in particular. The passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965 fostered both hope and frustration: hope for the future, and frustration that progress came so slowly. Then, in April 1968, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., coupled with the rise of the Black Power movement, lent urgency to the cause of civil rights. Along with concerns about the military draft, racial inequalities in the American education system stirred many of the nation’s largest and most vocal protests.

While debates over integration fueled the fires of protests on many college campuses, the evidence of integration at those same schools was indeed scant. In spite of the formal end to racial segregation in schools in 1954, most of the nation’s top colleges and universities remained strongholds of white privilege in 1968. In the fall of that year, however, a group of diverse African-American students—including Clarence Thomas, the novelist Edward P. Jones, the football player Eddie Jenkins and lawyers Ted Wells and Stanley Grayson—arrived at College of the Holy Cross, a small Jesuit college in central Massachusetts.

As journalist Diane Brady points out in Fraternity, her moving chronicle of the times and the lives of these men, such an event might not have happened if not for the passionate commitment of the Reverend John Brooks to King’s ideals of equality and social justice. The 44-year-old priest convinced leaders of the college that the school was missing out on an opportunity to help shape an ambitious generation of black men growing up in America, and he received the authority to recruit black students and offer them full scholarships.

Of course, racial prejudice and slurs didn’t disappear once Jones, Thomas and the others entered Holy Cross. Brady nicely weaves Brooks’ forceful support of the black students and their goals with the stories of the students themselves and their discomforts, their struggles and their eventual triumphs. As Brady offers heretofore unseen glimpses into the early lives of this fraternity of African Americans, she also brings to our attention for the first time an unsung hero of the civil rights movement.

Echoing loudly down the corridors of history, several events in 1968 and the years just before it rang incessantly in the ears of Americans, and African Americans in particular. The passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965…

HistoryBlack History

America in black and white

Review by bookpagedev

It would seem a daunting task to write an entire book based on a single photograph, but author Louis P. Masur is equal to the challenge in his latest work, The Soiling of Old Glory. The picture on the cover reveals the book’s focus: A well-dressed black man is being held by an angry white crowd. Facing him is a young white teenager bearing an American flag. He holds the staff like a spear, appearing ready to thrust it into the stomach of the black man.

The photo was taken in Boston on April 5, 1976, during a racially charged protest over school busing. The image was captured by Stanley Forman, a photographer for the Boston Herald American. Forman’s photograph caused a national uproar, not only because of the graphic violence, but also because it occurred during America’s bicentennial year, just steps from the site of the Boston Massacre. Forman won a Pulitzer Prize for the picture.

That single photograph serves as a starting point for Masur to examine a range of themes. First, there are the details leading up to the historic event: How the angry mob marched downtown to protest outside City Hall; how black lawyer Ted Landsmark happened to be walking by on his way to a meeting; and how Forman arrived on the scene to record the assault on film. Additionally, Masur, professor of American Institutions and Values at Trinity College, uses the image to explore a variety of issues, such as racism, school busing and the impact of images of the American flag, from Iwo Jima to 9/11.

Perhaps most fascinating are the author’s interviews with Forman, Landsmark and Joseph Rakes, the teenager holding the flag. Each give their unique account of the event, withespecially poignant testimony from Landsmark, who forgives his attackers, and Rakes, who apologized to Landsmark and spent his life trying to make amends for his actions.

The Soiling of Old Glory is an engaging book for anyone interested in journalism, photography, history or social themes, as – like a photograph – it reflects the actions and attitudes of America at a distinctive place and time.

John T. Slania is a journalism professor at Loyola University in Chicago.

It would seem a daunting task to write an entire book based on a single photograph, but author Louis P. Masur is equal to the challenge in his latest work, The Soiling of Old Glory. The picture on the cover reveals the book's focus: A…
HistoryBlack History

Forty years after Memphis

Review by bookpagedev

In his provocative new book, April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death and How It Changed America, author, educator and activist Michael Eric Dyson rekindles grim memories for readers who made it through that tough time, while giving needed perspective to those of later generations. Dyson wrests the image of King from that of a conciliatory, peaceful figure, and recasts him as a visionary change agent whose goals weren’t merely to address injustices, but to radically remake American society.

In Dyson’s view, King inspired black Americans to be proud of their heritage, to demand equality rather than ask for it, and to recognize the potential for greatness within their ranks. He also puts King squarely in the forefront of several global struggles: for the recognition of emerging nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America; for acknowledgement of the West’s responsibility toward less fortunate countries; and for the establishment of links between oppressed people regardless of color, gender or sexual preference. April 4, 1968 addresses the conflicts King’s evolving views caused with more traditional elements in both black and white America, and Dyson makes it clear that there were questions about direction, philosophy and viewpoint within the ranks of the civil rights movement.

Dyson faithfully recalls the details of King’s assassination and the atmosphere of genuine despair and anger that followed, one that led to riots in several cities and numerous conspiracy theories. He also covers lingering controversies – for example, whether James Earl Ray acted alone or even fired the fateful shot.

April 4, 1968 is an analysis and examination of the 1960s and black politics, with an occasional side trip into musical dissection and film lore. Dyson, a Georgetown University professor, credibly and effectively ties these subjects together, offering a broad and valuable picture of King’s life and impact.

Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paper and other publications.

In his provocative new book, April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death and How It Changed America, author, educator and activist Michael Eric Dyson rekindles grim memories for readers who made it through that tough time, while giving needed perspective to those of later…
HistoryBlack History

A moving account of one pivotal summer

Review by Ron Wynn

While the history of America’s civil rights movement contains many glittering tales of triumph, there were also several episodes filled with tragedy and sacrifice. Bruce Watson’s fine, valuable new volume Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy focuses on one key period in 1964. This was a time when progress had been slowed and there were serious doubts about whether the effort to eradicate legal segregation in the South and secure genuine citizenship for its black residents could be won. Against that backdrop, Watson’s book eschews romanticism and outlines in exacting detail the opposition and hatred civil rights workers faced in Mississippi, the state that historically had both the largest black population and the ugliest record of oppression.

Freedom Summer focuses on the contributions of the 700 college students who came from the North, the West and the Midwest over that key three-month period to assist in voter registration and education. They were idealistic, committed to progressive ideals of social justice and freedom, and determined to make a difference. Yet on the first night they arrived, three of their members—Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney—disappeared and were later found murdered. Their deaths brought international attention to the state, finally got the FBI seriously involved in fighting the campaign of violence and terror that had been waged against both black and white civil rights workers for years, and steeled the resolve of such famous types as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Bob Moses and Fannie Lou Hamer.

But the book also depicts the contributions of lesser-known names—courageous figures such as newspaper publisher and editorial writer Hazel Brannon Smith of the Lexington Advertiser, whose anti-lynching and pro-civil rights commentary made her the first woman to win a Pulitzer for editorial writing, and eager volunteers like Amherst student Chris Williams, who would have preferred to spend his summer surfing, but instead risked his life alerting black Mississippians about their rights to vote.

Watson’s work documents the Freedom Summer structure from the registration stations and Freedom Schools established in sharecropper shacks to the tactical debates, political struggles and the eventual victory the students and workers helped achieve. It was a period when citizens of good will put aside differences in color and background and came together on a quest for justice. But the civil rights victory, and its impact on every other human rights movement of the late 20th century, did not come easily. Freedom Summer reveals the costs and losses as well as the inspirational wins, and it offers a moving and unforgettable testament to human courage and conviction.

While the history of America’s civil rights movement contains many glittering tales of triumph, there were also several episodes filled with tragedy and sacrifice. Bruce Watson’s fine, valuable new volume Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy focuses…

HistoryBlack History

In their own voices

Review by bookpagedev

Harlem Speaks: A Living History of the Harlem Renaissance, a collection edited by Texas Southern University history professor Dr. Gary D. Wintz, demystifies several heralded individuals through precise, detailed essays from 21 experts on the era’s finest writers, artists, poets, intellectuals and performers. The list of contributors includes literary biographers Arnold Rampersad, Tyrone Tillery and M. Genevieve West; jazz experts Dan Morgenstern and Chip Deffaa; and political analysts and historians like Williams H. Harris and Martha Jane Nadell.

An accompanying CD augments the written material, presenting more than 60 minutes of music, poetry, interviews and speeches. Whether it’s the sparkling piano work of Eubie Blake featured in a previously unpublished performance, or extensive interviews by David Levering Lewis, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of acclaimed biographies on Dr. W.E.

B. Du Bois, Harlem Speaks combines fresh insights with informed analysis and vivid, striking performances to broaden readers’ awareness and knowledge of the Harlem Renaissance.

Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paper and other publications.

Harlem Speaks: A Living History of the Harlem Renaissance, a collection edited by Texas Southern University history professor Dr. Gary D. Wintz, demystifies several heralded individuals through precise, detailed essays from 21 experts on the era's finest writers, artists, poets, intellectuals and performers. The list…
HistoryBlack History

North to freedom

Review by bookpagedev

While the record is spotty regarding the arrival of the first African Americans, there’s even less in print about the remarkable exploits of Thornton Blackburn and his wife Lucie. Canadian author, historian and archaeologist Karolyn Smardz Frost’s I’ve Got a Home in Glory Road is equal parts scientific study, cultural account and personal odyssey.

The Blackburns escaped from Kentucky to Michigan, then were recaptured and sentenced to be returned to slavery. But the bloody 1833 Blackburn Riots saw Detroit’s black community spring into action, rescuing the couple and ushering them safely to Canada, an action that forever altered the political climate between America and Canada, turning the latter nation into a safe harbor for fugitive slaves. Frost’s book not only details these events, but follows the Blackburns as they settle in Toronto and eventually create that city’s first taxi service. They also become important figures in the abolitionist movement and participants in the Underground Railroad.

Frost credits the work of other archaeologists who uncovered many of the details contained in this amazing story, finally brought to light in her outstanding book. Her own explorations included visits to many of the places the Blackburns lived and extensive genealogical research on births, family ties, relationships, interactions and the couple’s contributions to antislavery efforts and black business growth.

Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paper and other publications.

While the record is spotty regarding the arrival of the first African Americans, there's even less in print about the remarkable exploits of Thornton Blackburn and his wife Lucie. Canadian author, historian and archaeologist Karolyn Smardz Frost's I've Got a Home in Glory Road is…

Sign Up

Stay on top of new releases: Sign up for our newsletter to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres.

Sign up now

Recent Reviews

All Reviews

Author Interviews

More Interviews

Recent Features

All Features