Bama Boy depicts the author's humble beginnings on a sharecropper's farm in North Carolina. One of 12 children, he picked cotton from the time he was six and went to school only on rainy days. "If your teacher ever feeds you, you can go to school every day," his mother told him. However, the book is not one of racial deprivation nor victimization, but one of achievement. Bobby's family moves up, and Bobby is the first in the family to graduate from high school. This is a story of Americana, coming-of-age, and personal achievement. The author chronicles the 70s and 80s in the Nation's Capital. He realizes his dreams of driving a good car, raising a son and sending him to college, winning tennis trophies and writing his first book. Some chapter headings are, "Easy Money" which explores the numbers racket, before and after it became legalized, as the lottery and asks the reader to think about the magic and mystery of numbers. See how it's done. "Cars, Cars and More Cars" depicts Bobby's passion for wheels. One chapter involves an interlude in Vietnam. The memoir ends with the author returning to his roots at North Carolina family reunion. Bama Boy depicts not only the black experience but also the human experience. It is a reading experience for people of all ages. it is especially inspirational for the teenager or young adult. Morrison has an easy, pleasing, graphic way of storytelling. the stories move swiftly and freely from one episode to another, explore the period, giving the reader an easy vicarious identification. Riding with the author from Washington to Atlantic City, a 17-year-old nephew, who is not an avid reader, devoured the book from cover to cover and wanted more.

A pioneering exploration of form, meaning, theme and function in African American slang, illustrated with thousands of contextual examples.

The FBI send their newest agent, Wade Dalton, to interview a girl who turned up missing from Metairie. But when someone murders the girl in the room with Wade, everything in Evergreen changes. Wade teams with the petite acting sheriff, Sam Cates, to investigate. Strange events take place in the small community, and Sam's father disappears. Things take a turn from bad to worse, and the team finds out that they're fighting an ominous foe with unimaginable resources. Soon, the frightening truth behind the murder is revealed... and it's something neither could have expected.

With a voice that is both sophisticated and deeply Southern, author John Rowell evokes the memory of the great Truman Capote in this wonderful collection of short stories, peopled with unforgettable, endearing characters and filled with wry insights. Drawn from the emotional well of a young man who grew up in love with the glittery, glamorous world of music and movies and theater—far removed from his own more prosaic life in North Carolina—and informed with honesty and compassion, the seven short stories that comprise The Music of Your Life showcase the talent of a remarkably gifted writer. Compulsively readable and always accessible, each story takes the reader into the mind and heart of its central character, whether a young boy suffering from Lawrence Welk damage and teetering precariously on the edge of puberty ("The Music of Your Life") or a not-so-young-anymore man for whom fantasy and reality have become a terrifying blur and who finds himself slipping over the edge toward total meltdown ("Wildlife of Coastal Carolina"). Nostalgia plays a part in these stories as a somewhat jaded New York film critic looks back on his life and the movies that shaped him ("Spectators in Love"), and an aging flower-shop owner ruefully assesses the love he found and lost when, as an eighteen-year-old, he embarked on a Hollywood career that never soared but did include one particularly memorable appearance on the I Love Lucy television show ("Who Loves You?") These stories all create entire worlds within which the characters live and struggle to find their way. Funny, touching, serious, and tender, the tales within The Music of Your Life are sure to appeal to anyone who has ever known the awkwardness of being "different," and while life is often harsh for the stories' characters, the bold determination with which they persevere offers inspiration to all.

This book unleashes years of frustration stemming from the ostensible and sheer ignorance of Americans concerning not only the outside world, but even matters apposite to their immediate vicinity. I have lived in Tallahassee, Boston, Miami, and College Station. There has been a common thread pervasive in all of these living experiences: the exposure to an increasingly decadent, desultory and vapid American culture. In geography, the concept is called placelessness. Apparently it seems like a felicitous word to describe the blase nature of an American culture that has become enslaved to the beer bottle, the boob tube, the Botox injections, the silicon breast enhancements, the marijuana, cigarette smoking, and an ecumenically gilded culture of scapegraces. So much of American culture is being diluted by adherence to political correctness and hackneyed professional standards. What ever happened to the media serving as the watchdogs of government? Now the media is more concerned with actually promoting dogs and dog-like behavior from shallow celebrities. The book attempts to compile the dilapidated schemas, illogical double standards, and slipshod behavior of Americans in a sarcastic (yet humorous) and informative (yet satirical) fashion.