A source of controversy upon its 1929 publication, this novel was the first to openly address color prejudice among black Americans. The author, an active member of the Harlem Renaissance, offers insightful reflections of the era's mood and spirit in an enduringly relevant examination of racial, sexual, and cultural identity.

Author's memoir and history of her family spanning six generations, chronicling what it is like to be racially mixed.

“A funny, fresh novel about growing up African-American in 1960s Chicago” by an author who “writes like Terry McMillan’s kid sister” (Entertainment Weekly). In this hilarious and insightful coming-of-age novel, author April Sinclair introduces the charming Jean “Stevie” Stevenson, a young woman raised on Chicago’s South Side during an era of irrevocable social upheaval. Curious and witty, bold but naïve, Stevie grows up debating the qualities of good hair and dark skin. As the years pass, her family and neighborhood are changed by the times, from the War on Poverty to race riots and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., from “Black Is Beautiful” to Black Power. Against this remarkable backdrop, Stevie makes the sometimes harrowing, often comic, always enthralling transformation into a young adult—socially aware, discovering her sexuality, and proud of her identity. “Whether she’s dealing with a subject as monumental as the civil rights movement or as intimate as Stevie’s first sexual encounters,” writes the Los Angeles Times, “Sinclair never fails to make you laugh and never sacrifices the narrative to make a point.” Winner of the Carl Sandburg Award from the Friends of the Chicago Public Library and named a best book of the year in young adult fiction by the American Library Association, Coffee Will Make You Black is an exquisite portrait of adolescence that will resonate with readers of all ages.

Lawrence Hill’s remarkable novel, Any Known Blood, a multi-generational story about a Canadian man of mixed race, was met with critical acclaim and it marked the emergence of a powerful new voice in Canadian writing. Now Hill, himself a child of a black father and white mother, brings us Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada, a provocative and unprecedented look at a timely and engrossing topic. In Black Berry, Sweet Juice, Hill movingly reveals his struggle to understand his own personal and racial identity. Raised by human rights activist parents in a predominantly white Ontario suburb, he is imbued with lingering memories and offers a unique perspective. In a satirical yet serious tone, Hill describes the ambiguity involved in searching for his identity -- an especially complex and difficult journey in a country that prefers to see him as neither black nor white. Interspersed with slices of his personal experiences, fascinating family history and the experiences of thirty-six other Canadians of mixed race interviewed for this book, Black Berry, Sweet Juice also examines contemporary racial issues in Canadian society. Hill explores the terms used to describe children of mixed race, the unrelenting hostility towards mix-race couples and the real meaning of the black Canadian experience. It arrives at a critical time when, in the highly publicized and controversial case of Elijah Van de Perre, the son of a white mother and black father in British Columbia, the Supreme Court of Canada has just granted custody to Elijah’s mother, Kimberly Van de Perre. A reflective, sensitive and often humourous book, Black Berry, Sweet Juice is a thought provoking discourse on the current status of race relations in Canada and it’s a fascinating and important read for us all.

A groundbreaking study of proverbs in African-American speech from slave times to the present.

"For Love's Sake Only" The last thing Charlotte Sane expects to find at a Rodeo is her dream man, but even she can't deny the instant attraction that leads her straight into the arms of a handsome cowboy named Ty Wilcox. The two have nothing in common. Nothing except insane, inexplicable, but undeniable desire. Ty knows from the instant they first kiss that he and Charlotte are meant to be together. Proving it to strong-willed Charlotte? A whole different bull-ride. The headstrong beauty is running scared, but she's got another thought coming if she thinks Ty will let her walk away. "The Blacker the Berry" Tamara Holifield could never have guessed one little favor would change her entire world, but it does. When her best friend Charlotte's husband Ty asks her to come out to visit and cheer up the homebound pregnant woman, she readily agrees. The only problem with Ty's plan is Tamara's lack of a car. Luckily for her, he has a solution, in the form of his best friend, lawyer Russell Crichton. Russell could never have imagined doing a favor for Ty would alter his perception of beauty or disrupt his entire life, but it does. Starting up a new venture is going to take time and focus and the last thing he needs is the distraction of his sexy carpooler. Russell never believed he would be attracted to a plus-size woman, nor did city-slicker Tamara think she would ever have anything in common with a white cowboy, but sizzling sex soon changes both their minds. Now, if they can look past their obvious differences, they might just find out that the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice. "Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable."