Sometimes the best family is the one you make for yourself. The Meadowlark is one the finest restaurants in Atlanta and it’s owned by Geneva (Lady G) and Will (Uncle Popsicle) Whitfield. Over the decades the Whitfields have fostered countless children including Casey Brooks. Casey was the youngest of the kids she grew up with and always felt she had to prove herself, especially to Carter Reese, the rich boy next door. Though nothing could be more clichéd, she’s had a crush on him almost from the moment she moved in with her foster family. For Carter, she was just his neighbor’s pain in the ass little sister and gaming buddy until the summer she turned sixteen. He realized his feelings for her right before he left for college and was compelled to let her know. Unfortunately, their love collapsed under the weight of anger, jealousy and bitter betrayal. Ten years later Carter has returned to town and is stunned to discover the truth about their break-up. The feelings are still there, and they might have a second chance but only if Casey is willing to believe in Carter, their love and most importantly, herself.

Rufus Thomas may not be a household name, but he is widely regarded as the patriarch of Memphis R&B, and his music influenced three generations. His first singles in the early 1950s were recorded as blues transitioned into R&B, and he was arguably one of the founding fathers of early rock ’n’ roll. In the early 1960s, his songs “The Dog” and “Walking the Dog” made a huge impact on the emerging British “mod” scene, influencing the likes of the Georgie Fame, the Rolling Stones, and the Who. And in the early 1970s, Thomas rebranded himself as the “funkiest man alive” and recorded funk classics that were later sampled by the likes of Public Enemy, Missy Elliot, and the Wu-Tang Clan. In Funkiest Man Alive: Rufus Thomas and Memphis Soul, Matthew Ruddick reveals the amazing life and career of Thomas, who started as a dancer in the minstrel shows that toured the South before becoming one of the nation’s early African American disc jockeys, and then going on to record the first hit singles for both Chess Records and Stax Records. Ruddick also examines the social fabric of the city of Memphis, analyzing the factors behind the vast array of talent that appeared in the late 1950s, with singers like Isaac Hayes, William Bell, Maurice White (Earth, Wind & Fire), and Thomas’s older daughter, Carla Thomas, all emerging from the tightly knit African American community. He also tells the story of Memphis-based Stax Records, one of the nation’s leading R&B record labels. From the earliest blues, the segregated minstrel shows, and the birth of rock ’n’ roll through to the emergence of R&B and funk, Rufus Thomas saw it all.

Inspired by a series of themed open-mic nights from his college days, a novelist drops his first collection of poems. In the 1990s, the late, great Bradford College put on a series of “Bad Poetry Nights” for their beleaguered student writers. These fast-paced evenings of literary shenanigans had one simple premise: compose the worst poem you could in five minutes or fewer, using 3–5 absurd words plucked from a hat by the hosts. The only trouble was this: give a talented writer a set of clear constraints, no matter how ridiculous, and they can’t help but produce something compelling. It is in that spirit that novelist E. Christopher Clark (Bradford Class of 1999) approached his first collection of verse. With words and phrases drawn from kitchen magnets, playing cards, and his own tortured imagination, Clark has assembled thirty-five poems which would make the bad poets of old look up from their black coffees, peer out from under their ironically worn berets, and offer knowing nods of approval. Sometimes sardonic, often nostalgic, and occasionally absurd, these poems “are often more poignant than you might expect,” writes Amazon reviewer Jessica Lucci. Buy Bad Poetry Night today to find out what happens when Herman Melville meets the Monkees and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s invades the dreams of Donald J. Trump.

This book examines the role music has played in the formation of the political and national identity of the Bahamas. Timothy Rommen analyzes Bahamian musical life as it has been influenced and shaped by the islands’ location between the United States and the rest of the Caribbean; tourism; and Bahamian colonial and postcolonial history. Focusing on popular music in the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, in particular rake-n-scrape and Junkanoo, Rommen finds a Bahamian music that has remained culturally rooted in the local even as it has undergone major transformations. Highlighting the ways entertainers have represented themselves to Bahamians and to tourists, Funky Nassau illustrates the shifting terrain that musicians navigated during the rapid growth of tourism and in the aftermath of independence.

Monique Alexander has it all: looks, intelligence, a successful career as a high school English teacher, and an attractive husband who serves as a police officer. But unfortunately for their marriage, her husband spends as much time playing in the streets as he does protecting them. Monique wants nothing more than the happily-ever-after fantasy with a faithful husband. Despite her husband's betrayals, she clings to the illusion of a good marriage. That illusion is shaken by the arrival of a mysterious package that is addressed to her husband. Driven mad by curiosity, suspicion, and experience, she lets her emotions get the best of her. If infidelity is so justifiable for the gander, she reasons, why shouldn't the goose have fun too? Enraged, she seeks out an old flame to have her carnal, primal revenge. In her wildest dreams, she couldn't have imagined that Damon would leave her, but he does. Can their marriage recover from so much betrayal? Or will Monique pursue the life of happiness in another man's arms?

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