In this daring, original sequel to Three Sides to Every Story, acclaimed writer Clarence Nero takes us back into the lives of Johnny and James, who once again must battle their demons and the drama they can’t seem to escape. Johnny and James survived the tough streets of New Orleans, but when Hurricane Katrina lays waste to their beloved Ninth Ward, they are forced to begin a new chapter in Washington, D.C. For Johnny, this means finally pursuing his dream of becoming a student at the historic Wheatley College. James soon joins Johnny in the nation’s capital, but their relationship, though strong, is strained by the pressures of their new lives. Then Johnny’s brother Carl and his wife, Tiffany, introduce Johnny to the beautiful, sexy, and smart Sheila Doggett with the intent of steering Johnny in a different direction. The entire family rallies around Johnny and Sheila’s budding friendship, and Johnny prepares to join the frat that is a legacy in his family. But once James gets wind of what Johnny’s family is up to, he decides that he’ll stop at nothing to save his relationship. Meanwhile, Johnny is struggling to keep the peace with everyone and to keep a potentially deadly secret that could stand in the way of his dreams. Everyone is soon confronted with the miserable truth that the havoc in their lives has only just begun . . . How far will would you go for love? Our heroes and sheroes wrestle with this question as they struggle to do right by themselves and those they love, and the result is a fast-paced, thought-provoking roller coaster of a read.

"Taken as a trilogy, consent not to be a single being is a monumental accomplishment: a brilliant theoretical intervention that might be best described as a powerful case for blackness as a category of analysis."—Brent Hayes Edwards, author of Epistrophies: Jazz and the Literary Imagination In Black and Blur—the first volume in his sublime and compelling trilogy consent not to be a single being—Fred Moten engages in a capacious consideration of the place and force of blackness in African diaspora arts, politics, and life. In these interrelated essays, Moten attends to entanglement, the blurring of borders, and other practices that trouble notions of self-determination and sovereignty within political and aesthetic realms. Black and Blur is marked by unlikely juxtapositions: Althusser informs analyses of rappers Pras and Ol' Dirty Bastard; Shakespeare encounters Stokely Carmichael; thinkers like Kant, Adorno, and José Esteban Muñoz and artists and musicians including Thornton Dial and Cecil Taylor play off each other. Moten holds that blackness encompasses a range of social, aesthetic, and theoretical insurgencies that respond to a shared modernity founded upon the sociological catastrophe of the transatlantic slave trade and settler colonialism. In so doing, he unsettles normative ways of reading, hearing, and seeing, thereby reordering the senses to create new means of knowing.

Two single parents find a chance for a new future in a delightfully uplifting romance by the acclaimed author of The Real Thing . . . When recently widowed Joe Murphy meets Shawna Mitchell in an online forum, all he’s seeking is advice on keeping his home and his family together. Shawna’s compassionate e-mails become his lifeline, and as months pass their correspondence grows deep and warm. Discovering that Shawna lives only blocks away…well, it feels like more than luck. It feels a lot like hope. With three children to raise, Shawna has no interest in getting close to another man, let alone one who’s got three kids of his own. And the fact that Joe’s white can only complicate matters more. But now, as they navigate family dates and vacations and their own doubts and fears, Joe and Shawna find themselves moving toward a future that’s bright, new, and totally unexpected . . . Praise for the writing of J.J. Murray “Hilarious . . . Murray’s dialog sparkles and the characters are witty and fun.” —Booklist on She’s The One “Thoughtful and well done.” —Library Journal on Original Love