Growing up for Carlos was rough from seeing his mother work overtime to meeting only the bills, to watching his father walk out on him and his little brother at an early age and never looking back. As Carlos grew older and wiser, he stepped up to keep his little brother out the streets and in school. In the process of Carlos trying to show his brother the right way, he had plans of his own. He doesn't believe in theory's or hood tales, the only thing Carlos liked to live by is experience. That's something he's been doing since the first drug package he stole from his uncle. His overall intention was to get a couple hundred thousand then move his mother out the hood, send his little brother to college and get out the game comfortably. Because coming up he has seen and heard of the best of them fall, so dangerous games he wanted to play and he refused to let anyone get in his way, so Carlos remained very serious about his choices in life and stayed on point for his friends and foes.
Born and raised deep in the trenches of Dade County, the Gilmore crew are the epitome of a family who is strong enough to withstand whatever obstacles are thrown their way, challenged with the never-ending lessons of life, and secrets that are strong enough to shatter lifelong bonds. However, it didn't come with the promise of a yellow brick road or a map to make it out alive. The oldest of five, Ezra has 99 problems and his women are ALL of them! He takes pride in being a good role model for the family, especially his younger brothers, but Ezra isn't sure if he can maintain his leader role when life begins to get too chaotic, especially in his personal life. His selfish decisions jeopardize his dreams of being a successful business owner, causing him to lose complete control. Can the dreams of a determined man come true when drama, death, drugs, and secrets seem to be around every corner he turns? Or will Ezra be able to maintain his big brother and good guy persona through it all? The most irresponsible, Izeyah has a habit of flying by the seat of his pants and painting a façade like everything in life is so sweet until life as he knows it flips and there is nothing he can do about it. Unsettled and carrying a lofty secret, Zey is forced into a position he is nowhere near ready for, requiring him to make immediate and necessary changes in his life. Will the life lessons and newfound responsibility force Izeyah to step up and lose his irresponsible ways? Or will he slip back into his old habits and ultimately lose himself? The sour patch kid, Oliana throws hands first and probably never get around to asking questions later. Her head is deep in the streets with her homie, lover, and bae in crime. When an extremely close family member dies, her secrets are on the brink of being exposed, and she has no problem shooting up the spot without a second of hesitation. Will Oliana be able to remain strong as the world she knows takes an unexpected turn? Or will Oliana stand tall and take the blows until the very end? The most spoiled and the baby of the Gilmore crew, Amir can't keep a dime to his name. Winging it and living life on the edge, he has no aspirations or real dreams--that is until a box of secrets lands in his lap, changing his life forever. Teetering the lines of what's right and what's wrong, Amir is forced to choose between loyalty for his family and a life where the world would literally be at his fingertips, testing his love and devotion to his family in an unthinkable way. Will greed cause him to throw all caution to the wind and live a life where he has no rules but his own? Or will Amir choose his love and loyalty for his family and remain ten toes down? Marking their first collab debut, best-selling authors Zarkia, Lakia, Shania B., and K. Larry team up together to bring this awesome new series. This first installment of Miami Hood Dreams is a heart gripping, secret filled urban fiction ride that will leave readers anxious for more.
The game once had three major rules that were never to be broken or compromised, regardless of how serious things got in one's life. Death before dishonor was more than just a code; it was the law of the streets, written in the blood of the OGs who killed and died upholding it. Back then, there were many rewards for those who followed the codes. On the other hand, the penalty was death for anyone who violated the laws, and anybody close to him. At the very least, that person would be blackballed from the hood and any illegal street ventures. Clearly the game as we once knew it has been changed by today's hustlers, gangsters, and crooks. Most of them have strayed far from the script. The majority of them would rather save their asses than save face. They would sooner live with shame and disgrace than die with honor and respect. With the current status of the game and the sheisty individuals who are playing it, is there anyone who will honor the past and acknowledge the rules of the game for what they used to be? A newcomer to the urban lit scene, Amir Sanchez delivers a realistic, gripping story of life on the streets, where hustlers still rule, but honor and loyalty have taken on new meaning.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.
Anamnesis as Dangerous Memory explores the political theology of Johann Baptist Metz to discover how Christian memory is prophetic both in its revelation of extraordinary circumstances of injustice and the challenge and hope it poses to those who join in solidarity with the oppressed. Liturgical theologian Alexander Schmemann then elaborates how the liturgy reveals the kingdom of God and empowers believers to witness to it. The meeting of these theologies results in a rich eschatology, a life shaped y the vision of a future that fulfills the promises of the past.
Love, Betrayal and Loyalty on the Streets of Harlem Daruis, a.k.a. Rio, the only child of a singer turned alcoholic, feels he has nothing to hold on to except the idea of escaping the ghetto. Years ago, he took a gun charge for a friend and did some prison time. Unable to find a job when he gets out, Rio turns to hustling as a way out. In the meantime, Rio finds escape in the arms of his soulmate, Trinity. When Trinity's mother died, her abusive father looks to her to play the role of house wife and bedmate. Trinity finds strength to endure in Rio's arms. Together they vow to do whatever it takes to make it out of the ghetto. But soon they find their backs against the wall when the streets come to claim their due.
Untamable. Damaged. Angry. Once full of promise and life, now lost in the shadows of resentment and detachment, this is Dream of Night's story—and it is also Shiloh’s. One is a thoroughbred racehorse, the other an eleven-year-old foster child. Starved to the bone, Dream of Night is still a very powerful animal, kicking, bucking, screaming to show his strength. Shiloh has been starved in other ways—starved of affection, starved of stability and she lashes out too…with sarcasm. This injured and abused racehorse has a lot in common with punky Shiloh and by chance they both find themselves under the care of Jessalyn DiLima—a last stop for each before the state takes more drastic measures—sending the girl to a “residential facility” and the horse to a vet...for euthanizing. Jess is giving them a second chance, a last chance—but she fosters animals and children like this for a reason—she’s a little broken, too. And she knows what it’s like to have lost nearly everything she loves. As the horse warms up to the girl and the girl lets her guard down for the horse, the three of them become an unlikely family. They recognize their similarities in order to heal their pasts, but not before one last tragedy threatens to take it all away.
Kentucky State Representative Charles Booker tells the improbable story of his journey from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country to a political career forging new alliances among forgotten communities across the New South and beyond. “Charles Booker is a rising leader in our nation, and an inspiration to me and all those who get to know his story and vision.”—Senator Cory Booker Charles Booker grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Kentucky, living in the largely segregated West End of Louisville. Faith and love were everything in his family, but material comforts were scarce. The electricity was sometimes shut off. His mother often went hungry so her son could eat. Even after he graduated from law school, Booker rationed the insulin he took for diabetes. Determined to build a world in which poverty and racism would not plague future generations, he charted his own course into Kentucky politics, a world dominated by the myth of an urban-rural divide, and controlled by the formidable Republican establishment. In this stirring account, Booker unfolds his journey from the heart of Louisville to the deepest reaches of Kentucky’s rural landscapes, reflecting the journey America itself must make on the way to a progressive future. Robbed of multiple family members by gun violence, Booker found the roots of a system built to fail him and his neighbors in everything from the hypocrisy of elected officials to the structural racism embedded in the state’s budget. Yet it wasn’t until his unlikely appointment to the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources that he understood the transformative power of the issues that bound his family with those in rural Appalachia. In coal country, he met citizens who, like those in the West End, suffered from extreme isolation, for whom fresh food and economic stability were scarce, who lacked the resources to overcome their cynicism about change. Through his work as the youngest Black state legislator in Kentucky, Booker built an unprecedented alliance between the hood and the holler. This coalition was the basis for a thrilling grassroots Senate campaign that nearly stunned the nation, putting Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul on notice that the days of business as usual were over. From the Hood to the Holler is both a moving coming-of-age story and an urgent political intervention—a much-needed blueprint for how equity and racial justice might transcend partisan divisions in Kentucky, throughout the South, and across America.
Paul Nonnekes pursues debates in psychoanalysis and cultural studies to arrive at a distinctive conception of a Canadian masculinity. In close discussions of novels by Rudy Wiebe and Robert Kroetsch, Nonnekes ranges from Hegel to Lacan to Zizek, eliciting an evolving conception of love characteristic of the Canadian cultural imagination.
Dreams Outback A Book About life and death and the American Dream of Freedom Dreams Outback's innocent book cover holds the explosive story of an American family and their sacrifices made for their country. Dreams Outback is a unique blend of fiction sprinkled throughout the pages with religion, politics, and war that takes the reader, no matter what age or sex, on a roller coaster ride of emotions. And the front row seat next to the reader is occupied with God and country. And the remaining seats are occupied when your innermost emotions of love and tears surface and spill over into the empty seats with your own thoughts of mystery and unanswered questions. After a slow start, your front row seat will open your eyes to your forgotten youth and you will participate as a willing character in the book. And with God and country sitting beside you, your newfound emotions will stir and unlock the action that will chase you down the steel tracks. Dreams Outback has a very powerful message for the American People and will put a smile on your face, tears in your eyes, and will make you proud to be an American as two young children start the search against all odds for the American Dream.
