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Posts published in “Books”

50 Cent To Publish Fitness Book

By goodblacknews on September 26, 2012

50 Cent wants to help you get your body together in exchange for probably a little more than $20.
The rapper and soon-to-be hip-hop Billy Banks has partnered with publishing house Penguin Group USA to release the Formula 50: A 6-Week Total Body Transformation Plan.
Rapper 50 Cent is set to tell all about his top fitness tips in a new exercise book.
On the project, 50 was quoted saying:

“I had a strong desire to write this book because it is very important to me to help people make positive changes and take charge of their overall health. Formula 50 is a radical six week mind-body transformation plan geared to help readers develop mental toughness to achieve optimum results while offering a nutrition component.”

The book is scheduled to hit stores on Christmas Day.
article via theurbandaily.com

Thirteen Year-Old Texan Madu Eneli Pens Middle School Success Guide

By goodblacknews on September 24, 2012
Madu Eneli

Madu Eneli, an eighth grader from Texas, wrote a guide to academic and personal success for other middle schoolers. (Source: Aya Eneli International)

Students can sometimes find the transition into middle school stressful and challenging, so one eighth grader used his experience to create a road map for success.  Madu Eneli, of Harker Heights, Texas, published a book titled, “Am I Ready for Middle School?” Its chapters are dedicated to topics like handling a heavier workload, reaching out for academic help, and navigating the social aspects of lunch and recess.
“I started thinking about writing the book last year after I started seventh grade,” Eneli told Harker Heights Herald. “I don’t think there’s another book like this that speaks to middle school kids.”

Review: Zadie Smith’s Novel “NW” Explores Black Upward Mobility

By goodblacknews on September 16, 2012
Zadie Smith, NW

Author Zadie Smith and the cover of her new novel, NW. (Photo of Zadie Smith by Henry S. Dziekan III/Getty Images)

NW, the latest literary contribution from Zadie Smith – the critically acclaimed author of White Teeth, The Autograph Man, and On Beauty – does not quake with theatrical plot twists or crackle with the suspense of a mystery or adventure, but it achieves a slow burn that captures the small disappointments, encumbrances, betrayals, and self-deceptions that make up the utter “dailyness” of tragedy.

Tracing the lives of Leah, Natalie (formerly known as Keisha), Felix, and Nathan from their working class roots in the council estate (or public housing) of Caldwell in London, to their divergent individual struggles to become “adults”, or whatever it is we mean by that, Smith renders the idea of personal identity in the cacophonous, commercial and consumerist world in which we live, a frail and exposed thing.

Review: Zadie Smith’s Novel "NW" Explores Black Upward Mobility

By goodblacknews on September 16, 2012
Zadie Smith, NW

Author Zadie Smith and the cover of her new novel, NW. (Photo of Zadie Smith by Henry S. Dziekan III/Getty Images)

NW, the latest literary contribution from Zadie Smith – the critically acclaimed author of White Teeth, The Autograph Man, and On Beauty – does not quake with theatrical plot twists or crackle with the suspense of a mystery or adventure, but it achieves a slow burn that captures the small disappointments, encumbrances, betrayals, and self-deceptions that make up the utter “dailyness” of tragedy.

Tracing the lives of Leah, Natalie (formerly known as Keisha), Felix, and Nathan from their working class roots in the council estate (or public housing) of Caldwell in London, to their divergent individual struggles to become “adults”, or whatever it is we mean by that, Smith renders the idea of personal identity in the cacophonous, commercial and consumerist world in which we live, a frail and exposed thing.

Harlem Renaissance Novel By Claude McKay Is Found

By goodblacknews on September 15, 2012

Author Claude McKay in the 1920s.

A Columbia graduate student and his adviser have authenticated the student’s discovery of an unknown manuscript of a 1941 novel by Claude McKay, a leading Harlem Renaissance writer and author of the first novel by a black American to become a best seller.  The manuscript, “Amiable With Big Teeth: A Novel of the Love Affair Between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem,” was discovered in a previously untouched university archive and offers an unusual window on the ideas and events (like Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia) that animated Harlem on the cusp of World War II. The two scholars have received permission from the McKay estate to publish the novel, a satire set in 1936, with an introduction about how it was found and its provenance verified.

GBN Quote Of The Day

By goodblacknews on August 15, 2012

 “Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can anyone deny themselves the pleasure of my company?”
–Zora Neale Hurston, anthropologist and author of “Their Eyes Are Watching God”

GBN Quote Of The Day

By goodblacknews on July 25, 2012

“In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.”
— Audre Lorde, poet, writer and literary activist

Review of “The Longest Fight: In the Ring with Joe Gans, Boxing’s First African American Champion” by William Gildea

By goodblacknews on July 23, 2012

THE LONGEST FIGHT

In the Ring With Joe Gans, Boxing’s
First African American Champion
By William Gildea
Farrar Straus Giroux. 245 pp. $26

The boxer Joe Gans is largely forgotten today. Mild-mannered, he lacked the boisterous charisma of Jack Johnson or Muhammad Ali. But from 1902 to 1908, he was the world lightweight king, America’s first black boxing champion.  In 1906, in the 100-degree fug of the southern Nevada desert, he took on Oscar “Battling” Nelson in a legendary 42-round fight, two hours and 48 minutes, the longest bout of the 20th century. The match and Gans’s story are the subject of “The Longest Fight,” a gem of a book by former Washington Post sports columnist William Gildea.

GBN Quote Of The Day

By goodblacknews on July 21, 2012

“Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave – and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way.” — playwright and author Alice Childress

"Living Single" Actress Erika Alexander Co-Writes Graphic with Black Heroine

By goodblacknews on July 14, 2012


Best known for her memorable role as Maxine Shaw on the sitcom “Living Single” Erika Alexander’s latest endeavor isn’t a TV or film role, but instead a graphic novel series. Developed with her screenwriter husband, Tony Puryear, and her brother Robert Alexander, Concrete Park is set in the a dangerous near-future where gangs threaten to destroy humanity. The main characters are women of color: Luca, a gang leader, and Lena, her lesbian lover. The novels feature a multicultural cast of characters struggling to survive in an increasingly depraved world.
Alexander and her husband recently appeared at San Diego Comic-Con, the popular gaming and pop culture conference, to promote Concrete Park. The pair also recently appeared on the comedy podcast  Straight Riffin’.  Alexander is just one Hollywood actress of color to venture in the comic book world. Rosario Dawson developed a four-issue series called O.C.T.: Occult Crimes Task Force, which is currently being developed for television. Rashida Jones developed her own graphic novel series called  Frenemy of the State in 2009, which was optioned for the big screen by Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment.
article by Stacia L. Brown via Clutch