The Tao of Wu
Author: The RZA
RZA (of Wu-Tang Clan) is growing up… and now shared his life lessons with the rest of us. As RZA’s first book, The Tao of Wu offers spiritual advice, personal musings, and as well as advocacy for vegetarianism and tips for a mean chess game. This musician also writes of stories of saving Method Man’s life at a drug deal transaction, Buddhist principles, and many others that you’ll just have to read to hear directly from the horse’s mouth. Wu-Tang fans and distant admirers alike, read on!
The Thing Around Your Neck
Author: Chimamanda Adichie
This 32-year-old Nigerian writer is solidly making a name for herself with the debut of her third book, The Thing Around Your Neck, a collection of short stories of characters caught between the places and cultures of Africa and America. Adichie cites the iconic African author Chinua Achebe (author of Things Fall Apart) as one of her greatest influences, and like Achebe, Adichie writes of cultural transitions, and chaos, that sweep the Continent as it enters Colonialism, Independence, and the Modern era. This latest book of hers paints a vivid portrait of global citizenship… belonging to many places at once, and yet continually searching for home.
Push
Author: Sapphire
Poet and singer Sapphire portrays the “hardness” of life’s greatest adversities in this heartbreaking novel… Yes we know it’s old but worth a read, especially in lieu of the film debut of the book’s main character, Precious. Sapphire writes in the halting speech and raw emotion of a woman, Claireese Precious Jones, who at the same time represents many women across the globe. This first novel by Sapphire illuminates the anger and coping strategies of a survivor of rape, abuse, illiteracy, and a world with little sympathy.
Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 – Present
Author: Gail Buckland
Miss the ol’ days of rock & roll? This collection of over 200 vivid photographs captures the lively spirit of a musical era that is far from forgotten. Showcasing images of the world’s greats in unexpected moments, Buckland re-creates rock’s message of uninhibited freedom and personal and musical exploration through the ages. Who Shot Rock and Roll includes portraits of Jimi Hendrix as idolized by college students, John Lennon in a sleeveless T-shirt, Bob Dylan and in girlfriend in Greenwich Village, and more.
Born Round: Secret History of a Full-Time Eater
Author: Frank Bruni
Image by SavorSA
Frank Bruni tells the story of his lifelong struggle with food, which spirals into struggles in love and life, until he lands a job as restaurant critic for the New York Times. Bruni says of himself, “I was in retreat, my weight a reason not to reach out or take risks. I’d deal with my love life once I got thinner…. Fatness simplified life and lessened the stakes. It put life on hiatus, making the present a larded limbo between a past normalcy and a future one. It argued against bold initiatives…. But while I wasn’t trying to make things happen, they nonetheless happened to me.” From his childhood in White Plains, NY, to his current hob-nobbing at the Times, this frank account of personal challenge will cause us all to pause in self-reflection.
Googled: The End of the World As We Know It
Author: Ken Auletta
After a career of covering various news sources, Ken Auletta offers a behind-closed-doors look into internet juggernaut Google and its transformation of the media landscape. Auletta paints a vivid portrait of the digital revolution, gets inside the heads of Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and raises questions about the future of information technology and our role in it. With media already changing at the speed of light, what does the future hold?
Three Powerful Women (Trois Femmes Puissantes)
Author: Marie Ndiaye
French-Senegalese author Marie Ndiaye tells the stories of three women, Nora, Fanta, and Khady Demba, whose fates carry them between Africa and Europe, in search of unity and prosperity. Le Monde has called it ” a novel which speaks of the moral decay, the baseness of humanity, of suffering humanity, but which suggests, in the depths of misery, the possibility of redemption.” The book has generated huge interest since it was awarded one of France’s top literary prizes – Le Prix Goncourt – and Ndiaye became the first black woman to receive the prize in its 106 year history. The suddenly globally adored “black woman author” has said that she only represents herself in winning such an award, and that it is the result of “25 years of persistence.”
