The AOL Black Voices Hot Picks List presents our weekly best sellers (or at least the books we feel should be). Check back each Tuesday for our editorially selected "hottest books." Some are new, some are classics, and all are ones we know you'll love. The list is compiled by our staff of experts who have read just about everything out there.
BV Books Hot Picks 10.21.08
The Post-American World (Nonfiction) by Fareed Zakaria
W.W. Norton, $25.95
I wanted to start this, our first AOL Black Voices Hot Picks List, with a dose of reality. Everybody is so focused on whether John McCain is too old, whether Barack Obama is too inexperienced, whether we can actually put lipstick on a pig, that we're missing the whole point of this election. We are on the brink, or as Zakaria points out, we're already there, where America is no longer a superpower. That's what's at stake here. And if you think it doesn't matter, just watch. Knowledge is power. So let's arm ourselves with some truths and figure out what we're going to do to reclaim what we've lost.
W.W. Norton
The Audacity of Hope (Nonfiction) by Barack Obama
(Three Rivers Press, $14.95)
Random House
Let's Talk About Pep (Memoir) by Sandy (Pepa) Denton
MTV/VH1 Books, $23.95
This is not your typical celebrity tell-all. This book is introspective, raw and redemptive. The brash, tough girl from Salt-N-Pepa shows her vulnerable side in her harsh revelations about sexual and domestic abuse. Amid the tears, however, are quite a few hilarious anecdotes, like her speed race across Europe with model Caprice and the time she put a beatdown on Play from Kid-N-Play for teasing her.
VH1
Anticancer: A New Way of Life (Self-Help) by David Servan-Schrieber
Viking, $25.95
The number of Americans dying of cancer declined for the second year in a row, according to the American Cancer Society. But among blacks, cancer is way more deadly. Although black women have a 9% lower cancer rate than their white peers, black women have an 18% higher death rate for all forms of cancer. Black men have a 15% higher rate of cancer and a 38% higher death rate than white men, a trend that extends from 1999 to 2003. These stats are chilling enough for us to do something. This book gives some practical and realistic suggestions on how to beat this disease and if you can't beat it, live a healthier life with it. The author should know, he was given a death sentence and told that there was nothing they could do. He had a will and found a way.
Viking
The Time Paradox (Young Adult/Children) by Eion Colfer
Hyperion, $17.99
Having read the previous five in the Artemis Fowl series, the sixth doesn't disappoint. It's a little more cheeky and a whole lot fewer pages than Harry Potter, but it delivers the same kind of fanciful escape to a land where fairies and dwarfs, pixies and centaurs are real. This book is not just for kids, it's for anyone who wants to take a break from their reality and have a bit of fun.
Hyperion Books
Just Too Good To Be True (Fiction) by E. Lynn Harris
Doubleday, $24.95
If our first pick gives you too much to think about, take a break and cuddle up to Just Too Good To Be True. While not as good as his Say A Little Prayer, E. Lynn gets points and praise for consistency and longevity in a field cluttered by hacks. A nice read.
Random House
The Million Dollar Deception (Fiction) by RM Johnson
Simon & Schuster, $24
This is a sequel to 'Million Dollar Divorce,' where the main character Nate Kenny ends up a big-time loser when his wife snags him for $15-million settlement after he's busted cheating on her. (Hurray for her!). In this book, Nick flips the script. It's fast-paced, suspenseful and has a ridiculous cliff-hanger ending, which I will not give away but will make you ask: "When is part three?!" (You have to wait a year for that one!)
Simon & Schuster
Check out the list, and let us know what you think of our choices.
1. I'm reading "Let's talk about Pep" now. This book is so great I haven't really been able to put it down
Will at 6:56AM on Oct 24th 2008