African American Humor

Curtis Black might be a man of the cloth, but with his irresistible looks, seductive charm, and charismatic personality, he's particularly beloved by his female parishioners - and almost every other woman he's ever met. The trouble is Curtis is married.

Gospel comedy queen Pat G'orge-Walker regales listeners with the hilarious antics of Sister Betty and her South Carolina friends, big-hearted Ma Cile and redhaired Sister Connie Fuse. But things don't really start shakin' until on-the-make Deacon Laid Handz, manhungry Sister Carrie Onn, and conniving Reverend Knott Enuff Money get into the act. And yet for all of its rollicking humor, this book is brimming with profound and, at times, pointed truths about church life.

Romaine Wilder, big-city medical examiner with a small-town past, has been downsized and evicted. With few other options, she’s forced to return to her hometown of Roble in East Texas, leaving behind the man she’s dating and the life she’s worked hard to build. Suzanne Babet Derbinay, Romaine’s Auntie Zanne and proprietor of the Ball Funeral Home, has long since traded her French Creole upbringing for Big Texas attitude. She’s a member in a number of ladies’ auxiliaries and clubs, including being in charge of the Tri-County Annual Crawfish Boil and Music Festival. Hanging on to ...

A piercingly raw debut story collection from a young writer with an explosive voice; a treacherously surreal and, at times, heartbreakingly satirical look at what it's like to be young and black in America.

If you can count on one thing from "Madea" Mabel Simmons, star of Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea's Family Reunion, it's that she's got something to say. She's the beloved, hilarious, sharp-witted, pistol-packing grandmother who's watching out and speaking her mind. Now Madea is telling her own story, dishing her memoirs and hard-won, hilarious wisdom in her own inimitable voice (with a little help from her friend Tyler Perry).

Continuously available in print since 1968, this novel has become embedded in progressive anti-racist culture with wide circulation of the book and hotly debated film. A literary classic, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is a strong comment on entrenched racial inequities in the United States in the late 1960s. With its focus on the “militancy” that characterized the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, this is the story of one man’s reaction to ruling-class hypocrisy.

Strong White Men, Smart Black Women ... and Babies! Special Interracial Pregnancy Romance Swirl Collection... Contains the following novels and novellas... * Chicago Loving * Delivery * Unexpected Family Life * Another Man's Lost Baby * Office Secrets * Billionaire Baby Benefits * Secret Billionaire and the Accidental Pregnancy * Her Baby Mercedes Over 1,000+ pages of steamy BWWM pregnancy romance with plenty of story, suspense and character development. Look inside for more details.

Oreo is raised by her maternal grandparents in Philadelphia. Her black mother tours with a theatrical troupe, and her Jewish deadbeat dad disappeared when she was an infant, leaving behind a mysterious note that triggers her quest to find him. What ensues is a playful, modernized parody of the classical odyssey of Theseus with a feminist twist, immersed in seventies pop culture, and mixing standard English, black vernacular, and Yiddish with wisecracking aplomb.

In many ways Iceberg Slim's most mature fictional work, Shetani's Sister relates, in taut, evocative vernacular torn straight from the street corner, the deadly duel between two complex antiheroes: Sergeant Russell Rucker, an LAPD vice detective attempting to clean up street prostitution and police corruption, and Shetani (Swahili for Satan), a veteran master pimp who controls his stable of whores with violence and daily doses of heroin.

The year is 1985. Benji Cooper is one of the only black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. He spends his falls and winters going to roller-disco bar mitzvahs, playing too much Dungeons and Dragons, and trying to catch glimpses of nudity on late-night cable TV. After a tragic mishap on his first day of high school, when Benji reveals his deep enthusiasm for the horror movie magazine Fangoria, his social doom is sealed for the next four years.

Mesha and Jason are two siblings who grew up on the rough streets of Detroit. They were thick as thieves, and Mesha actually was one while Jason got into the life of selling drugs. Mesha, being the eldest, had always been overprotective of her little brother. From the streets to women. In an attempt to protect her brother from a secret and any further heartache concerning his daughter, one day, Mesha takes her overprotective antics to a whole other level. One that may leave their bond broken forever, if he finds out. Lela is a female who is know for scamming and coming up with schemes to ...

Essence best-selling author Pat G'Orge-Walker delights millions with her hilarious send-ups of church life. On a road trip, Sister Betty and a gaggle of colorful characters discover what matters most. Sister Betty determines to carry out her friend's last wishes by delivering million-dollar checks to three pastors in Baltimore. Others give chase - hoping to convince her to spread the wealth.

Are you a fan of Jack Reacher, John Wick, and The Equalizer?! Meet Ray Price. Ex-Cop, Ex-Plosive! "There's so many laugh out-loud moments, you almost forget everyone is fighting for their lives." Ray Price's days as a Detroit cop are over. When word drops that his estranged younger brother is missing, Ray escapes from his broken career--and even more broken marriage--to return to his small Michigan hometown looking for answers. Teaming up with an on-the-run hooker, Ray quickly becomes convinced someone involved with the powerful, corrupt family running the town made his brother disappear....

A testament to the importance of imagination, trusting oneself, and making space for your creativity, Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)? is a memoir of a '90s kid who confided in his imaginary sidekick to navigate everything from parallel pop culture universes, like watching Fresh Prince alongside John Hughes movies or listening to Ja Rule and Dave Matthews, to a lifetime of birthday disappointment (being a Christmas season Capricorn will do that to you) and hoop dreams gone bad.

Barrington Jedidiah Walker is 74 and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney, London, for years. A flamboyant character with a fondness for William Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father, grandfather - and also secretly gay. His deeply religious and disappointed wife, Carmel, thinks he sleeps with other women. When their marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away?

It’s another murder in the little town of Roble. But not to worry, Romaine and Auntie Zanne are on it! It’s the 100th Boule of the Distinguished Ladies’ Society of Voodoo Herbalists. They’ve gotten together to eat, drink, be merry and vote for the next Lesser Mambo, a lifetime appointment second only to the Most High (bet you’ll never guess who holds that position). But the second in command spot keeps becoming vacant—that’s because the women who fill it keep dying off. This time though, it looks like murder. During an alcohol-infused dinner and a tall glass full of absinth, a...

According to Max Disher, an ambitious young black man in 1930s New York, someone of his race has only three alternatives: "Get out, get white, or get along." Incapable of getting out and unhappy with getting along, Max leaps at the remaining possibility. Thanks to a certain Dr. Junius Crookman and his mysterious process, Max and other eager clients develop bleached skin that permits them to enter previously forbidden territory. What they discover in white society, however, gives them second thoughts.

White Billionaire Helps With More Than Money Shanika is drowning in debt and trying to get her college degree while Steven, who is new in her life, doesn’t have a worry in the world. He offers to help, but can she pay the price? Look inside to find out more. This was originally published as "BWWM White Billionaire."

Savannah Carlson has one month before she hits the big four-oh. With her best friends, Jamaica and Ronni, she’s making every weekend toward that milestone count—party-wise. Vanna’s plans go awry when her shady, no-good, unreliable, estranged husband, Caleb, dies in a boating accident. The real sucker punch lands when Vanna is arrested for embezzlement at his funeral. Her man certainly is the gift that keeps on giving.

In 1920s America, a plague is spreading fast. From New Orleans to Chicago to New York, the "Jes Grew" epidemic makes people desperate to dance, overturning social norms in the process. Anyone is vulnerable and when they catch it, they'll bump and grind into a frenzy. Working to combat the Jes Grew infection are the puritanical Atonists, a group bent on cultivating a "Talking Android", an African American who will infiltrate the unruly black communities and help crush the outbreak.