Urban Violence

Inner-city Black America is often stereotyped as a place of random violence; in fact, violence in the inner city is regulated through an informal but well-known code of the street. How you dress, talk, and behave can have life-or-death consequences, with young people particularly at risk. The most powerful force counteracting this code and its reign of terror is the strong, loving, decent family, and we meet many heroic figures in the course of this narrative.

Respect My Gangsta Part Two: Get'em Girl Respect My Gangsta 2 Get'em Girl Continue into the life of Sorrow aka Queen Black Panther Never have a Ho's hustle, always have a Nigga's Hustle - that was the lesson ingrained in Sorrow by her brothers. The weight of their teachings became apparent when Duke thrust them into a life-or-death situation, forcing Sorrow to summon her courage. With determination fueling her, she immersed herself in gangster mode, her senses heightened as she embarked on a mission to retrieve Duke's money, settle his debts, and liberate him from the relentless hustle. ...

Nikki Turner, Queen of Hip-Hop Lit, is back with one of her gutsiest female characters yet, a glamorous chick with a high-end hustle that can rival any man’s game. As the respected, renowned concierge for a luxury hotel chain, Beijing Lee caters to the wealthy and famous. Whether it’s securing a dinner reservation, a fleet of limos, or a record deal, or protecting her clients from the paparazzi, there’s nothing Beijing can’t do. She’s stacked up an impressive pile of IOUs from the world’s elite - and one day she decides it’s time to start cashing in.

Danielle is young, sexy and ambitious. She is moving forward with the speed of light when the pursuit of love changes her plans. Danielle falls victim to a crime of passion that ultimately leads to heartache, abandonment and manslaughter. As she sits in a tiny jail cell she asks herself, “What have I done? How did I get here?” By the grace of God she was returned to society when others served a life sentence for the same crime. Counting her blessings or is she? Even in jail she continues to make the same choices. Being involved with man after man when the man she should have been ...

Iesha never dreamed of falling in love again after escaping her abusive relationship with Vaughn… until she meets Jamaica. The two of them start off strong and loving, but it doesn’t take long for their relationship to take a turn for the worse. Vowing to never let another man abuse her, Iesha decides to fight back. But when push comes to shove and they go their separate ways, one takes it better than the other and that’s when things really get interesting.

Rhylee King is one hustling ass female. But it wasn’t always that way. Trying to heal herself from childhood wounds that involved the death of her mother by the hands of her father. When she was young, the abandonment for Rhylee is real. Silence, her boyfriend, is supposed to be helping with that, but in the midst of helping him fight his own demons, Rhylee is losing herself as well. Even with all the money he has trafficking drugs throughout the city, Silence isn’t happy, and he doesn’t have to say anything for Rhylee to figure that out. He’s not perfect, but in Silence’s eyes, ...

Synopsis OG Lexi is back and now the QueenPin of All Atlanta. She was fueled by greed and filled with rage since the death of her play brother Dennis. She had all of the world’s finest things in life. Cars, houses, jewelry, clothes you name it she had it. Money and revenge were always the mission, but nothing could prepare her for the betrayal she will endure at the hands of the people she loves the most. But hell has no furry once you’ve felt Lexi’s wrath, there will be hell to pay for those who crosses her. The city of Atlanta was a war zone led by a psychotic woman not afraid of ...

Some men are pups and others are hounds, but they all bite in the end. Cheryl Greene doesn’t ask much of life: a smile and a kind word are gifts in her world of splintered families and big talking men. But when Cheryl is cast from her home, pregnant and alone, just making it through each day becomes a fight to survive. Committed to giving her son the security she never had, Cheryl must navigate a reality where women are cheap, opportunities scarce, and violence is the law of the land. With steely optimism, the young mother grits her teeth through the punches, the hunger, and the ...

A sweeping history of cities through the millennia - from Mesopotamia to Manhattan - and how they have propelled Homo sapiens to dominance.

A rogue master vampire hits town, and Anita gets caught in the middle of an undead turf war. Jean-Claude, the Master Vamp of the city, wants her for his own - but his enemies have other plans. And to make matters worse, Anita takes a hit to the heart when she meets a stunningly handsome junior high science teacher named Richard Zeeman. They're two humans caught in the crossfire - or so Anita thinks

Eddie's father, two uncles, and best friend are all dead, and it's a struggle for him not to end up the same way. Violence makes Fresno wallow in tears, as if a huge onion were buried beneath the city. Making an effort to walk a straight line despite constant temptations and frustrations, Eddie searches for answers—and discovers that his closest friends may actually be his worst enemies.

Vanity Madonna Brown was a beautiful smart girl until her innocence was taken away by the very people that were supposed to protect her. She could not count on the crack addicted mother that she once loved, the junkie grandmother whom she had barely seen sober, or the drug dealing uncle that she looked up to. All that she had was her three cousins, who were more like her siblings. Vanity's life brightens when she meets Carlos. Will Carlos be her savior or will he contribute to her downfall? While this series is fictional, the story contained within is not. This is someone's story. This ...

Chronicling Andrew Solomon's stint on the barricades in Moscow in 1991, when he joined artists in resisting the coup whose failure ended the Soviet Union; his 2002 account of the rebirth of culture in Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban; his insightful appraisal of a Myanmar steeped in contradictions as it slowly, fitfully pushes toward freedom; and many other stories of profound upheaval, this book provides a unique window onto the very idea of social change.

Amid increasing hardship and limited employment options, poor urban youth are developing creative online strategies to make ends meet. Using such social media platforms as YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, they're capitalizing on the public's fascination with the ghetto and gang violence. But with what consequences? Ballad of the Bullet follows the Corner Boys, a group of 30 or so young men on Chicago's South Side who have hitched their dreams of success to the creation of "drill music" (slang for "shooting music").

In the 18th century, Bridgetown, Barbados, was heavily populated by both enslaved and free women. Marisa J. Fuentes creates a portrait of urban Caribbean slavery in this colonial town from the perspective of these women whose stories appear only briefly in historical records. Combining fragmentary sources with interdisciplinary methodologies that include black feminist theory and critical studies of history and slavery, Dispossessed Lives demonstrates how the construction of the archive marked enslaved women's bodies, in life and in death.

She takes her job seriously. Whether it be unruly school children or an armed madman, she tolerates no mischief aboard her school bus. When confronted by her worst nightmare, this bus driver will pull out all the stops to make certain her young passengers get home safely. When a crazed gunman boards a bus full of small children, it makes for a bad day at school. This bus driver will make certain its most deserving passenger boarded with a one-way ticket.

Isis was just getting her life back on track. After being brutally attacked by the man she loved, Isis had uprooted her children and was trying to pursue her dreams as a designer. Seemingly, she was doing well until the uneasy truth came back to hunt her. Vaughn, her estranged husband, would go to any length to have Isis right where he wanted her—in fear for her life. Will Isis be able to end his rapture or is this just the beginning of life on the run?

Love me til I'm up Love me til I'm down Love me til I'm hurt Cover me Beat me Slap me Kick me Punch me Do all the things you can to hurt me Put me down Pick me up Torcher me til I break But love me til Im Bleu All of these things I have endured in my relationship and im still here... I am Bleu Burris..

At a time when Google Maps can take you on a virtual tour of Yosemite's remotest trails and cell phones double as navigational systems, it's hard to imagine there's any uncharted ground left on the planet. In Unruly Places, Alastair Bonnett goes to some of the most unexpected, offbeat places in the world to reinspire our geographical imagination. Bonnett's remarkable tour includes moving villages, secret cities, no man's lands, and floating islands.

Shortly after a dismembered torso was discovered by a pond outside Philadelphia in 1887, investigators homed in on two suspects: Hannah Mary Tabbs, a married, working-class Black woman, and George Wilson, a former neighbor whom Tabbs implicated after her arrest. As details surrounding the shocking case emerged, both the crime and ensuing trial - which spanned several months - were featured in the national press. The trial brought otherwise taboo subjects such as illicit sex, adultery, and domestic violence in the Black community to public attention.