331 Innings

by Peter Brav

Zappyness Media

Paperback, $7.25

164 pages

ISBN: 978-1-544237947

Book Review by Kam Williams

“331 Innings is a powerful tale narrated by elderly, Nebraska native Jack Schram, a lifelong witness to the folly of war and hypocrisy. Jack tells of the bullying encountered by his nephew’s teenage son, John, born with physical disabilities. It hasn’t been any easier for John’s close friend, Sarah Jenkinson, harassed at school since moving to the area a few years ago…

Will John continue to cast his lot with two older ne’er-do-wells… or find a better path? In a time when people ask what is going wrong with our children and ourselves and tragedies abound all over the globe, this is truly an inspirational story.” 

— Excerpted from the Bookjacket

331 Innings  is the latest offering from Peter Brav, the gifted author of a number of baseball-themed novels, including “Sneaking In” and “The Other Side of Losing.” His new book represents a bit of a departure in that it is a coming-of-age tale which only makes occasional references to America’s pastime.

The opus’s title was inspired by Brav’s creation of the longest game ever played in Nebraska, a weeks-long contest attended by Jack Schram. The 84 year-old widower is the omniscient narrator of an engaging bildungsroman revolving around his late brother’s grandson, John.

At the point of departure, we learn that Jack has been serving as the 16 year-old’s surrogate father for about a decade, ever since the day his immature dad skipped town with another woman. John was more than a handful for his mom, Becky, between his  learning disabilities and a spinal deformity that not only left him a head shorter than his pals but with a cranium oddly cocked off to one side.

All of the above left the lad an easy target for bullies at school. But John considers himself lucky to have forged solid friendships with several classmates: Steve, the North High Lions’ pitching star, computer geek August, slacker Aaron, and Sarah, the girl of his dreams he harbors a secret crush on.

Trouble is, he also associates with Ted and Jake, a couple of delinquent dropouts four years his senior. They tempt John to venture to the dark side, much to the chagrin of the impressionable teen’s great-uncle.

The action unfolds in a humble, Cornhusker community littered with colorful characters who frequent down-home haunts like Mom’s Diner and the Sun Don’t Shine saloon. The plot thickens when a traumatized Sarah takes down her Facebook page after being mercilessly teased. Will John prove that chivalry is not dead and come to the aid of his beleaguered BFF-in-distress? And will her anonymous tormentors ease up or further escalate their tactics?

A sobering, modern morality play contemplating the degenerating state of human interaction in the 21st Century.  

To order a copy of 331 Innings, visit: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1544237944/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20 

Source:  Baret News

Peter Brav

The “331 Innings” Interview

with Kam Williams

Author Expounds on Labor of Love

Peter Brav is not much of a baseball player but he’s written three novels where the diamond provides a setting for triumph over adversity in one way or another. Sneaking In (set during the 1999 Yankees championship season), The Other Side Of Losing (set during a Chicago Cubs championship season) and now 331 Innings (set in a small Nebraska town). Add in Zappy I’m Not, a memoir of a cranky middle-aged man reincarnated as a small dog, and you have a literary celebration of all manner of admirable underdogs.

Peter has written several plays including South Beach, African Violet, Later, The Rub, Good Till Cancelled, and Trump Burger which have all been performed in staged readings. A a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Law School, he resides in Princeton, New Jersey with wife Janet and three Papillons.

Kam Williams: Hi Peter, thanks for the interview.

Peter Brav: Totally my pleasure, Kam.

KW: What inspired you to write 331 Innings?

PB:Well, first of all, it’s not a baseball book. That plays a very small part of it. It covers ground I’ve become comfortable with. Trying to understand why we’re all here for such a relatively short time and yet make it harder on each other and ourselves than it should be. I was thinking about bullying and war, specifically, and how they’re linked. And what a better world we’d have, if we could minimize both of them.

KW: How would you describe the novel in 25 words or less?

PB: It’s a pretty powerful 16th year in the life of John Schram, an undersized, underappreciated underdog. Anger’s getting the best of him and he’s most certainly heading in the wrong direction. Hopefully, he’s going to turn things around before it’s too late.

KW: Was the book’s narrator, Jack Schram, based on a real-life person?

PB: John’s Uncle Jack is a fictional 84 year-old lifelong Nebraskan. But Jack’s an amalgam of many older people I’ve met, whether they be relatives or folks at my father’s assisted living center. Like Jack, they’ve made livings, raised families, fought in wars, and watched loved ones and friends pass on. And if they’re like Jack, they marvel at how the younger generations around them keep making the same mistakes they did. I’ve always felt comfortable with older people, perhaps an old soul and all that. It remains to be seen whether that continues now that I’m getting there more rapidly than I’d like.

KW: How much research did you have to do in order to set the story in Nebraska?

PB: I drove through Nebraska four years ago and spent a wonderful week in Lincoln. I know there are significant differences from the Northeast and they’re highlighted on a daily basis on CNN with red and blue colors. But for my time there, on a closeup and personal level, I encountered nothing but personal warmth. And beautiful landscapes. The story wrote itself when I got back.

KW: What message do you want readers to take away from the novel?

PB: Well, some of what I just alluded to. We’ve got no shortage of underdogs in this world, battling whatever adversity comes their way to try and make a good life for themselves and others. What we could use a little more of is leaders, let’s call them overdogs, with a conscience. And that’s pretty much what happens near the end of the novel. Something brings the high school in-crowd and outcasts together, for one really long game anyway, and the rest of the world comes along for the ride. In my 2009 Chicago Cubs fantasy, The Other Side of Losing, I had a very protracted week-long rain delay during the World Series where people come together. This is a bit of the same thing, taking a break from “winning” to maybe show a little love.

KW: Are you already working on your next opus?

PB: Well, as you know, this lawyering thing keeps getting in the way, especially in the spring and summer. But I’ve finished a play called Propriety I’m hopeful about and I’ve started a new play set in the pre-war tumult of the late Thirties.

KW: AALBC.com founder Troy Johnson asks: What was the last book you read?

PB: Great question, Troy. I wish I had more time to read but I’m getting better. I’ll mention two. The Berlin Boxing Club, a great young adult novel by Robert Sharenow.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006157970X/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20

And I’m just finishing War Against War, a terrific nonfiction book about the years before World War I by Michael Kazin.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1476705909/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20 

KW: Ling-Ju Yen asks: What is your earliest childhood memory?

PB: Thanks, Ling-Ju. My beloved mother Adele, a survivor of the Holocaust who passed away two years ago, schlepping my sister and me on subways to see a matinee of Carousel in Manhattan. I believe I was 4 years-old.

KW: What is your favorite dish to cook?

PB: Cooking’s never been one of my strong suits, Kam. But my kids would say my scrambled eggs are perfectly edible.

KW: Craig Robinson asks: What was your last dream?

PB: Hi, Craig. My night dreams are gone shortly after I wake up. There are nights I’m pretty dream-prolific, too. But my daydreams hang around forever; they’re in 331 Innings.

KW: Sherry Gillam would like to know what is the most important life lesson you’ve learned so far? 

PB: That’s such a good question, Sherry, and I want you to know I learned it very early on. It’s to evaluate everyone I meet on the basis of individual character only. No wealth, race, religion, nationality, age, popularity considerations, or anything else. And I’ve been the beneficiary of that lesson, with a diverse group of friends enriching my life on a daily basis.

KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

PB: I don’t know, give me a minute, and I’ll get back to you with a quite pained response. I see someone super blessed to have had the love and encouragement of my incredible wife Janet and the rest of my

family and friends.

KW: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

PB: I’m going to assume you mean intentionally. Most of the “crazy” things I did only look that way with hindsight. But I’d say naively taking my MGB without snow tires into the mountains of Vermont in the winter of 1981 ranks right up there.

KW: If you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?

PB: For the powers that be throughout the world to have a collective Moment of Zen, to borrow from Jon Stewart, in which they realize they have more power and wealth than could be consumed in multiple lifetimes. And then actually do something about it to reduce war, oppression, inequity, ignorance, and the planet’s deterioration. It shouldn’t take the arrival of a worse species as happened in Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! to bring people together.

KW: The Tavis Smiley question: How do you want to be remembered?

PB: That’s tough since most of us will be remembered by very few. But I hope it’s for more than those scrambled eggs.

KW: Finally, what’s in your wallet?

PB: The usual I’m sure. Five dollars and a completely illegible idea for a new novel scrawled on a napkin.

KW: Thanks again for the time, Peter, and best of luck with the book.

PB: Thank you, Kam, I hope folks enjoy it. Writing it was a joy for me.

To order a copy of 331 Innings, visit: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1544237944/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20 

Read more of Peter’s work at www.peterbrav.com

and follow him at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3299307.Peter_Brav

and: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorPeterBrav/

and: https://twitter.com/PGBistroPG

Source:  Baret News 

Gil Robertson

The “Book of Black Heroes” Interview

with Kam Williams

Gil’s Goodwill!

For nearly three decades, writer/author Gil L. Robertson, IV has used the written word to enlighten, empower and uplift. The one-time political organizer initially made his mark in entertainment journalism, penning over 50 national magazine covers and contributing bylines to a wide range of publications that include the Los Angeles Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, Billboard, Fortune, Essence and Ebony.

Gil is also the founder and creator of the nationally-syndicated Arts & Lifestyle column, The Robertson Treatment, which began a couple of decades ago with an interview with Samuel L. Jackson for EVE’S BAYOU. Today, The Robertson Treatment has a reach of nearly two million.

As an author, Gil has specialized in books that empower his readers, beginning first with the self-published “Writing as a Tool of Empowerment” (2003), a resource guide primarily aimed at young people interested in journalism. From there, he edited the groundbreaking 2006 anthology “Not in My Family: AIDS in the African American Community” where he gathered a diverse mix of voices that include Oscar-winner Mo’Nique, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, legendary singer Patti LaBelle and former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, all addressing one of the most pressing public health and social challenges of our time.

His subsequent anthologies—”Family Affair: What It Means to Be African American Today” (2008) and “Where Did Our Love Go: Love and Relationships in the African American Community” (2013)—ignited a national conversation about identity and love and relationships in the 21st Century. In addition, Robertson has been a regular contributor to The African American Almanac (Gale Press). Accolades for his work include “Pick of the Week” selection by Publisher’s Weekly for “Family Affair” and NAACP Image Award nominations for “Not in My Family” and “Family Affair”.

His latest  offering is “Book of Black Heroes: Political Leaders Past & Present” from Just Us Books. The opus represents a full-circle moment for Gil who began the first phase of his career in politics. This collection of biographies on game-changing elected political leaders like former President Barack Obama, pioneering Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, current U.S. Senator Kamala Harris and Reconstruction era governor Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchbank is intended to introduce young readers especially to not only dynamic personalities but to the concept of individual and political leadership.

Never one to sit on the sidelines of any pressing issue, in 2003, Gil rolled up his sleeves and got to work as the co-founder of the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA), the largest collection of Black film critics in North America. As the organization’s president, he oversees the annual AAFCA Awards, which has become a recognized fixture of the Hollywood awards season. In addition to highlighting African-American achievement behind and in front of the camera, AAFCA works with the industry to usher in and support African-Americans in the Hollywood community, uniting consumers, creators and gatekeepers.

He also serves as a public ambassador for diversity within the industry, appearing on numerous shows on networks like CNN. With a B.A. in Political Science from Cal State Los Angeles, Gil is a professional member of the National Press Club, National Association of Black Journalists, The Recording Academy, The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Motion Picture Association of America. And he lectures nationwide on issues ranging from diversity in the entertainment industry to personal and community development.

Kam Williams: Hi Gil, thanks for the interview.

Gil Robertson: Thanks, Kam. It’s always a pleasure speaking with you.

KW: What inspired you to write Book of Black Heroes?

GR: Following Obama’s election, I was astonished to discover how little most people knew about the contributions of African-Americans in politics. When most people think of blacks in U.S. politics, they usually fall back on the same group of leaders who came into prominence during the Civil Rights Movement. So, I wanted to do my part in expanding people’s level of awareness of black people who have been active participants in national politics since Reconstruction, and that their contributions continue to this day. Black political leaders make enormous contributions to the quality of our lives, and I simply wanted to provide readers with an introduction to who these people are and, as a by-product, stimulate aspirations among young people to consider a career path in political leadership.

KW: Who’s your intended audience?

GR: People who are curious about contributions that African-Americans have made to the political and social landscape in America. This book offers an amazing tapestry of leaders, both past and present, who have fascinating back stories, but who all stepped up to the challenges of leadership.

KW: What’s the appropriate age group for the book?

GR: The target age group for Book of Black Heroes are young adult readers in the 10 – 14 age group. But I believe it will have an appeal to all teen readers and even adults. Readers will discover political leaders that they’ve never heard of who are creating great opportunities both within black communities and beyond.

KW: How did you decide which icons to include?

GR: Well, that was a challenge. At the onset of the project, I was only going to write bios on individuals who were a part of the new wave of African-Americans in politics: people like Kasim Reed, Kamala Harris and Corey Booker. However, when I completed those bios, my publisher felt we should include leaders from the past as well to provide readers with the full scope of accomplishments that have been made by black elected officials.

KW: Did you include Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas? I know that some people have complained that he doesn’t have an exhibit in the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, DC.

GR: No Clarence Thomas, but not for the reasons you might think. The book only includes elected officials, and Justice Thomas was appointed to his seat on the Supreme Court.

KW: What message do you want children to take away from the book?

GR: I want them to understand that being a leader is something that is attainable. I hope the book provides readers with an appreciation for African-American political leaders and motivates them to do their part in harvesting their skill sets to improve the lives of others.

KW: Ling-Ju Yen asks: What is your earliest childhood memory?

GR: The love and generosity of my parents.

KW: Who loved you unconditionally during your formative years?

GR: Throughout their lives, my parents loved me completely with no conditions.

KW: What advice do you have for anyone who wants to follow in your footsteps?

GR: The best advice that I can give others is to be truthful to themselves about their abilities and to also live their lives with purpose.

KW: Thanks again for the time, Gil, and best of luck with the book.

GR: My pleasure, Kam.

For more information about Gil Robertson, visit www.robertsontreatment.com

To purchase a copy of “Book of Black Heroes,” visit:  https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1933491213/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20

Source:  Baret News

Book of Black Heroes

Political Leaders Past and Present

by Gil L. Robertson, IV

Foreword by Myrlie Evers-Williams

Just Us Books

Paperback, $12.95

80 pages

ISBN: 978-1-933491-21-9

Book Review by Kam Williams

“The first African-American political leaders began to serve following the Civil War…Known as Reconstruction, this period represented a window of opportunity for African-Americans…

Many [Black] political leaders emerged during this period, using their political power and influence to push for equality and justice for all Americans… Unfortunately, the Reconstruction period was short-lived, lasting only from 1865-1877.

States in the South… passed laws that essentially took away the citizenship rights of African-Americans… These legislative measures were called Jim Crow laws.

It would take nearly 100 years and … the Civil Rights Movement before African-Americans would again be guaranteed the right to vote and hold elected office… A new generation of Black political leaders is active today.

[This book] will acquaint readers with leaders of the past and will introduce new ones… Through their stories, I hope others, especially young people, will be inspired to become leaders in their own right.”   

— Excerpted from the Introduction (pages ix-x)

Despite the historic election of Barack Obama as the first African-

American president, the American Dream still eludes the majority of blacks in the country. Meanwhile, plenty of TV pundits point to Obama as proof that the U.S. has arrived at a post-racial reality where skin color is irrelevant.

However, since millions of blacks continue to suffer from a host of woes associated with the inner city, they remain in critical need of political leadership. That is the contention of Gil Robertson, author of Book of Black Heroes: Political Leaders Past and Present.

His timely tome is composed of biographies of about four-dozen African-American icons who have served in the political arena over the past century and a half. The enlightening opus’ aim is not only to educate but to inspire the next generation of selfless torchbearers.

Many of the luminaries profiled are household names, such as President Obama, Representatives John Lewis and Maxine Waters, and Senator Cory Booker. Others members of Congress are rising stars in their respective parties, ranging from Democrats Kamala Harris and Keith Ellison to Republicans Tim Scott and Mia Love.

Along the way, we learn that Ellison converted from Catholicism to Islam while in college and that Harris is of Jamaican and East Indian extraction. Some of the most fascinating entries are about little-known leaders from the Reconstruction Era, like Pinckney Pinchback who served as Governor of Louisiana for 15 days, and Hiram Revels who was elected to represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate in 1870.

Overall, a priceless primer on the intrepid, political pioneers who have spearheaded the African-American fight for equality.

To order a copy of Book of Black Heroes: Political Leaders Past and Present, visit: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1933491213/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20

 Source:  Baret News

The Great American Citizenship Quiz

Newly Revised and Updated

By Solomon M. Skolnick

How well do you know the history of the United States? Do you believe, without a doubt, that you are capable of passing the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) naturalization test? Fair warning, there will be a quiz. For the past decade alone, the USCIS has welcomed more than 6.6 million naturalized citizens into the United States. Each of these naturalized citizens were asked to answer up to ten of a potential one hundred questions in order to become an American. THE GREAT AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP QUIZ (Bloomsbury; on-sale: September 5, 2017; ISBN: 978-1-635-57015-1; $16 trade paperback; 170 pages) by Solomon M. Skolnick provides the complete USCIS test with added background material, text of the original documents, as well as quizzes, and other fun facts about our government and society, which have now thrived for more than two centuries.

Filled with hundreds of intriguing stories, quotes, and facts behind the answers, THE GREAT AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP QUIZ reflects the USCIS test’s emphasis on identifying and teaching basic American ideas, values, rights, and responsibilities. Including appendices with the entire texts of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and amendments, and the Emancipation Proclamation, THE GREAT AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP QUIZ is essential reading for anyone aspiring to citizenship, and a vital pocket history Americans of all ages.

*Now for the promised quiz:

• How many amendments does the Constitution have?
• What is freedom of religion?
• What is the economic system in the United States?
• If both the president and the vice president can no longer serve, who becomes president?
• Who is the Chief Justice of the United States?
• Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?
• When was the Constitution written?
• Who was the president during WWI?
• Before he was president, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in?
• Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States.

Did you pass? Feel free to email Rayshma.Arjune@Bloomsbury.com your results or inquire about the answers.

About the Author:

Solomon M. Skolnick’s work has appeared in the New York Times and many other publications, and includes Simple Gifts: The Shaker Song.

THE GREAT AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP QUIZ
By Solomon M. Skolnick
Bloomsbury
On-sale: September 5, 2017 | ISBN: 978-1-63557-015-1
$16.00 trade paperback | 170 pages

For more information please contact:

Rayshma Arjune | Publicity

Rayshma.Arjune@Bloomsbury.com | 212-419-5361

Source:  Baret News

Understanding God Takes Tolerance: Enter Shari Sharifi Brown’s 

When Shari Sharifi Brown enters a room one immediately senses a unique presence, an intuitive sense that  the joy within her is the infallible sign of the presence of God.  

Why 7  Commandments when we all have been taught there were 10 Commandments.  Because in fact Shari has created an active faith  formula to enable those who are confused and overwhelmed by the task of reading scripture (any scripture, the Old and New Testament excluding the Qur’an ) that there are only really  7  when you eliminate repetition and redundancy. Her vision is a phenomenal new tool to  help us better understand scripture to enable us to pray more often, thereby enhancing our personal faith in God, which would increase happiness, which in return  increases  our odds at achieve prosperity. It’s a formula that only someone with Shari’s unique background and outstanding abilities  could arrive at that make her a definitive  authority on both science and spirituality.   

The perfect trifecta for today’s world, Shari is part Muslim (born) Christian (converted) and Jewish American (married) andthe author a provocative new book SEVEN COMMANDMENTS FOR HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY  which challenges the reader to re-see the world with more tolerant eyes. Blessed by universal wisdom, she is proof of  living all three of the Abrahamic religions which has given her a profound understanding of their innate compatibility. She has absorbed the great prophets of Einstein, Mohammed, Moses and Jesus, and so her book is a testament to her lifetime of studying all three major religions to make us whole and secure. Understanding the similarities of the three outweigh the differences. Wisdom is searching not only the roots of our past, but the roots of our future, that humanity prospers. Shari’s  book seeks nothing less than a global shift in consciousness and perspectives of the human condition and current needs

Understanding God takes tolerance: as a  religious scholar,  Shari’s book clearly illustrates that the Quran and Islam regard Jews and Christians as children of Abraham:  first the Jews through the prophet Moses and then to Christians through the prophet Jesus. They recognize many of the same biblical prophets, in particular Moses and Jesus, and those are common Muslim names. Another common Muslim name is Mary. In fact, the Virgin Mary’s name occurs more times in the Quran than in the New Testament; Muslims also believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. However, they believe that over time the original revelations to Moses and Jesus became corrupted. The Old Testament is seen as a mixture of God’s revelation and human fabrication. The same is true for the New Testament and what Muslims see as Christianity’s development of “new” and erroneous doctrines such as  Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus’ death redeemed and atoned for humankind’s original sin.

There are, of course, great similarities between the world’s two largest religions. Both point to a holy book, allegedly inspired by God, for faith and practice. Both call for high moral standards and serious personal commitment. Both share common traditions, since Muhammad learned from Jews as well as Christians. And both have a vision to spread their faith around the world.

Shari emphasizes that it is important that each faith is represented fairly and that each faith stands on its own merits, that Christianity is not judged for not being Islam and Islam not portrayed as  deficient when compared with Christianity. They are different with similarities or similar with differences, we can and should acknowledge both and not make what is different difficult. Shari explores Christian Muslim identity and explains  the differences creatively, and, of course, positively. True Christians and Muslims are not a threat to each other.  By consolidating the 19 total commandments from all 3 major world religions into 7 Commandments that embrace all 3, Shari creates a “Faith Formula” to bridge the human to human divide. The focus shifts from perceived spiritual and religious differences to what we have in common, and how focusing on these 7 commandments along with the habit of positive praying begets happiness.

Born and raised  in Iran, Shari completed her engineering studies at Harvard University in Tehran. In

Shari Sharifi Brown

1967, Shari immigrated to America and ever since been on a roll: currently President of TransGlobal Consulting Engineering Corp. Shari was employed as a structural engineer by the prestigious international engineering company Ralph M Parsons, Pasadena California from May 1974 to September 1976.  She was assigned to work on the underground building  called “SarCheshmeh , the  secret nuclear project for the Iranian government because she was able to bridge an understanding between the two countries. Her requirements to fulfill were very specific: design and analyze various steel-reinforced concrete structures to make them impenetrable from any bunker-busting bombs or crazed suicide-bombers. While there was absolutely no harness on her budgets, her sound engineering abilities assured that the beams, columns, slabs and footings met all the rigid American ACI 318-71 code specifications which virtually guaranteed they were fail safe. Shari is very empathic that the Americans are incomparably the best engineers in the world, and that the Iranians are at least 32 years behind as far as science and technology is concerned.

Shari converted to Christianity in 1998.  For Shari, success and spirituality are two sides of a coin: a balance of both sides of  life’s path, Shari says “It is not the clothes we wear or the cars we drive, or a dry empty rhetoric we belch, nor is it the churches we attend that gives us spirituality, happiness and prosperity”.  In the pendulum of existence, spirituality gives us a oneness with God that will lighten the darkest of days. Without spirituality and faithfulness to prayer , we erect an iron curtain around the soul.  Following Shari’s  Seven Commandments and her prescription for positive prayer  will help handle life’s difficulties with  optimism, happiness, and faith, encouraging one’s life and  soul to prosper.  In the dark of night, listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.

The great gift of Shari’s new book The Seven Commandments for Happiness and Prosperity is that  one learns the power of positive praying because prayer begets happiness and prosperity. Shari’s life is proof positive that her faith formula works.

Extraordinary women are usually married to extraordinary men. Shari’s spouse is the legendary Edward G. Brown, Record and TV producer, songwriter, restaurant and nightclub owner, a founder of banks and a real estate developer, a financial manager and co-owner of the Cohen-Brown Management Company with clients in over 50 countries and 12 languages. Shari and Mr. Brown live in Malibu and have a Penthouse on the Wilshire corridor.

Pretty Powerful

Appearance, Substance and Success

by Eboni K. Williams

Viva Editions

Hardcover, $21.99

224 pages

ISBN: 978-1-63596-662-6

Book Review by Kam Williams

“Pretty powerful is the understanding that, as women, we have the duality of both ‘pretty’ and ‘substance’ that can (and should) be maximized to achieve any success we set our minds to… While there are significant challenges along the way… we have incredible choice around how we utilize our appearance, coupled with our substance…

This book… is for women who know they are exceptional, who desire to be successful, and who strive toward greatness in all the opportunities life presents to them. This book is for those who understand that womanhood is a strength that, when fully embraced, is unstoppable.

This book is for and about the Pretty Powerful.” 

— Excerpted from the Preface (pages xv-xvii)

Remember you heard it here first: Eboni K. Williams is well on her way to becoming the next Oprah Winfrey. So, appreciate her now and avoid the rush!Like her role model, who represented the State of Tennessee in the Miss Black America contest, Eboni got her start in pageants, from vying for the coveted Miss Cinderella crown as a child to finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss North Carolina competition as an adult.

As brainy as she is beautiful, the attorney-turned-talk show host has admittedly leveraged both her intellect and looks into a promising career on WABC radio and Fox News TV. You can now add “author” to this rising star’s impressive resume, as she has just released her first book: Pretty Powerful

The groundbreaking how-to tome puts forth the proposition that it’s perfectly respectable for females to be as sexy as they are cerebral in pursuit of professional success. That unorthodox advice flies in the face of the conventional thinking which would have women downplay their pulchritude while climbing the corporate ladder in order to avoid being dismissed as bimbos.

Here, however, Eboni reflects upon her own experiences walking back and forth across the line between fierce and flirtatious personas. She’s assisted in making her case by anecdotal evidence furnished by a number of accomplished colleagues who share her daring approach: Johnson Publishing CEO Desirée Rogers, OJ prosecutor Marcia Clark, and conservative political pundit Monica, to name a few. 

Don’t hesitate to purchase this practical primer so full of priceless pearls of wisdom it amounts to the literary equivalent of buying in bulk!

To order a copy of Pretty Powerful, visit: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1635966620/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20

My Grandmother’s Hands

Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

by Resmaa Menakem

Central Recovery Press

Paperback $17.95

332 pages

ISBN: 978-1-942094-47-0

Book Review by Kam Williams

“For the past three decades, we’ve earnestly tried to address white-body supremacy in America with reason, principle and ideas–using dialogue, forums, discussions, education and mental training. But the widespread destruction of Black bodies continues.

And some of the ugliest destruction originates with the police. Why is there such a chasm between our well-intentioned attempts to heal and the ever-growing number of dark-skinned bodies… killed or injured?

My Grandmother’s Hands is a call to action for Americans to recognize that racism is not only about the head, but also about the body. [The book] introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide and takes readers through a step-by-step healing process based on the latest neuroscience and somatic healing methods.” 

— Excerpted from the Bookjacket and Chapter 1 (page 4)

“Grandma’s hands
Used to hand me piece of candy
Grandma’s hands
Picked me up each time I fell
Grandma’s hands
Boy, they really came in handy
She’d say, ‘Matty don’ you whip that boy
What you want to spank him for?
He didn’t drop no apple core’
But I don’t have Grandma anymore

If I get to heaven I’ll look for
Grandma’s hands”                                                                                              –Grandma’s Hands by Bill Withers

Like Bill Withers, Resmaa Menakem had a wise grandmother who played a pivotal role in shaping him during the formative years of his life. For that reason, he acknowledges the debt of gratitude owed to Addie Coleman, whose tenderhearted spirit permeates his new book, “My Grandmother’s Hands.”

But the groundbreaking opus isn’t merely a fond memoir about a late loved one, but rather a sobering how-to tome endeavoring to identify and alleviate deep-seated traumas afflicting blacks and whites alike. For the author, a veteran therapist who has appeared as a guest on such TV shows as Oprah and Dr. Phil, fervently believes that racism can’t be eradicated by conversation across the color line alone, as so often suggested by well-meaning political pundits.

He asserts that race-based trauma is so embedded in our bones that it can “alter the DNA” and thus be

Author: Resmaa Menakem

passed from one generation to the next. Consequently, his innovative recipe for recovery incorporates a hands-on approach to healing the body as well as metaphysical measures for soothing the soul.

The book is basically a mix of diagnostic discussion, anecdotal evidence and invaluable exercises designed to enable the reader to recognize his or her need for treatment and then get themselves started on the road to recovery. Though the highly-charged subject-matter might ordinarily be controversial in nature, this text is written in a non-confrontational style apt to disarm, engage and enlighten readers, regardless of color or political persuasion. 

Kudos to Resmaa Menakem for such a sorely-needed seminal work which couldn’t be more practical or more timely, given this bitterly-divided country’s current state of race relations.   

To order a copy of My Grandmother’s Hands, visit: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1942094477/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20

We Were Eight Years in Power

An American Tragedy

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

One World

Hardcover, $28.00

394 pages

ISBN: 978-0-399-59056-6

Book Review by Kam Williams

“For so much of American history, the fact of black people is a problem… The demonstrable truth has been evaded in favor of a more comforting story…

[But America is] a country trying to skip out on a bill, trying to stave off a terrible accounting… It’s clear to me that the common theory of providential progress, of the inevitable reconciliation between the sin of slavery and democratic ideal [is a ] myth.”

— Excerpted from the Chapter 1, (pages 66-73)

In 2015, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me” earned the #1 spot on my annual Top Ten Black Books list. And, after reading the equally-remarkable “We Were Eight Years in Power,” there’s a good chance he’s about to repeat that feat.

William Faulkner once observed that, “The past is not dead. It isn’t even past.” That unsettling sentiment courses through the veins of Ta-Nehisi’s latest opus.

The title ostensibly implies that it’s about Barack Obama’s being followed in office by a President with diametrically opposed values when it comes to the welfare of black folks. After all, Trump seems to believe there are good and bad Nazis and good and bad Ku Klux Klansmen. Isn’t that’s like suggesting there are good and bad rapists and good and bad murderers?

The book does bemoan the fact that the dramatic difference in administrations has been marked by a revival of the dormant white supremacist movement. However, Ta-Nehisi’s genius rests in his putting that resurgence into proper perspective.

There is a chilling precedent for what transpired last November when the nation elected the candidate running on the slogan “Make America great again!” The author cites how, in the wake of the Civil War, the ex-slaves were bitterly disappointed when the egalitarian Reconstruction plan for the South was dismantled by the former Confederate states and replaced by the Jim Crow system of segregation.

That devastating development inspired black South Carolina Congressman Thomas Miller (1849-1938) to

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates

lament, “We were eight years in power” in reference to the brief period of African-American optimism in terms of securing equality under the law. The quote serves a dual purpose, here, as it talks about a dream rudely deferred while simultaneously issuing a dire warning that history might very well repeat itself.

Thus, We Were Eight Years in Power serves as a clarion call for vigilance about the possible erosion of African-American advances presumed sacrosanct.

Consider these riveting, well-reasoned ruminations of the most-prodigious black visionary around a must-read indeed.

To order a copy of We Were Eight Years in Power, visit: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399590560/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20

Invisible Ink

Navigating Racism in Corporate America

by Stephen M. Graham

CreateSpace

Paperback, $11.95

220 pages

ISBN: 978-1-5411-7117-6

Book Review by Kam Williams

“It has always been a struggle for the relatively few African-Americans in corporate America who do exist, and it is made all the more difficult because we tend to operate in isolation. We are nearly always alone, with no one to fall back on… as we deal daily with an unending stream of slights real and imagined.

Even those who do care don’t really understand. This is all played out in an environment where we are subjected to a debilitating undercurrent of bias that too many, on both sides of the divide, pretend does not exist…

The point of this book is not that the world is an awful place where things never go right but that institutional racism is a virus that is alive and well and needs to be eradicated if fundamental fairness is to be achieved. Black lives matter, and we must take issue and demand change, whether these lives are literally snuffed out in the blink of an eye or figuratively snuffed out in the polite confines of corporate America.” 

— Excerpted from the Prologue (page xiii) and Epilogue (page 199)

By any measure, Stephen Graham’s would be considered a success story.  After earning a B.S. from Iowa State University, he went on to Yale Law School en route to an enviable career as one of the country’s top attorneys in the field of mergers and acquisitions.

So, one might expect that when he decided to write a book, it would basically be about how he managed to achieve the American Dream. But he opted to focus more on the impediments he encountered on his rise up the corporate ladder than on the satisfaction of making it to the top of his profession.

That’s because he’s black and he doesn’t want any African-American attempting to follow in his footsteps to think that the struggle is over once you receive an Ivy League degree. For, as he points out in Invisible Ink, a pernicious pattern of prejudice persists in the business world from the bottom rung all the way up to the rarefied air of the wood-paneled boardroom.

The author makes the persuasive case that there’s no reason for the U.S. to rest on its laurels just because it

Author Stephen M. Graham

elected Barack Obama president. He also says that it is shortsighted to worry only about the plight of poverty-stricken blacks stuck in inner-city ghettos.

No, Graham argues that insidious forms of institutional racism have continued to frustrate members of minority groups, too, long after the demise of de jure discrimination. What he finds troubling is the fact that the favoring of whites is now very subtle indeed, making bigoted behavior often difficult to identify, let alone challenge.

Overall, an intelligent, eye-opening opus relating a riveting combination of touching personal anecdotes and sobering advice about what needs to be done to finally achieve that elusive ideal of a colorblind society.

To order a copy of Invisible Ink, visit: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1541171179/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20

When They Call You a Terrorist

A Black Lives Matter Memoir

by Patrisse Khan-Cullors with asha bandele

Foreword by Angela Davis

St. Martin’s Press

Hardcover, $24.99

272 pages

ISBN: 978-1-250-17108-5

Book Review by Kam Williams

“We have joined the rest of the country in protesting in order to get Trayvon Martin’s killer charged. We have gone to meetings and held one-on-ones with community members. We have painted murals. We have wept.

We have said publicly that we are a people in mourning. We have demanded they stop killing us. But we have harmed not one single person nor advocated for it. They have no right to be here!”

And yet I was called a terrorist. The members of our movement are called terrorists. We–me, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi–the three women who founded Black Lives Matter, are called terrorists…

We are not terrorists… I am not a terrorist… I am a survivor.” 

— Excerpted from pages 8 and 190

Patrisse Khan-Cullors is one of the last people you’d ever expect to be a founder of the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s not a question of her commitment to the cause but rather the host of personal issues that would have crippled the average person.

But this 5′ 2″ lesbian managed to survive a challenging childhood in a drug-infested ghetto where she and her

Patrisse Cullors/author Photo.Credit: Curtis Moore

asha bandele
Photo Credit: Michael Hnatov Photography

siblings were raised by a single-mom who worked 16 hours a day to keep a roof over their heads. She didn’t even meet her crackhead of a father until she was twelve, as he divided his time between rehab and prison.

One of her brothers not only smoked crack, but was schizophrenic to boot. Consequently, Patrisse became intimately familiar with both the mental health and criminal justice systems. Meanwhile, at school, she was routinely teased and physically attacked for being gay.

To paraphrase Langston Hughes, life for Patrisse ain’t been no crystal stair. Nevertheless, when she learned that Trayvon Martin’s killer hadn’t been arrested by the police, she was so outraged that she created the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter which soon exploded into a nationwide movement.

Although the African-American community appreciated her efforts, the same couldn’t be said for the LAPD which labeled Patrisse a terrorist and fabricated a flimsy excuse to conduct a SWAT team raid of her apartment. All of the above is revisited in riveting fashion in When They Call You a Terrorist, a fascinating combination autobiography and blow-by-blow account of the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

A must-read memoir by a beleaguered grassroots organizer with  greatness thrust upon her.   

To order a copy of When They Call You a Terrorist, visit: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1250171083/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20

Win Bigly

Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter

by Scott Adams

Portfolio/Penguin

Hardcover, $27.00

304 pages

ISBN: 978-0-7352-1971-7                         

Book Review by Kam Williams

“On August 13, 2015, I predicted on my blog that Donald Trump had a 98% chance of winning the presidency based on his persuasion skills… Persuasion is all about the tools and techniques of changing people’s minds, with or without facts and reason…

Why did I say Trump had exactly a 98% chance of winning… Trump is the best persuader I have ever seen in action. The wall is a perfect example. Consider how much discipline it took for him to… be willing to endure brutal criticism about how dumb he was to think he could secure the border with a wall…

During the presidential campaign, it seemed that candidate Trump was making one factual error after another. Social media and the mainstream media… called him a liar, a con man, and just plain stupid… [But] Trump often stuck to his claims after the media thoroughly debunked them…

It was mind-boggling. No one was quite sure if the problem was his honesty, his lack of homework, or some sort of brain problem…

I am a trained hypnotist… Based on my background in that field, I recognized his talents early… Trump is what I call a Master Persuader.” 

— Excerpted from pages 1-2 and19-23.

How did Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election? All the experts confidently predicted he would lose only to serve up an unconvincing explanations like low Democrat voter turnout in swing states when they were shocked by the outcome.   

But there was never a doubt in the mind of Scott Adams who confidently predicted a Trump landslide soon after he declared himself a candidate. And who is Scott Adams? Not a pollster or a political pundit. No, he’s a syndicated cartoonist.

If the name rings a bell, that’s because he’s the creator of Dilbert, the popular comic strip revolving around a beleaguered white-collar worker. But Scott is also a hypnotist, and he knew who would win when he observed Trump

Author: Scott Adams

skillfully employing all the tricks of a master persuader.

Adams argues in Win Bigly that, by design, Donald would sprinkle his speeches with seductive catchphrases like, “Believe me,” “It’s true,” and “Many people are saying…” It didn’t matter that he often contradicted himself and outright lied.

For, according to the author, humans have a design flaw in that we are terribly susceptible to manipulators well-versed in mind-control techniques. And sure enough, Trump did enjoy a lopsided victory, at least in terms of the Electoral College. 

A sobering post mortem on the presidential election suggesting that half the American populace might be under the spell of a modern-day Machiavelli. 

To order a copy of Win Bigly, visit: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735219710/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20

 Meet the Godfather of True Progressivism : The Honorable Governor Culbert Levy Olson  Humanitarian. Ex-Mormon. Atheist.

Epic new book of the “People’s Governor” Penned by Granddaughter Debra Deanne Olson and Dr. Craig West Wilkinson

Governor Culbert Levy Olson said it best: “I believe all gods man has fanatically worshiped and feared were his own creations, born of his imagination. Lack of knowledge concerning the phenomena of natural causes and effects has not satisfied man’s ego nor his yearning for immortality.” 

He’s oft called the Godfather of True Progressivism.

How did this son of a  Mormon family from Utah defy the predictable politics  and become the 29th governor of California? The Honorable Governor Culbert Levy Olson  tells the story of a remarkable statesman, a scientific skeptic and a man of conscience totally committed to a true progressive agenda.   As early as 1934, he was a supporter of Upton Sinclair’s “End Poverty in California” (EPIC). He put Californians back to work by forming cooperatives to take over idle factories and farms. In 1934, he was elected to the California State Senate where he authored the Olson Oil Bill to break up oil company monopolies in California. 

If you want to know what Progressivism looks like, this is what Progressivism looks like…

Taking down the business-as-usual politicians is not for the faint of heart. It takes toughness, tenacity and an undisputed moral compass. In 1938, he campaigned to be the Governor on the platform for expanding The New Deal in California. His platform included: Support for Labor, Migrant Farm Workers, Latino Politics, Predatory Lending and Unions, Prison Reform, Reform Mental Health Institutions,Guaranteed Old Age Pensions, Universal Healthcare, Regulation of Public Utilities, and Separation of Church and State. He cut the cord with Big Pharma and Big Oil.  In 1938, Culbert Olson won the governorship in a landslide, becoming the first Democratic governor in 44 years. A contender to be FDR’s vice presidential running mate, Olson believed his overwhelming victory was a mandate from the people.  Defiantly, all of his official appointments  were made without discrimination regardless of race, religions, or  gender.

His Inaugural address reflected his humanitarian idealism: “There is none among us who can doubt that the people have voted for a government that shall honestly place human values before material values; that they want a government that will do the human thing, unserved by pressure from any self-seeking group or special interest.”

In 1939, he presented a plan of Universal Healthcare for California that today might have been called “Olsoncare,” Under Gov. Olson’s plan, all working Californians earning $3,000 or less a year (close to $50,000 today) would have been required to be covered. Unfortunately, the health insurance measure was rejected by the more centrist legislature along with Olson’s proposals to raise taxes, regulate lobbyists and make the state’s prison system more humane.

Whatever his trials and tribulations, Olson kept moving amid every obstacle, amid every mountain of opposition. After leaving office, Olson returned to the practice of law and in 1957, accepted the presidency of the United Secularists of America.  Olson ardently pleaded religion must be abandoned as a guiding philosophy,or the world would end in a bloodbath of war Furthermore, Olson bravely left Mormonism as a young intellectual, at a time when apostasy from the LDS church could be a death sentence, like in Islam today.

Always one to speak his mind and never to run from controversy, its no wonder the California State Library recently acknowledged Olson as the first governor to honor with a digital exhibit. Supreme Court Justice Stanley Moss said of his former boss, “He was the most honest person I think I’ve ever known”

Proudly, his granddaughter Debra Olson  carries of his progressive values and ideals. Debra championed a  Marshall Plan for the Earth and Her People, The Earth Charter Initiative, a powerful  framework for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society for the 21st century Debra serves on the Board of The Coalition for Engaged Education and The Peace Channel, an Initiative of The United Nations. She was also the National Senior Advisor and Chief Fundraising for the Kucinich for President Campaign in 2003, she designed and implemented the first on-line political fundraising campaigns nationwide.

A Perilous Path

Talking Race, Inequality and the Law

by Sherrilyn Ifill, Loretta Lynch, Bryan Stevenson and Anthony G. Thompson

The New Press

Hardcover, $14.99

126 pages

ISBN: 978-1-62097-395-0

Book Review by Kam Williams

down.”

–Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch (pages 10-11)

This book is basically a candid conversation among talking heads revolving around the issue of racial justice in America. In fact, A Perilous Path is literally an edited version of a spirited chat which took place on February 27, 2017, during the launch of NYU School of Law’s Center on Race, Inequality and the Law.

On the dais were four African-Americans luminaries of considerable stature: former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, President of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Sherrilyn Ifill (cousin of the late Gwen Ifill), MacArthur Genius and best-selling author Bryan Stevenson, and NYU Professor of Law Anthony C. Thompson.

The topics they explored ranged from the historical, such as why emancipation of the slaves failed to usher in an era of freedom and true equality; to the visionary, such as assessing the prospects for minorities in the age of Trump.

In terms of the former, Stephenson asserts that “The North won the Civil War but the South won the narrative war. The South was able to persuade the United States Supreme Court that racial equality wasn’t necessary.” He laments the thousands of lynchings and other forms of terrorism which ensued that no one was held accountable for.

Similarly, he says, “We won passage of the Civil Rights Act. But we lost the narrative war.” Consequently, the segregationists waving Confederate flags were still able to maintain de facto white supremacy, evidenced by schools named after disgraced rebels like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.

I doubt you’d find any statues of Hitler and his henchmen scattered around Germany. Why not? Because not only did the Nazis lose World War II, they also lost the subsequent cultural war, which explains why Stephenson concludes for our purposes, “The challenge we face is a narrative battle.”

To order a copy of A Perilous Path, visit: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1620973952/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20

Photo: Juliana Thomas / NYU