Louis Gossett
Author
Series
Summary
Perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation. After his rescue, Northup published...
Summary
Police officer Mac McDonald's life is shattered when a tragic accident takes the life of his son. Years later, Mac's bitterness and pain have eroded his love for his family, strained his relationships on the force, and left him angry with God. When Mac gets partnered up in the squad car with Sam Wright, an African-American ordained minister turned cop, will the two be able to join forces and help one another when it's impossible to look past their...
4) The reason
Summary
When a mysterious man appears in a small town, unexplained miracles start to occur changing the lives of everyone he meets. There's a mother whose five-year-old boy has leukemia, two doctors, one an atheist haunted by his past, the other a brilliant young oncologist that places all her hope in the power of modern medicine, and a blind pastor whose son hasn't spoken a single word in 38 years.
6) Smitty
Summary
Mischievous thirteen-year-old Ben is sent to his grandfather's farm for the summer, where he crosses paths with a lovable mutt. With help from the unlikely canine companion, Ben learns the importance of friendship, family, and responsibility. When life gets tough for Ben, a friendly paw is all it takes to pull him through.
Summary
After Cesar's major league career is cut short, he returns to his native Monterey, Mexico. Once back home, a group of impoverished baseball-loving kids recruit him to coach their ragtag team. Together, they beat the odds and overcome hardships and bigotry to compete in the 1957 Little League World Series.
Series
Summary
'They're killing him bit by bit!' Flamboyant, flame-haired 70-plus Augusta Bertram has opened a package containing a finger that recently belonged to her years-ago lover. The victim's kidnappers continue mailing expendable body parts, and Augusta enlists the aid of her stuffy nephew in a mad to-the-rescue adventure across Europe in pursuit of $100,000 in ransom money. The scramble to save a life just might also liberate the nephew's life-starved soul....
11) The color purple
Summary
A young uneducated woman living in the rural South is raped by her father who then forces her to marry a man who beats her. Her life is transformed by the friendship of two women who help her find self-respect and the courage to change her life.
12) Amazing racer
Summary
After the sudden death of her father leaves a teenage girl without a family, she becomes lost in her own anger and sadness. Her family doctor informs her that her father had a secret, that the mother she never knew was alive and well. When she travels to meet her, she befriends a horse trainer and discovers that in caring for the horse, she is able to overcome her hardships and emotional trauma.
Summary
Monty is a blue-collar mechanic who enlists the help of a successful-but-lonely attorney while trying to gain custody of his three daughters from his treacherous ex-wife and her larcenous boyfriend. Along the way, the working relationship between the blue collar dad and his uptown attorney grows into something more. As these two people try to overcome their different backgrounds, they find love. Monty struggles to protect his children from abuse and...
15) Roots
Summary
Follows several generations in the lives of a slave family. The saga begins with Kunta Kinte, a West African youth captured by slave raiders and shipped to America in the 1700s. The family is depicted up until the Civil War, when Kunte Kinte's grandson gains his emancipation.