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The North Paran Book Buzzlist: Non-fiction Books for Teenage Girls The North Paran Book Buzzlist is a weekly feature produced by NorthParan.com that gives readers an entertaining digest of the most fascinating books that are being talked about by the black community today. Remember: For every book you purchase at NorthParan.com, a new book will be given to a child in need! 1. Sweet Summer: Growing Up With And Without My Dad by Bebe Moore Campbell This acclaimed memoir by Bebe Moore Campbell, the bestselling author of Brothers and Sisters and Singing in the Comeback Choir, recalls the sweet summers spent with her father—an extraordinary man of dreams and inspiration—in the American South of the 1960s. 2. Gather Together In My Name by Maya Angelou This book continues Maya Angelou's personal story, begun so unforgettably in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." The time is the end of World War II and there is a sense of optimism everywhere. Maya Angelou, still in her teens, has given birth to a son. But the next few years are difficult ones as she tries to find a place in the world for herself and her child. Alek Wek has been the face of ad campaigns for companies ranging from Coach to Michael Kors to Nars and has worked the runways on behalf of designers such as Diane von Furstenberg and Christian Dior. Yet her defining moments extend beyond the runways of New York, Milan, Paris, and London. Born to a middle-class family in the Sudan, Wek found her life suddenly inverted when civil war broke out among outlaw militias, the Muslim-dominated government, and southern rebels. The conflict not only killed two million people, it created an entire community of refugees, including Wek's family—many of whom fled to London. Here is Wek's incredible, daring story of rising from refugee to international supermodel. 4. My Father’s Daughter: A Story Of Family And Belonging by Hannah Pool What do you wear to meet your father for the first time? In 2004, Hannah Pool knew more about next season's lipstick colors than she did about Africa: a beauty editor for The Guardian newspaper, she juggled lattes and cocktails, handbags and hangouts through her twenties just like any other beautiful, independent Londoner. A story that will "send shivers down [your] spine," (The Bookseller), My Fathers' Daughter follows Hannah Pool's brave and heartbreaking return to Africa to meet the family she lost—and the father she thought was dead. 5. The Black Girl Next Door by Jennifer Lynn Baszile A powerful, beautifully written memoir about coming of age as a black girl in an exclusive white suburb in "integrated," post-Civil Rights California in the 1970s and 1980s. At six years of age, after winning a foot race against a white classmate, Jennifer Baszile was humiliated to hear her classmate explain that black people "have something in their feet to make them run faster than white people." When she asked her teacher about it, it was confirmed as true. The next morning, Jennifer's father accompanied her to school, careful to "assert himself as an informed and concerned parent and not simply a big, black, dangerous man in a first-grade classroom." 6. It’s OK If You’re Clueless: And 23 More Tips For The College-Bound by Terry McMillan McMillan brings her trademark wit and sass to every son and daughter about to take their first tentative steps into adulthood. Offering such nuggets as “Sit up straight,” “Don't listen to your parents,” and “Bring your laundry home,” as well as “See the world” and “Read anything and everything,” It's Ok If You're Clueless is packed with the commonsense advice and conversational tone that have made her novels classic bestsellers. |