Book recommendations

Vernell Laquan Banks and Justyce McAllister grew up a block apart in the Southwest Atlanta neighborhood of Wynwood Heights. Years later, though, Justyce walks the illustrious halls of Yale University... and Quan sits behind bars at the Fulton Regional Youth Detention Center. Through a series of flashbacks, vignettes, and letters to Justyce -- the protagonist of "Dear Martin" -- Quan's story takes form.

Twenty years ago, Sister Souljah's debut novel, "The Coldest Winter Ever", became a bestselling cultural phenomenon. Fans fell in love with the unforgettable Winter Santiaga, daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family, who captivated her lovers, friends, and enemies with her sexy street smarts. For two decades, fans have begged for answers about what happened to Winter. Now all is revealed in Sister Souljah's page-turning sequel, filled with her trademark passion, danger, temptation, and adventure.

Jasmine and Chelsea are best friends. This year at their NYC high school, the plan to rock the theater and poetry clubs... until Chelsea realizes the poetry club is more interested in the "classics" than poems that matter, and Jasmine has an experience that is more drama than theater. They turns their voices to Write Like a Girl, an online outlet for essays, poems, and actions to inspire. But when Jasmine and Chelsea's work goes viral, the school administration threatens to shut them down for "instigating."

F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" still captivates readers with its vision of 1920s New York as a city of infinite potential, where ambition and defeat live hand in hand. This sentiment is captured, with even greater acuity, in the pages of Aben Kandel's nearly forgotten masterpiece of urban life, "City for Conquest" (1936). The source of the classic 1940s James Cagney film of the same name, this panoramic New York novel captures the complex patterns of city life, vividly evoking a metropolis of dreams and nightmares. Kandel portrays a volatile city inhabited by the aristocrat, the criminal, the idealist, the bohemian, the driven, the entrapped, and the impoverished, all equally striving "to make a dent in this town."

Justyce McAllister is a good kid, an honor student, and always there to help a friend -- but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. Despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.

LC Duncan, patriarch and leader of the Duncan clan, is alive and well after being shot by a mysterious gunman. His near-death experience has caused him and his wife Chippy to reflect on their lives, and they are more determined than ever to focus on family and the continued success of the Duncan family business. However, the return of one of LC's brothers stirs up past resentments, and now the family is forced to defend themselves against an unexpected enemy seeking revenge.

Jay Crawford has spent too long paying for a crime he didn't commit. For ten years, he's been in prison, waiting for the right opportunity to prove his innocence. But when his family is threatened, the time for waiting is over. Jay just didn't realize that escaping would be the easy part... To get justice, Jay will need help from the three best friends who have always had his back -- Wil, Kyle, and Allen. But as the pressure of the manhunt mounts, the four friends are crossing lines they never thought possible.

Midnight has heart, a powerful mind, and is a fierce fighter. "I don't love my guns, but I need 'em," he says, willing to do anything to defend his family, the women he loves, and his business and property. African born, Midnight is the son of a wealthy Islamic African family. When his father's empire is attacked, he and his mother come to America and end up living in the Brooklyn projects. This is the tremendously moving story of Midnight, Ricky Santiaga's strong, humble, and dangerously attractive lieutenant whom we first met in the bestselling novel "The Coldest Winter Ever".

Steve Harmon's black. He's in jail, maybe forever. He's on trial for murder. And he's sixteen years old.

King David never let anything stand in his way, as he clawed his way out of the mean streets. If it took busting an old lady's head open with a Coke bottle for her last dollar, so be it. Mixing battery acid with cocaine to gain revenge was acceptable, too. Whatever it took. Then he made it big -- only to find others had not forgotten, had no intention of forgiving. They came after him. He left behind a Cadillac and a diary, left it to a writer Donald Goines called "Paul Pawlowski." Like all Goines' novels, "Never Die Alone" is based on truth.

Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least win her first battle. As the daughter of an underground hip-hop legend who died right before he hit big, Bri's got massive shoes to fill. But it's hard to get your come up when you're labeled a hoodlum at school and your fridge at home is empty after your mom loses her job. So Bri pours her anger and frustration into her first song, which goes viral... for all the wrong reasons. Bri soon finds herself at the center of a controversy, portrayed by the media as more menace than MC.

Andy Jackson was driving the car that crashed one night after a game, killing Robert Washington, his best friend and the captain of the Hazelwood High Tigers. It was late, and they'd been drinking, and now, months later, Andy can't stop blaming himself. As he turns away from family, friends, and even his girlfriend, he finds he's losing the most precious thing of all -- his ability to face the future.

Waitress Brooke Alexander is in love with Patrick Sterling, one of the most prominent attorneys in Washington, D.C. On his good days, Patrick is the man of every woman's dream. On his bad days, he's a complete nightmare... Compassionate and honest, Damon Johnson worships the ground his wife, Carleigh walks on, while she treats him like a trophy husband and views his life aspirations as a joke. When a tragic event brings Brooke and Damon together, they see truths about their relationships they never wanted to accept.