Download or read book ESSENCE Presents Ledisi Better Than Alright written by Ledisi and published by Essence. This book was released on 2012-06-05 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past four decades ESSENCE introduced our readers to inspirational voices such as Susan L. Taylor (In the Spirit; Lessons in Living; All About Love); and New York Times Best-Sellers Iyanla Vanzant ("In the Meantime," and "One Day My Soul Just Opened Up"), Juanita Bynum ("Matters of the Heart"), and Bishop T.D. Jakes ("Before You Do" and "Reposition Yourself"). Now, ESSENCE is pleased to share an incredible new uplifting and empowering voice with its 7.5 million readers and book lovers everywhere. In the tradition of Iyanla Vanzant's blockbuster 1993 book Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Color, ESSENCE is pleased to collaborate with powerhouse musician Ledisi for a soulful and enlightening collection of the singer's inspiring meditations, quotes, and anecdotes charting her astonishing transformation as a woman and an artist. Ledisi, who has been described as having a mix of Tina Turner's energy, Nina Simone's brilliance, and Ella Fitzgerald's range, is a multiple Grammy nominee who has quickly connected with ESSENCE readers because of her authenticity and tenacity to strive for success on her own terms.

Download or read book Cool Like That A So For Real Novel written by Nikki Carter and published by Dafina Young Adult. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Let the fireworks begin. . . Now that she's been accepted into a summer enrichment program in New York City, Gia knows she's going to have the flyest summer ever. Especially since her mom and her annoying stepsister won't be around. And best of all? Her best friend, Ricky, is joining her so they're going to spend the entire summer together. Gia hopes Ricky's finally going to make a move on her, but it seems like Ricky's bent on playing it safe--too safe, as far as Gia's concerned. So when Rashad, a cutie from the summer program, starts to get his flirt on with Gia, she's got a new crush--and Ricky's so not cool with that. "Gia makes me want to holler out loud--she knows how to think for herself and she definitely has enough drama to fill a thousand pages!" --Michelle Stimpson, Essence© bestselling author on the So For Real series "Nikki Carter is a fresh, new voice." ? ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Essence? bestselling author

Download or read book After the Altar Call written by Jacqueline J. Holness and published by . This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the Altar Call: The Sisters' Guide to Developing a Personal Relationship With God is a fresh, real and relevant how-to manual for African-American Christian women who desire to move past the "church speak" and into an intimate relationship with their Creator. What makes this book unique from other "relationship with God" books is that this book is written from an African-American perspective and spans a variety of issues typically not included in one book--from being thrice-married to leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses. The book includes interviews with 24 remarkable women with compelling stories such as the "The View" co-host Sherri Shepherd; Valorie Burton, life coach, author and co-host on the Emmy award-winning show "Aspiring Women" and the former co-host of the national daily television program, "The Potter's Touch" with Bishop T.D. Jakes; and Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, the 117th elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the first woman elected to Episcopal office in over 200 years of A.M.E. history.

Download or read book Don t Ever Lose Your Walk written by Ledisi Young and published by . This book was released on 2020-01-23 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Many people know me as a recording artist with an enormous gift, but there is so much more to me. In regaining my power to complete my book, the right way, I have learned how to conquer rejection, depression and more recently deceit. I made a commitment to myself to feel proud of every step and every goal, at every level, as much as I possibly can. Even my mistakes are shared in this book. This book is my way of reminding others to embrace every part of their journey. Our life as a whole is important, all of it - the highs, the lows, the challenges, and everything in between. In all of it, there is a lesson.- Ledisi

Download or read book One Night written by Eric Jerome Dickey and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pair of strangers has twelve hours to relish the night of their lives in a novel that “has taken the anonymous one-night-stand relationship into the realm of art” (Publishers Weekly) from New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey. On a cold and rainy night during the Christmas season, a woman who has suffered great personal loss and a successful businessman from Orange County meet by chance at a gas station in Los Angeles County. They have nothing in common, but as they engage in conversation and move from con games to assault to robberies, within hours they end up sequestered in an upscale hotel room. During intimacy, they continue to confide in each other and try to come to grips with their problems and their seasonal loneliness. For one night, their passion is boundless, but with every tick of the clock, their separate pasts close in. They push the limits of time, devotion, and even the law as they attempt to catch a glimpse of the future. They need each other for a lifetime but will have only one night.

Download or read book The Dorm Room Diet written by Daphne Oz and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-06-22 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 10-Step Program for Creating a Healthy Lifestyle Plan That Really Works The Dorm Room Diet Revised and Updated Edition Figuring out how to eat right and stay healthy on your own can be hard! Here is help from someone who's been there. Like many girls, Daphne Oz struggled with her weight as a teenager and hated the extreme restrictions of fad diets. She wanted to find a healthy lifestyle solution that would let her enjoy a full college experience without packing on the proverbial Freshman 15. But could it be done? With the help of her father and grandfather, both cardiac surgeons, and her mother and grandmother, both holistic nutrition advisors, Daphne developed a whole new approach to managing her weight. How well did it work? You be the judge: In her first semester of college, she not only skipped the typical beer-and-pizza-fueled weight gain—she lost 10 pounds and became healthier than she had ever been. The transition to college life presents a golden opportunity to seize control of your health for good, and now the secrets of Daphne's success are available to you in The Dorm Room Diet. Get inspired. Get informed. Get started! In this revised and updated edition of her national bestseller, Daphne shows you how to: stop eating out of emotional need navigate the most common danger zones for unhealthy eating, such as eating on the run, late-night studying, sporting events, and parties get the exercise you need, even in your dorm room choose vitamins and supplements wisely Daphne also includes recipes that you can prepare in your dorm room or kitchen (including vegan and gluten-free dishes), and an informative, new section on "conscious eating," explaining how your food choices affect your health and the planet. The Dorm Room Diet will empower you to use your newfound independence to create a healthy lifestyle while in college—and for the rest of your life.

Download or read book The Game of Desire written by Shan Boodram and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-07-23 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Forget what you think you know about dating—sexologist Shan Boodram is here to take you back to school.” - Apple Books Review “Boodram’s brand of relationship advice...focuses on empowering single women with the tools they need to succeed in the digital dating era.” - Refinery29 Women: gain control and confidence in your love lives and find the relationship you want with this modern, life-changing guide from the certified sex educator, intimacy expert, and YouTube personality. For younger generations, dating is a complicated mystery. Apps like Tinder and Bumble are supposed to foster connection, but instead serve as a reminder of how painfully single we are. Certified sexologist and intimacy coach Shan Boodram—the most sought-after sex educator on the internet—is about to change all that. In this essential how-to guide, she addresses the realities of life today—when the rules of love and attraction are fluid—and teaches a group of young women how to become master daters in just sixty days. It starts with you. Shan makes clear that love and self-discovery go hand in hand—your dating life is just as much about you as it is about other people. She challenges you to look inside yourself for what you want out of a partner, a relationship and, most important, yourself. Once you figure out what you want from dating, she shows you exactly how to get it. The Game of Desire empowers you to take the lead, learn your strengths, and identify and correct your weaknesses, all the while getting inspired watching a group of women learn how to succeed in today’s dating pool. While many books tell women why they can’t get a date, Shan teaches you the skills and techniques necessary to take charge in today’s competitive and often confusing dating scene, providing the tools essential to attract—and retain—the partner(s) you want. From learning love languages to debunking dating myths, she helps women build knowledge and confidence. Featuring conversational case studies, comprehensive facts about the psychology of sex and romance, and expert insight into sex culture, and written with her trademark humor and charm, The Game of Desire is a must for all of Shan’s fans and for every woman struggling to feel loved and desired.

Download or read book African American Music written by Mellonee V. Burnim and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Music: An Introduction, Second Edition is a collection of seventeen essays surveying major African American musical genres, both sacred and secular, from slavery to the present. With contributions by leading scholars in the field, the work brings together analyses of African American music based on ethnographic fieldwork, which privileges the voices of the music-makers themselves, woven into a richly textured mosaic of history and culture. At the same time, it incorporates musical treatments that bring clarity to the structural, melodic, and rhythmic characteristics that both distinguish and unify African American music. The second edition has been substantially revised and updated, and includes new essays on African and African American musical continuities, African-derived instrument construction and performance practice, techno, and quartet traditions. Musical transcriptions, photographs, illustrations, and a new audio CD bring the music to life.

Download or read book City of Iron and Dust written by J.P. Oakes and published by Titan Books (US, CA). This book was released on 2021-07-06 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fast-paced and razor-sharp dark fantasy for readers of Nicholas Eames, Anna Smith Spark and Robert Jackson Bennett "A fantastic book, full of wit and sharp humor, City of Iron and Dust careens through a modernized faerie at a breakneck pace, full of verve and unforgettable characters. Oakes spins a smart, electric, and sometimes snarky tale, showing that the beating heart of modern fantasy is alive and well." – John Hornor Jacobs, author of A Lush and Seething Hell and The Incorruptibles The Iron City is a prison, a maze, an industrial blight. It is the result of a war that saw the goblins grind the fae beneath their collective boot heels. And tonight, it is also a city that churns with life. Tonight, a young fae is trying to make his fortune one drug deal at a time; a goblin princess is searching for a path between her own dreams and others’ expectations; her bodyguard is deciding who to kill first; an artist is hunting for his own voice; an old soldier is starting a new revolution; a young rebel is finding fresh ways to fight; and an old goblin is dreaming of reclaiming her power over them all. Tonight, all their stories are twisting together, wrapped up around a single bag of Dust—the only drug that can still fuel fae magic—and its fate and theirs will change the Iron City forever.

Download or read book Make It New written by Bill Beuttler and published by Lever Press. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As jazz enters its second century it is reasserting itself as dynamic and relevant. Boston Globe jazz writer and Emerson College professor Bill Beuttler reveals new ways in which jazz is engaging with society through the vivid biographies and music of Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa, The Bad Plus, Miguel Zenón, Anat Cohen, Robert Glasper, and Esperanza Spalding. These musicians are freely incorporating other genres of music into jazz—from classical (both western and Indian) to popular (hip-hop, R&B, rock, bluegrass, klezmer, Brazilian choro)—and other art forms as well (literature, film, photography, and other visual arts). This new generation of jazz is increasingly more international and is becoming more open to women as instrumentalists and bandleaders. Contemporary jazz is reasserting itself as a force for social change, prompted by developments such as the Black Lives Matter, #MeToo movements, and the election of Donald Trump.

Download or read book Rock Stars on the Record written by Eric Spitznagel and published by Diversion Books. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An all-star lineup of rock-n-rollers relay the uproariously wild, sentimental, and unexpected pre-stardom stories behind their favorite records. Rock Stars on the Record is a collection of first-hand tales by artists of all ages, backgrounds, and musical influences, remembering the meaning behind the records that mattered most to them. From Laura Jane Grace to Ian MacKaye, Don McLean to Cherie Currie, Alice Bag to Mac DeMarco, Perry Farrell to Suzi Quatro and Verdine White, and many more, bestselling author Eric Spitznagel talks to rock stars across the sonic spectrum about the albums that changed them in ways only music can change someone. Everyone’s most cherished childhood record―be it a battered piece of vinyl, torn cassette tape, or scratched CD―has a story, and those stories can be more revealing about their owners than you might expect. Read about how “Weird Al” Yankovic refined his accordion skills by playing along to Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or how Fishbone’s Angelo Moore saved his life with a boombox and a Bad Brains album. Or about how Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman of Prince’s longtime band, The Revolution, fell in love while trading mixtapes. Each profile is more emotional, fascinating, and hilarious than the last. So place that needle in the groove, and prepare to hear something revelatory from your favorite rockers past and present. “Absolutely fascinating. It’s hard to believe that no one has done this before, but now that I’ve read it, it seems totally obvious―except that most journalists wouldn’t be able to get people to talk so openly and compellingly about something that, to an artist, may feel very private. I know these great musicians and their music better now. Thank you, Eric.” —Daniel J. Levitin, bestselling author of This Is Your Brain on Music, professor of Neuroscience and Music at McGill University in Montreal “In asking a slew of rock stars about the record that changed their lives, Eric Spitznagel also ferrets out fascinating backstories and unexpected anecdotes. Who knew that Tommy Roe’s granddaughter calls him ‘the Justin Bieber of the ‘60s’? Or that Perry Farrell entertained his older siblings’ friends’ by dancing the Hully Gully at their parties? Rock Stars on the Record is so much fun, and more illuminating that you’d expect.” —Caroline Sullivan, author of Bye Bye Baby: My Tragic Love Affair with the Bay City Rollers

Download or read book Will You Take Me As I Am written by Michelle Mercer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-04-07 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joni Mitchell is one of the most celebrated artists of the last half century, and her landmark 1971 album, Blue, is one of her most beloved and revered works. Generations of people have come of age listening to the album, inspired by the way it clarified their own difficult emotions. Critics and musicians admire the idiosyncratic virtuosity of its compositions. Will You Take Me As I Am -- the first book about Joni Mitchell to include original interviews with her -- looks at Blue to explore the development of an extraordinary artist, the history of songwriting, and much more. In extensive conversations with Mitchell, Michelle Mercer heard firsthand about Joni's internal and external journeys as she composed the largely autobiographical albums of what Mercer calls her Blue Period, which lasted through the mid-1970s. Incorporating biography, memoir, reportage, criticism, and interviews into an illuminating narrative, Mercer moves beyond the "making of an album" genre to arrive at a new form of music writing. In 1970, Mitchell was living with Graham Nash in Laurel Canyon and had made a name for herself as a so-called folk singer notable for her soaring voice and skillful compositions. Soon, though, feeling hemmed in, she fled to the hippie cave community of Matala, Greece. Here and on further travels, her compositions were freshly inspired by the lands and people she encountered as well as by her own radically changing interior landscape. After returning home to record Blue, Mitchell retreated to British Columbia, eventually reemerging as the leader of a successful jazz-rock group and turning outward in her songwriting toward social commentary. Finally, a stint with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and a pivotal meeting with the Tibetan lama ChÖgyam Trungpa prompted Mitchell's return to personal songwriting, which resulted in her 1976 masterpiece album, Hejira. Mercer interlaces this fascinating account of Mitchell's Blue Period with meditations on topics related to her work, including the impact of landscape on music, the value of autobiographical songwriting for artist and listener, and the literary history of confessionalism. Mercer also provides rich analyses of Mitchell's creative achievements: her innovative manner of marrying lyrics to melody; her inventive, highly expressive chords that achieve her signature blend of wonder and melancholy; how she pioneered personal songwriting and, along with Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, brought a new literacy to the popular song. Fans will appreciate the previously unpublished photos and a coda of Mitchell's unedited commentary on the places, books, music, pastimes, and philosophies she holds dear. This utterly original book offers a unique portrait of a great musician and her remarkable work, as well as new perspectives on the art of songwriting itself.

Download or read book More Than Pretty written by Erica Campbell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grammy Award–winning gospel singer, television star, and radio host Erica Campbell speaks to women of all shapes and sizes and “takes the time to dissect and reveal the beauty that exists in being our authentic, vulnerable selves” (Sarah Jakes Roberts, author of Don’t Settle for Safe) and celebrating the person God made you to be. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be pretty. But Erica Campbell believes we were made to be so much more. As so many women struggle with issues of low self-esteem, depression, and unhealthy habits, Campbell offers a spiritual path that cuts through the highly commercialized, hypersexualized media messages of popular culture, leading women to the true meaning of “pretty” and the true self God wants them to be: empowered, confident, loving, and real. Erica uses her own personal and professional triumphs and failures and the stories of others to help motivate women to redefine and develop true beauty based on biblical principles. With inspirational prose, she shows us how to overcome childhood struggles, push past fears, sharpen our spiritual IQ, and free ourselves from guilt, shame, and low self-confidence. More Than Pretty is a stirring call to action for all women to a life full of power and purpose.

Download or read book Kitty Kitty Bang Bang written by Cairo and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With murder, mayhem, and hot sex, Kitty-Kitty, Bang-Bang is a wickedly delicious sequel to The Kat Trap. It was her cutthroat ambition and ruthlessness that got Katrina—or Kat for short—out of the hood and on top of her game. Once a murderer on a seductive prowl with two missions in mind—satisfying her insatiable libido and killing unsuspecting marks—Katrina has finally lain down her guns. She has had a change of heart. She settles for a simpler life with traveling, partying, and shopping as her only guilty pleasures. In addition, she’s avoiding relationships and men like the plague. For her, life couldn’t be any sweeter—at least that’s what she wants to believe. But, when drama rears its ugly head, Katrina returns with a vengeance. There’s the issue of confronting her ex-friend who she learned had slept with an old boyfriend. Then there are her three aunts—who are angry with how she treated her mother. And now she has to face her family, her demons, and the woman behind them. Ultimately Kat has a new mission: Find the man behind her mother’s death and seek justice the only way she knows how—with a bullet to his head.

Download or read book Blackberries and Redbones written by Regina E. Spellers and published by Hampton Press (NJ). This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Features engaging scholarly essays, poems and creative writings that all examine the meanings of the Black anatomy in our changing global world. Each chapter in the volume interrogates that notion by addressing the question, "As a text, how are Black bodies and Black hair read and understood in life, art, popular culture, mass media, or cross-cultural interactions?"

Download or read book Gravepyres School for the Recently Deceased written by Anita Roy and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Unapologetic Christianity written by Jamaal Bernard and published by . This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A call to represent the Christian faith honestly, consistently, and without apology.