First published in 1942 at the crest of her popularity as a writer, this is Zora Neale Hurston's imaginative and exuberant account of her rise from childhood poverty in the rural South to a prominent place among the leading artists and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance. This is a book full of the wit and wisdom of a proud and spirited woman who started low and climbed high.

As Elissa Washuta makes the transition from college kid to independent adult, she finds herself overwhelmed by the calamities piling up in her brain. When her mood-stabilizing medications aren't threatening her life, they're shoving her from depression to mania and back in the space of an hour. Her crisis of American Indian identity bleeds into other areas of self-doubt; mental illness, sexual trauma, ethnic identity, and independence become intertwined....

From the author of the hugely successful "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" comes a highly entertaining and informative new book on the 25 works of literature that have most shaped American identity.

A literature of black women's courage and experience is at the heart of Maya Angelou's writing. She has been called a national institution and the people's poet. It has been suggested that she has manifested an indomitable spirit and benign will in her most famous book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". Enhanced by a chronology, bibliography, notes on the contributors, and an introductory essay by noted literary scholar Harold Bloom.

"Essays on faith, family and being a Black woman in America that explore what we do with the legacies we inherit, the faith that shapes our responses, and how we rebuild our stories for those who come after us--from the author of the popular blog Black Coffee with White Friends. On her blog, Marcie Alvis-Walker creates spaces for conversations about cultural norms, race, faith, and womanhood that encourage readers to unburden themselves from misconceptions...