Also noted - Top Shelf - Bibliography

SHUT OUT: A STORY OF RACE AND BASEBALL IN BOSTON (Beacon Press, $14) is the paperback edition of journalist and author Howard Bryant's probing look at how both the city of Boston and Red Sox management resisted desegregation of America's pastime from the time of Jackie Robinson's humiliating tryout in 1945, and how, finally, the team began to work at overcoming its own legacy.

SHIFTING: THE DOUBLE LIVES OF BLACK WOMEN IN AMERICA

(HarperCollins, $25.95) by Charisse Jones and Kumea Shorter-Gooden, Ph.D., provides insights into the effects of Black female life in America. The book examines the anxiety experienced by so many Black women who move between being true to themselves and being the women they feel they must be to get along with family members, White colleagues, and Black men.

DATING GAMES (Simon & Schuster, $23.00) is the fifth novel by best-selling author RM Johnson, who has crafted a plot here that is brimming with intrigue and characters with relationships that are even more complex than previous works like The Harris Family, The Harris Men and Father Found. This is a colorful tale of a family swirling in a spiral of sibling rivalry, drugs end deception.

In BESIDE EVERY GOOD MAN (Warner Faith, $19.95), Serita Ann Jakes, wife of Bishop T.D. Jakes, asserts that a woman's ministry begins at home, helping women embrace God's purpose for their lives in nurturing the men in their lives: husbands, sons, brothers, or, for single women, boyfriends. The idea is that women interact with men in every aspect of their lives and must learn to deal effectively with these relationships in order to live full healthy lives. The book is organized around four sections, dealing first with the single woman who is confident enough to embrace who she is and what she wants. The second section is devoted to the woman who has been led by God into a relationship. Third is a section focusing on the married woman who must balance her own sense of self with so many other responsibilities. The fourth section provides guidance in making the transition once again to life alone.

CHAKA! THROUGH THE FIRE (Rodale Books, $23.95) by Chaka Khan with Tonya Bolden is the no-holds-barred account of the life of the eight Grammy Award-winning, multiplatinum album recording artist, with a candid discussion of the breakup of two marriages, drug addiction and recovery, and the self-discovery that has made the difference of a lifetime.

In THE ESSENTIAL CONVERSATION: WHAT PARENTS AND TEACHERS CAN LEARN FROM EACH OTHER (Random House, $24.95), Harvard Education Professor and MacArthur Prize-winner Sara Lawrence-Light-foot provides a penetrating analysis of the parent-teacher conference to provide critical insights into a dynamic dialogue that can help shape a child's future.

SHOULD AMERICA PAY? SLAVERY AND THE RAGING DEBATE ON REPARATIONS (Amistad/Harper-Collins, $13.95 trade paperback), edited by Raymond A. Winbush, Ph.D., provides an in-depth exploration of the debate from all sides, organized around key topics covering the historical and legal background of the demand and the grassroots organizing that has stoked the fire of this hot topic.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group