Literally Gems Book Club

GEMS Book of the Month: January 2012

2012-01-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

An Inconvenient Friend

by Rhonda McKnight

Selected by:

Camilya Daniels

Synopsis:

Samaria Jacobs joins New Mercies Christian Church in order to get close to Angelina Preston, her lover's wife. She's got her heart set on successful surgeon Gregory Preston. He has just the bankroll she needs to keep her in the lifestyle that her credit card debt has helped her grow accustomed to. If she gets to know Angelina, she can become like her in more than looks, and really work her way into Greg's heart.

Just when Samaria thinks she's got it all figured out, she finds herself drawn to Angelina's kindness. Will she be able to carry out her plan after she finds herself yearning for the one thing she's never had . . . the friendship of a woman?

Angelina Preston's life is filled with a successful career and busy ministry work, but something's just not right with her marriage. Late nights and early meetings, coupled with lipstick-stained shirts have her suspicious that her husband is doing a little more operating than she'd like. But does she have the strength to confront the only man she's ever loved and risk losing him to the other woman?

GEMS Book of the Month: November 2011

2011-11-14T18:23:00.001-08:00

Faithful
by Kim Cash Tate

Selected by:
Sharon Hall

Synopsis:

Cydney Sanders thought she knew God's plan for her life. She'd marry, have kids, and then snap her body back into shape by doing Tae Bo. But she's celebrating her fortieth birthday as the maid of honor at her little sister's wedding...and still single. Now her life is suddenly complicated by the best man. He's the opposite of what she wants in a husband...and yet, he keeps defying her expectations. Starting with a lavendar rose--symbolizing enchantment--each rose he sends her reflects his growing love for her.

Cydney's best friend Dana appears to have the perfect marriage--until she discovers her husband's affair and her world goes into a tailspin. Then there is Phyllis--who is out of hope and out of prayers after asking God for six long years to help her husband find faith. When she runs into an old friend who is the Christian man she longs for, she's faced with an overwhelming choice.

Life-long friends with life-altering struggles. Will they trust God's faithfulness...and find strength to be faithful to Him?

GEMS Book of the Month: September/October 2011

2011-09-14T11:49:00.001-07:00

The Deal, The Dance and the Devil
by Victoria Christopher Murray

Selected By:
Ty Davis

Synopsis:

What would you do for five million dollars? Adam and Evia Langston have lived in their own little garden of Eden since the two married at the age of seventeen. Working their way up from the humblest of beginnings, the Langstons have thrived beyond anything they could have ever imagined. Now they live in the finest home, drive the best cars, and indulge in all the trimmings that signify their massive success.

But then the recession hits and rips apart the family’s financial stability. Unable to support their three children and other relatives, Adam and Evia find themselves drowning in financial trouble and teetering on the brink of complete disaster. With nowhere to turn, the Langstons have no idea what to do.

Until Shay-Shaunté, Evia’s multimillionaire boss, comes to the Langstons with a five-million-dollar offer that seems so hard to refuse. Will the Langstons make this deal? Or will they recognize that the glitter of five million dollars may be far from gold?

Upcoming Events: 2011 National Book Club Conference

2011-07-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

Join Author and Founder of Literally GEMS Book Club, Marguerite Benjamin Parker, for an amazing weekend of fellowship between authors and avid readers at the 2011 National Book Club Conference in Atlanta, Ga, July 29-31.

Upcoming Events: Black Pearls Magazine Chocolate Social

2011-07-08T07:56:00.000-07:00

Join Author and Founder of Literally GEMS Book Club, Marguerite Benjamin Parker, for an elegant and exciting night of literary celebration at the 2011 Black Pearls Magazine Chocolate Social in Atlanta, Ga, on July 28.

GEMS Book of the Month: July 2011

2011-07-08T07:47:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Big
by Maryann Reid

Selected by:
Gwen Barnes

Synopsis:

Loletta Hightower likes to live big: exotic vacations, designer clothing, trips to the spa. But it gets harder and harder to support her lavish lifestyle working the reception desk at a luxury car dealership. And though Loletta can con athletes, celebrities, and wealthy businessmen into taking care of her bills for a few months at a time, she wants the holy grail of every gold-digging businesswoman: the ring.

When she runs into Kavon "Big" Jackson, an NBA player and former college classmate of hers, she finds it really isn't so hard to snag a high-profile husband. But it sure is hard to keep him satisfied. "Big" lives up to his name in every way, including his temper and his libido—-neither of which Loletta can control. As violence and infidelity escalate in their home, so does Loletta's resolve. She's got a few surprises up her own sleeve, and the drama is just beginning.…

More about the author: http://www.maryannreidinc.com/

GEMS Book of the Month: June 2011

2011-06-09T07:11:00.000-07:00

The Help
by: Kathryn Stockett

Selected by:
Amy Staton

Synopsis:

Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women: Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone. Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own. Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement...

About the Author:

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and Creative Writing, she moved to New York City where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. She currently lives in Atlanta with her family. The Help is her first novel.

http://www.kathrynstockett.com

GEMS Book of the Month: May 2011

2011-04-30T19:31:00.000-07:00

Wench
by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Selected by:
Marguerite Parker

Synopsis

wench \'wench\ n. from Middle English “wenchel,” 1 a: a girl, maid, young woman; a female child.

Situated in Ohio, a free territory before the Civil War, Tawawa House is an idyllic retreat for Southern white men who vacation there every summer with their enslaved black mistresses. It’s their open secret. Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet are regulars at the resort, building strong friendships over the years. But when Mawu, as fearless as she is assured, comes along and starts talking of running away, things change. To run is to leave everything behind, and for some it also means escaping from the emotional and psychological bonds that bind them to their masters. When a fire on the resort sets off a string of tragedies, the women of Tawawa House soon learn that triumph and dehumanization are inseparable and that love exists even in the most inhuman, brutal of circumstances— all while they bear witness to the end of an era.

An engaging, page-turning, and wholly original novel, Wench explores, with an unflinching eye, the moral complexities of slavery.

Biography

Dolen Perkins-Valdez's fiction and essays have appeared in The Kenyon Review, African American Review, North Carolina Literary Review, and the Richard Wright Newsletter. Born and raised in Memphis, a graduate of Harvard, and a former University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow, Perkins-Valdez teaches creative writing at the University of Puget Sound. She splits her time between Washington, D.C. and Seattle, Washington. This is her first novel.

Courtesy: bn.com

GEMS Book of the Month: April 2011

2011-04-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

Perfect Peace
by Daniel Black

Selected by:
Ty Davis

Synopsis:

The heartbreaking portrait of a large, rural southern family’s attempt to grapple with their mother’s desperate decision to make her newborn son into the daughter she will never have

When the seventh child of the Peace family, named Perfect, turns eight, her mother Emma Jean tells her bewildered daughter, “You was born a boy. I made you a girl. But that ain’t what you was supposed to be. So, from now on, you gon’ be a boy. It’ll be a little strange at first, but you’ll get used to it, and this’ll be over after while.” From this point forward, his life becomes a bizarre kaleidoscope of events. Meanwhile, the Peace family is forced to question everything they thought they knew about gender, sexuality, unconditional love, and fulfillment.

About the Author:

DANIEL OMOTOSHO BLACK teaches at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia. He earned a Ph.D. in African American Studies from Temple University then returned to Clark Atlanta as a professor with hopes of inspiring young black minds to believe in themselves.

GEMS Book of the Month: February 2011

2011-02-05T15:52:00.000-08:00

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day
by: Pearl Cleage

Selected by:
Cathy Roberts

Synopsis

Ava Johnson was living out her dream in Atlanta: fabulous career, high living, and the promise that things could only get bigger and better. Then Ava's future crumbled -- she tested positive for HIV. Believing her life to be over, she returns to Idlewild, Michigan, the small town of her childhood. But home is not what it used to be, and Ava's homecoming is anything but the sorrowful end she expected. Big-city problems have made their way to Idlewild, and Ava finds a new beginning in working with the town's troubled black youths. Oh, and then there's Wild Eddie -- nothing gives a gal a new lease on life like falling in love!

Biography

Pearl Cleage is the author of Mad at Miles: A Black Woman's Guide to Truth and Deals with the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot. An accomplished Playwright, she teaches playwriting at Spelman College, is a cofounder of the literary magazine Catalyst and writes a column for the Atlanta Tribune. Ms. Cleage lives in Atlanta with her husband. What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day was her first novel. Her newest title, Till You Hear From Me was released in April 2010.

Author's Website: http://www.pearlcleage.net/

GEMS Book of the Month: January 2011

2011-01-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

A DEEP DARK SECRET

by Kimberla Lawson Roby

Selected by:
Rondica Melvin

Synopsis

With sensitivity and grace, New York Times bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby addresses a very real and serious issue in an inspiring tale of one family’s mission to shed light into the darkest corner of their lives.

On the outside, twelve-year-old Jillian Maxwell is the perfect child—a straight-A student, helpful and cooperative, never getting into trouble. She seems to have everything a girl could want: a big, beautiful new home, an adoring little sister, a mother who cares about her, and an attentive stepfather.

But inside, Jillian harbors a terrible secret.

Too frightened to tell, convinced that her friends and loved ones, especially her mother, won’t understand—and worse, will blame her—Jillian endures her pain in silence. When her dilemma only intensifies with time, the bright, hardworking girl turns sullen, becoming increasingly disinterested in her studies. But on the verge of losing everything, Jillian will discover she has more strength than she ever imagined . . . and the power to change her fate.

Biography

Kimberla Lawson Roby is the New York Times bestselling author of fourteen acclaimed novels, including Be Careful What You Pray For, The Best of Everything, and One in a Million. She lives with her husband in Illinois.

GEMS Book of the Month: November 2010

2010-11-08T18:23:00.000-08:00

The Memory Quilt
by: T.D. Jakes

Selected by:
Cathy Roberts

Synopsis

A perfect Christmas for Lela Edwards this year would include the presence of her husband, her three daughters, and her favorite granddaughter, Darcie. They would each be happy, healthy, and properly married. But life doesn't always unfold in a perfect way, even for God-loving, churchgoing people like these. Lela's husband of fifty years, Walter, has recently passed, and the daughters now live in towns and states far from the Chicago neighborhood where they were raised.

Darcie is traveling to Missouri City, Texas, to be with her mother, not to Chicago to be with her grandmother, whom she expects to come down hard on her for deciding to divorce her husband and the father of her unborn child. Lela is upset and annoyed with Darcie and herself for breaking her own time-honored tradition of making a quilt to celebrate each family wedding. The quilt is still in separate pieces, and apparently so is the marriage of Doug and Darcie.

The Christmas season is about celebrating the birth and meaning of Christ; about the hope and inspiration that the story we revisit each year offers. So, as the days of the season progress, Lela participates in a Bible study group that focuses on the Virgin Mary. This is the cold season in Chicago and rough weather, literally and figuratively, is ahead for Lela, her family, neighbors, and fellow church members, but in the Scriptures are messages and guidance. If they heed the lessons of the Virgin Mary, they will learn from their mistakes and misjudgments of each other and find favor with God.

GEMS BOOK OF THE MONTH: October 2010

2010-10-09T17:26:00.000-07:00

Selling My Soul
by: Sherri Lewis

Selected by:
Amy Staton

Synopsis

Returning from a two-year missions trip in Mozambique, Trina Michaels plans to ignore the sensational headline that screams from the front page of the Washington Times. Her heart is still in Africa, the place that feels more like home than anywhere she's ever lived-and the place where the love of her life still is.

Her dream of a quick return to Mozambique fades within hours when Trina discovers that her mother has been diagnosed with cancer. The cost of treatment is expensive, and Trina is forced to return to her career in public relations to pay for it.

She is assigned a damage control client-the bishop whose church made headline news when an associate pastor and deacon were accused of sexually abusing young boys. To complicate matters, the young boys are now men, and one of them is married to Trina's best friend. Representing Bishop Walker could cost Trina her most valued friendship, her reputation, and a future with her new love. As she plows deeper into the scandal and the bishop blackmails her to cover the church's secrets and lies, Trina realizes it could cost her soul. More about the author

GEMS BOOK OF THE MONTH: September 2010

2010-08-25T07:29:00.000-07:00

The Screwtape Letters
by C.S. Lewis

Selected by: Ty Davis

Synopsis:

In this humorous and perceptive exchange between two devils, C. S. Lewis delves into moral questions about good vs. evil, temptation, repentance, and grace. Through this wonderful tale, the reader emerges with a better understanding of what it means to live a faithful life.

About the Author:

C. S. Lewis was famous both as a fiction writer and as a Christian thinker, and scholars sometimes divide his personality in two. Yet a large part of Lewis's appeal, for both his audiences, lay in his ability to fuse imagination with instruction. "Let the pictures tell you their own moral," he once advised writers of children's stories. "But if they don't show you any moral, don't put one in." More About the Author

GEM'S BOOK OF THE MONTH: July 2010

2010-07-01T05:55:00.000-07:00

WHAT YOU OWE ME
by: Bebe Moore Campbell

Selected by: Rondica Brown

Publisher's Weekly Review: The friendship between a black woman and a new immigrant in 1940s California sets in motion events that span two generations in Campbell's (Singing in the Comeback Choir) densely plotted novel.

Hosanna Clark, a maid at an elegant Los Angeles hotel, befriends her new white co-worker Gilda Rosenstein, a Holocaust survivor whose family had owned a cosmetics factory. When Hosanna tries a special lotion Gilda has made, she persuades Gilda to produce it for Hosanna to sell to local black women.

They are very successful, and at Gilda's suggestion they open a joint bank account. Not long after, Gilda and her new husband disappear with all their profits. Daughter Matriece, a witness to Hosanna's struggle to survive on her own, resolves to achieve the success her mother never had; she eventually becomes a division president in Gilda's cosmetics empire. Ignorant of Matriece's identity, Gilda mentors the young woman, with whom she feels an unexplained bond. Gilda's reaction, when she finally learns the truth, is unexpected, and she startles everyone with a surprising proposal that brings the story to a neat conclusion.

Numerous subplots crowd the novel, covering issues from reparations and education to romance and betrayal. Campbell's detailed treatment of each accounts for the book's length, but all are credibly tied to the central tale. Character portraits are sometimes shallow, and the story's length tests the reader's stamina, but those with the patience to follow its intricate, entwined relationships will find the novel rewarding.

About the Author: Bebe Moore Campbell (1950–2006) authored three New York Times bestsellers, Brothers and Sisters, Singing in the Comeback Choir, and What You Owe Me, which was also a LA Times "Best Book of 2001." Her other works include the novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine, which was a New York Times notable book of the year and the winner of the NAACP Image Award for Literature, her memoir, Sweet Summer, Growing Up With and Without My Dad, and her first nonfiction book, Successful Women, Angry Men: Backlash in the Two-Career Marriage. Her essays, articles and excerpts appear in many anthologies.

Find out more at: www.bebemoorecampbell.com

GEMS BOOK OF THE MONTH: June 2010

2010-05-27T16:33:00.001-07:00

Farther than I Meant to Go, Longer than I Meant to Stay
By: Tiffany L. Warren

Selected by: Gwen Barnes

Synopsis: As President of Grace Savings and Loans, Charmayne Ellis is an established, polished professional. Although she has reached great success, her ridiculing mother and wise cracking younger sister won't let her forget that she is a 36-year-old, overweight, unmarried woman.

In an attempt to help, Charmayne's best friend, Lynette, is obsessed with setting her up on a series of pity-driven blind dates. When a drop-dead gorgeous man, Travis Moon, shows interest, Charmayne's caution light blinks like crazy. But out of loneliness and pressure from her family Charmayne ignores her gut feeling and gets married.

Yet instead of marital bliss, Charmayne begins to discover new things about her husband that force her to question her marriage and her faith in God.

Biography

Tiffany L. Warren, is an author, playwright, songwriter, mother and wife. Her debut novel What a Sista Should Do, was released in June of 2005 and has ministered to over 50,000 readers. Her second book, Farther than I Meant to Go, Longer than I Meant to Stay was a national bestseller. In 2006, Tiffany and her husband, Brent, founded Warren Productions and released their first gospel musical. What a Sista Should Do - The Stage Play debuted in Cleveland, OH at the famed Allen Theatre.

Tiffany is also the visionary behind the Faith and Fiction Fellowship tour. Presently, the authors have visited groups in Atlanta, Houston, New York, Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Charlotte.

Tiffany's third novel, The Bishop's Daughter was released in January 2009. Tiffany resides in northern Texas with her husband Brent and their five children.

http://www.tiffanylwarren.com/

Book of the Month: May 2010

2010-05-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

With one flash of a camera, Demi's private life becomes public news. She doesn't know it yet, but her healing has just begun.

Biography

Nancy Rue is the best-selling author of books for teens and adults, including the Christian Heritage series and the Lily series. Nancy has been an English teacher, a public speaker, as well as a contributor to several publications, and her books have sold more than a million copies. She and her husband, Jim, live in Tennessee. Stephen Arterburn is the founder and chairman of New Life Ministries, the nation’s largest faith-based broadcast, counseling, and treatment ministry, and the host of the nationally syndicated “New Life Live!” daily radio program heard on more than 140 radio stations nationwide—including SIRIUS and XM satellite radio. Steve is also the founder of the Women of Faith® conferences and has written over 70 books, including the best-selling Every Man’s series.