Peter Jay Fernandez has narrated 48 audiobooks on Listento.it by 36 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 210 ratings. The most-rated is Parable of the Talents.
Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Summary
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was only 25 when he helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott and was soon organizing black people across the country in support of the right to vote, desegregation, and other basic civil rights. Maintaining nonviolent and peaceful tactics even when his life was threatened, King was also an advocate for the poor and spoke out against racial and economic injustice until his death - from an assassin's bullet - in 1968. Clearly spoken in language that explains this tumultuous time in history, this Who Was? audiobook celebrates the vision and the legacy of a remarkable man.
©2008 Bonnie Bader (P)2019 Listening Library
The Time of Our Singing
Summary
A magnificent, multifaceted novel about a supremely gifted - and divided - family, set against the backdrop of postwar America On Easter day, 1939, at Marian Anderson's epochal concert on the Washington Mall, David Strom, a German Jewish emigre scientist, meets Delia Daley, a young Philadelphia Negro studying to be a singer. Their mutual love of music draws them together, and - against all odds and better judgment - they marry. They vow to raise their children beyond time, beyond identity, steeped in song. But their three children must survive America's brutal here and now. Jonah, Joseph, and Ruth grow up during the Civil Rights era, come of age in the violent 1960s, and live out adulthood in the racially retrenched late century. Jonah, the eldest, "whose voice could make heads of state repent", follows a life in his parents' beloved classical music. Ruth, the youngest, chooses a militant activism and repudiates the white culture her brother represents. Joseph, the middle child and the narrator of this generational tale, struggles to remain connected to them both. The Time of Our Singing is a story of self-invention, allegiance, race, cultural ownership, the compromised power of music, and the tangled loops of time that rewrite all belonging.
©2003 Richard Powers (P)2018 Recorded Books
Got to Be Real
Summary
New York Times best-selling authors E. Lynn Harris and Eric Jerome Dickey, and Blackboard best-selling authors Colin Channer and Marcus Major have joined forces in Got to Be Real, a compilation of fresh, funny, and honest love stories. Each one is a unique look at love in the modern, urban age. Harris’ leading man faces one of his greatest fears with a Valentine’s gift that could change his life forever. Dickey takes readers on a trip south of the border that leads to a steamy relationship where race and a language barrier creates no deterrent. Jamaica is the hot spot where Channer weaves his titillating tale of people in the music industry. A certified womanizer meets his match in Major’s provocative story set in Philadelphia. These four popular African-American writers have put together a treasury of stories that is as sexy and entertaining as it is candid and thought-provoking.
©2000 New American Library, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.; 2000 Eric Jerome Dickey; Marcus Major; E. Lynn Harris; Colin Channer (P)2001 Recorded Books, LLC
The Preacher's Son
Summary
Carl Weber is an Essence® best-selling author and recipient of the African-American Bookseller of the Year Award. His stories are intoxicating dramas with smart, sexy characters. The Preacher's Son captivates with all the intensity expected of a Weber novel. Bishop T.K. Wilson is a pillar of the community, pastor of the largest African-American church in Queens, NY, and has always tended to he needy. Running for borough president, he faces one shocking revelation after another that could not only derail his campaign, but also force him to reevaluate his family values.
©2005 Carl Weber (P)2005 Recorded Books,LLC
Known and Strange Things
Summary
With this collection of more than 50 pieces on politics, photography, travel, history, and literature, Teju Cole solidifies his place as one of today's most powerful and original voices. Minute after minute, deploying prose dense with beauty and ideas, he finds fresh and potent ways to interpret art, people, and historical moments, taking in subjects from Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare, and W. G. Sebald to Instagram, Barack Obama, and Boko Haram. Persuasive and provocative, erudite yet accessible, Known and Strange Things is an opportunity to live within Teju Cole's wide-ranging enthusiasms, curiosities, and passions and a chance to see the world in surprising and affecting new frames.
©2016 Teju Cole (P)2016 Recorded Books
Teacup Full of Roses
Summary
A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year. Joe's decision to leave home is prompted by despair over his Mother's blindness to his younger brother's talents and his older brother's drug addiction.
©1987 Sharon Bell Mathis (P)2018 Listening Library
Snow-Storm in August
Summary
Editor and investigative reporter Jefferson Morley has been widely published in national periodicals and is the author of the critically acclaimed nonfiction work Our Man in Mexico. An eye-opening look at Washington’s first race riot, Snow-Storm in August also offers revealing profiles of Arthur Bowen, the slave blamed for the riot, and “Star Spangled Banner” lyricist Francis Scott Key, a defender of slavery who sought capital punishment for Bowen.
©2012 Jefferson Morley (P)2012 Recorded Books
A Sinful Calling
Summary
Two years ago, to everyone's surprise, Dillon Whitfield Black, the secret son of Reverend Curtis Black, boldly moved back home, married a woman named Raven, decided he was going to become a minister, and then founded a church right in the center of his living room. Today he's pastor of a 1,000-plus-member congregation, and new members are joining weekly. Sadly, behind closed doors Dillon is far from being a saint. He has become more like the man his father was 30 years ago - consumed with money, power, and lots of women. His family may have forgiven him, but they continue to keep their distance. Not Alicia, though. This daughter of Curtis Black joins Dillon's congregation, leaving her father's church behind. The family has forgiven Alicia for marrying Levi Cunningham, the former drug dealer she had an affair with, but once Alicia realizes they will never fully accept Levi, she decides to see her family less and less. But when Raven decides she wants a higher position in the church and Alicia hides a devastating secret, the entire family is affected in ways they don't see coming. In the end no one will be able to trust anyone...and for very good reason.
©2016 Kimberla Lawson Roby (P)2016 Hachette Audio
Spies of the Mississippi
Summary
Author Rick Bowers uncovers a tragic episode from American history in this “informative and fascinating” (VOYA) book. During the civil rights movement, the state of Mississippi created an elaborate spy network. Its mission was to preserve segregation by any means necessary—including voter interference, sponsorship of white supremacy groups, and even murder.
©2010 Richard J. Bowers (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC
Echoes of a Distant Summer
Summary
The son of Maya Angelou, Guy Johnson is a critically acclaimed author and poet in his own right. Echoes of a Distant Summer is the story of Jackson St. Clair Tremain, a San Francisco civil servant who thought he had left his old life far behind. In 1982, Jackson is summoned to Mexico to confer with his dying grandfather, the brutal hustler King Tremain. When King dies, Jackson inherits $50 million - and the unwanted attentions of a malevolent bayou crime lord named Pug DuMont.
©2002 Guy Johnson (P)2004 Recorded Books,LLC
Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave
Summary
"Brother, you have often declared that you would not end your days in slavery. I see no possible way in which you can escape with us; and now, brother, you are on a steamboat where there is some chance for you to escape to a land of liberty. I beseech you not to let us hinder you. If we cannot get our liberty, we do not wish to be the means of keeping you from a land of freedom."
Public Domain (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
Hang Time
Summary
Elgin Baylor's memoir of an epic all-star career in the NBA - during which he transformed basketball from a horizontal game to a vertical one - and his fights against racism during his career as a player and as general manager of the LA Clippers under the infamous Donald Sterling People think of Elgin Baylor as one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the game - and one of the NBA's first black superstars - but the full extent of his legacy stretches beyond his spectacular, game-changing jump shots and dunks. With startling symmetry, Baylor recounts his story: flying back and forth between the US Army and the Lakers, his time as a central figure in the great Celtics-Lakers rivalry and how he helped break down color barriers in the sport, his 1964 All-Star game boycott, his early years as an executive for the New Orleans Jazz, and 22 years as general manager for the notorious LA Clippers and Donald Sterling, spent fighting to draft and sign young, black phenoms - only to be hamstrung by his boss at every turn. No one has seen the league change, and has worked to bring change, more than Baylor. Year after year, he continued to fight and persevere against racism. At the beginning of his career, he was forced to stay in separate hotel rooms. From those days to today's superstardom, he has had a front-row view of the game's elevation to one of America's favorite sports. For the first time, Elgin Baylor tells his full story. He's played with the legends, lived with them, and knows more about the NBA than anyone living, and is finally ready to set the record straight.
©2018 EB Lakes 22 LLC (P)2018 Recorded Books
The Fall of the House of Dixie
Summary
The J. G. Randall Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Illinois and associate editor of North and South magazine, Bruce Levine presents a gripping chronicle of the cultural and economic upheaval the South experienced during and after the Civil War. Drawing upon a treasure trove of diaries, letters, newspaper articles, and government documents, Levine offers a unique perspective on the old South's demise through the voices of those who lived through the conflict.
©2013 Bruce Levine (P)2013 Recorded Books
Haiti Noir
Summary
Award-winning author Edwidge Danticat edits this collection of stories that puts a noir twist on the Haitian experience. From kidnappings gone wrong to deadly sibling rivalries, Haiti Noir features some of the Caribbean nation’s leading voices, including Gary Victor, Evelyne Trouillot, Kettly Mars, and Patrick Sylvain.
©2011 Akashic Books (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC
The Prodigal Son
Summary
The Reverend Curtis Black hasn't spoken to his son, Matthew, in over a year - not since Matthew dropped out of Harvard to marry his girlfriend, Racquel, and be a full-time father to their infant son. Curtis knows that it was he and his wife, Charlotte, who drove Matthew away, but he prays that one day his son will forgive them and come home. Matthew, however, can't seem to forget the pain his parents caused him and Racquel. Still, he wonders if maybe they'd been right, as fatherhood is not what he expected, and Racquel's behavior has become increasingly erratic. Matthew genuinely wants to be a good husband, though, and swears he'll never repeat his parents' mistakes. But when an old friend expresses her desire for Matthew, the temptation may be too great to resist.... Then, there's Dillon Whitfield - Curtis' long-lost-son - who has settled in as a member of the Black family. Yet the transition has been anything but easy. Charlotte, convinced he's only after Curtis' money, wishes he would move back to where he came from. Dillon, however, has no intention of going anywhere. After a lifetime in the shadows, he's determined to take his rightful place as Curtis's first-born son and heir, and he'll do whatever it takes to win his father's affection - even if it means playing dirty.... As jealousy builds and secrets pile up, both of Curtis' sons will be pushed over the edge and forced to take drastic action. Can these two troubled young men find their way back into the Black family fold? Or will their family ties be undone once and for all?
©2014 Kimberla Lawson Roby (P)2014 Hachette Audio
The Heaven of Animals
Summary
In this masterful debut, an award-winning writer and first-rate storyteller explores the tenuous bonds of family - fathers and sons, husbands and wives - as they are tested by the sometimes brutal power of love. In each of the stories in this remarkable collection, David James Poissant delivers a moving portrayal of a relationship in turmoil. His strikingly true-to-life characters have reached a precipice, chased there by troubles of their own making. Some stand frightened, some ready to fight. Some seek atonement, others the atonement that is owed them. But, brought to the brink, each must make a choice: Leap, or look away? Lee Martin writes that Poissant forces us " to face the people we are when we're alone in the dark", and, from the two men racing to save the life of a sick alligator in "Lizard Man" to the girl helping her boyfriend face his greatest fears in "The End of Aaron", from a son grieving his father in " 100% Cotton" as he stalks death on an Atlanta street corner to a brother' s surprise at the surreal, improbable beauty of a late night encounter with a wolf, Poissant's invented worlds shine with honesty and dark complexity, but also with a profound compassion. These are stories hell-bent on hope. Fresh, smart, lively - and often wickedly funny - The Heaven of Animals is breathtakingly original and compulsively readable. As best-selling author Kevin Wilson puts it, "Poissant is a writer who knows us with such clarity that we wonder how he found his way so easily into our hearts and souls."
©2014 David James Poissant (P)2014 Recorded Books
Every Day Is for the Thief
Summary
Named One of the Ten Best Books of The Year by Dwight Garner, The New York Times Named One of the Best Books of the Year by San Francisco Chronicle | NPR | The Root | The Telegraph | The Globe and Mail National Bestseller • Finalist, Phillis Wheatley Book Award • Teju Cole Was Named One of The Most Influential Africans of The Year by New African Magazine For readers and listeners of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Michael Ondaatje, Every Day Is for the Thief is a wholly original work of fiction by Teju Cole, whose critically acclaimed debut, Open City, was the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was named one of the best books of the year by more than twenty publications. Fifteen years is a long time to be away from home. It feels longer still because I left under a cloud. A young Nigerian living in New York City goes home to Lagos for a short visit, finding a city both familiar and strange. In a city dense with story, the unnamed narrator moves through a mosaic of life, hoping to find inspiration for his own. He witnesses the "yahoo yahoo" diligently perpetrating email frauds from an Internet café, longs after a mysterious woman reading on a public bus who disembarks and disappears into a bookless crowd, and recalls the tragic fate of an 11-year-old boy accused of stealing at a local market. Along the way, the man reconnects with old friends, a former girlfriend, and extended family, taps into the energies of Lagos life - creative, malevolent, ambiguous - and slowly begins to reconcile the profound changes that have taken place in his country and the truth about himself. In spare, precise prose that sees humanity everywhere, Every Day Is for the Thief - originally published in Nigeria in 2007 - is a wholly original work of fiction. This revised and updated edition is the first version of this unique book to be made available outside Africa. You've never read a book like Every Day Is for the Thief because no one writes like Teju Cole. Praise for Every Day Is for the Thief "A luminous rumination on storytelling and place, exile and return...extraordinary." (San Francisco Chronicle) "Cole is following in a long tradition of writerly walkers who, in the tradition of Baudelaire, make their way through urban spaces on foot and take their time doing so. Like Alfred Kazin, Joseph Mitchell, J. M. Coetzee, and W. G. Sebald (with whom he is often compared), Cole adds to the literature in his own zeitgeisty fashion." (The Boston Globe)
©2014 Teju Cole (P)2020 Random House Audio
Better Late Than Never
Summary
The stunning conclusion to the best-selling Curtis Black series The past never stays where it belongs.... Curtis Black is no stranger to scandal. Throughout the decades, he has done much in the public eye, both good and evil. But what most people don't realize is that Curtis has been hiding a horrific childhood that has affected him in countless, unspeakable ways. His buried past returns in an unwelcome visit when his estranged sister becomes alarmingly ill and his youngest child, 12-year-old Curtina, becomes the kind of problem daughter that he never imagined she could be. This is only the beginning. The horror of Curtis's childhood secrets, as well as Curtina's wild and rebellious behavior, takes a critical toll on Curtis and the entire Black family. All the public scandals they've experienced over the years now seem like child's play compared to the turmoil they are facing in private. Who could have known that the deepest wounds would come from within?
©2018 Kimberla Lawson Roby (P)2018 Hachette Audio
John Henry Days
Summary
J. Sutter is a bonafide junketeer - a freelance writer, travelling from city to city, hungry for free meals and the discarded sales receipts of others to claim on his expense account.Travelling into the backwoods of West Virginia to write a piece on the unveiling of the new John Henry postage stamp and the ensuing John Henry Days festival, J. continues his nearly record-setting, three-month junket binge. But when he begins to choke on a piece of prime rib at a press dinner, shadows from the past are summoned forth and he leaves the mountain a changed man. Colson Whitehead is the author of the critically acclaimed, QPB New Voices Award-winning novel, The Intuitionist. Narrated by Peter Jay Fernandez, John Henry Days is both an ingenious retelling of the American legend of John Henry and a fascinating look into the world of contemporary journalism.
©2001 Colson Whitehead (P)2001 Recorded Books
A Hope in The Unseen
Summary
New York Times best-selling investigative journalist Ron Suskind based this book on his Pulitzer Prize winning articles about Cedric Jennings, a Black youth struggling to survive one of D.C.'s toughest school districts. A moving portrait of inner city life, A Hope in the Unseen offers a view of life through the eyes of someone trying desperately to make his way up from the bottom.
©1998 Ron Suskind (P)2008 Recorded Books