{"title":"James McBride","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"the-color-of-water-a-black-mans-tribute-to-his-white-mother-anniversary","title":"The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother (Anniversary)","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eDeacon King Kong\u003c\/i\u003e and the National Book Award-winning \u003ci\u003eThe Good Lord Bird\u003c\/i\u003e The modern classic that spent more than two years on \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller list and that Oprah.com calls one of the best memoirs of a generation. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared \"light-skinned\" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, \u003ci\u003eThe Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother\u003c\/i\u003e. The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in \"orchestrated chaos\" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. \"Mommy,\" a fiercely protective woman with \"dark eyes full of pep and fire,\" herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion--and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain.\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eThe Color of Water\u003c\/i\u003e, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned.\u003cbr\u003e At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all- black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. \"God is the color of water,\" Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life's blessings and life's values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth's determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college--and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University.\u003cbr\u003e Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. \u003ci\u003eThe Color of Water\u003c\/i\u003e touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.","brand":"Riverhead Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51381280014621,"sku":"9781594481925","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0988\/1259\/2413\/files\/imageloader_15194f2f-fa89-4ea3-a6db-b9558ee0e9cf.jpg?v=1779710180"},{"product_id":"the-heaven-earth-grocery-store","title":"The Heaven \u0026 Earth Grocery Store","description":"\u003cb\u003eTHE RUNAWAY \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e NOTABLE BOOK - A \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eREADERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE 2024 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRIZE FOR AMERICAN FICTION\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFROM ONE OF \u003ci\u003eTIME\u003c\/i\u003e MAGAZINE'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE OF 2024 \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY \u003ci\u003eNPR\/FRESH AIR\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWASHINGTON POST\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTHE NEW YORKER\u003c\/i\u003e, AND \u003ci\u003eTIME MAGAZINE\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023 \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . Charming, smart, heart-blistering, and heart-healing.\" --Danez Smith, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"We all need--we all \u003ci\u003edeserve--\u003c\/i\u003ethis vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.\" --Ron Charles, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah's Book Club pick \u003ci\u003eDeacon King Kong\u003c\/i\u003e and the National Book Award-winning \u003ci\u003eThe Good Lord Bird\u003c\/i\u003e, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven \u0026amp; Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe's theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community--heaven and earth--that sustain us. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to \u003ci\u003eThe Heaven \u0026amp; Earth Grocery Store\u003c\/i\u003e, James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as \u003ci\u003eDeacon King Kong \u003c\/i\u003eand as inventive as \u003ci\u003eThe Good Lord Bird\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"Riverhead Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51851690017053,"sku":"9780593422953","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0988\/1259\/2413\/files\/imageloader_ce8a5ecd-6238-4bd5-8235-5b6e5c60a049.jpg?v=1780809857"},{"product_id":"deacon-king-kong-oprahs-book-club","title":"Deacon King Kong (Oprah's Book Club)","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Winner of the Gotham Book Prize \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOne of Barack Obama's \"Favorite Books of the Year\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOprah's Book Club Pick \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003eReaders Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eNamed one of the Top Ten Books of the Year by the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times, Entertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTIME\u003c\/i\u003e Magazine \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e A \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Novel \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e From the author of \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Heaven \u0026amp; Earth Grocery Store\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003c\/b\u003e the National Book Award-winning \u003ci\u003eThe Good Lord Bird, \u003c\/i\u003eand the bestselling modern classic \u003ci\u003eThe Color of Water\u003c\/i\u003e, comes one of the most celebrated novels of the year.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of \u003ci\u003eDeacon King Kong\u003c\/i\u003e, James McBride's funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning \u003ci\u003eThe Good Lord Bird\u003c\/i\u003e. In \u003ci\u003eDeacon King Kong\u003c\/i\u003e, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood's Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters--caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York--overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in hope and compassion. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Bringing to these pages both his masterly storytelling skills and his abiding faith in humanity, James McBride has written a novel every bit as involving as \u003ci\u003eThe Good Lord Bird\u003c\/i\u003e and as emotionally honest as \u003ci\u003eThe Color of Water\u003c\/i\u003e. Told with insight and wit, \u003ci\u003eDeacon King Kong\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates that love and faith live in all of us.\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Riverhead Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51851690082589,"sku":"9780735216730","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0988\/1259\/2413\/files\/imageloader_51ff1907-11d1-4c38-bc05-50e1de73bd73.jpg?v=1780809860"},{"product_id":"five-carat-soul","title":"Five-Carat Soul","description":"\u003cb\u003eOne of\u003ci\u003e The New York Times'\u003c\/i\u003e 100 Notable Books of 2017 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A pinball machine zinging with sharp dialogue, breathtaking plot twists and naughty humor... McBride at his brave and joyous best.\" \u003ci\u003e--New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Good Lord Bird\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, \u003ci\u003eDeacon King Kong\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eKill 'Em and Leave\u003c\/i\u003e, a James Brown biography.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The stories in \u003ci\u003eFive-Carat Soul\u003c\/i\u003e--none of them ever published before--spring from the place where identity, humanity, and history converge. They're funny and poignant, insightful and unpredictable, imaginative and authentic--all told with McBride's unrivaled storytelling skill and meticulous eye for character and detail. McBride explores the ways we learn from the world and the people around us. An antiques dealer discovers that a legendary toy commissioned by Civil War General Robert E. Lee now sits in the home of a black minister in Queens. Five strangers find themselves thrown together and face unexpected judgment. An American president draws inspiration from a conversation he overhears in a stable. And members of The Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band recount stories from their own messy and hilarious lives. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e As McBride did in his National Book award-winning \u003ci\u003eThe Good Lord Bird\u003c\/i\u003e and his bestselling \u003ci\u003eThe Color of Water\u003c\/i\u003e, he writes with humor and insight about how we struggle to understand who we are in a world we don't fully comprehend. The result is a surprising, perceptive, and evocative collection of stories that is also a moving exploration of our human condition.","brand":"Riverhead Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51851690279197,"sku":"9780735216709","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0988\/1259\/2413\/files\/imageloader_8f14e366-3b21-44b6-a82f-6c581e79674f.jpg?v=1780809868"},{"product_id":"miracle-at-st-anna","title":"Miracle at St. Anna","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eNow a Spike Lee film, from the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Good Lord Bird\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, \u003ci\u003eDeacon King Kong\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFive-Carat Soul\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eKill 'Em and Leave\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e James McBride's powerful memoir, \u003ci\u003eThe Color of Water\u003c\/i\u003e, was a groundbreaking literary phenomenon that transcended racial and religious boundaries, garnering unprecedented acclaim and topping bestseller lists for more than two years. Now McBride turns his extraordinary gift for storytelling to fiction--in a universal tale of courage and redemption inspired by a little-known historic event. In \u003ci\u003eMiracle at St. Anna\u003c\/i\u003e, toward the end of World War II, four Buffalo Soldiers from the Army's Negro 92nd Division find themselves separated from their unit and behind enemy lines. Risking their lives for a country in which they are treated with less respect than the enemy they are fighting, they discover humanity in the small Tuscan village of St. Anna di Stazzema--in the peasants who shelter them, in the unspoken affection of an orphaned child, in a newfound faith in fellow man. And even in the face of unspeakable tragedy, they--and we--learn to see the small miracles of life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e This acclaimed novel is now a major motion picture directed by Spike Lee.","brand":"Riverhead Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51851690541341,"sku":"9781573229715","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0988\/1259\/2413\/files\/imageloader_40aff4c4-8398-4713-9d3c-72fa1fab9520.jpg?v=1780809878"},{"product_id":"kill-em-and-leave-searching-for-james-brown-and-the-american-soul","title":"Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"You won't leave this hypnotic book without feeling that James Brown is still out there, howling.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Good Lord Bird\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, \u003ci\u003eDeacon King Kong\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eFive-Carat Soul\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eKill 'Em and Leave\u003c\/i\u003e is more than a book about James Brown. Brown embodied the contradictions of American life: He was an unsettling symbol of the tensions between North and South, black and white, rich and poor. After receiving a tip that promises to uncover the man behind the myth, James McBride goes in search of the \"real\" James Brown. McBride's travels take him to forgotten corners of Brown's never-before-revealed history, illuminating not only our understanding of the immensely troubled, misunderstood, and complicated Godfather of Soul, but the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Brown's enduring legacy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eKill 'Em and Leave\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A tour de force of cultural reportage.\"\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Seattle Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Thoughtful and probing.\"\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Masterly . . . powerful.\"\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"McBride provides something lacking in most of the books about James Brown: an intimate feeling for the musician, a veracious if inchoate sense of what it was like to be touched by him. . . . It may be as close [to 'the real James Brown'] as we'll ever get.\"\u003cb\u003e--David Hajdu, \u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A feat of intrepid journalistic fortitude.\"\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[McBride is] the biographer of James Brown we've all been waiting for. . . . McBride's true subject is race and poverty in a country that doesn't want to hear about it, unless compelled by a voice that demands to be heard.\"\u003cb\u003e--Boris Kachka, \u003ci\u003eNew York\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Illuminating . . . engaging.\"\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A gorgeously written piece of reportage that gives us glimpses of Brown's genius and contradictions.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--O: The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51851690606877,"sku":"9780812983739","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0988\/1259\/2413\/files\/imageloader_3a75d679-9353-43e7-b361-97f7b0aaf655.jpg?v=1780809882"}],"url":"https:\/\/revelationsbooks.com\/collections\/james-mcbride.oembed","provider":"Revelations Books and Treasures LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}