Fab 5 Fridays

In our continuing tribute in honor of Black History Month, here's the top five books I've read in the last year by African-American authors, plucked from the depths of my Reading Bucket List:

1. 32 Candles by Ernessa T. Carter. It's a take on the movie Sixteen Candles, only it's a black woman who yearns for a Molly Ringwald ending of her own. Miramax has already purchased the movie rights.

2. Buying Time by Pamela Samuels-Young is a deftly plotted legal thriller that combines the best of Lisa Scottoline and Robert Crais. Samuels-Young writes like John Grisham with a female twist.

3. Substitue Me by Lori L. Tharps. This book, published by Simon and Schuster, is about a middle class college-educated Africa-American young adult who takes a job as a nanny for a yuppie couple. Tharps writes so well, you don't even realize you're reading. It feels like you're watching a movie instead.

4. Glorious by Bernice McFadden is a powerful novel about Easter Bartlett who travels from violence in the Jim Crow south to the promise of a brighter future during the Harlem Renaissance. Will the promise be realized?

5. The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Heidi Durrow is a book about a biracial girl raised by her white mother, but is suddenly sent to live with her black relatives. Hilarity does not ensue. I read this book in one day!