Books
"A deeply inspiring, must-read memoir about the transformative power of books to heal and unite us."—Gabrielle Union
Acclaimed journalist and human rights activist Goldie Taylor shares the harrowing yet deeply hopeful story of her troubled childhood in East St. Louis—a memoir of family, faith and the power of books
At age eleven, Goldie Taylor is out riding her bike when she is raped by a young man from the neighborhood. Unable to cope, her mother sends her to live with her aunt in East St. Louis.
Aunt Gerald takes in anyone who asks, but the conditions are harsh. Goldie sleeps on the living room floor, amid cousins who abuse her. But in her trauma and pain, Goldie discovers a secret. She can find kinship among writers like James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. She can find hope in a nurturing teacher who helps her find her voice. And books, she realizes, can save her life.
Goldie Taylor's debut memoir shines a light on the strictures of race, class and gender in a post–Jim Crow America while offering a nuanced, empathetic portrait of a family in a pitched battle for its very soul.
"Goldie Taylor's The Love You Save is at once candid and devastating. Writing with clarity and elegance, Taylor has crafted a memoir about finding peace, hope, and love after surviving unspeakable violence. This book will stay with me a long long time."—Jaquira Díaz, author of Ordinary Girls: A Memoir
"From buttermilk fried okra to bibles and bullets, the story comes out the gate moving and never lets up.” ―Eric Jerome Dickey, New York Times bestselling author of A Wanted Woman
The mayor of Atlanta and a washed-up reporter investigate a series of assassinations, and uncover a conspiracy that reaches into the heart of the city's political machine.
Mayor Victoria Dobbs Overstreet is a Harvard-trained attorney and Spelman alum, married to a celebrated heart surgeon, mother to beautiful twin girls, and a political genius. When her mentor, ally, and friend Congressman Ezra Hawkins is gunned down in Ebenezer Baptist Church, Victoria finds a strange piece of origami–a “paper god”–tucked inside his Bible. These paper gods turn up again and again, always after someone is killed. Someone is terrorizing those who are close to Mayor Dobbs, and she can't shake the feeling that the killer is close to her, too.
"A moving and unflinching portrait of a city and its many layers of power...Taylor has created a hero we see all too rarely: black, female, powerful." ―Tim Teeman, Senior Editor of The Daily Beast