books for guys

EncouragingEncouragingyoung men to readyoung men to read

• Themes– The inherent corruption of institutions

(government and church)– Harlem as a symbolic locus of African-

American life– Corruption of African-Americans by white

outsiders– Lust inevitably leads to destruction

Chester Himes

• The Harlem Domestic Series– A Rage in Harlem (1957) – The Real Cool Killers (1959) – The Crazy Kill (1959) – The Big Gold Dream (1960) – All Shot Up (1960) – The Heat’s On (1966) – Cotton Comes to Harlem

(1965) – Blind Man with a Pistol (1979)

Chester Himes

• A Rage in Harlem (1957) – A gang of con men

swindle a naïve hearse driver by convincing him they can “raise” $10 notes into hundreds in a special oven.

Chester Himes

• The Real Cool Killers (1959) – A white man is shot down in Harlem

and the alleged perpetrator is kidnapped by a gang of teenagers dressed up as Arabs. Meanwhile Coffin Ed, suspended over an accidental shooting searches for his teenaged daughter, unaware that she is a member of the teen “Arabs.”

Chester Himes

Chester Himes

• The Crazy Kill (1959)– During a wake for a

distinguished Harlemite, a man is discovered stabbed to death, lying in a basket of bread in front of an A & P store. The dead man is brother to the wife of a charismatic gambler. Meanwhile a storefront preacher accuses the wife adultery. But with whom?

Chester Himes

The Harlem Domestic Series– The Big Gold Dream (1960)– A domestic worker comes

home from a religious street demonstration to find all her furniture gone and her shiftless boyfriend missing. Coffin Ed and Grave Digger follow a tangled thread to a hoard of missing money.

Chester Himes

• All Shot Up (1960) – A series of bizarre deaths and the

kidnapping of a powerful Harlem politician leads the detectives on the hunt for mysterious killers and an embezzled political war chest.

• The Heat’s On (1966) – A white gang leader, a

black conjure woman, and Coffin Ed and Grave Digger all search for missing heroin while an albino giant dyes himself purple to elude a killer.

Chester Himes

• Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965) – – Two con men, one

posing as a preacher and another posing as a southern “colonel” race Coffin Ed and Grave Digger to a bale of cotton containing $84,000 bilked from Harlemites who think they’re returning to Africa.

Chester Himes

• Blind Man with a Pistol (1979) – Three different

groups of marchers set off a violent riot in Harlem as Coffin Ed and Grave Digger search for the perpetrator of several homosexual murders.

Chester Himes

• Stand Alone– Run Man Run (1966) –

• A young black restaurant worker witnesses the execution of several other black men by a white policeman, and spends the rest of the novel trying to prevent the killer from shutting him up.

– The Collected Stories of Chester Himes (1991)

Chester Himes

George Pelecanos

George Pelecanos

Themes:• Tests of loyalty between friends on

different roads• The power of self-redemption• Importance of taking responsibility for

your self and others• The power of bonds between fathers

and sons

George Pelecanos• The Marcus Clay/Dimitri

Karras Cycle– The Big Blowdown (1996) –

Washington D. C. in the 1950s– King Suckerman (1997) -

Washington in the 1960s/ode to the Blaxploitation film

– The Sweet Forever (1998) – Summer of the riots

– Shame the Devil (2000) – Dimitri Karras gets straight

George Pelecanos

• The Derek Strange Cycle– Right as Rain (2001)– Hell to Pay (2002)– Soul Circus (2003)– Hard Revolution (2004) –

Derek’s beginnings as a street cop during the 1970s

George Pelecanos

• Stand Alone Novels– Drama City (2005) – The Night Gardener

(2006)– The Turnaround (2008)– The Way Home (2009)

Walter Mosley

Walter Mosley

Themes:• The Easy Rawlins Series

– Determination in the quest of a goal– Loyalty to friends– Stoicism in the face of adversity– Importance of a stable home and family

Walter Mosley• The Easy Rawlins Series

– Devil in a Blue Dress (1990)– Red Death (1991)– White Butterfly (1992)– Black Betty (1994)– A Little Yellow Dog (1996)– Gone Fishin’ (1997)– Six Easy Pieces (2002)– Bad Boy Brawly Brown

(2002)– Little Scarlet (2004)– Cinnamon Kiss (2005)– Blonde Faith (2007)

George Pelecaos

Walter Mosley

Themes:• The Fearless Jones/Paris Minton

Series – Importance of search for knowledge– Sense of community– Learning is it own reward

Walter Mosley

• The Fearless Jones/Paris Minton Series– Fearless Jones (2001)– Fear Itself (2003)– Fear of the Dark (2005)

• The Socrates Fortlow Series– Always Outnumbered,

Always Outgunned (1998)– Walkin’ the Dog (1999)– The Right Mistake (2008)

• Themes:– Search for redemption– Dignity inherent in hard

work– Passing on hard-won

knowledge to younger generations

Walter Mosley