Sixteen-year-old Genie's focus on getting into a top-tier college is destroyed when an enigmatic transfer student, Quentin, helps her transform into a demon-fighter.

When a 19-year-old member of a Black Muslim cult assassinated Oakland newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey in 2007, the question was, Why? "I just wanted to be a good soldier, a strong soldier," the killer told police. This book explores one of the most blatant attacks on the First Amendment in American history and the small Black Muslim cult that carried it out. Investigative reporter Thomas Peele examines the Nation of Islam movement from its founding...

"Gene understands stories - comic book stories, in particular. Big action. Bigger thrills. And the hero always wins. But Gene doesn't get sports. As a kid, his friends called him 'Stick' and every basketball game he played ended in pain. He lost interest in basketball long ago, but at the high school where he now teaches, it's all anyone can talk about. The men's varsity team, the Dragons, is having a phenomenal season that's been decades in the making....

The adopted daughter of Jane Fonda describes her youth in 1970s Oakland, California, her daunting prospects in the face of her dysfunctional biological family, and the ways in which a structured home life enabled her eventual reconnection with her biological family.

Oakland homicide sergeant Matt Sinclair recognizes the dead woman hanging from a tree as a teenage runaway named Dawn he arrested ten years before. Sinclair and his partner, Cathy Braddock soon learn that many of Dawn's clients, not to mention the local and federal officials who protect them, will go to any length to keep the police from digging too deep into her past. When the killer goes public, Sinclair and Braddock uncover the secrets Dawn was...

"A dazzling, unforgettable novel about a young Black woman who walks the streets of Oakland and stumbles headlong into the failure of its justice system--a debut that announces a blazingly original voice. Kiara Johnson and her brother Marcus are barely scraping by in a squalid East Oakland apartment complex that calls itself, optimistically, the Royal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus...

Isaiah Johnson, an inner-city kid from Oakland, California, has an opportunity to attend an elite university and study Neuroscience on scholarship. In his first year of college, he struggles to maintain his grades, attempts to remain loyal to his troubled childhood friends, and valiantly tries to capture the heart of his dream-girl. But when he arrives at a crossroad, he's forced to choose between his past and his future.

Six years ago, Moss Jefferies' father was murdered by an Oakland police officer. Along with losing a parent, the media's vilification of his father and lack of accountability has left Moss with near crippling panic attacks. Now, in his sophomore year of high school, Moss and his fellow classmates find themselves increasingly treated like criminals in their own school. New rules. Random locker searches. Constant intimidation and Oakland Police Department...