From the author of Cloud Atlas, now a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant, and directed by Lana and... Andy Wachowski and Tom TykwerFrom award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new. Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys’ games on a frozen lake; of “nightcreeping” through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason’s search to replace his dead grandfather’s irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher’s recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons. Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell’s subtlest and most effective achievement to date.From the Hardcover edition.

The Android development platform, created by Google and the Open Handset Alliance, is a platform in its truest sense, encompassing hundreds of classes... beyond the traditional Java classes and open source components that ship with the SDK. With Beginning Android 2, you’ll learn how to develop applications for Android 2.x mobile devices, using simple examples that are ready to run with your copy of the software development kit. Author, Android columnist, writer, developer, and community advocate Mark L. Murphy will show you what you need to know to get started programming Android applications, including how to craft graphical user interfaces, use GPS, and access web services. What you’ll learn Discover Android and how to use it to build Java-based mobile applications for a wide range of phones and other devices. Create user interfaces using both the Android widget framework and the built-in WebKit-powered Web browser components. Utilize the distinctive capabilities of the Android engine, including location tracking, maps, and Internet access. Use and create Android applications incorporating activities, services, content providers, and broadcast receivers. Support Android 1.5, 1.6, and 2.0 devices, including dealing with multiple Android OS versions, multiple screen sizes, and other device-specific characteristics. Who this book is for This book is aimed at people new to mobile development, but with some knowledge of Java. Table of Contents The Big Picture Projects & Targets Creating a Skeleton Application Using XML-Based Layouts Employing Basic Widgets Working with Containers Using Selection Widgets Getting Fancy With Lists Employing Fancy Widgets and Containers The Input Method Framework Applying Menus Fonts Embedding the WebKit Browser Showing Pop-Up Messages Dealing with Threads Handling Activity Lifecycle Events Creating Intent Filters Launching Activities and Sub-Activities Handling Rotation Working with Resources Using Preferences Managing and Accessing Local Databases Accessing Files Leveraging Java Libraries Communicating via the Internet Using a Content Provider Building a Content Provider Requesting and Requiring Permissions Creating a Service Invoking a Service Alerting Users Via Notifications Accessing Location-Based Services Mapping with MapView and MapActivity Handling Telephone Calls Development Tools Handling Multiple Screen Sizes Dealing with Devices Handling Platform Changes Where Do We Go From Here?

Fully revised and updated -- the ultimate guide to black talk from all segments of the African American community.Do you want to be down with the latest... hype terms from the Hip Hop world? Black Talk is the perfect source. "Even if you think you're hip, you'd better look up kitchen, got her nose open, jump salty, and hundreds of other sayings, former or current, that testify to the linguistic originality of Black speakers," said Frederic G. Cassidy, chief editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English. This new edition of Black Talk includes more than 300 new words and phrases and, now more than ever, reflects the ever-changing meanings and uses of this vital and rich part of our language. In a style that is always informative and always entertaining, Geneva Smitherman takes this dictionary far beyond a list of words. Black Talk is a cultural map that charts word meanings along the highways and byways of African American life.

Black Teachers on Teaching is an honest and compelling account of the politics and philosophies involved in the education of black children during the... last fifty years. Michele Foster talks to those who were the first to teach in desegregated southern schools and to others who taught in large urban districts, such as Boston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. All go on record about the losses and gains accompanying desegregation, the inspirations and rewards of teaching, and the challenges and solutions they see in the coming years.

Black Teachers on Teaching is an honest and compelling account of the politics and philosophies involved in the education of black children during the... last fifty years. Michele Foster talks to those who were the first to teach in desegregated southern schools and to others who taught in large urban districts, such as Boston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. All go on record about the losses and gains accompanying desegregation, the inspirations and rewards of teaching, and the challenges and solutions they see in the coming years.

Nearly three centuries before Lewis and Clark's epic trek to the Pacific coast, an African slave named Esteban Dorantes became America's first great... explorer and adventurer—the first pioneer from the Old World to explore the entirety of the American South. Shipwrecked off the Florida coast, Esteban guided a small band of survivors on an incredible, eight-year-long journey westward—enduring famine, disease, and Native American hostility as the company made their way across what is now Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, traveling as far as the Gulf of California. Drawing on contemporary accounts, long-lost records, and Dr. Robert Goodwin's groundbreaking research in Spanish archives, Crossing the Continent is a riveting true story of physical endurance, natural calamities, geographical wonders, and strange discoveries—a remarkable chronicle that offers a radical new interpretation of American history.

This revised and expanded Black Theatre U.S.A. broadens its collection to fifty-one outstanding plays, enhancing its status as the most authoritative... anthology of African American drama with 22 new selections

This revised and expanded Black Theatre U.S.A. broadens its collection to fifty-one outstanding plays, enhancing its status as the most authoritative... anthology of African American drama with 22 new selections. Building on the well-respected first edition published in 1974, this edition features previously unpublished works including In Dahomey, Liberty Deferred, and Star of Ethiopia, and the Department of Interior's infamous 1918 food pageant. Contemporary plays by women have been added - Robbie McCauley's Sally's Rape, Anna Deavere Smith's Fires in the Mirror, and Aishah Rahman's The Mojo and the Sayso, as well as the modern classics - Ntozake Shange's Colored Girls..., Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro, and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. The range of this collection extends from 1847 to 1992, including the great names in the African American pantheon of writers - Paul Laurence Dunbar, W. E. B. Du Bois, Angelina Grimke, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin. The chronology begins with William Wells Brown's The Escape: or, a Leap for Freedom, based on his own life as an escaped slave. Two expatriot authors, Ira Aldridge and Victor Sejour, provide glimpses of life in Europe, while at home, playwrights struggled with the issues of birth control, miscegenation, lynching, and migration. The book embraces both commercial successes such as George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum, and Charles Fuller's A Soldier's Play, as well as lesser-known masterpieces - Ben Caldwell's The First Militant Preacher, Owen Dodson's The Confession Stone, and Ted Shine's Contribution. The stylistic range, too, runs the gamut of genre from the realism of Ted Ward,Lonne Elder III, and Ed Bullins to the surrealism of Marita Bonner and Aishah Rahman. Comedy is present in Abram Hill's On Strivers Row and Douglas Turner Ward's Day of Absence which mock the racism of both Blacks and Whites.

First published in 1969, "Black Theology & Black Power" provided the first systematic presentation of black theology. Relating the militant struggle... for liberation with the gospel message of salvation, James Cone laid the foundation for an original interpretation of Christianity that retains its urgency and challenge today.

This book explores the legacy of slavery in Black theological terms. Challenging the dominant approaches to the history and legacy of slavery in the... British Empire, the contributors show that although the 1807 act abolished the slave trade, it did not end racism, notions of White supremacy, or the demonization of Blackness, Black people and Africa. This interdisciplinary study draws on biblical studies, history, missiology, and Black theological reflection, exploring the strengths and limitations of faith as the framework for abolitionist rhetoric and action. This Black theological approach to the phenomenon of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the institution of slavery draws on contributions from Africa, the Caribbean, North American and Europe.

"Gabriel Prosser's 1800 slave revolt allowed Bontemps to warn of the rebellion that would come of poverty and racial oppression. This metaphor of... revolution is at the same time a highly pertinent representation of black masculinity that will reward students of gender, slavery and the sensibilities of the 1930s." —Nell Irvin Painter

A searing look at the human face of BP's disaster in the gulfIt is the largest oil disaster in American history, and it could happen again. It is more... than a story of ruined beaches, dead wildlife, corporate spin, political machinations, and financial fallout. It is a riveting human drama filled with people whose lives will forever be defined as "before" and "after the gulf oil disaster." Black Tide is the only book to tell this story through the perspective of people on all sides of the catastrophe, from those who lost their lives, loved ones, and livelihoods to those who made the policies that set the devastating event in motion, those who cut the corners that put corporate profits over people and the environment, and those who have committed their lives to ensuring that such an event is never repeated.Dramatic and compelling, Black Tide exposes the human failings and human cost of the largest oil disaster in American history and how it could easily happen again."We cannot allow the BP disaster to be pushed from public view the way BP used chemical dispersants to hide the oil. These remarkable stories-of loss, heroism and culpability-are a vivid reminder that this catastrophe will be with us for decades, and that we have not yet made the changes necessary to prevent destruction in the future."-Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism."It's hard to imagine a better person to turn loose on this epochal disaster than Antonia Juhasz, with her compassionate heart, vivid prose, and rich expertise in both oil and economic policy. From oil-smeared beaches, to the drilling rig's control room, to the big picture of Big Oil and the governments they push around. It's not just about disaster: it's a series of encounters with real people, from oceanographers to oyster-shuckers, striving to make things right. Black Tide is riveting, infuriating, and incredibly important.-Rebecca Solnit, author of A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in DisasterPraise for The Tyranny of Oil"Reminds us that those who don't learn the lessons of history are fated to repeat its mistakes." -USA Today"[A] timely, blistering critique . . . white-hot" -Kirkus starred review"[A] thorough, readable takedown of Big Oil." -Publishers Weekly"Abrave, groundbreaking case study. . . . A good first step toward true energy independence is to read this insightful book." -The Christian Science Monitor

   From a brilliant young legal scholar comes this sweeping history of American ideas of belonging and citizenship, told through the stories of... fourteen legal cases that helped to shape our nation.   Spanning three centuries, Black Trials details the legal challenges and struggles that helped define the ever-shifting identity of blacks in America. From the well-known cases of Plessy v. Ferguson and the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings to the more obscure trial of Joseph Hanno, an eighteenth-century free black man accused of murdering his wife and bringing smallpox to Boston, Weiner recounts the essential dramas of American identity—illuminating where our conception of minority rights has come from and where it might go. Significant and enthralling, these are the cases that forced the courts and the country to reconsider what it means to be black in America, and Mark Weiner demonstrates their lasting importance for our society.

This mesmerizing historical novel captures the swirl of New York City's greed, power, romance and desperation on the cusp of the Great Stock Market... Crash of 1929 and Great Depression, eerily mirroring the present. In this vivid tableau of New York with its colorful, diverse cast of characters, Black Tuesday evokes the passion and atmospheric tension of one of our most fascinating historical epochs. From the beleaguered immigrant community of the Lower East Side to the feral pit of Wall Street and the alluring glitter of Park Avenue, Nomi Prins reveals a world of fraud, obsession and economic devastation in a turbulent era that shines a revealing, and disturbing, light on today's world. Black Tuesday is an epic saga that probes the complex intersections of class, family loyalty, desire, and the terrible consequences of deception, avarice, and power. Meet Leila Khan - a vivacious, determined immigrant, struggling to find her purpose in a tumultuous America. Her job at a Wall Street diner introduces her to banker, Roderick Morgan – a captivating yet haunted alcoholic - controlled by his ruthless uncle, bank mogul Jack Morgan. As Leila and Roderick’s flirtations deepen into an illicit affair, Leila becomes a marked woman in more ways than one. She uncovers dark, dangerous secrets about Jack’s business deals, and Roderick’s role in them. But when a body plunges from the top of the Morgan Bank, Leila’s world comes crashing down around her. Trying to balance an allegiance to her family, and a fierce need for the truth, Leila delves into a shadowy world of wealth and corruption. In the process she discovers startling facts about both the Wall Street Empire and herself. Her dilemma is timeless and universal, asking the questions - who are we as individuals? As a country? What is it we finally want to become?