People of Color

The Book of Color for the day is The Vixen Manual: How to Find, Seduce, & Keep the Man You Want. Written by Karrine Steffans, bestselling author of The Vixen Diaries, the ultimate "man's-lady" gives the details on how to land and keep a man. Based on years of experience and learning, Steffans explains relationship woes for every version of the single woman.

Steffans explains major markers in relationships, from the moment you meet to deciding if he is worth your love and attention. The book also contains sidebars explaining various sexual tips and suggestions dubbed "Vixen Tips."

Karrine Steffans, former celebrity dater and video vixen, definitely has a no holds barred mentality and tells it like it is.

Today's Featured Book of the Day is Rainbow House, written by new author Janet Diaz-Bonilla. For her debut novel, Diaz-Bonilla took bits from her own life to make an inspiring story about internal suffering.

The story revolves around Camilla Miranda, a young woman who holds a dark secret. Her neighbor, Gomez, would visit her as she grew up and abused her sexually. He swore her to secrecy, and from this terrible experience, Camilla grew up to become a psychologist. She helps others with abusive relationships, but she herself had never engaged in a healthy relationship because of her personal trauma.

That all changes when Troy Mauvais enters her life and brings to the surface things long buried. Now she must face her demons from years ago.

The Featured Book of the Day is I See Your Dream Job: A Career Intuitive Shows You How to Discover What You Were Put on Earth to Do, written by Sue Frederick. Sue Frederick reads your destiny in this book and helps you to discover what you were meant to do. She answers the questions that I know everyone asks themselves: Am I doing what I am truly meant to do?

I See Your Dream Job combines ancient mystical teachings and up-to-date career information to read clues to your destiny. It helps outline a plan and a path that you should take in order to achieve your perfect career goals. For anyone who feels stuck, unfulfilled, or questions their job needs to read this.

Sue Frederick is a career intuitive and has been a guest on numerous radio shows. She has also presented at Crossings Retreat Center for organizations like the National Career Development Association. She currently lives in Colorado.

The Featured Book of the Day is Hungry written by top plus-size model Crystal Renn and Marjorie Ingall. Crystal Renn explores her past in this memoir about body image and growing up in front of the camera. At 14, she was recruited and told she could become a famous model. All she had to do was lose 10 inches off her waist.

After she lost 70 pounds, she moved to New York and began modeling around the world. She developed anorexia and bulimia and frequently had health issues, such as heart palpitations and fainting spells. When her body could no longer stay at a size zero, Crystal took a long hard look at her life and decided to become healthy. She returned to her natural size, a size 12, and became an even bigger success in the industry. She has shattered industry beliefs and is now happy, healthy, and doing what she loves.

Today's Book of the Day is a cookbook, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking. Complied and written by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, this book has become a big hit. This cookbook outlines how you can prepare great French bread in just five minutes.

The pictures within are exceptional and encourage the reader to make the bread. There are over 100 recipes with tips and techniques as to how to make bread even better than a French bakery. Included recipes are for bread, baguettes, pizza, and scrumptious pastries.

Zoe works at the Culinary Institute of America as a baker and pastry chef. She lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota where Jeff Hertzberg also resides. Jeff is an amateur baker and former physician and university professor.

INDI Publishing Group, founded by Jerry D. Simmons, former Time Warner Book Group executive, has recently added Cecile Tiernan as publisher. Together, they seek to fill a niche for the under recognized group of writers within the publishing industry. Realizing that the traditional protocol for publishing means that many writers and would-be authors will never get to see their works printed, Simmons and Tiernan combined their more than sixty years of expertise together in order to assist unknown names break their way into the literary world.

Despite the aversion that many may have towards non-traditional published books, Simmons and Tiernan, who have both worked with over hundreds of New York Times Best Selling authors and books, are confident that by accepting a small amount of clients from talented writers, they can raise the bar and establish independent publishing in its own authoritative, established niche. By working hand in hand with these select authors, INDI Publishing Group seeks to enhance the reputation and market for independent publishing as the industry moves away from the model of New York publishing companies and towards independent publishing.

Today's Book of the Day is The Real Wizard of Oz: The Life and Times of L. Frank Baum by Rebecca Longcraine. This book details Frank Baum's struggle to write and publish the famous series. Although The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was originally written in 1899,it was not published until 1900. Baum was an endlessly creative man that traveled widely throughout the US, gaining inspiration in every new place.

Baum grew up in the Finger Lakes region of New York, married Maud Gage and moved out west where they encountered numerous natural hardships, such as tornadoes and drought, before moving to Chicago. His books became so famous that he spent the rest of his years writing 13 sequels to his original book. He also wrote adaptations for Broadway and started his own movie company to try and adapt his stories, which failed miserably. He had just finished the final Oz book before dying in 1919.

Rebecca Longcraine attended Oxford University and writes for the British press, such as The Independent and The Guardian.

Today's Book of the Day is Love and Summer by William Trevor. Set in the little town of Rathmoye, Ireland, this story opens at Mrs. Connulty's funeral. When Florian Kilderry shows up at the funeral on a bike with his camera, he causes quite the stir in the community.

Florian came to the photograph the burned-down theater in the town and escape his past. He has a run-in with Ellie Dillahan, a shy orphan, who changes his plans. What unfolds is a love affair that forces Ellie to make some tough decisions. While Ellie makes these decisions, Miss Connulty deals with her mother's death. In her past, she also had an affair and has decided to keep an eye on Ellie so she doesn't repeat the same mistakes.

William Trevor grew up in Ireland and has published fourteen novels. He boasts numerous awards, and his most recent novel, The Story of Lucy Gault, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Fiction Prize and the Man Booker Prize.

Today's Featured Book of Color is Coretta Scott, a collection of poetry by Ntozake Shange dedicated to Coretta Scott King. This picture book also features large paintings by Kadir Nelson.

The book details Coretta Scott and her life in the segregated south. She began work with Martin Luther King Jr. and launched the idea of nonviolent protest. The poetry explains the beautiful life and journey of Coretta to achieve freedom for everyone during the civil rights movement.

Ntozake Shange is the author of many children's books, including Ellington Was Not a Street, the winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. Kadir Nelson's artwork has also won numerous awards, including the Caldecott Honor Book for Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine.


Jeff River is the author of Forever My Lady and the founder of GumboWriters.com.

Today's Featured Book of Color is Midnight: A Gangster Love Story. This is the prequel to Sister Souljah's The Coldest Winter Ever. In this novel, the reader is introduced to Midnight, Ricky Santiaga's strong lieutenant that was in the original novel.

Midnight is the son of a wealthy Islamic African family that is attacked. Fleeing with his mother, Midnight ends up in the middle of America's Brooklyn projects. At the age of seven, he is thrust into the streets of New York to try and support his mother, who, when they were sent to America was pregnant. As he grows older, he finds that not only does he need to protect his mother but his heart as well. Midnight faces the difficult problems that most blacks face as they try to make their way out of the 'hood.

Sister Souljah is a graduate of Rutgers University and made the transition from being a hip-hop artist to starting the genre of urban fiction with her smash, The Coldest Winter Ever.