Black History Month and Valentine’s Day: Marrying Knowledge and Love

What could be better than gifts of knowledge and love? And that is just what we are featuring in this dual column celebrating Black History Month and Valentine’s Day.

reviews by Sharon L. Shervington

The Oprah Winfrey Show: Reflections on an American Legacy

written by Deborah Davis

We begin with a gift book that beautifully showcases one of the world’s greatest gift givers and a woman who has a history that has made her an international icon.

Of course, that would be Ms. Oprah Winfrey, and the book, The Oprah Winfrey Show: Reflections on an American Legacy is powerful, like its subject in many ways. At the beginning and near the end of the book we see Oprah transformed from the regular woman she is to America’s high priestess of information television. The hair, the makeup, the clothes, and the stylists are all there in the book’s glossy pages. But that is just the packaging.

Inspiring Tomes to Brighten Your Homes

Reviews by Sharon L . Shervington

Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African-American History

Written by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The latest effort from Henry Louis Gates arrives just in time to make the perfect Christmas gift. It is a coffee-table book, a history book, an art book, and much more. Ambitious in scope, it evenly matches text and images to give a sweeping view of the African American experience in America. It is a book of tragedies and of triumphs and is bound to stir both strong feelings and debate.

Kenyon Lake, author of "My Daddy Taught Me That..."

Staff Reports

My Daddy Taught Me That… takes us on a journey of a relationship between a man and his son, while showing readers the life lessons he instilled. His word was his bond, his sense of honor his guide.

Without doubt — no matter what the situation — he was a friend to be counted on in all things. He left a lasting legacy that will be remembered by every person with whom he crossed paths.

It’s the story of Bennie Lake, as told by his son Kenyon.