Central Kansas Library System

"I didn't learn how to be a beast; I was born one!" Birthed behind the walls of the state penitentiary, newborn Dwayne Latham was cursed with a strong urge for heroin and a certified addict as a mother. As the incarcerated woman gave up all parental rights, the infant lay in a state-issued crib for weeks, being weaned off the strong package of dope that flowed through his tiny body. Growing up in multiple foster homes, Dwayne soon learned to do...

Welcome to Kapri James-White's world. Walk the streets of Detroit with her, and learn what it truly means to be Married to the Shooter! Kapri James wasn't born into the struggle of the game, but she craves it. Despite pleas from her mother, the upper-middle-class teen is addicted to "slumming" and living the fast life. Everything about the black-hearted mentality of Detroit draws her in with ease. Drug dealing, carjackings, home invasions, snatch...

Clay has never depended on anyone but himself. Having been to prison twice, the veteran criminal feels he has nothing left to lose. He rules his small territory of the Detroit drug scene with an iron fist, acting as the police, the judge, and the jury. Clay is without remorse. Anyone who crosses him or jeopardizes his freedom will be dealt with, and justice will be swift. Clay has always been cursed with a short-fuse temper, but this time it causes...

Three Urban Books authors have teamed up to bring the drama in this latest installment of the popular Girls from da Hood Series. Get It, Get It! by Ms. Michel Moore: Monica was conceived on a pile of dirty clothes in the corner of a trap house. Cursed with a mother who worshiped the crack pipe more than her children, she quickly learned a Detroit reality: Get it how ya live or die trying. The young teenager is forced to beg, borrow, and steal to...

Trapped growing up in poverty, best friends Tyrone and Tameka are young and hungry, craving a better way of life. Willing to do whatever it takes to break free of the strong-handed grip of the crime-infested streets of Detroit, the desperate pair devises a win-all/lose-all plan to come up by any means necessary. Nothing will stop their grind or get in the way of turning their childhood dreams into grown-up realities; not family, not friends and definitely...

When their parents are discovered brutally murdered in a ditch, Kenya and London are left orphaned, forced to navigate through the unforgiving streets of Detroit. They might be identical twins, but they are as different as night and day. With one fighting relentlessly to make it out of the ghetto, the other eagerly embraces true hood life and everything their deceased parents believed in: selling drugs, living fast, and even dying young if it means...

More of Urban Lit's finest take a walk on the other side in book two, Even Sinners Have Souls Too, of the three book "Sinners Series." Darrell King, Victor L. Martin and Essence Best-Selling authors, Tysha and Michel Moore, bring you four smashing tales, but not before National Best-Selling author, K'Wan, hits you with the powerful introduction, Oh Sinner Man. Edited by award winning author E. N. Joy, once again, some of the literary industry's...

Identical twins Kenya and London return in the highly addictive Essence bestselling Say U Promise series, and now things have gone from bad to worse for the tragically troubled sisters. They are caught in the middle of a deadly drug war that was started by one of them, and the streets run red as lives are drastically changed forever. With an illegitimate baby on the way and a price on her head, one twin fights to avoid the dangers of the game she...

There's a saying that if you come from my part of town, you're from around the way. Around the Way Girls 10, like its predecessors, is a fast-paced look at the lives of some street-smart women who think they know it all, but are about to get the lessons of their lives. "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." For Katara, that statement is the furthest thing from the truth. Dealing with her mother's cancer, a special needs child, and a physically...