The Hatwearer's Lesson

Sometimes in order to go forward in life, you have to return to your roots. From Blackboard bestselling author Yolanda Joe comes a poignant, and at times humorous, novel about how our family history shapes our present lives, no matter how much we try to deny it.

Grandma Ollie and her granddaughter Terri have been together since Terri's mom passed away in Grandma Ollie's arms, giving birth. Born with an extraordinary sixth sense, Grandma Ollie knows just when things are going to happen, good and bad. So when her pen runs out the day she goes to enter Terri's engagement into her bible, Grandma Ollie knows something's wrong with her granddaughter, now a prominent attorney living up north. Terri, however, won't listen to Grandma Ollie's concerns. She has a great career, a successful man in her life, and feels like her small town roots are finally far behind her—she's going places and not looking back. But Grandma Ollie is never wrong...

With The Hatwearer's Lesson, the bestselling author of He Say, She Say; Bebe's By Golly Wow; and This Just In gifts us with a heartwarming and high-spirited novel about the lessons life teaches us, the rich histories families share—whether they wear hats or not—and the memories we carry with us all our lives.

Excerpt I Reading Group Guide

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Falling Leaves of Ivy

Set in the "have it all 80's", this novel deals with friendship, love, interracial relationships, murder and greed.

There are four characters--Connor, Michelle, Kayo and Elizabeth--all seniors at Yale. Despite differences of race and class, they've developed a strong trust that is challenged by the events of one tragic night.

They take a vow of silence, but guilt follows them as they head to New York City to land high powered careers and advanced degrees. Can they handle the pressure? The inseparable friends have a secret so dark that murder is the only way to keep it.

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He Say, She Say

A novel about friendship, family, and love. It's set in the windy city of Chicago and breezily told in four alternating voices. You will meet...

Sandy: A twenty-something, smart and attractive radio exec looking for love.

Her best friend, Bebe: Older, wiser, and a bank supervisor, who's making her way through a self imposed man sabbatical.

T.J.: A promising young jazz pianist and the object of Sandy's affections. He struggles with becoming his own man in music, family, and in love.

Speed: T.J.'s father and best friend. Wry, funny, handsome, opinionated, and stubborn. But Speed is not too stubborn to learn some important lessons about life and love.

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Bebe's By Golly Wow

Sandy has had her spin on love's wheel of fortune, now it's Bebe's turn.

Like He Say, She Say, this novel is told in alternating voices. You feel each character but with hips and lip, Bebe is the undeniable driving force of this book.

The story begins when Bebe gets ready for a date with Isaac Sizemore, a handsome fireman. She wears a tight-fitting money green dress. Isaac has on a shirt that looks like he's about to go "Soul Train", a car that won't start, and a pair of free tickets to a nightclub he'll wish he never used.

All in all it's a first date that's far from heavenly. Yet with the R&B love ballad "Betcha By Golly Wow" playing in the background, their meeting is the start of something really hot.

But hold it. There is a blocker--and what a blocker--Isaac's talented but insecure daughter who sets out to put out the romantic fire igniting between her father and Bebe.

Does she succeed? Or is Isaac Sizemore really Bebe's By Golly Wow!

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This Just In

This Just In is a novel that only an insider could write. Like a fictionalized Volunteer Slavery crossed with the movie Broadcast News, this novel is filled with lively dialogue, humor, and a crafty plot. The novel explores two explosive topics--racism and sexism while portraying the slippery world of broadcast news through the lives of five friends who work at WKBA-TV in Chicago.

These women--four black and one white--must jockey for respect in the tough man's world of TV news. They juggle the ups and downs of their various jobs while covering some of the toughest new stores in Chicago.

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Details at Ten

Ardella Garland is Yolanda's mystery pen name.

Set in the fast-paced, cut-throat world of television news, this dynamic novel introduces a new mystery series featuring Georgia Barnett. She is a devoted, funny, book smart/street smart African-American reporter.

The novel revolves around the disappearance of a little girl who, during a live television newsbreak, admits to witnessing a drive-by shooting.

Georgia is nagged by a sense of responsibility for the little girl's fate and heartbroken at seeing her old neighborhood ravaged by gang violence. She throws herself into the search, which is led by a tough but caring detective named Doug Eckart--sparks fly in more ways than one.

Georgia and Doug clash over how the case should be handled. They form a sexually tense truce as a simple missing persons case escalates into a citywide search for one of the most ruthless gang leaders in Chicago.

Details at Ten is fresh, stylish, and peppered throughout with glimpses of the inner-workings of broadcast news.

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Hit Time

Ardella Garland is Yolanda's mystery pen name.

Georgia Barnett's live broadcast during an outdoor charity event isn't the only thing making news. Her report is interrupted by a grim discovery: floating in Lake Michigan is the body of Fab Weaver, head of Hit Time Records, one of the most renowned and cutthroat companies on Chicago's Record Row. When suspicion falls on Jimmy Flamingo, a close family friend and down-on-his-luck blues guitarist, Georgia and her twin sister Peaches, nightclub owner and blues singer extraordinaire, quickly get on the case.

While hunting for evidence that will clear Jimmy, Georgia, Peaches, and Georgia's handsome love interest, Detective Doug Eckart, uncover a history of incredible artistry and devastating exploitation in the Chicago music business.

Their investigation transports them into a bygone era, when Chicago was the hub of the African-American music scene and Record Row was even more prominent than Motown, giving the world such legends as Etta James and Curtis Mayfield. But while their songs ruled the airwaves and sold millions, many R&B artists of that era -- including Flamingo -- never made millions. As Georgia continues her search for the truth, the legacy of this inequity becomes shockingly apparent.

Clever, fast-paced, and endlessly absorbing, Hit Time is a roller-coaster ride of a mystery and an eye-opening look at a controversial slice of America's musical past.

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