There was no sharper con man on the streets of Chicago than Elijah Brookes. Women were his preferred prey-but no mark and no bankroll was safe when Elijah was on the prowl. Cool, beautiful Toni warned him, "Elijah, brothers be playin' games so hard sometimes they don't know when to stop. You know what I'm sayin'?" Elijah Brookes had to learn the ultimate lesson the hard way. So many games to be played, so little time.

Valonga Price takes a three-year sabbatical from the grime of owning her own company to try to discover her true self. Armed with questions that have been whirling around in her head, she travels to places like Brazil, San Salvador, Bahia, Nigeria, Cuba, and Japan.

An enchanting intro to a collection of unforgettable characters-Elizabeth, "Queen of the Projects"; the girl "Billie" who sings like Lady Day; young Randolph who, to his family's embarrassment, grows a second head for a while; Dean Dale Jackson, talented writer, sculptor, auto mechanic, and dedicated to the underbelly of a bottle; the Vernon family upwardly mobile but required by a will to grow cotton in their suburban backyard; and Marlene and James, who find happiness in an unexpected way, in marriage.

Chicago, the center of America's heartland, from its founding in the late 1700s by Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a French-educated black man, to the modern day Gypsies who live on Maxwell Street. It's a city steeped in Black History. This is the story of a city where a unique African American history has grown, a center for the emergence of jazz, blues, dance, art, and the DuSable Museum of African American History.

The deeply personal story of Odie Hawkins's journey, from "the poorest of the poor" childhood in Chicago to Hollywood screenwriter-and the people who deeply mattered. A tough, touching autobiography.