Trying to Make this thing Right is a historical fictional coming of age story of Ka Shawn who is raised by his gradmother in a New York Ghetto after he is abandoned by his mother and father and witness's his older brother being taken out of the house by the police. Ka Shawn grows big and is sent to an all white high school where it takes him a while to ajust but once he does he is honored as a basketball star until the bottom falls out. Ka Shawn does make it to college where he plays for an up and coming team but the transition here is even harder. Then Ka Sawn becomes successful in academics...

Chester Hines was an accomplished African American detective fiction writer in the 1940's. He convincingly described the horrors blacks faced during the Jim Crow era. Satell uses Chester Hines' name for his main character that faces obstacles, fears, and horrors in today's urban world. Satell has heard the screams of others his whole life. In this book he gives those who are quietly screaming a voice. Satell takes his characters through the haze with remarkable skill and optimism. Though his craft Hines gave voice to those struggling with both class and race issues at the time in which he...

Darlene learns the word efface in English class and shortly after experiences it. She forges forward reaching for everything she wants in life. By the end, Darlene encounters effacement in a deeper and more horrific way than she ever felt possible. Still, she is able to see beyond it to deep and knowing beauty that she would have never seen if she hadn't taken the journey she did. Oh My is a unique book you must read