Describes how a period of transition in the journalist author's life marked by her empty nest, a recent illness and her aging parents led her to forge a deep friendship with a gifted Kenyan gardener with whom she transformed her yard and shared long-buried secrets.

Buying his freedom after serving as a translator during the American Indian wars, Cow Tom builds a remarkable life and legacy that is sustained by his courageous granddaughter.

"The classic, bestselling book on the psychology of racism-now fully revised and updated. Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication...

"In 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy sought out James Baldwin to explain the rage that threatened to engulf black America. Baldwin brought along some friends, including playwright Lorraine Hansberry, psychologist Kenneth Clark, and a valiant activist, Jerome Smith. It was Smith's relentless, unfiltered fury that set Kennedy on his heels, reducing him to sullen silence. Kennedy walked away from the nearly three-hour meeting angry--that the black...

Two teenagers from New York City are falsely accused of murder while driving through rural Alabama. To defend them in court, one of them hires his cousin Vinny, a flamboyant personal injury lawyer with no trial experience whatsoever.