Da Bruhs BookShelf

This is part two of our discussion on Collen Hoover's It Ends with US

We are what we most commonly do. The best way to change yourself is to change your habits. James Clear’s “Atomic Habits” explores the science of personal transformation through the use of small, incrementally, significant steps that will help reshape our thoughts and emotions surrounding our most stubborn habits as well as what keeps us from forming new ones. Join Da Bruhs Bookshelf and special gu...

In a world of a collapsed economy, drug addiction and illiteracy are at an all-time high, a 15 yr old black girl Lauren Olamina finds herself leading a group of strangers to a safe space while creating and converting people to religion and belief that she came up with through her observation from journaling how the world had changed and where God fits in all of this. 

In this episode through Bernie Mack's autobiography, we explore the different approaches on how to properly raise children, love, family, and just poke fun at Bernie Mack's relaxed approach to writing this book. 

This is a continuation of last week's discussion on "The Water Dancer"

Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her — but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram...

The Sweetness of Water – At the end of the American Civil War, the war waged by Whites in Southern states to keep slavery legal, many were left questioning the direction and role in life. George and Isabelle Walker are private, well-respected common folk within the community of Old Ox who deal with the prospect of never seeing their son, Caleb, again. Another victim to the lost and futile cause of...

This podcast episode is part2 of our coverage of Joan Morgan's When Chickheads Come Home to Roost

Join the bruhs as we explore this masterpiece by Joan Morgan, "When ChickenHeads Come Home to Roost". We discuss the struggles of being black and having allegiance to your race, embracing your feminity all while being a feminist. What is feminism and can it be redefined to be relevant to the modern era of hip-hop?

Rick Ross, a music mogul, has written a blueprint/self-help book to help young aspiring achievers reach the levels of success he has achieved in his career.  

Growing up black, smart, half American, and half African in America's black culture and at the edge of the social media explosion, Issa Rae excepts  AWKWARD as her social brand.

This is the final episode in Tarana Burke and Brene Brown's "You Are Your Best Thing". We wrap up the book and give our overall rating on the book. 

We are reviewing essays 11-15 from authors Kaia Naadira, Deran Young, Sonya Renee Taylor, Irene Antonia Diane Reece, and Yolo Akili Robinson

Join the da bruhs bookshelf as we give our thoughts on Tarana Burke and Brene' Brown's You are Your Best Thing

Part 1 of a series of parts on this anthology about vulnerability, shame resilience, and the black experience.

Gucci is a true example of what second changes, personal accountability, change can do for changing for the better.

This episode the bruhs discuss Assata, an Autobiography. The memoir details her journey from community activist through her framing and eventually political exile. This personal account provides insight into the very layered mind of Assata. The team questions some of her decisions and wonder, “did it really have to go down like it did?” Listen as we try to deconstruct the complicated and incompara...

Stay With Me - Some marry love. Some marry for money. But when the locus of your marriage's purpose comes from a place without, what are those involved to do to keep the love within? Stay With Me, is the interrupted love story of Yejide (ye gee day) and Akin (akeen), lovers content with one another, whose happiness is put under the strain of pressures of family and what others define a family to b...

This episode the bruhs discuss From #blacklivesmatter to Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamata Taylor. Keeanga-Yamata does an excellent job deconstructing the myths around injustices inflicted on blacks, dispelling negative myths regarding work ethic, morals, and will to achieve. We’re taken on a succinct and tacit journey from the middle passage all the way to the killing of Michael Brown. Taylor in...

On this episode, the Da Bruhs explore Shawn D. Rochester’s “The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America.” The book gives discrete examples not only of how being black causes one to pay more for homes, cars, and all of life’s necessities, but also the missed opportunities and lost wages black people often aren’t even aware of. Join us, as the Da Bruhs share stories of being taxed and the impa...

Da Bruhs take on “Hurricanes,” a memoir of Rick Ross. Ross chronicles his life growing up as a middle-class black kid in Mississippi who is uprooted to Miami once his dad got a promotion. It wouldn’t be long before the allure of the streets beckoned him into a life of hustling. We are taken from his early adolescence through his days as a correctional officer and onto his rise as a Rap heavyweight...

The bruh’s review Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half, a tale of twin sisters who now live very distant lives, but are eternally entangled. Twins Desiree and Stella Vignes decide to escape a life of what they believe to be monotony and unreconciled strivings for what they thought would be more. Things take a fascinating turn when one of the twins absconds and decides to live the rest of her life as...

On this podcast episode, the Bruhs discuss James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room.” This tragic love story follows David, a man who struggles with balancing self-acceptance against the norms of society and ultimately leads him to lose the only person who loved him.  Set against a background of 1940's Paris, Baldwin skillfully binds us to these star-crossed lovers who can never be. We’re joined...

Another episode where we delve into the content of a popular book by a popular radio host who has made a career out of broadcasting his truth.

Brother Don a Chicago Police Sergeant walks the host Bro. Lennon Givens and Dr. Harvey Hinton III on a Journey growing up and policing on Chicago’s southside in the notorious West Englewood neighborhood. From shutting down drug houses and working with the city of Chicago’s social services to have practices in place to relocate the residence after their building has been raided by law enforcement....