BMF: The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family
While rapper Rick Ross’ summer anthem “Blowin’ Money Fast” had many hip-hop fans “thinking they were Big Meech,” few were actually familiar with his story.
Author Mara Shalhoup’s BMF is the biographical tale of Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory’s rise to power as leader of one of the largest cocaine empires in American history. Born into the slums of Detroit, Flenory and his brother Terry built their infamous empire the Black Mafia Gang with a mission to obtain money and power. After a decade of drug dealing, the group had fulfilled their dream: fleets of Maybachs, Ferraris and Bentleys, a drug operation spanning six different states and an approximate quarter of a billion dollars in drug sales. Throughout their reign, they established relationships with many big names in the entertainment industry like rappers Sean “Diddy” Combs, Fabolous and Young Jeezy, (hence their frequent name-drops in hip-hop music).
While their success and perceived “untouchable” status in the drug world made it appear as if they would reign forever, the same greed, corruption and ruthlessness that fueled their ascent, quickly ushered them to their downfall.
Final word: An intense, intriguing and shocking glimpse into the life of the real “Big Meech.”
Available now. For more information, visit bmfbook.com.
Why Do I Have to Think Like a Man? How to Think Like a Lady and Still Get the Man
With his uber-successful 2009 bestseller Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, comedian/actor/relationship guru Steve Harvey captured the attention of 3 million American women. But this year, two women – one former NFL wife and her mother – will publish a rebuttal to Harvey’s release by asking, along with offering some dating advice of their own, one question: Why do I have to think like a man?
Shanae Hall, a former NFL wife, domestic violence survivor and media personality joins her mother, Rhonda Frost, a once teen mom and now an Atlanta-based businesswoman, to offer serious relationship advice.
Why Do I have to Think Like a Man: How to Think Like a Lady and Still Get the Man shows women why snagging a life partner doesn’t require “thinking like a man” as Harvey teaches. Instead, they say it’s about raising standards and “dating smarter.”
“Rules about nagging and accommodating the man sexually, so she will benefit and live a life of marital bliss?” write Hall and Frost. “This is 2010: Women are educated, they work, take care of kids, and provide for their families. Catering to a man so that he will shower us with gifts or take us out for a romantic dinner is ludicrous.”
Final word: The women’s side of the dating scheme written with a no-holds-barred pen.
In stores now. For more information, visit hcibooks.com.
Wading Home
Wading Home by Rosalyn Story, tells a powerful, multigenerational family saga set against the backdrop of post-Katrina New Orleans and Louisiana. The book follows Julian, a popular jazz musician, as he searches for his father, Simon Fortier, amid the destruction and chaos of New Orleans’ Treme neighborhood after Hurricane Katrina. Along the way Julian, who moved to New York years ago, confronts people and problems from his past he’d hoped to leave behind forever. And as he comes to accept the possibility of his father’s grim fate, Julian comes to learn and appreciate the city his father passionately loved.
Wading Home is Story’s second fictional release. Her first work of fiction, More Than You Know, drew rave reviews and comparisons to James Baldwin.
Final word: An emotional look at love, life and the Crescent City.