Veronica Chambers Books In Order

Marisol and Magdalena

Marisol and Magdalena are mejores amigas best friends who live in Brooklyn. They have grown up with their extended families, a group of colorful, eccentric relatives who are forever trying to reach the girls the ways of Panama, their native land. For Marisol, a Latinegra a black and a Latina child, life is especially challenging as she tries to balance several heritages. When Marisol’s mother sends her to live in Panama with her abuela, the move puts Marisol’s American values to the test, and also tests her friendship with Magdalena. But going to Panama also presents an opportunity for Marisol to search for her father, Lucho, a man she has never met.

Quinceanera Means Sweet Fifteen

Marisol and Magdalena are making plans for their quincea’era parties, their fifteenth birthday celebration that they’ve been waiting for their whole lives. They’ve promised each other that they will be the dama de honor at each other’s quince. But quincea’eras are expensive, and Marisol’s mother doesn’t know if she can afford a party at all, especially not one as extravagant as Magdalena’s. And while Marisol was away in Panama, Magdalena became friends with two girls Marisol can’t stand. Marisol wonders if her year in Panama changed her maybe she isn’t cool or rich enough anymore to be Magda’s friend.

Mama’s Girl

In a moving and candid memoir, a young African American writer describes growing up in Brooklyn with her mother and little brother as a member of the post Civil Rights generation, discussing her relationship with her mother and the hard times they faced.

Miss Black America

A dazzling fiction debut from the author of Mama’s Girl, Miss Black America is the warm and tender story of Angela, a young girl growing up in 1970s Brooklyn. Angela goes to school one ordinary day and returns home to find her glamorous and fiercely independent mother gone. Her magician father, Teddo, left to raise Angela alone, insists on keeping Melanie s disappearance shrouded in mystery. As Angela grows to womanhood and struggles to understand her mother s motivation for escaping the bonds of her family, she wryly observes, My father was a magician, but my mother was the real Houdini. A universal story that is both finely tuned and elegant, Miss Black America captures the intricacies, pleasures, contradictions, and complexities at the heart of every family. Spare and finely told, this novel will seep beneath your skin and stay with you long after the last page has been turned.

Plus

This is the unbelievable story of how I went to college, gained twenty five pounds, got dumped by my boyfriend, failed physics and became a worldfamous supermodel. So begins the Cinderella story of Beatrice Wilson, whose life changes overnight when she’s discovered by a scout for the oldest, most prestigious modeling agency in America for their plus sized division. Now she must find the confidence to vanquish skinny rivals, fend off sleazy photographers, and banish scheming frenemies in her rise to superstardom, all while trying to get her ex boyfriend back. But Bea learns that to win prince charming, you first have to find a way to love yourself.

The Harlem Renaissance

Recounts the vibrant personalities and the remarkable cultural, musical, and artistic movements that flourished in America’s leading black community during the 1920s.

Having It All?

A behind the scenes look into the lives of successful middle and upper middle class African American women, the groundbreaking Having It All?? is sure to spark discussions from cocktail parties to boardrooms. In a single generation, black women have made extraordinary strides academically, professionally, and financially. They ve entered the workplace at a far greater rate than white women; increased their enrollment in law schools and graduate programs by 120 percent; and many are now running top companies, or in some cases, the country. Isn t that enough? Not necessarily. With sharp insight, award winning journalist Veronica Chambers explores the challenges and stereotypes she and other African American women continue to endure, and answers the question most often posed to her: What does success mean for black women?Twenty first century black women draw their inspiration from a wide range of sources: Claire Huxtable to Audrey Hepburn, snowboarding to basketball, Gloria Steinem to bell hooks. They choose what they like. Yet they are misunderstood by mainstream America and lack an accurate portrayal in the media of their lives. Having It All?? interweaves the thoughts and reflections of more than fifty women who occupy this territory. The voices range from Thelma Golden, chief curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, to a Silicon Valley executive, to medical and legal professionals, and stay at home mocha moms. Successful black women today want it all: marriage, motherhood, engaging work, and prosperity. The difference is that they come to the table with the strength, courage and wisdom of black women ancestors who did it all, even when they didn t have it all. What has gone so undocumented by the media is that modern black women are coming up with creative, satisfying answers to the juggling act that all women face. Veronica Chambers chronicles this topic for the first time in her absorbing, riveting and groundbreaking book Having It All??

The Joy of Doing Things Badly

In a society that puts so much emphasis on perfection, Veronica Chambers mischievously casts aside the guilt inducing litany of shoulda, coulda, woulda that seems to define modern day life and replaces it with a resounding call to live with foolish bravery. Refreshingly open about the personal failures and limitations that once weighed her down with shame, Chambers describes how she turned her less than perfect qualities into sources of delight and satisfaction. From belting out off key renditions of torch songs while washing the dishes to seeing even the most unlikely career opportunity as a chance to spread one’s wings, Chambers shows that a willingness to fall flat on one s face heightens the joys of everyday life and opens a new, wonderfully liberating perspective on work, motherhood, aging, friendship, failure, and success. With a winning combination of lighthearted anecdotes and heartfelt musings, Chambers encourages readers to follow her example and do the things that tickle their fancies and fire their imaginations no matter what other people and that little voice inside may say. Like Chambers herself, they ll discover that what we consider our failures have a surprising ability to charm…
we are loved for our imperfections for our funny faces and walks and dances and songs.

Kickboxing Geishas

Forget the stereotypes. Today’s Japanese women are shattering them breaking the bonds of tradition and dramatically transforming their culture. Shopping crazed schoolgirls in Hello Kitty costumes and the Harajuku girls Gwen Stefani helped make so popular have grabbed the media’s attention. But as critically acclaimed author Veronica Chambers has discovered through years of returning to Japan and interviewing Japanese women, the more interesting story is that of the legions of everyday women from the office suites to radio and TV studios to the worlds of art and fashion and on to the halls of government who have kicked off a revolution in their country.

Japanese men hardly know what has hit them. In a single generation, women in Japan have rewritten the rules in both the bedroom and the boardroom. Not a day goes by in Japan that a powerful woman doesn’t make the front page of the newspapers. In the face of still fierce sexism, a new breed of women is breaking through the ‘rice paper ceiling’ of Japan’s salary man dominated corporate culture. The women are traveling the world while the men stay at home and returning with a cosmopolitan sophistication that is injecting an edgy, stylish internationalism into Japanese life. So many women are happily delaying marriage into their thirties labeled ‘losing dogs’ and yet loving their liberated lives that the country’s birth rate is in crisis.

With her keen eye for all facets of Japanese life, Veronica Chambers travels through the exciting world of Japan’s new modern women to introduce these ‘Kickboxing Geishas‘ and the stories of their lives: the wildly popular young hip hop DJ; the TV chef who is also a government minister; the entrepreneur who founded a market research firm specializing in charting the tastes of the teenage girls driving the country’s GNC ‘gross national cool’; and the Osaka assembly woman who came out publicly as a lesbian the first openly gay politician in the country.

Taking readers deep into these women’s lives and giving the lie to the condescending stereotypes, Chambers reveals the vibrant, dynamic, and fascinating true story of the Japanese women we’ve never met. Kickboxing Geishas is an entrancing journey into the exciting, bold, stylish new Japan these women are making.

Double Dutch

Double Dutch is sidewalk rhythm, poetry in motion, a really good day with some swinging friends. This colorful, vibrant treasure is the ultimate tribute to the unique sport & pastime of Double Dutch. Written & compiled by celebrated author & journalist Veronica Chambers, this book is filled with her own personal memories of girlhood & jumping rope, along with poems, interviews, songs, history, quotes, rhymes, & photographs. At the heart of the book is a celebration, not just of a sport, but of sisterhood — after all, it takes a few friends to make that rope really swing & those feet jump for joy.

Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa

Everyone knows the flamboyant, larger than life Celia Cruz, the extraordinary salsa singer who passed away in 2003, leaving millions of fans brokenhearted. indeed, there was a magical vibrancy to the Cuban salsa singer. to hear her voice or to see her perform was to feel her life affirming energy deep within you. relish the sizzling sights and sounds of her legacy in this glimpse into Celia’s childhood and her inspiring rise to worldwide fame and recognition as the Queen of salsa. Her inspirational life story is sure to sweeten your soul.