By Felicia Pride

Although summer hasn't officially begun, now is a great time to start compiling that reading list to take you through the hot months.

More than Words is going to help you out, because that's what we do. Below are some great reads to get you started. They are a good mix of titles whether you're looking for funny, steamy, reflective, or mysterious.

Add them to your list, and leave comments to tell us what else you'll be reading this summer!


Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain, A Memoir by Lori L. Tharps (Atria, March 2008)
Growing up as one of the few African American students at her elite Milwaukee private school, Lori L. Tharps longed to escape her narrow-minded, blandly conventional environment. She just knew with absolute certainty that Spain was her destiny, even though at the time she barely spoke the language, had never met any Spaniards and had never traveled overseas! But what happens when this fearless adventurer finally achieves her dream only to experience a reality at odds with her fantasy?
Yellow Moon by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Atria, August 2008)
Yellow Moon is the second installment in the New Orleans trilogy that brings the legend of voodoo priestess Marie Laveau into the present day. Echoing with the heartache and triumph of the African American experience, the magical realist novel presents an unforgettable heroine and powerfully evokes a city on the brink of catastrophe.


Too Little, Too Late by Victoria Christopher Murray (Touchstone, June 2008)
Jasmine Cox Larson Bush, the character readers love to hate, returns to face new obstacles that threaten her happily ever after with husband, Hosea. Not only is she fighting to keep important secrets of her past under wraps, she also meets her husband's old flame, Natasia who is still interested in pursuing a relationship with him despite his marriage.


Trinidad Noir edited by Lisa Allen-Agostini and Jeanne Mason (Akashic Books, August 2008)
The Caribbean provides no shelter from the delicious terror of the Akashic Noir series. This new island installment delivers all the crime a reader expects: murder, drugs, theft, extortion and more--with a literary spin. Featuring brand new stories from writers like Elizabeth Nunez and Oonya Kempadoo, the collection is a romp that exposes the seedy side of life--as great noir should.


Gather Together in My Name by Tracy Price-Thompson (Atria, May 2008)
Tracy Price-Thompson takes readers on an emotional ride through the stories of a mother and her three sons and exemplifies what can happen when the lines between love and hate are dangerously blurred.


Conception by Kalisha Buckhanon (St. Martin's, February 2008)
Fifteen-year-old Shivana believes that all black women fall into the same trap: single and pregnant by men who say they'll stick around but never do. When she becomes pregnant by an older man, everything in her familiar but fragile world begins to unravel--until she finds Rasul, a teenager with problems of his own. Together they forge a friendship that will carry them full throttle into adulthood.


Somewhat Saved by Pat G'Orge Walker (Dafina, April 2008)
Mother Sasha Pray Onn and Mother Bea Blister live on the edge--of Christianity, that is, and they're about to knock Sister Betty off her sanctified perch. As the senior citizen matrons of the Ain't Nobody Saved but Us--All Others Goin' to Hell church, their long-held animosity is about to become even more complicated when the new pastor, the Reverend Leotis Tom, wants to reorganize the Mothers Board in time for the upcoming Las Vegas conference.


The Skull Cage Key by Michel Marriott (Agate Bolden, May 2008)
How much would you pay for a drug that takes you all the way out of your head--and into the mind and memories of another? Set in mid-twenty-first-century Harlem, this dark thriller is a story of conspiracy, decadence, and high-tech designer drug crime, which will also stir readers to think deeper about their own era and its troubles and promises.


Bad Girlz 4 Life by Shannon Holmes (St. Martin's, June 2008)
In the anticipated sequel to Bad Girlz, Tonya Morris is back with a new life, leaving the world of sex, dirty money, and back-stabbing cohorts behind--or so she thought, when her past rises like a beast and threatens to tear away all her newfound success.


Sleep Don't Come Easy by Victor McGlothin and J.D. Mason (Dafina, July 2008)
For the first time, Essence bestselling author Victor McGlothin and national bestselling author J.D. Mason combine their talents to deliver a double dose of intrigue--two stories filled with mystery and murder.