REVIEWS

Mr. Ambassador
Warrior for Peace
By Edward J. Perkins, Connie Cronley
Foreword by George P. Shultz
Preface by David L. Boren
ISBN: 0-8061-3767-3
Cloth / 576 pages
$39.95
 

From the Publisher:
So begins the memoir of Career Foreign Service Officer Edward J. Perkins, the first black United States ambassador to South Africa. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan gave him the unparalleled assignment: dismantle apartheid without violence.

As he fulfilled that assignment, Perkins was scourged by the American press, despised by the Afrikaner government, hissed at by white South African citizens, and initially boycotted by black South African revolutionaries, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu. His advice to President-elect George H. W. Bush helped modify American policy and hasten the release of Nelson Mandela and others from prison.

Perkins’s up-by-your-bootstraps life took him from a cotton farm in segregated Louisiana to the white elite Foreign Service, where he became the first black officer to ascend to the top position of director general.

This is the story of how one man turned the page of history.

“A dynamic history of a time, a people, a nation, and one extraordinary man. Edward Perkins personifies the spirit of his nation.”—Colleen McCullough, author of The Thorn Birds and The October Horse: A Novel of Caesar and Cleopatra.

“Mr. Ambassador conveys what sophisticated and effective diplomacy is all about. A remarkable journey that should inspire, inform, and influence everyone it touches!”—Georgie Anne Geyer, Syndicated Columnist, Universal Press Syndicate

Edward J. Perkins, now retired as a U.S. Ambassador, is William J. Crowe Professor of Geopolitics and Executive Director of the International Programs Center at the University of Oklahoma. Connie Cronley is a writer with a new book of essays forthcoming from OU Press. George P. Shultz is former Secretary of State of the United States. David L. Boren, former U.S. Senator, is President of the University of Oklahoma.

When All Else Fails, We Cry
Prepare yourself because your temperature will rise with a deep look into the lives of four men – Theo, Durham, Derrick and Troy! This, a male bonding "Waiting to Exhale," is a story spoken snappy and straight to you the reader. In their own voices through questions, thoughts and their actions you’ll feel their joy and pain as they feel it. There is success, failure, sex, suicide attempts, children, emotional abuse, wives and lovers. But surprisingly, it’s the women in their lives that shed all the light on these four men’s existence as they speak through letters, thoughts and feelings about the choices they make.  --- Mahogany Book Club

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED JUST WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON INSIDE YOUR PARTNERS HEAD???  Why do they do some of the things that they do?  For instance, why do they go outside the relationship for stimulation---whether it be mental, emotional and worst of all SEXUAL!  Why is the famous break-up line always, “It’s not you but me.”  As if that eases the pain of loosing someone that you thought loved you.  To bad life doesn’t come with a manual to see how the other side thinks.  But then again, maybe it does.

When all else fails, usually it is the woman that comes up with the short end of the stick when it comes to love.  But a small percentage of men too have their hearts broken.  So when all else fails, are men and women any different?  When all else fails are men from Mars and women from Venus?  I don’t know, but this book will sure help you to understand just what goes on in the minds of most men --- those that hurt and those that get hurt.  I guess when it’s all said and done, When All Else Fails, We Cry!

Publisher: Aidin-Liekin Publishing/1stbooks Library ISBN 0-7596-5685-1

$16.50 paperback; $18.50 Hardcover

Available at: Border.com, Barnes & Noble.com, Blackbookplus.com, Amazon.com & 1stbooks.com

Preview of the book: