I just finished reading Zachary's Wings. I took my time reading it becuase I didn't want the book to end. The characters are real people facing real problems. Korie had issues with what other people thought about Zach instead of concentrating on how she felt about Zach. She is also had issues dealing with the betrayl of her husband's hidden pass. Zach was the one to whom everyone turned to to tell their deep and darkest secrets. However, those secrets should not have been secrets but should have been truths told to the people involved. This book is an excellent read. I loof forward to reading more books by Rosemarie Robotham.

I ordered this book by mistake but after reading the book description I decided to keep it. I'm glad I did as it was a very good read.

Zachary Piper is a Philadelphia social worker with a heart of gold. Zach is a compassionate and easy going spirit who's always there for everyone else---family, friends, co-workers, clients and significant others. But who's there for Zachary? Enter Korie Morgan...albeit a driven soul with a fierce competitive nature...she appears to be the perfect mate for Zachary. Well at least she's there at the right time and in the right place. Over a swift weekend, their relationship quickly blossoms and they're professing their undying love for each other. However, there's a slight problem...Korie hasn't come clean regarding her current relationship.

Zachary's Wing is a compelling and though provoking debut novel. It's an intriguing story about the tangled web of secrets that begin to consume Zach and Korie's lives. Robotham's writing is fluid and lyrical. As she involves us in Zach and Korie's story she shares with us tough and taboo issues that they must face before they can truly be together. Controversial issues such as race, class and culture, sexuality and infidelity. Zachary's Wing is captivating and rich. The characters are memorable and believable and we share in their pain, joy, sorrow and hope. Zachary Wing by Rosemarie Robotham is an insightful and touching look into the nature of human relationships.

I couldn't put this book down. I finished it in two days! I especially loved the character of the Zach Man. He was such a caring African American male. It was nice to see a book defy the stereotypes. Ms. Robotham is an excellent story teller and her characters are very believeable. A lot of them are really troubled, which is like real life. The relationships run very deep. The book was also quite erotic in place. Also, the author really understands middle class life in Jamaica. I'm Jamaican like Korie and I could really identify with her background and I could see why she was so attracted to Zachary. I hope Ms. Robotham writes a sequel!

While I wouldn't exactly compare this collection of stories to THE BEST AMERICAN EROTICA or DESIRES, BLUE LIGHT does contain some very good sensual writing that encompass the diversity of Black sensuality without heavy-handed vulgarity.

I found many of the passages here to be more heartwarming than flesh sizzling. A person that is curious about sensual fiction but uncomfortable with the idea of reading "dirty stories" will really appreciate this volume.

Robotham did an excellent job selecting stories about young and mature love, passion, and obsession. I found the book to be funny, sexy, and enlightening and look forward to more volumes to come.

Many of the stories are reprints from novels or other previously published works but, far from detracting from it's value, it may introduce the reader to some fabulous female authors. Alice Walker and Edwige Danticat are standouts. Enjoy!

Ms. Robotham's collection of short stories was truly magnificent. I can see why she had a hard time "choosing". Her short story selections celebrate the unique and multi-faceted lives, loves and sexuality of various characters. This is a marvelous anthology for those who want to delve into the loves of the Black woman. The short stories selected touch on the many stages that I'm sure most EVERY woman has encountered in her life one time or another. A great book that will hold your attention!

Mending the World by Rosemarie Robotham, et al, is an anthology of short stories, poems and memoirs written by award-winning African-American authors. Excerpts from four-time novelist Tina McElroy Ansa's, Baby of the Family; Jamaica Kincaid's, Annie John; and Tumbling, by Philadelphia native Diane McKinney Whetstone are just a few that make up this heartfelt collection of fiction literature.

Broken into five sections, the reader experiences the innocence of childhood in First Light; self-discovery and identity in Myth-Making; disappointment and loss in The Shifting Self; adversity and triumph in A Taste of Eden; and finally healing and kinship in Mending the World.

Instantly falling in love with the words that danced across the
pages, I read this book in one sitting. The Drill and Dear Aunt
Nanadine are two personal favorites, as these authors captured the very essence of a mother's love and protection and a child's pain and reconciliation.

In Breena Clarke's short story The Drill, told in first person, a mother struggles with the independence of her black teenage son in the perilous streets of New York City, while accepting his transition from boyhood to manhood.

Playwright, poet, and essayist, Alexis De Veaux's, Dear Aunt
Nanadine, confronts the all too familiar and painful light-skinned, dark-skinned issues in today's black society, after discovering a "red suit" in the back of her closet she was instructed to never ever wear as she was "too dark". These hurtful words birthed a compelling and intensely dramatic letter to her aunt of the shame and tears endured as a child.

Mending the World, introduced me to African-American authors which would have normally fallen outside of my reading genre. The written works featured evoked a sense of kinship, community, triumph and love as well as diversity and adversity in today's Black family.

Reviewed by Nicki Lancaster
APOOO BookClub