Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out, Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class, Secrets of the Tomb, Skull and Bones, The Ivy League, and The Hidden Pathsof Power, Sunshine Has Rain, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, What's My Name Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States, White Money Black Power, Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man

I find such is the case with Farrah Gray, who became a millionaire at just 14 years old. He started hustling at age 6 after his mother became ill. The young venture capitalist is now seasoned at 20-years-old. Farrah's hustles or business ventures range from 1-Stop Mail Boxes & More, pre-paid phone cards 4 kids, Farr-Out Foods, the Teenscope interactive teen talk show, a comedy show on the Las Vegas Strip, the NE2W Fund to support young entrepreneurs, and InnerCity magazine, a joint venture with Inner City Broadcasting, Inc. The kid has his hand in everything. People from all walks of life can and should know about him. He was just an average kid from very humble beginnings and I think all can relate to him. This book is the perfect graduation present for a child graduating high school.

He can teach a lot of people about business and his business acumen is right up there with the richest people and even surpasses many of them, particularly celebrity entertainers. He actually understands how to make money in most any field. He doesn’t have celebrity status, he doesn’t dunk or sing. Entertainers and athletes have the luxury of being able to leverage their celebrity and celebrity status through PR firms to get endorsement money for games, commercial products, movies, etc but that is not really "hustling”.

He might have always had a little something extra as business woman Wendy Day of Rap Coalition says, “Most Kids his age are like, ‘Let's go to the mall.' Farrah is like let’s build a mall.” What he has done its worthy of praise and according to People magazine, Farrah is the only African-American teenager to rise from public assistance to a business mogul without being in entertainment or having a family connection of wealth.” That’s a double edged sword because while it shows how much he has accomplished it shows a contrast of how the African American community in general waste the majority of their genius dealing with entertainment activity.

On the other hand Farrah realized early on that his chances at success were much better if he chose a path outside of entertainment. He stopped watching a lot of TV and began watching the people around him and reading books. He had lots of support from his mother and his father who although he didn’t live with them was part of his life.

Farrah is a role model. He has seemingly handled his success well and hasn’t become supped up although he would have reason to after rubbing elbows with President Clinton, Michael Milken, H. Wayne Huizenga, Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, and many other business and political leaders. But this kid is real inside and out in fact the title of his Book Reallionaire is a word he coined which means Rich In spirit and in financial terms.

The spiritual component that he incorporates into his book makes it a joy to read and you can appreciate what he has done because the balance is so obvious. Farrah uniquely presents his book as a motivational resource and an instructional book with 9 Philosophical Chapters on business

His story will definitely inspire other kids and parents despite whether or not they enjoy business. It’s written in a very simple and easy to read format. If you are not already filthy rich, then you will likely find this to be a good, light read but don't expect to be a millionaire because you read it, or more importantly, if you are working for somebody else.

Rising From The Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class Category: American History Author: Larry Tye Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated ISBN: 0805070753 Length: 314 pages Release Date: July 2004

Synopsis:  From the 1860s, when George Pullman first hired African-Americans to work on his luxury sleeping cars, until the mid-twentieth century, when the Pullman Company ended its sleeper service, the Pullman porter held one of the best jobs in the black community and one of the worst on the train. He was maid and valet, nanny and doctor, concierge and occasional undertaker to cars full of white passengers. His very presence embodied the romance of the railroad. But behind the porter's ever-present smile lay a day-by-day struggle for dignity on the long trips that separated him from his family while exposing him to the more privileged culture of well-heeled riders. Rising from the Rails depicts the paradox of life as a Pullman porter and writes a missing chapter of American history. Larry Tye vividly re-creates the singular setting of a Pullman sleeping car, a capsule of space and time where all the rules of racial engagement came into focus and many were suspended -- so long as the train was moving. The dichotomy of the porter's working life -- duties not far removed from slavery, opportunities not available to other black workers in Jim Crow America -- made him both a representative of his time and a trailblazer. The period of the porter's employment by the Pullman Company coincides almost exactly with the struggle of newly freed slaves for the full legal freedoms finally achieved in the 1960s, and his largely unrecognized role in this struggle was critical. As the patriarch of black labor unions and the civil rights movement, he was among the first African-Americans to effectively claim a right to respect. He was also the father and grandfather of the African-Americans who today run cities and states, sit on corporate and editorial boards, and number among this country's leading professors, scientists, and clergy. Drawing on extensive interviews with dozens of African-American railroad workers and their descendants, Rising from the Rails tells the quintessentially American story of how a minority finds a foothold in the workplace and the nation's psyche.

Bruce Banner Says: Overall: A+

The Pullman Porters are probably the most overlooked contributors to Black History. Although nobody thinks of Black History Month and Pullman Porters simultaneously, they will if they read this book. That may be a double edged sword because their is a vast wealth of information inside the pages of this hard copy that should be shared year round. Larry Tye tells this story in a way that is probably more difficult for documentary films but as a book it is a gem. I used to always feel that anytime a white man put so much energy and pride into documenting important niche history of people of African descent it came with a catch-22 of some sorts. However it comes through the pages to the reader that Tye simply realizes that this is a story that needs to be told, documented and archived as history for the world. This is simply history. The time, sensitivity and effort that it took him to go back and find Pullman Porters (those still alive very old) and their family is incredible and the passion of this subject comes through in each page.

Tye objectively examines how porters developed a unique culture marked by idiosyncratic language, railroad lore, and shared experience. This aspect is especially important because you can't see train porters anymore, except in the movies and after you read this book, you will assuredly agree that no black porter in any movie has really captured their role and service to our community.

Tye reconstructs the very complicated world of the Black Pullman porter, and provides a "never before told" look at this important social phenomenon. Prior to the civil rights movement, African Americans dominated the Train services industry greater than African American athletes dominant the NBA today. Amtrak and the whole railway service was built on the labor and dedication of African-American employees.

If the legacy of African Americans societal status and economic gains in 2005 are viewed as being from some type of entertainer, like a comedian or basketball player. In the 1930's the economical staying power was being a Pullman Porter. In fact they formed America's first black trade union, and pioneered the modern black middle class by virtue of their social position and income. Some Porters could earn great money, as much as doctors & lawyers and although many aspects of their work was degrading and humbling, it still attracted many, even if only temporarily (A. Phillip Randolph and Malcolm X just to name a few). In fact some doctors and lawyers opted to become porters because of the money. Working the trains was a institution in itself with blacks working as maid, waiter, tailor, nanny, and occasionally doctor, and undertaker to cars full of white passengers, making the Pullman Company the largest employer of African American men in the country by the 1920s.

Porters were information conduits in Black community since they traveled a lot they spread news by viewing newspapers in different states and carrying them to the next state and sharing first hand information. They played important social, political, and economic roles, carrying jazz and blues to outlying areas and until now a look at this sort of fraternization of Porters had not been researched. Rarely does one read something and feel like only that person could have told that story, but after reading this book I felt that way about Larry Tye,  who composes this history from oral interviews, old newspapers, train company records, and other rare archival material. - Nuff said.

Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League and the Hidden Paths of Power Category: Current Affairs Author: Alexandra Robbins Publisher: Back Bay Books ISBN: 0316720917 Length: 240 pages Release Date: September 2003

Synopsis: The cloak-and-dagger secrecy of Yale University's secret society known as Skull and Bones has prompted people worldwide to attribute to it some of the most staggering conspiracies in modern history. From the society's nearly windowless crypt in the middle of the Yale campus, the Bonesmen, it is said, plot to dominate the world. In this widely acclaimed book, Alexandra Robbins slips through the veil of myth to reveal the truth about Skull and Bones' operations and influence, and explains why this old-boy 19th century throwback still thrives in 21st-century America. Author Biography: Alexandra Robbins has been a staff writer for The New Yorker and has written for numerous magazines and newspapers. A Yale graduate herself and member of another secret society, she lives in the Washington, D. C., area.

Bruce Banner Says: Overall: B+

Secrets of the Tomb is informative, and to some degree, a mind blowing investigative account about the Secret Societies of Ivy League Universities. It focuses on the most well known Society of them all, the Skull and Bones Order (322), which has drawn international attention since its founding in 1832. The organization that worshipped the goddess Eulogia, celebrated pirates and plotted an underground conspiracy to dominate the world reads like a horror movie on the surface. Admittedly it is a sinister outgrowth of the notorious 18th century society of the Illuminati and the strict confidentiality of its members has helped ensure its allure to the rest of society or the public at large, which means us regular people, who they refer to as "Barbarians" are captivated by the idea that we are kept out of the tiny click.

Robbins attempts to down play her findings a she is tempered by her own personal experience of joining a secret elitist organization. One would be naïve to think that she tells all that she knows, but she helps paint a very realistic scenario of what Skull& Bones really is, what the Ivy League is about, and the unspoken and the not so hidden paths of power. Luckily for readers, Robbins, sticks to factual inside accounts of these good ole boys networks, which can be likened to an international mafia of sorts, when examining their business dealings.

Robbins is not blind to the fact that readers want to know primarily about the most captivating and mysterious order. Therefore some readers may be disappointed that Secrets of the Tomb is not linear in its outlay of Secret Societies and does not solely focus on all the information on the Brotherhood of Death a.k.a. the order of Skull & Bones (322). But the histories and parallels of other societies like Wolfs Head, Scroll and Key etc are discussed also to give the readers a complete understanding of the culture of secret society because only through this broad view can Skull & Bones be properly judged by the laymen public. It's not enough to observe that Skull& Bones places a disproportionate amount of power and influence solely in the hands of a small cult of wealthy, prominent families, in essence a "politicized eugenics" project that exist today like a modern dynasty. Unfortunately for you and I, "Dynasty subverts Democracy" a fact we must understand and must never forget. If you don't understand that statement read the book and you will.

Today Skulls & Bones has carved its tentacles into every corner of American Society, at the time of this review writing both the President (George Bush Jr.) and the Presidential Challenger (John Kerry) for the Presidency of the United States are members of 322. The order of the 322 is in every major research, policy, News, financial, media, and government institution in the country. One specific example is that 2 of its members hatched both Time and Newsweek magazines, 2 major news outlets. Robbins reveals many amazing facts like Skull & Bones corporate shell, the Russell Trust Association owns nearly all of Yale Universities real estate as most of the land in Connecticut, every president who attended Yale as an undergraduate was a member of Skull & bones. The most important thing that Robbins does is removing much of the secrecy and allow readers to recognize the fiction and hype from the reality. She proves her inside knowledge by revealing for the first time who has been a member, and what that membership has meant, the line names of members, secret initiation rites, Robbins takes us inside the Tomb, and on to Skull and Bones' private island.

I find it ironic that this that this book was written by a female Yale Alumnus and a member of a secret society herself. The irony being that secret societies did not allow women members until the last 20 years, so I found it extremely interesting that a female secret society member offer us our 1st insiders look. Her being an attractive women has probably been a factor in getting many Bonesmen to talk about what really happens inside the Tomb, and exactly what influence the organization really wields or perhaps as she hints because some of them are tired of the Skull and Bones legend, of the claims of conspiracy theorists and some of their fellow Bonesmen. In the end I think the author sums the book up best when she says, "What follows, then, is the truth about Skull and Bones. And if that truth does not contain all of the conspiratorial elements that the Skull and Bones legend projects, it is perhaps all the more interesting for this fact. The story of Skull and Bones is not just the story of a remarkable secret society, but a remarkable society of secrets, some with basis in truth, some nothing but fog. Much of the way we understand the world of power involves myriad assumptions of connection and control, of cause and effect, and of coincidence that surely cannot be coincidence." -Nuff said

Sunshine Has Rain Category: Fiction Author: Sherrance Henderson Publisher: Imperious Publishing ISBN: 0975862413 Length: 322 pages Release Date: October 2004

Synopsis:  Channa Renee Jones has it all! standing at 5-feet-8-inches tall, she's every man's fantasy and every woman's secret envy. Channa, the only Black executive at Morgan Pharmaceuticals makes over $100,000 dollars and relies on materialism to make her happy. Channa, the female baller, attracts the most sought after brothers in New York City. First, we have Kevin Dean Walker, head of operations for the New York Knicks. Kevin is 100% milk chocolate, big hands, big feet and...well, he's big in all the right places. Then there's Jarell, the Creole brother born into money and the CEO of the largest and oldest Black-owned insurance company on Wall Street. Her girls are September, Deja, Pam, and Nykasha. They too like the finer things in life. Channa's girlfriends share good times with the finest of drinks...Louie the 13th shots. They party with Hip-Hop money makers at night and shop at Nieman Marcus by day. Channa is living the life. But in a flash, the life that Channa becomes accustomed to is taken away. Her strength is tested and her faith is challenged as she watches helplessly when her world quickly crumbles. Her degree from Howard does not help, her MBA from Columbia is merely a name, and her beauty is forgotten. She is lost! Will Channa, the self-absorbed diva make it? will she be able to regain her life, as she once knew it? Will Channa recall the most powerful tool of them all, or has she forgotten?

Bruce Banner Says: Overall: A-

Despite one's religious background, this read is for all who have suffered and overcome odds and regained their faith after doubting any goals. The main character's saga of perseverance and struggle could be a contender for Oprah’s Book List if it didn't discuss white racism unapologetically as it takes us through a full range of emotions from anger, to contempt, to desperation, to real lust and ultimately to real love. In light of the saturation of niche street books today’s, this Henderson provides a new look and a breath of fresh air by weaving a complicated emotional story from the perspective of an educated vulnerable woman.

The dialogue offers some insight for all, as the reader gets intimate details on things that seem meaningless but strengthen the overall story. One can’t help but stop and wonder how much of the authors actual life went into this book. The false friendships that Channa cherished come apart right before our eyes and although the reader can see it coming a mile away we are more interested in how she is changing as a person and not if she will ever mend prior relationship's, as we watch her become a stronger person through the dissolution of those relationship. The complexity lies in the fact that the reader doesn't expect a fairy tale ending but the ending essentially becomes all that matters in this story. The brilliance of it is that it is the reader who decides if the ending was happy or not based on where they are at as a person. I am not sure if the author intended that but the reader may also question who they are based on how they interpret these events. This is why I won't be surprised to see this on the silver screen in the future and I suspect it will still grab me although I already know the ending is a ???? one. – Nuff Said

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson Category: Sports, Biography Author: Geoffrey C. Ward Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN: 0375415327 Length: 512 pages Release Date: October 2004

Synopsis: He was the first black heavyweight champion in history, the most celebrated-and most reviled-African American of his age. In Unforgivable Blackness, the prizewinning biographer Geoffrey C. Ward brings to vivid life the real Jack Johnson, a figure far more complex and compelling than the newspaper headlines he inspired could ever convey. Johnson battled his way from obscurity to the top of the heavyweight ranks and in 1908 won the greatest prize in American sports-one that had always been the private preserve of white boxers. At a time when whites ran everything in America, he took orders from no one and resolved to live as if color did not exist. While most blacks struggled just to survive, he reveled in his riches and his fame. And at a time when the mere suspicion that a black man had flirted with a white woman could cost him his life, he insisted on sleeping with whomever he pleased, and married three. Because he did so the federal government set out to destroy him, and he was forced to endure a year of prison and seven years of exile. Ward points out that to most whites (and to some African Americans as well) he was seen as a perpetual threat-profligate, arrogant, amoral, a dark menace, and a danger to the natural order of things. Unforgivable Blackness is the first full-scale biography of Johnson in more than twenty years. Accompanied by more than fifty photographs and drawing on a wealth of new material-including Johnson's never-before-published prison memoir-it restores Jack Johnson to his rightful place in the pantheon of American individualists.

Bruce Banner Says: Overall: B+

This is one book review that I don’t feel that I can do justice to in the limited space given here, at nearly 500 pages this book is an exhaustive read. Well written, researched, and accompanied by a ton of footnotes the author accurately connects and documents major events in American history through events transpiring in the life of Jack Johnson. Things he did made history but Johnson was simply trying to live his life though in 1910, life for a Black man in America was quite contemptuous.

Jack Johnson was the first black heavyweight champion and is a legend in the sport today. Jack Johnson was Muhammad Ali before Muhammad Ali was himself, by that I simply mean he was the first black showman of the sport that confidently antagonized people and backed it all up. He was a showman inside and outside the ring, taunting his opponents in the ring and then finishing them off when ready. Whereas today the common axiom is that there will never be another white champion. In his day it was similar – except there had been no Black champs. In Johnson’s time the white boxer ruled and was thought to be the better fighter. So when Johnson came to national prominence and defeated all the great white boxers of his day, he infuriated white Americans. Jack Johnson actions affected race relations in America as much as any civil rights leader that would be born up to present day. Johnson's victory over white pride boxer Jack Jeffries sparked race riots in parts of the United States because his dominance as a boxer inspired pride and confidence in Blacks nationwide, and disdain and envy in whites. Angry whites attacked Blacks as revenge and sometimes killed them, often times they too were killed because Blacks fought back more thanks to Johnson. In total hundreds were killed and although his wins caused mob death at the hands of whites it was acceptable because Johnson was seen as fighting for his race and in essence he was fighting while carrying the burden of fighting for all black people, and showing people there was no physical inferiority.

People of today do not realize it but Johnson was, at one time, “the best-known black man on Earth." For a man like Johnson this was both good and bad. It was bad for people like the esteemed Booker T Washington and a few like him in the black community who deplored his high profile lifestyle. Johnson smirked at all his detractors and he spent money more flamboyantly than the most opulent rap stars of today. He was a big spender who always had the finest cars and sharpest clothes. He was probably the only Black man who could do it back then also. He was the originator of the DWB (driving while black) charge. Johnson would drive around speeding all the time incurring tickets from cops only to speed again a few seconds later. Even if he weren’t speeding he would get tickets. Part of the driving hassle had to do with Johnson having white women in the car, which was a problem for him. But he just paid the tickets as a mere pittance of his wealth. He received 100,000 for a fight in 1910, which is equivalent to approximately 3 million today. After winning the 100,000 he walked around with 65,000 in his pockets. “He was his own man, and let everybody know it.”

Johnson was smart, tough, business savvy and more efficient at getting boxing purses than Don King. Fueled by white media angst and outright hate, officials were determined to get him out of the limelight and boxing even after he already been delayed and denied a title bid for years because of his skin color. So they derailed his career and got him on a federal conviction for violating the Mann Act. The law criminalized interstate transportation of women for “immoral purposes”. In other words they sent him to jail for sleeping with white women. The federal government convicted Johnson and took his heavyweight belt in the prime of his career. Later he was released and allowed to fight but he was older and he lost his title to the much younger Great White Hope named Jess Willard in Cuba in 1915 on a knockout in the 26th round. This fight was very controversial because to this day many people believe Johnson threw the fight for money or as part of some deal , which was further impressed by footage showing Johnson shielding his eyes from the son while on the canvas. But Geoffrey Ward, the author of the book believes that not all of that is accurate - he said the photos makes it seem like that but any people seeing the rare moving footage of 1914 will see a different story. Btw can you Imagine fighting 26 rounds outdoors, no mouth piece with lighter gloves that are now outlawed. He returned home in 1920 to serve his time at Leavenworth Federal Prison part of the reason this book was written was to secure a presidential pardon to expunge Johnson's federal conviction for violating the Mann Act. Even after reading nearly 500 pages you may want more.

What's My Name Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States Category: Sports, Politics Author: Dave Zirin Publisher: Haymarket Books ISBN: 1931859205 Length: 293 pages Release Date: July 2005

Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man Category: Current Affairs Author: Charles Barkley, Michael Wilbon (Editor) Publisher: Penguin Group ISBN: 1594200424 Length: 256 pages Release Date: March 2005

Synopsis: Don't let the cheeky title, the byline or the picture on the cover fool you: this is a serious book that's not about Charles Barkley. Instead, this work, edited by the Washington Post and ESPN's Wilbon, is a candid collection of 13 interviews by Barkley with prominent Americans like Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Tiger Woods, Morgan Freeman and comedian George Lopez on the oft-avoided subject of race. Barkley, well known for outspokenness as a player and an on-air commentator, challenges his interviewees to deal with this delicate issue head on. Barkley wisely keeps his opinions brief, letting his dynamic counterparts take center stage. In doing so he gets these stars to open up on how American society fares on such topics as racism, race relations, welfare reform, economic and social discrimination and creating opportunities for minorities. Mixed in with the bigger name celebs and politicians are lesser-known folk, such as Robert Johnson (the NBA's first black owner), the Children's Defense Fund's Miriam Wright Edelman (who laments that there are 580,000 black men in prison compared to about 45,000 who graduate from college each year) and Rabbi Steven Leder. For all the different backgrounds and opinions, all the participants believe the racial divide in America can only be bridged with a combination of reforms to our educational, medical and economic practices and a strong self-evaluation by the African-American community. Everyone also agrees that a core group of strong black leaders must emerge for these changes to be enacted. Surprisingly, this eye-opening book might point to Barkley as just such a leader.

Bruce Banner Says: Overall: B+

As colorful as Charles Barkley is, he is hardly offering up the most jaw dropping commentary of the celebrities. A few of the celebrity interviews are quite candid. Samuel Jackson says “When I got discovered, I was a crack head and I was playing Gator in Jungle Fever so I had that covered. But because I had done so much theatre I also knew that I wasn’t going to be playing crack heads the rest of my life, that there were other things that I could do and things that I wanted to do. I don’t go to auditions now, but in the past when I’d go to auditions with cornrows, it wouldn’t even be worth being there. Usually I had a goatee or a mustache, I had an Afro. I knew I wasn’t getting any kind of commercial. That just wasn’t happening. I couldn’t sell soap. I didn’t look like the dude with 2 cars, a dog and a wife. Now, brothers have cornrows on in the beer commercials They’re trying to sell beer to those brothers, you know?". Barkley also gets at Barack Obama who talks about his family and his personal upbringing. Barack surprises by telling, “When I was in high school, I fell into all the stereotypes. I was trying to figure out what it means to be a black man. My father was not in the house, which is true for a lot of young black men, so I didn’t have someone in the house saying, ‘man that’s’ not what I’m talking about. I am playing basketball, I ‘m smoking the chronic and I am not taking my work seriously at all. And part of it was because that was what everybody else was doing. If you acted like you were too serious about it, folks would think you were a punk…Anyway the whole notion that blacks were inferior never came up at the dinner table. My mother was a white woman who just loved black people, loved the civil rights movement. She’s told me how Harry Belafonte was the best-looking man on the planet. So I had all of these positive images. My father was a Harvard educated man. He was Kofi Annan, except taller. In My Mind he was the most sophisticated person that my maternal grandparents had ever met.”

Barack also admits to getting high. Meanwhile George Lopez talks about being too black for many Mexicans until he became famous. Bob Johnson shocks and says he agreed with Bill Cosby despite what he has offered on his former network (not his exact words). Some celebrities are not candid because it’s not there personality to be that way for example Tiger Woods says, “We were the only minority family in all of Cypress, California. When my parents moved in, before I was born, they used to have theses oranges come through the window all the time. And it could have not been racially initiated or it could have been, we don’t know. But it was very interesting.”  I find it amazing that he doesn’t accept that it was blatant racism but he finds it interesting - although he recounts a number of tales of getting called the n-word and getting physically assaulted because of how he looks. There is too much to recall about this book in the short space allocated for a review but its worth your time and money.