All books using the keywords: Jamell Crouthers on page 2

Nancy is at a crossroads of her life and she has some important decisions to make. As a woman, she was born into the stigmas of having kids and raising a family. When she makes the decision to not have kids and be a mother, there’s uproar from those closest to her. She goes to great lengths to live her life to the best of her ability but without judgments, backlash from her family and knowing that she has to do what’s best for her. It’s a story that takes a different road to what women decide in their lives and this is something that needs to be talked about more. Sometimes we forget that happiness comes before making others and the world happy…

LJ is a young adult who's story starts in college, he's one of very few who made it out of Alphabet City. He chronicles life in the 26 block radius where he talks about life in the inner city. From gang life to drug dealing, violence and the everyday struggles that go on, he details the breakdown of the neighborhood from a broad perspective. He talks about leaving and doing whatever he can to never go back as the loss of someone important in his life changed his whole mindset on how he wants to live. Step into the mind of a troubled teen who made it in a place where you either get stuck there, die on the streets or end up in prison.

Wayne is a mentor, teacher and father figure in the community. He works his hardest to keep kids safe and be able to reach at least one everyday. With the program of providing the school gym in jeopardy, Wayne fights to keep that in the school district’s budget. Through that fight with the school system, he’s doing all that he can to instill and teach values to the young men in Alphabet City that are at risk on an everyday basis from gangs to drugs and gun violence. With all that he does, he is all about change for the better.

Detective Xavier Rose has grown up in Alphabet City and works with the police department to solve crime and cases. His journey has taken him many places in his career and as he works on the side of the law with the police, he starts to see and understand how the community is broken. He chronicles his life as a detective, the cases he deals with, the struggles to solve them and how things can change in a place where residents of Alphabet City don't trust law enforcement and government agencies to make it a safe place to live, grow and flourish…

Vicky is the funeral director, owner and mortician of a funeral home in Alphabet City. She tells a harrowing story of her life from day to day with constant death and her being one of very few funeral homes in the neighborhood. From losing young kids to gun violence, people dying of drug overdoses, it takes a toll on a woman who knows everyone in this community. Life is not easy for Vicky but she's the aunt of the neighborhood and she has hope that the neighborhood she once remembered as joyous, gets back to that one day.

Ronald has escaped death quite a few times being a gang member in Alphabet City. His life is not what anyone would want a young man to be but he does it to represent where he's from. He talks about gang life, what it's about, what it consists of and how he mostly survives from day to day and doesn't necessarily live. Will he live to see another day? Time will tell, gang life has one of two ways to go, prison or the morgue…

Cheryl is a young mother raising two teenagers in one of the toughest communities of Alphabet City. She struggles to make ends meet working doubles at her job and leaving her oldest son to take care of his younger sister. With the streets calling the boy's name of fast cash, cars and gang life, Cheryl has to make a lot of sacrifices to protect her kids from that lifestyle. It's a life of struggle as a single mother but she has to fight and keep going from day to day.

Jermaine and Shameka are young teens who have lived a life that not many could even imagine in such a short time. The best friends chronicle their personal lives while living in Alphabet City. They talk about their daily battles and struggles to get by, home life, school and how their mental health is scarred. What they see and the adult decisions they have to make daily to survive is insurmountable. Their experiences will make you realize, not every kid has it easy and that more has to be done to protect them.

Kendra is a drug addict and escort in Alphabet City. She’s all about showing a man a good time and living life vicariously. The only thing is a horrific event as a child changed the landscape of her life and she does all that she can to block it out. It’s not until she one day has no more money or access to promiscuous men and drugs where she’s forced to deal with her childhood memories of pain, anguish and sorrow. Will Kendra turn her life around? Time will tell but in a community of negativity, it won’t be easy.

Tiffani grew up in Alphabet City with aspirations of making this community better. She starts a juice shop to promote a healthy lifestyle and bring people together through her connections. What she soon learns is that the community she’s lived in all of her life is built on putting people in their graves sooner than the average person. Fast food restaurants, liquor stores, funeral homes, cheap clothing stores and bodegas are all that’s around her. While she fights to grow her business and thrive, there are people telling her to pack it up and go to the suburbs. The question is will she give up on her community or fight to get people to make healthier choices so they live longer.