We take a look at the best-selling books of the year.

Ignorance and fear have driven humanity to pass on the lies handed down to us by our parents, teachers, religious leaders, and politicians. In an effort to control the behavior of society they have not told you of your awesome power. They have not told you of the freedom that is yours - your birthright. We have tried to work within the confines of morality and darkness for thousands of thousands of years - we have not received what we were promised for the struggle, hardship, and acquiescence.

What makes intelligent people ignore the obvious? What we have been doing for thousands of years has not brought us what we desire or what we were promised as a species. Why is it that some people are poor while others are rich - is it luck, intelligence or just being in the right place at the right time?

What is it that successful people know that you do not? Why is it that some people attract illness while others never catch so much as a sniffle? What is the secret behind a sudden recovery from a terminal illness? Why do some people have accidents and others not? These questions have been asked for centuries, yet for all the history, insight, and enlightenment that humanity has - it always turns to the same source for answers.

Too few have clued-in - it always brings us back to the same place of lack, accidents, war, illness, and fear. Hasn't anyone figured out the common denominator, what is wrong in the equation that is giving us the wrong answers?

Life was never meant to be a struggle, we were not put on this earth, we came by desire, and we are not here to learn anything. What is our real purpose - what transcends the obvious misery and struggle that we demonstrate in our lives everyday?

Do you really believe that it is a God or Devil that is causing these things? Except for technical advances, as a species we really have not developed spiritually very much, and for good reason.

"You are not a victim of circumstances, you are creating them."
Roy E. Klienwachter

Since its first publication The Shack has gone through printing after printing. There are now over a million copies of the book in print and its popularity continues to rise. The book has climbed as high as #8 on the USA Today bestseller list and at least as high among all books at Amazon.com where it is also approaching 500 reader reviews. Windblown Media is negotiating with film studios about the possibility of a movie version of The Shack. The publisher has also recently signed a distribution agreement with Hachette Books, which has now begun to handle sales, marketing, distribution, licensing, and manufacturing. The book is set to go even further and climb even higher in years to come.

The Shack is a book that seeks to provide answers to the always timely question "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" It's a tale that revolves around Mack (Mackenzie) Philips. Four years before the story begins, Mack's young daughter, Missy, was abducted during a family vacation. Though her body was never found, the police did find evidence in an abandoned shack to prove that she had been brutally murdered by a notorious serial killer who preyed on young girls.

As the story begins, Mack, who has been living in the shadow of his Great Sadness, receives a note from God (known in this story as Papa). Papa invites Mack to return to this shack for a time together. Though uncertain of what to expect, Mack visits the scene of the crime and there experiences a weekend-long encounter with God, or, more properly, with the Godhead.

Each of the members of the Trinity is present and each appears in bodily form. Papa, whose actual name is Elousia (which is Greek for tenderness) appears in the form of a large, matronly African-American woman (though near the book's end, because Mack requires a father figure, she turns into a pony-tailed, grey-haired man). Jesus is a young to middle-aged man of Middle-Eastern descent while the Holy Spirit is played by Sarayu (Sanskrit for air or wind), a small, delicate and eclectic woman of Asian descent. Mack also meets for a time with Sophia, who, like Lady Wisdom in Proverbs, is the personification of God's wisdom.

The reader learns that Mack has been given this opportunity to meet with God so he could learn to deal with his Great Sadness — the overwhelming pain and anger resulting from the death of his daughter. There is very little action in The Shack and the bulk of the book is dialog. The majority of the dialog occurs as the members of the Trinity communicate with Mack, though occasionally the author offers glimpses into their unique relationships with one another. As we might expect, he leaves the cabin a changed man.

Steve Harvey, the host of the nationally syndicated Steve Harvey Morning Show, can't count the number of impressive women he's met over the years, whether it's through the "Strawberry Letters" segment of his program or while on tour for his comedy shows.

These are women who can run a small business, keep a household with three kids in tiptop shape, and chair a church group all at the same time. Yet when it comes to relationships, they can't figure out what makes men tick. Why?

According to Steve it's because they're asking other women for advice when no one but another man can tell them how to find and keep a man. In Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Steve lets women inside the mindset of a man and sheds lights on concepts and questions such as:

• The Ninety Day Rule: Ford requires it of its employees. Should you require it of your man?
• How to spot a mama's boy and what if anything you can do about it.
• When to introduce the kids. And what to read into the first interaction between your date and your kids.
• The five questions every woman should ask a man to determine how serious he is.
• And more...

Sometimes funny, sometimes direct, but always truthful, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man is a book you must read if you want to understand how men think when it comes to relationships.

Critical Praise for Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man
"Women should listen to Steve Harvey when it comes to what a good man is about. Steve Harvey dispenses a lot of fabulous information about men. It’s more than the average man will usually tell you. Steve Harvey will give it up."
Aretha Franklin

"A thorough, witty guide to the modern man....those in need of tough (but ticklish) love advice should check it out (especially the hysterical last-chapter Q&A)."
Publishers Weekly

"[This] book offers surprising insights into the male mentality and gives woman a few a few strategies for taming that unruly beast."
The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Filled with practical principles, rules and tips, and illustrated with humorous and warm-hearted anecdotes from Harvey’s life and friendships, ACT LIKE A LADY, THINK LIKE A MAN gives readers the real deal about the differences between the sexes and how to bridge them for a mutually rewarding partnership."
New York Beacon

CAPITALIST NIGGER excels as an explosive and jarring indictment of the Black Race. Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success (Timbuktu Publishers, September 17, 2000) asserts that the Black Race, is a consumer race and not a productive race. Says the author, Chika Onyeani, "We are a conquered race and it is utterly foolish for us to believe that we are independent.

The Black Race depends on other communities for its culture, its language, its feeding, and its clothing." "Despite enormous natural resources," according to the author, "Blacks are economic slaves because they lack the "killer-instinct" and "devil-may-care" attitude of the Caucasians, as well as the "spider web economic mentality" of the Asian."

The author is not afraid to use the most hated word, the 'N' word as a title of his book. He says, "It is not what you call me, but what I answer to, that matters most." The further asserts that "Blacks are economic slaves.

We've become economic slaves in Western society." CAPITALIST NIGGER reserves its harshest criticism for African leaders, who according to Onyeani, have allowed Europeans and others to pillage and plunder Africa's wealth, without anything to show for it, other than more starvation, disease, and dictatorships. "We have as little today than when most of the African countries received independence from their colonial masters," Onyeani says.

CAPITALIST NIGGER is an anguished cry to the Black race to wake up, stand up and move on." "We must abandon the victim mentality baggage that we've carried for so long: the notion that somebody owes us something," the author says. "We've got to stop whining and stop begging.

The Black race needs to wake up and stand on it's own feet." Says Onyeani, "We need to recognize and learn from others what it takes to succeed.