The Sweethearts of Soul.

The Sweethearts of Soul by Slim Lambright HarperCollins, December 2004 $23.95, ISBN 0-060-18475-2

In Slim Lambright's second novel, we have the pleasure of meeting the legendary songbirds up close and personal. They become attached to Legs Diamond, the reporter from the Black Music Magazine charged to interview these ladies in preparation for their induction into the Rock and Soul Foundation's Hall of Fame.

Slowly, each of them reveals a layer of their lives until we get the whole, painful, hilarious story. We find each of these women fallen under the shadow of their glory days and so readers get caught up in the story from the very beginning.

We praise the voices of these "sisters" who find their ticket to stardom by belting out gospel songs in church and singing with fellas on street corners. We're there for the road stories that show us just what life was like for black women on the circuit in the 1960s, before there were black children destined to win a Grammy for singing about survival.

Through writing that is personal and engaging, Lambright takes the reader on a ride that illustrates the power of unconditional love and shows that "little something" that we all know is thicker than water. The ties that bind this story--and the women who live it--are the secret to what has kept black entertainment industry going, despite the exploitation of our culture and talent. We have love, we have determination, and most of all, and we have family. These things, Lambright conveys well.

Monique W. Morris is the author of Too Beautiful for Words (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2001).