Potent, poetic, powerful, told with deep love, and spanning from the Great Migration to the civil unrest of the 1960s to the quest for women’s equality in the early 2000s, Denene Millner’s beautifully wrought novel explores three women’s intimate --- and often complicated --- struggle with what it truly means to be family. According to author Tara M. Stringfellow, “In delicious, decadent prose, Denene Millner does what few authors can --- compose a sprawling multigenerational tale that is necessary American reading. ONE BLOOD sings the song of the South in a voice that is heartbreaking, hopeful, and resilient. A masterpiece.”

With a sensibility that recalls her beloved screen characters, including Yvette, Queenie, Shug, and the iconic Cookie from “Empire,” Taraji P. Henson writes of her family, the one she was born into and the one she created. She shares stories of her father, a Vietnam vet who was bowed but never broken by life's challenges, and of her mother, who survived violence both in the home and on DC's volatile streets. Here, too, she opens up about her experiences as a single mother, a journey some saw as a burden but she saw as a gift.

On November 7, 1991, basketball icon Earvin “Magic” Johnson stunned the world with the news that he was HIV-positive. For the millions who watched, his announcement became a pivotal moment not only for the nation, but for his family and wife. Twenty-five years later, Cookie Johnson shares her story and the emotional journey that started on that day --- from life as a pregnant and joyous newlywed to one filled with the fear that her husband would die, she and her baby would be infected with the virus, and their family would be shunned. BELIEVING IN MAGIC is the story of her marriage to Earvin nearly four decades of loving each other, losing their way, and eventually finding a path they never imagined.