ACCOUNTABLE Making America As Good As Its Promise

PBS television personality Tavis Smiley has a more heart-to-heart interview style than many talk-show hosts, and previous books, like COVENANT WITH BLACK AMERICA, combined tough talk with hopeful optimism. In this book, Smiley looks at our country since the Obama election, focusing on such factors as media bias and political partisanship—not to mention the recent economy—and how they affect black Americans. Smiley's voice is definitely an acquired taste—a halting staccato that threatens to become distracting—although he a tempers it somewhat in this reading. But when we hear the hard-luck stories he recounts—like the story of Diamante Driver, who died of brain cancer after being denied an $80 tooth extraction because of his lack of health insurance—it's easy to forget we're living in America. J.S.H. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2009]