THE WAYS OF BLACK FOLKS: A Year in the Life of a People

In books on race relations, quotidian documentary accounts often take a backseat to flashpoint polemics. But no struggle can be explained without the daily lives of the participants, and journalist Ross (The Diving Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities) gathers 35 profiles of black women and men from around the globe (notably the U.S., U.K., Ghana and Brazil). They run from the famous (Nikki Giovanni, members of Parliament) to the anonymously noble (a teacher in Rio), with the occasional soccer player and porn actor in-between. There's a real pleasure in hearing all the different voices, though they seem edited for consistency and risk running together. Finally, despite the book's lack of scholarly pretense, there's much to be learned from its traveling, open-eyed method. 20-market radio tour. (Jan.)