This week in Editor's Choice, we bring you David Wright Faladé's Black Cloud Rising, a novel about the fascinating real-life historical figure Richard Etheridge, who was born into slavery, served as a Civil War sergeant and went on to become the commander of a coastal rescue station.

We also invite you to enjoy our Books and Authors articles, current and upcoming book club discussions, and a new Wordplay!

Thanks for reading,

Davina Morgan-Witts

BookBrowse Publisher

By late fall of 1863, the American Civil War was in its pivotal third year. Along the Virginia Tidewater region, Union forces were in control and pushing into eastern North Carolina, with a tentative toehold in the Outer Banks. Along with the soldiers of Abraham came emancipation for the enslaved and — for the men — the opportunity to sign up for the Union cause. In December, the newly formed African Brigade, under the command of fiery abolitionist, one-armed General Edward Augustus Wild, set out for a three-week raid to root out Confederate Partisan Rangers and free the remaining enslaved. Among them was Sergeant Richard Etheridge, the real-life historical figure and beating heart of David Wright Faladé's mesmerizing debut adult novel, Black Cloud Rising...

Born in 1842 along the shores of North Carolina's Roanoke Island, Etheridge was raised as the property of John B. Etheridge until the Civil War and emancipation ended his physical oppression. As the Union military pushed deeper into Virginia and North Carolina in late 1863, efforts at enlisting freed African American slaves to fight for the Union attracted young Etheridge. He enlisted in the 2nd North Carolina Colored Volunteers (reorganized in 1864 as the 36th United States Colored Infantry) and was appointed a sergeant of Company F, serving for nearly three years. But it was only after the Civil War ended that Etheridge's claim to fame would emerge, as the first African American to command a United States Life-Saving Service (an early precursor to the U.S. Coast Guard).

See more articles in our People, Eras and Events category

Review and article by Peggy Kurkowski

Browse hundreds of featured "beyond the book" articles in our Books and Authors category (and thousands in all categories) on the BookBrowse website, where recent subjects include the history of Lady Chatterley's Lover, literary Dublin and Louise Erdrich's store Birchbark Books.

Solve our Wordplay puzzle to reveal a well-known expression, and be entered to win the book of your choice or a 6-month membership to BookBrowse!

The answer to the last Wordplay: N M B With P

Meaning: Keep your work separate from your private life; don’t do business with friends.

This expression is believed to trace back to at least the early 1900s, and presumably was well in use by 1934 as F. Scott Fitzgerald uses a play on it in Tender is the Night...