Sister 2 Sister: Don't Make a Black Woman Take off Her Earrings

Madea helpfully suggests, "If you don't understand something I'm saying here and you're not black, you will have to ask somebody who is. Madea, Southern-speak for "mother dear," is the fierce alter ego of Tyler Perry, who has paraded the marijuana-smoking, pistol-packing, trash-talking matron through a series of hit gospel plays and films. Although primarily a comic figure based on unapologetically crude behavior coming from a harmless-looking old lady, Madea is envisioned by Perry as a throwback to a time when strong matriarchs ruled the community. The result is a surprisingly fresh compilation of homespun advice which Madea says the reader should take "at your own risk" on love, sex, getting ahead in life and (strangely) the thousand-plus uses of Vaseline.