Smoking Barrel by Nazarene Childress-Brown is a new book written by a minority American who refused to be called an African American because she believes such name tends to divide America along the racial line. The book describes how Nazarene navigates through the system despite the odds and bias of the power structure and becomes a very successful business woman.

The book is not only about how to succeed in business but also about the sad history of the South during the American Apartheid system when minorities  were denied opportunities to own lands. She narrates The Story of the oppression of the people of color by the system  and how the supremacy laws  flourished forcing many minorities to lose their businesses and lands to the Carpetbaggers.

Despite the historical account from her grandparents, she learned how to survive in the business world and achieve great success without compromising her moral ethics and principles. For example, Nazarene does not believe in business cannibalism. She says, "Success is getting what you want out of life without harming anyone else." Perhaps she should sell this idea to some of the big businesses who believe in corporate cannibalism and predatory capitalism!

In her book, she gives guidelines to women about how to achieve success in business by being persistent and not taking "No" for answer. She describes how she survived the harshness of a male dominated business society and also how she used everything at her disposal to achieve success during her many business adventures.

Interestingly, Nazarene used her womanhood that could have worked against her to her advantage. She used her femininity to achieve some of her objectives. She can sometimes be rebellious even though she is very assertive by learning the rules of the game in business. When she was applying for her passport, where the form asked her race, she put down, "Human."

Smoking Barrel by Nazarene Childress-Brown is a very powerful book that will help many potential small business owners to survive and make great profits.