A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection! From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ibi Zoboi comes her groundbreaking contemporary fantasy debut—a novel in verse based on Caribbean folklore—about the power of inherited magic and the price we must pay to live the life we yearn for. “Our new home with its thick walls and locked doors wants me to stay trapped in my skin— but I am fury and flame.” Fifteen-year-old Marisol is the daughter of a soucouyant. Every new moon, she sheds her skin like the many women before her, shifting into a fireball witch who must fly into the night and slowly sip from the lives of others to sustain her own. But Brooklyn is no place for fireball witches with all its bright lights, shut windows, and bolt-locked doors.… While Marisol hoped they would leave their old traditions behind when they emigrated from the islands, she knows this will never happen while she remains ensnared by the one person who keeps her chained to her magical past—her mother. Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the daughter of a college professor and a newly minted older half sister of twins. Her worsening skin condition and the babies’ constant wailing keep her up at night, when she stares at the dark sky with a deep longing to inhale it all. She hopes to quench the hunger that gnaws at her, one that seems to reach for some memory of her estranged mother. When a new nanny arrives to help with the twins, a family secret connecting her to Marisol is revealed, and Gen begins to find answers to questions she hasn’t even thought to ask. But the girls soon discover that the very skin keeping their flames locked beneath the surface may be more explosive to the relationships around them than any ancient magic. BIO Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times bestselling author of American Street, a National Book Award finalist; Nigeria Jones, a Coretta Scott King Award winner; Pride; My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich; Okoye to the People: A Black Panther Novel for Marvel; and the Walter Award and LA Times Book Prize–winning Punching the Air, cowritten with Exonerated Five member Yusef Salaam. She is also a two-time Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner for her picture book The People Remember and her middle grade biography of Octavia Butler, Star Child. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough. Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, she now lives in New Jersey with her family. You can find her online at ibizoboi.net. REVIEWS "Bold and exciting; employing alternating perspectives, the author plays with language and the book’s format to craft fully realized characters by exploring their envies and desires. Readers will fly through Zoboi’s latest masterpiece and crave more stories featuring Caribbean folklore. An ambitious contemporary fantasy that will grip readers from the first page." -- Booklist (starred review) “The girls’ intertwined tales, blurring and shifting over the course of the narrative, unfold in lyrical alternating first-person verse and are cleverly used to discuss beauty ideals and colorism. Readers will enjoy the ways the monstrous characters’ human facades shift. A vividly creative, heart-pounding poetic journey infused with Caribbean folklore.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "The stage is set for secrets and supernatural discoveries. The slow, methodical unraveling of how interwoven the two teenage girls’ stories is the treat of this sharp verse narrative that initially alternates between their POVs. The conclusion is executed with the laudable ambitions of reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review) “Ambitious and unapologetic in its rendering, deftly addressing themes of colorism, assimilation, and inheritance. This fast-paced fever dream of a tale crackles and sparks on the page—almost burning the fingertips as it weaves folklore into reality; these dynamic girls reckoning with an inescapable lineage will change the way you look at the night sky.' -- Amber McBride, National Book Award finalist and author of Me (Moth) [H] Versify / February 11, 2025 For ages 13 and up

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection!
From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ibi Zoboi comes her groundbreaking contemporary fantasy debut—a novel in verse based on Caribbean folklore—about the power of inherited magic and the price we must pay to live the life we yearn for.
“Our new home with its
thick walls and locked doors
wants me to stay trapped in my skin—
but I am fury and flame.”
Fifteen-year-old Marisol is the daughter of a soucouyant. Every new moon, she sheds her skin like the many women before her, shifting into a fireball witch who must fly into the night and slowly sip from the lives of others to sustain her own. But Brooklyn is no place for fireball witches with all its bright lights, shut windows, and bolt-locked doors.… While Marisol hoped they would leave their old traditions behind when they emigrated from the islands, she knows this will never happen while she remains ensnared by the one person who keeps her chained to her magical past—her mother.
Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the daughter of a college professor and a newly minted older half sister of twins. Her worsening skin condition and the babies’ constant wailing keep her up at night, when she stares at the dark sky with a deep longing to inhale it all. She hopes to quench the hunger that gnaws at her, one that seems to reach for some memory of her estranged mother. When a new nanny arrives to help with the twins, a family secret connecting her to Marisol is revealed, and Gen begins to find answers to questions she hasn’t even thought to ask.
But the girls soon discover that the very skin keeping their flames locked beneath the surface may be more explosive to the relationships around them than any ancient magic.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times bestselling author of American Street, a National Book Award finalist; Nigeria Jones, a Coretta Scott King Award winner; Pride; My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich; Okoye to the People: A Black Panther Novel for Marvel; and the Walter Award and LA Times Book Prize&amp;#8211;winning Punching the Air, cowritten with Exonerated Five member Yusef Salaam. She is also a two-time Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner for her picture book The People Remember and her middle grade biography of Octavia Butler, Star Child. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough. Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, she now lives in New Jersey with her family. You can find her online at ibizoboi.net.
REVIEWS
"Bold and exciting; employing alternating perspectives, the author plays with language and the book’s format to craft fully realized characters by exploring their envies and desires. Readers will fly through Zoboi’s latest masterpiece and crave more stories featuring Caribbean folklore. An ambitious contemporary fantasy that will grip readers from the first page." -- Booklist (starred review)
“The girls’ intertwined tales, blurring and shifting over the course of the narrative, unfold in lyrical alternating first-person verse and are cleverly used to discuss beauty ideals and colorism. Readers will enjoy the ways the monstrous characters’ human facades shift. A vividly creative, heart-pounding poetic journey infused with Caribbean folklore.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The stage is set for secrets and supernatural discoveries. The slow, methodical unraveling of how interwoven the two teenage girls’ stories is the treat of this sharp verse narrative that initially alternates between their POVs. The conclusion is executed with the laudable ambitions of reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
“Ambitious and unapologetic in its rendering, deftly addressing themes of colorism, assimilation, and inheritance. This fast-paced fever dream of a tale crackles and sparks on the page—almost burning the fingertips as it weaves folklore into reality; these dynamic girls reckoning with an inescapable lineage will change the way you look at the night sky.' -- Amber McBride, National Book Award finalist and author of Me (Moth)
[H] Versify  /  February 11, 2025
For ages 13 and up

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(S)kin /// Ibi Zoboi /// new

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A highly opinionated wine guide from one of the country's most celebrated — and unorthodox — sommeliers and winemakers In this entertaining, informative, and thoroughly unconventional wine guide, award-winning sommelier, winemaker, and wine educator André Mack presents listeners with the 99 bottles that have most impacted his life. Instead of just pairing wines with foods, Mack pairs practical information with personal stories, offering up recommendations alongside reflections on being one of the only African-Americans to ever work at the top level of the American wine industry. The 99 bottles range from highly accessible commercial wines to the most rarefied Bordeaux on the wine list at The French Laundry, and each bottle offers listeners something to learn about wine. This window into Mack's life combines a maverick's perspective on the wine industry with an insider's advice on navigating wine lists, purchasing wine, and drinking more diverse and interesting selections at home. 99 Bottles is a one-of-a-kind exploration of wine culture today from a true trailblazer. BIO André Mack, one of the US’s top sommeliers, worked at both The French Laundry and Per Se. He is the founder of the Mouton Noir wine, annually producing 13 varietals in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and he is also a graphic designer and visual artist. His first wine bar is slated to open in early 2019. Mack lives in Brooklyn, New York. [H] Abrams Image / October 29, 2019 0.8" H x 9.0" L x 6.5" W (1.5 lbs) 256 pages

99 Bottles: A Black Sheep's Guide to Life-Changing Wines /// André Hueston Mack, illustrations by Rob Deborde

In this poignant mixed voice, mixed form collection of interconnected prose, poems and stories, teen characters, their families, and their communities grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst fear and loss, these New York City teens prevail with love, resilience and hope. From the award-winning author of Chlorine Sky and Vinyl Moon.“[A] gorgeous, tender testament to the generation of young people who shouldered the pandemic.”–Brendan Kiely, award-winning and New York Times bestselling authorGrief, pain, hope, and love collide in this short story collection.In New York City, teens, their families, and their communities feel the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the fear and loss, these teens and the adults around them persevere with love and hope while living in difficult circumstances: Malachi writes an Armageddon short story inspired by his pandemic reality. Tariq helps their ailing grandmother survive during quarantine. Zamira struggles with depression and loneliness after losing her parents. Mohamed tries to help keep his community spirit alive. A social worker reflects on the ways the foster system fails their children. From award-winning author Mahogany L. Browne comes a poignant collection of interconnected prose, poems, and lists about the humanity and resilience of New Yorkers during the Covid-19 pandemic. BIO Mahogany L. Browne, a Kennedy Center’s Next 50 fellow, is a writer, playwright, organizer, and educator. Browne received fellowships from All Arts, Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, and Wesleyan University. Browne’s books include A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe, Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky (optioned for Steppenwolf Theater), Black Girl Magic, and banned books Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice and Woke Baby. Founder of the diverse litinitiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne is the 2024 Paterson Poetry Prize winner. She is the inaugural poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Center and lives in Brooklyn, NY. [H] Crown Books for Young Readers / March 11, 2025 0.69" H x 8.55" L x 5.53" W (0.61 lbs) 160 pages For ages 12 and up

In this poignant mixed voice, mixed form collection of interconnected prose, poems and stories, teen characters, their families, and their communities grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst fear and loss, these New York City teens prevail with love, resilience and hope. From the award-winning author of Chlorine Sky and Vinyl Moon. “[A] gorgeous, tender testament to the generation of young people who shouldered the pandemic.” –Brendan Kiely, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Grief, pain, hope, and love collide in this short story collection. In New York City, teens, their families, and their communities feel the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the fear and loss, these teens and the adults around them persevere with love and hope while living in difficult circumstances: 
<ul>
<li>Malachi writes an Armageddon short story inspired by his pandemic reality.</li>
<li>Tariq helps their ailing grandmother survive during quarantine.</li>
<li>Zamira struggles with depression and loneliness after losing her parents.</li>
<li>Mohamed tries to help keep his community spirit alive.</li>
<li>A social worker reflects on the ways the foster system fails their children.</li>
</ul>
 From award-winning author Mahogany L. Browne comes a poignant collection of interconnected prose, poems, and lists about the humanity and resilience of New Yorkers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Mahogany L. Browne, a Kennedy Center’s Next 50 fellow, is a writer, playwright, organizer, and educator. Browne received fellowships from All Arts, Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, and Wesleyan University. Browne’s books include A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe, Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky (optioned for Steppenwolf Theater), Black Girl Magic, and banned books Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice and Woke Baby. Founder of the diverse litinitiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne is the 2024 Paterson Poetry Prize winner. She is the inaugural poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Center and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
[H]  Crown Books for Young Readers  /  March 11, 2025
<meta charset="utf-8">0.69" H x 8.55" L x 5.53" W (0.61 lbs) 160 pages
For ages 12 and up

A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe /// Mahogany L. Browne /// new

Winner of the Man Booker PrizeOne of Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 Books of the Decade One of the Top 10 Books of 2014 - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times A "thrilling, ambitious . . . intense" (Los Angeles Times) novel that explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in the late 1970s, from the author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf In A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James combines masterful storytelling with his unrivaled skill at characterization and his meticulous eye for detail to forge a novel of dazzling ambition and scope. On December 3, 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert to ease political tensions in Kingston, seven unnamed gunmen stormed the singer's house, machine guns blazing. The attack wounded Marley, his wife, and his manager, and injured several others. Little was officially released about the gunmen, but rumors abounded regarding the assassins' fates. A Brief History of Seven Killings is James's fictional exploration of that dangerous and unstable time in Jamaica's history and beyond. Deftly spanning decades and continents and peopled with a wide range of characters--assassins, drug dealers, journalists, and even ghosts--James brings to life the people who walked the streets of 1970s Kingston, who dominated the crack houses of 1980s New York, and who reemerged into a radically altered Jamaica of the 1990s. Brilliantly inventive, A Brief History of Seven Killings is an "exhilarating" (The New York Times) epic that's been called "a tour de force" (The Wall Street Journal). BIO Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970. His most recent novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award. It was also a New York Times Notable Book. James is also the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction and an NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crow's Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was a New York Times Editors' Choice. James lives in Minneapolis. REVIEWS "How to describe Marlon James's monumental new novel A Brief History of Seven Killings? It's like a Tarantino remake of The Harder They Come but with a soundtrack by Bob Marley and a script by Oliver Stone and William Faulkner, with maybe a little creative boost from some primo ganja. It's epic in every sense of that word: sweeping, mythic, over-the-top, colossal and dizzyingly complex. It's also raw, dense, violent, scalding, darkly comic, exhilarating and exhausting--a testament to Mr. James's vaulting ambition and prodigious talent." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "James has written a dangerous book, one full of lore and whispers and history... [a] great book... James nibbles at theories of who did what and why, and scripts Marley's quest for revenge with the pace of a thriller. His achievement, however, goes far beyond opening up this terrible moment in the life of a great musician. He gives us the streets, the people, especially the desperate, the Jamaicans whom Marley exhorted to: 'Open your eyes and look within: / Are you satisfied with the life you're living?'" -- The Boston Globe "A sweeping novel that touches on family, friendship, celebrity, art, sexuality, ghetto politics, geopolitics, drug trade, gender, race and more, sending the reader from Jamaica to New York via Miami and Cuba and back." -- Newsweek [H] Riverhead Books / October 02, 2014 ﻿1.41" H x 9.55" L x 6.42" W (2.2 lbs) 688 pages [P] Riverhead Books / September 08, 2015 1.7" H x 8.2" L x 5.4" W (1.35 lbs) 704 pages

A Brief History of Seven Killings /// Marlon James

Paperback

"A dozen interlinked, music-oriented stories set in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where Garricks was raised... Each songlike story feels like a breakout hit encapsulating the brokenness and the beauty in life’s soundtrack."—Booklist, starred review “Beautifully woven . . . a magical delight.”—Hari Kunzru, author of White Tears A Broken People’s Playlist is set to the soundtrack of life, comprised of twelve music-inspired tales about love, the human condition, micro-moments, and the search for meaning and sometimes, redemption. It is also Chimeka Garricks’s love letter to his native city, Port Harcourt, introducing us to a cast of indelible characters in these loosely interlocked tales. There is the teenage wannabe-DJ eager to play his first gig even as his family disastrously falls apart—who reappears many years later as an unhappy middle-aged man drunk-calling his ex-wife; a man who throws a living funeral for his dying brother; three friends who ponder penis captivus and one’s peculiar erectile dysfunction; a troubled woman who tries to find her peace-place in the world, helped by a headful of songs and a pot of ginger tea. Infused with the author’s resonant and evocative storytelling, each page holds “the depth of a novel” (Hari Kunzru); a character, a moment that will—like a favorite song—long linger in the heart and mind. BIO Chimeka Garricks is a Nigerian-Irish writer, editor, screenwriter, and script doctor. His work includes a collection of short stories, A Broken People's Playlist, a novel, and a script in development. He lives in the United Kingdom. REVIEWS "A dozen interlinked, music-oriented stories set in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where Garricks was raised... Each songlike story feels like a breakout hit encapsulating the brokenness and the beauty in life’s soundtrack." -- Booklist (starred review) "These stories will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page." -- She Reads, Best Book Club Pick of Spring 2023 "A Broken People’s Playlist is an addictive collection of authentic prose. Story after story made me stop to reflect on the complexities of life, our various loves––be it family, friendship or romance––and the way we’re all connected. Elegant, graceful and full of understanding, Garrick’s writing unwraps stories that touch the soul and make you glad to be part of the human race." -- Bisi Adjapon, author of The Teller of Secrets and Daughter in Exile [H] Harpervia / March 21, 2023 1.02" H x 8.35" L x 5.67" W (0.7 lbs) 224 pages [P] Harpervia / January 21, 2025 0.7" H x 8.2" L x 5.2" W (0.4 lbs) 224 pages

"A dozen interlinked, music-oriented stories set in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where Garricks was raised... Each songlike story feels like a breakout hit encapsulating the brokenness and the beauty in life’s soundtrack."—Booklist, starred review
“Beautifully woven . . . a magical delight.”—Hari Kunzru, author of White Tears
A Broken People’s Playlist is set to the soundtrack of life, comprised of twelve music-inspired tales about love, the human condition, micro-moments, and the search for meaning and sometimes, redemption. It is also Chimeka Garricks’s love letter to his native city, Port Harcourt, introducing us to a cast of indelible characters in these loosely interlocked tales.
There is the teenage wannabe-DJ eager to play his first gig even as his family disastrously falls apart—who reappears many years later as an unhappy middle-aged man drunk-calling his ex-wife; a man who throws a living funeral for his dying brother; three friends who ponder penis captivus and one’s peculiar erectile dysfunction; a troubled woman who tries to find her peace-place in the world, helped by a headful of songs and a pot of ginger tea.
Infused with the author’s resonant and evocative storytelling, each page holds “the depth of a novel” (Hari Kunzru); a character, a moment that will—like a favorite song—long linger in the heart and mind.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Chimeka Garricks is a Nigerian-Irish writer, editor, screenwriter, and script doctor. His work includes a collection of short stories, A Broken People's Playlist, a novel, and a script in development. He lives in the United Kingdom.
REVIEWS
"A dozen interlinked, music-oriented stories set in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where Garricks was raised... Each songlike story feels like a breakout hit encapsulating the brokenness and the beauty in life’s soundtrack." -- Booklist (starred review)
"These stories will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page." -- She Reads, Best Book Club Pick of Spring 2023
"A Broken People’s Playlist is an addictive collection of authentic prose. Story after story made me stop to reflect on the complexities of life, our various loves––be it family, friendship or romance––and the way we’re all connected. Elegant, graceful and full of understanding, Garrick’s writing unwraps stories that touch the soul and make you glad to be part of the human race." -- Bisi Adjapon, author of The Teller of Secrets and Daughter in Exile
[H]  Harpervia  /  March 21, 2023
<meta charset="utf-8"><meta charset="utf-8">1.02" H x 8.35" L x 5.67" W (0.7 lbs) 224 pages 
[P]  Harpervia  /  January 21, 2025
<meta charset="utf-8">0.7" H x 8.2" L x 5.2" W (0.4 lbs) 224 pages

A Broken People's Playlist: Stories (from Songs) /// Chimeka Garricks

A new cookbook for beginners and curious cooks by Emmy Award–winning talk show host and journalist Tamron Hall and her good friend, award-winning chef Lish Steiling.When Tamron Hall and Lish Steiling first met while working at the Today show, they never imagined that their friendship would lead to endless kitchen adventures filled with laughs, learning, and even tears of pure joy. In A Confident Cook, they share that same empowerment and excitement with those who are just beginning to cook.Learn how to select the tools you need (and skip the ones you don’t!), how to stock your pantry, and how to cook for one, two, or a whole group. This book is packed with scrumptious recipes, including Baked French Toast with Sparkling Berries, Crispy Fried Chicken, Harissa Roasted Carrots with Queso Fresco, and Chai-Spiced Pudding, as well as cocktails and mocktails like the delicious “Not Tonight, Satan.” Throughout, Lish and Tamron chat, teach, learn, and inspire you to keep it going in the kitchen! BIO Tamron Hall is an American broadcast journalist, television talk show host and author. In September 2019, Hall debuted her self-titled syndicated daytime talk show, which has earned her two Daytime Emmy Awards. REVIEWS “Lish and Tamron’s passion for cooking and sharing meals with family and friends comes crashing through the pages of this playful compendium of simple, delicious recipes and techniques. The book is chatty and personal, with very clear directions on how to really set up your kitchen and become a confident cook. With irresistible recipes like Big Citrus Dutch Baby with Ice Cream Sauce for brunch and Chicken Thighs with Dates and Olives for dinner, I am in. You need this book!” -- Suzanne Goin “Get ready for a culinary adventure like no other! A Confident Cook is not your average recipe collection. It’s a conversation between friends. Join Lish and Tamron as they deliver simple and tasty twists to your favorite dishes, from classics to favorites. Get ready to explore a whole new world of deliciousness!” -- Carla Hall“A Confident Cook is what happens when two genuine pros collaborate—in this case, a seasoned chef and an acclaimed host/interviewer. Together, Tamron and Lish get at the very heart and soul of cooking, why it matters, how it connects us, and how truly satisfying it can be when done with patience and love. Theirs is a friendship worth celebrating!” -- Gail Simmons“A Confident Cook is the perfect title for this book. It will give you the skills and tips you’ve always wanted and will make you feel great in the kitchen. It is amazing to see a professional like Lish teach her friend Tamron the ins and outs of cooking. Lish makes everything look so easy due to her vast background, and has an extremely wide range of what she can cook. You will use this book day in and day out as your reference bible for things we all want to master—the perfectly cooked eggs, the crispiest roast chicken, the ultimate potatoes, the simplest desserts that will make you look like a pro. Brava, Tamron and Lish.” -- Missy Robbins [H] Hyperion Avenue / September 03, 2024 0.9" H x 9.7" L x 7.7" W (2.7 lbs) 256 pages

A new cookbook for beginners and curious cooks by Emmy Award–winning talk show host and journalist Tamron Hall and her good friend, award-winning chef Lish Steiling. When Tamron Hall and Lish Steiling first met while working at the Today show, they never imagined that their friendship would lead to endless kitchen adventures filled with laughs, learning, and even tears of pure joy. In A Confident Cook, they share that same empowerment and excitement with those who are just beginning to cook. Learn how to select the tools you need (and skip the ones you don’t!), how to stock your pantry, and how to cook for one, two, or a whole group. This book is packed with scrumptious recipes, including Baked French Toast with Sparkling Berries, Crispy Fried Chicken, Harissa Roasted Carrots with Queso Fresco, and Chai-Spiced Pudding, as well as cocktails and mocktails like the delicious “Not Tonight, Satan.” Throughout, Lish and Tamron chat, teach, learn, and inspire you to keep it going in the kitchen!
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Tamron Hall is an American broadcast journalist, television talk show host and author. In September 2019, Hall debuted her self-titled syndicated daytime talk show, which has earned her two Daytime Emmy Awards.
REVIEWS
“Lish and Tamron’s passion for cooking and sharing meals with family and friends comes crashing through the pages of this playful compendium of simple, delicious recipes and techniques. The book is chatty and personal, with very clear directions on how to really set up your kitchen and become a confident cook. With irresistible recipes like Big Citrus Dutch Baby with Ice Cream Sauce for brunch and Chicken Thighs with Dates and Olives for dinner, I am in. You need this book!”  -- Suzanne Goin   “Get ready for a culinary adventure like no other! A Confident Cook is not your average recipe collection. It’s a conversation between friends. Join Lish and Tamron as they deliver simple and tasty twists to your favorite dishes, from classics to favorites. Get ready to explore a whole new world of deliciousness!” -- Carla Hall “A Confident Cook is what happens when two genuine pros collaborate—in this case, a seasoned chef and an acclaimed host/interviewer. Together, Tamron and Lish get at the very heart and soul of cooking, why it matters, how it connects us, and how truly satisfying it can be when done with patience and love. Theirs is a friendship worth celebrating!” -- Gail Simmons “A Confident Cook is the perfect title for this book. It will give you the skills and tips you’ve always wanted and will make you feel great in the kitchen. It is amazing to see a professional like Lish teach her friend Tamron the ins and outs of cooking. Lish makes everything look so easy due to her vast background, and has an extremely wide range of what she can cook. You will use this book day in and day out as your reference bible for things we all want to master—the perfectly cooked eggs, the crispiest roast chicken, the ultimate potatoes, the simplest desserts that will make you look like a pro. Brava, Tamron and Lish.”  -- Missy Robbins
[H]  Hyperion Avenue  /  September 03, 2024
<meta charset="utf-8"><meta charset="utf-8">0.9" H x 9.7" L x 7.7" W (2.7 lbs) 256 pages 
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A Confident Cook: Recipes for Joyous, No-Pressure Fun in the Kitchen /// Tamron Hall, Lish Sterling

A Domestic Cook Book (1866) by Malinda Russell is the oldest known published cookbook written by an African American woman. Born in Tennessee, and descended from Virginia freemen, Russell decided to move to Liberia at the age of 19. When her money for the trip was stolen, she was stranded in Lynchburg, Virginia, and began working as a cook and companion, traveling with women as a nurse. After living in Lynchburg for only four years, Russell’s husband died and she moved with her son to Tennessee where she kept a boarding house and then went on to run a pastry shop. After a second dramatic robbery in 1864, Russell moved to Paw Paw, Michigan, because she had heard it was the “garden of the west” and published a cookbook “with the intention of benefiting the public” as well as supporting herself. A Domestic Cook Book contains 260 recipes and household tips that draw from Malinda Russell’s twenty years of experience cooking in Southern kitchens, her boarding house, and her pastry shop, and showcase her skills as a pastry chef. This new edition includes a foreword by scholar Rafia Zafar as well as an introduction by the late food historian Janice Bluestein Longone that contextualize Russell’s cookbook. Using the only known copy of the original book housed in the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive at the University of Michigan Library's Special Collections Research Center, this new edition preserves an important part of Michigan and American history and makes it widely available to readers for the first time. BIO Malinda Russell was born and raised in eastern Tennessee. In 1864, Russell moved to Michigan, where she settled in the Paw Paw area and published this volume in 1866. [P] University of Michigan Regional / February 18, 2025 120 pages

A Domestic Cook Book (1866) by Malinda Russell is the oldest known published cookbook written by an African American woman. Born in Tennessee, and descended from Virginia freemen, Russell decided to move to Liberia at the age of 19. When her money for the trip was stolen, she was stranded in Lynchburg, Virginia, and began working as a cook and companion, traveling with women as a nurse. After living in Lynchburg for only four years, Russell’s husband died and she moved with her son to Tennessee where she kept a boarding house and then went on to run a pastry shop. After a second dramatic robbery in 1864, Russell moved to Paw Paw, Michigan, because she had heard it was the “garden of the west” and published a cookbook “with the intention of benefiting the public” as well as supporting herself.
A Domestic Cook Book contains 260 recipes and household tips that draw from Malinda Russell’s twenty years of experience cooking in Southern kitchens, her boarding house, and her pastry shop, and showcase her skills as a pastry chef. This new edition includes a foreword by scholar Rafia Zafar as well as an introduction by the late food historian Janice Bluestein Longone that contextualize Russell’s cookbook. Using the only known copy of the original book housed in the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive at the University of Michigan Library's Special Collections Research Center, this new edition preserves an important part of Michigan and American history and makes it widely available to readers for the first time.
BIO
Malinda Russell was born and raised in eastern Tennessee. In 1864, Russell moved to Michigan, where she settled in the Paw Paw area and published this volume in 1866.
[P]  University of Michigan Regional  /  February 18, 2025
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A Domestic Cook Book Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen /// Malinda Russell /// new

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection Expert quilter Kim Taylor shares a unique and powerful story of the celebration of the first Juneteenth, from the perspective of a young girl.On June 19, 1865, in Galveston, General Gordon Granger of the Union Army delivered the message that African Americans in Texas were free. Since then, Juneteenth, as the day has come to be known, has steadily gained recognition throughout the United States. ln 2020,a powerful wave of protests and demonstrations calling for racial justice and equality brought new awareness to the significance of the holiday.A Flag for Juneteenth depicts a close-knit community of enslaved African Americans on a plantation in Texas, the day before the announcement is to be made that all enslaved people are free. Young Huldah, who is preparing to celebrate her tenth birthday, can’t possibly anticipate how much her life will change that Juneteenth morning. The story follows Huldah and her community as they process the news of their freedom and celebrate together by creating a community freedom flag. Debut author and artist Kim Taylor sets this story apart by applying her skills as an expert quilter. Each of the illustrations has been lovingly hand sewn and quilted, giving the book a homespun, tactile quality that is altogether unique. BIO Kim Taylor is a speech language pathologist and Department Supervisor at a large school for deaf children on Long Island. She is also an expert quilter whose works have been exhibited at several venues throughout the Midatlantic region. Taylor’s quilts reflect African American life, and she tells stories through her materials (visit Kim’s website to see her quilts). After researching the origins of the Juneteenth celebration, she created a Juneteenth story quilt which she has exhibited and presented in dozens of local schools. Realizing that few teachers and students had ever heard of the holiday, she was moved to write the book A Flag for Juneteenth. REVIEWS “The picture book . . . not only reveals Taylor’s considerable talents as an inspiring raconteur but as a self-taught quilter whose creations uniquely and symbolically illustrate the historically based narrative.” -- Newsday★ ”Kim Taylor’s portrayal of a girl witnessing the first Juneteenth, accompanied by exquisite quilted artwork, is filled with a spirit of jubilation and freedom. . . . her textile art perfectly complements her evocative prose. . . .” -- BookPage, Starred Review “The illustrations quilted by Taylor display strong artistic use of color, texture, movement, stitching, and symbols. Each page has vibrant colors that grab readers at first glance. . . . Taylor effectively breathes life into the characters, even those muddled in the background, by showing their humanity in each page.” -- School Library Journal“Both lyrical and descriptive, Huldah’s voice conveys the joy that is found in freedom. . . . A great introduction to the federal holiday.” -- The Horn Book“Taylor aptly depicts this story through colorful woven fabrics and folk art-style, quilted scenes.” -- Booklist“[A] moving debut. . . . It’s a discussion-starting, personal-feeling portrait of a communal celebration.” -- Publishers Weekly“The art in this work from quilter Taylor is stunning. The craftsmanship and attention to detail are breathtaking. . . . Visually dazzling. . . .” -- Kirkus Reviews [H] Neal Porter Books / January 03, 2023 0.39" H x 10.24" L x 9.92" W (0.92 lbs) 40 pages

A Flag for Juneteenth /// Kim Taylor

﻿A Good Day to Bake is full of 70 sweet and savory baking recipes for any day of the week, led by flavor. Going through the ritual of bringing out the measuring scales, pouring out flour, whipping up the eggs, stirring the batter and impatiently slicing up warm cake is a beautiful thing that deserves to be enjoyed all year round no matter the day, season or occasion. This is a cookbook that embraces simplicity, mindfulness and the therapeutic comforts of baking. The Great British Bake Off's 2016 contestant Benjamina writes so warmly about cakes and her recipes speak to a natural, seasonal and down-to-earth way of baking. Chapters include Herbs & Tea, Stone Fruit & Berries, Vegetables, Best of Beige, Spice Cupboard, and Chocolate. Because every day is a good day to bake. BIO Benjamina Ebuehi writes recipes, styles and creates content for media, such as BBC Good Food, Waitrose Weekend and Guardian Feast as well as brands such as Sainsbury's, McVities, Lindt, Lyles Golden Syrup, Anthropologie, Baileys and Schwartz spices. Benjamina is an ambassador for the incredible social enterprise Luminary Bakery, and co-founded, with her sister Bonita, The Sister Table (www.thesistertable.com), hosting pop-up brunches and supper clubs for women across London. Her food blog Carrot and Crumb (www.carrotandcrumb.com) was a finalist in the 2019 Saveur Blog Awards. A Good Day to Bake is her second cookbook. [H] Quadrille Publishing / March 01, 2022 0.9" H x 9.9" L x 7.5" W (1.85 lbs) 192 pages

﻿<meta charset="UTF-8">A Good Day to Bake is full of 70 sweet and savory baking recipes for any day of the week, led by flavor. 
Going through the ritual of bringing out the measuring scales, pouring out flour, whipping up the eggs, stirring the batter and impatiently slicing up warm cake is a beautiful thing that deserves to be enjoyed all year round no matter the day, season or occasion. 
This is a cookbook that embraces simplicity, mindfulness and the therapeutic comforts of baking. The Great British Bake Off's 2016 contestant Benjamina writes so warmly about cakes and her recipes speak to a natural, seasonal and down-to-earth way of baking. Chapters include Herbs &amp; Tea, Stone Fruit &amp; Berries, Vegetables, Best of Beige, Spice Cupboard, and Chocolate. 
Because every day is a good day to bake.
BIO
Benjamina Ebuehi writes recipes, styles and creates content for media, such as BBC Good Food, Waitrose Weekend and Guardian Feast as well as brands such as Sainsbury's, McVities, Lindt, Lyles Golden Syrup, Anthropologie, Baileys and Schwartz spices.
Benjamina is an ambassador for the incredible social enterprise Luminary Bakery, and co-founded, with her sister Bonita, The Sister Table (www.thesistertable.com), hosting pop-up brunches and supper clubs for women across London. Her food blog Carrot and Crumb (www.carrotandcrumb.com) was a finalist in the 2019 Saveur Blog Awards.
A Good Day to Bake is her second cookbook.
[H] Quadrille Publishing  /  March 01, 2022
0.9" H x 9.9" L x 7.5" W (1.85 lbs) 192 pages

A Good Day to Bake: Simple Baking Recipes for Every Mood /// Benjamina Ebuehi

“A compelling story of how the transformative events of history weigh on individual lives and relationships.” - Barack ObamaThe Nobel Prize–nominated Kenyan writer’s best-known novel, featuring an introduction by Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak GurnahSet in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya's independence from Britain, A Grain of Wheat follows a group of villagers whose lives have been transformed by the 1952–1960 Emergency. At the center of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village's chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret. As we learn of the villagers' tangled histories in a narrative interwoven with myth and peppered with allusions to real-life leaders, including Jomo Kenyatta, a masterly story unfolds in which compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed, and loves are tested. BIO Ngugi wa Thiong'o is an award-winning novelist, playwright, and essayist from Kenya whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. He lives in Irvine, California, where he is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. REVIEWS “One of the greatest writers of our time.” -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Guardian“His novels . . . have been deservedly canonized by the iconic [Penguin Classics] series.” --The Wall Street Journal [P] Penguin Group / June 05, 2012 0.8" H x 7.6" L x 5.1" W (0.45 lbs) 272 pages

A Grain of Wheat /// Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, introduction by Abdulrazak Gurnah, edited by Chinua Achebe

The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction​ • A sweeping and beautifully rendered exploration of home and yearning, following the fracturing of a family upon the demise of its patriarch“Each character here is richly and deeply drawn…This is a novel that encourages us to stand in life’s burning doorways, and to think long before we walk away or walk through.”—New York TimesIn the early hours of June 14, 2017, the world watches as flames leap up the sides of a residential high-rise in West London, consuming Grenfell Tower and many of the lives within it. Across town, an earlier spark has caught fire. A cigarette left burning in an ashtray. A table strewn with post-it reminders and old newspapers. And one Cornelius Winston Pitt—estranged husband, complicated dad, and Pitt family patriarch—takes his final breaths alone.These twin tragedies open Diana Evans’s A House for Alice, an aching portrait of a family of women shaken by loss and searching for closure. At the novel’s center is Alice herself, the Pitt matriarch who, after fifty years in England, now longs to live out her final years in her homeland of Nigeria. Her three daughters are torn on the issue of whether she stays or goes, and while youngest sibling Melissa also grapples with the embers of her own failed relationship, the Pitt family’s foundational pillars—of trust, love, and cultural identity—begin to crack.Intimately drawn and set against a fraught political backdrop, yet equally full of hope, humor, and humanity, A House for Alice traces the scars of grief and betrayal across generations and uncovers the secrets we keep from those closest to us. BIO Diana Evans is the author of the novels 26a, The Wonder and Ordinary People. She has received nominations for the Whitbread First Novel, the Guardian First Book and the Commonwealth Best First Book awards and was the inaugural winner of the Orange Award for New Writers. Ordinary People won the 2019 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, and also received a nomination for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction. Her journalism appears in among others Time magazine, the Guardian, Vogue, and the Financial Times. She lives in London. REVIEWS A Most Anticipated Book: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Good Morning America •“Each character here is richly and deeply drawn, with histories and personalities so fully realized that it’s a pleasure to get to know them…This is a novel that encourages us to stand in life’s burning doorways, and to think long before we walk away or walk through.” -- New York Times“A beautiful, deep exploration of home and fractured families” -- Good Morning America“Twin domestic tragedies entwine in this richly loving and fraught novel. The 2017 Grenfell Towers fire in London looms as Diana Evans juxtaposes this disaster with the death of a patriarch whose loss complicates the actions of his wife, Alice, who longs to return at last to her homeland, Nigeria.” -- Boston Globe“The shifting sands of relationships, time, and place frame a vibrant new novel from an award-winning British writer.Broad in range, vivid in detail, alight often with eloquent language, Evans’ fourth novel, set among a Black community in London, takes time to reveal itself. Sprawling but always engaging, the novel’s cast is filled with rounded individuals, their problems and options as Black, middle-class Londoners showcased at work and play and contemplation, with humor and empathy.” -- Kirkus Review (starred review) “All is conjured with Evans’s keen eye for human behavior… Her prose is distinguished by its lively, lyrical energy, by its seemingly effortless expansiveness, and by masterful turns of phrase” -- Guardian “A warm but devastating narrative, dealing with the fallout of the Grenfell tragedy… Like any Evans novel, it is unputdownable” -- Harper’s Bazaar “Evans…has an exquisite turn of phrase…The people on the page, and the problems they face, are real and raw" -- Times UK [H] Pantheon Books / September 12, 2023 1.6" H x 9.3" L x 6.1" W (1.35 lbs) 352 pages

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The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction​ • A sweeping and beautifully rendered exploration of home and yearning, following the fracturing of a family upon the demise of its patriarch “Each character here is richly and deeply drawn…This is a novel that encourages us to stand in life’s burning doorways, and to think long before we walk away or walk through.” —New York Times In the early hours of June 14, 2017, the world watches as flames leap up the sides of a residential high-rise in West London, consuming Grenfell Tower and many of the lives within it. Across town, an earlier spark has caught fire. A cigarette left burning in an ashtray. A table strewn with post-it reminders and old newspapers. And one Cornelius Winston Pitt—estranged husband, complicated dad, and Pitt family patriarch—takes his final breaths alone. These twin tragedies open Diana Evans’s A House for Alice, an aching portrait of a family of women shaken by loss and searching for closure. At the novel’s center is Alice herself, the Pitt matriarch who, after fifty years in England, now longs to live out her final years in her homeland of Nigeria. Her three daughters are torn on the issue of whether she stays or goes, and while youngest sibling Melissa also grapples with the embers of her own failed relationship, the Pitt family’s foundational pillars—of trust, love, and cultural identity—begin to crack. Intimately drawn and set against a fraught political backdrop, yet equally full of hope, humor, and humanity, A House for Alice traces the scars of grief and betrayal across generations and uncovers the secrets we keep from those closest to us.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Diana Evans is the author of the novels 26a, The Wonder and Ordinary People. She has received nominations for the Whitbread First Novel, the Guardian First Book and the Commonwealth Best First Book awards and was the inaugural winner of the Orange Award for New Writers. Ordinary People won the 2019 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, and also received a nomination for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction. Her journalism appears in among others Time magazine, the Guardian, Vogue, and the Financial Times. She lives in London.
REVIEWS
<meta charset="utf-8">A Most Anticipated Book: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Good Morning America • “Each character here is richly and deeply drawn, with histories and personalities so fully realized that it’s a pleasure to get to know them…This is a novel that encourages us to stand in life’s burning doorways, and to think long before we walk away or walk through.” -- New York Times “A beautiful, deep exploration of home and fractured families” -- Good Morning America “Twin domestic tragedies entwine in this richly loving and fraught novel. The 2017 Grenfell Towers fire in London looms as Diana Evans juxtaposes this disaster with the death of a patriarch whose loss complicates the actions of his wife, Alice, who longs to return at last to her homeland, Nigeria.” -- Boston Globe “The shifting sands of relationships, time, and place frame a vibrant new novel from an award-winning British writer. Broad in range, vivid in detail, alight often with eloquent language, Evans’ fourth novel, set among a Black community in London, takes time to reveal itself. Sprawling but always engaging, the novel’s cast is filled with rounded individuals, their problems and options as Black, middle-class Londoners showcased at work and play and contemplation, with humor and empathy.” -- Kirkus Review (starred review)   “All is conjured with Evans’s keen eye for human behavior… Her prose is distinguished by its lively, lyrical energy, by its seemingly effortless expansiveness, and by masterful turns of phrase” -- Guardian   “A warm but devastating narrative, dealing with the fallout of the Grenfell tragedy… Like any Evans novel, it is unputdownable” -- Harper’s Bazaar   “Evans…has an exquisite turn of phrase…The people on the page, and the problems they face, are real and raw" -- Times UK
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[H]  Pantheon Books  /  September 12, 2023 
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 1.6" H x 9.3" L x 6.1" W (1.35 lbs) 352 pages 
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A House for Alice /// Diana Evans

Our history echoes with events which, over time, have become hidden, yet are important to all of us. Juneteenth is a celebration which recognizes the end of the enslavement of Black people in America. This book opens a door to understanding our history and celebrating our future—together.Meet A Kids Co., a new kind of media company with a collection of beautifully designed books that kickstart challenging, empowering, and important conversations for kids and their grownups. Learn more about us at akidsco.com. BIO Garrison Hayes (he/him) is a filmmaker, creator, and entrepreneur who amplifies stories which change the world. He believes the truth of the past helps us better understand the present and gives us the foundation to build a better tomorrow. [H] DK Publishing / May 21, 2024 0.5" H x 10.5" L x 8.3" W (0.9 lbs) 64 pages For ages 6 to 9

A Kids Book About Juneteenth /// Garrison Hayes

“Steady-handed and gut-punching. I’m in awe.”—NoViolet Bulawayo An Oprah Daily Most Anticipated Book of 2024 In ten vivid, evocative stories set in contemporary Nigeria, Uche Okonkwo’s extraordinary debut asks: why are the people and places we hold closest so often the ones that drive us to madness? A teenage girl from a poor family is dazzled by her rich, vivacious friend, but as the friend’s behavior grows unstable and dangerous, she must decide whether to cover for her or risk telling the truth to get her the help she needs. A young woman and her mother bask in the envy of their neighbors when the woman receives an offer of marriage from the family of a doctor living in Belgium—though when the offer fails to materialize, that envy threatens to turn vicious, pitting them both against their community. And a lonely daughter finds herself wandering a village in eastern Nigeria in an ill-fated quest, struggling to come to terms with her mother’s mental illness. Across ten stories, Uche Okonkwo’s A Kind of Madness unravels the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, best friends, siblings, and more, marking the arrival of an extraordinary new talent in fiction. BIO Uche Okonkwo’s stories have been published in A Public Space, One Story, the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, and Lagos Noir, among others. A former Bernard O’Keefe Scholar at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and resident at Art Omi, she is a recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy, a Steinbeck Fellowship, and an Elizabeth George Foundation grant. Okonkwo grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and is currently pursuing a creative writing PhD at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln REVIEWS "This debut short-story collection features 10 stories set in present-day Nigeria, all concerned with madness—both the literal madness of mental illness as well as the unruliness of outsize emotions like envy, shame, and desire." -- Oprah Daily, A Most Anticipated Book of 2024"Okonkwo has a Chekhovian eye for the tangle of internal motivations and assumptions that steer her characters. . . .Readers will be eager for more of Okonkwo’s artful writing." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review"Surprising, illuminating, and deeply human." -- Booklist"Vivid. . . . In addition to striking a perfect balance between humor and heartbreak, A Kind of Madness shows incredible wiseness on the complexity and at times maddening nature of loving our family, our friends, and our home.” -- Chicago Review of Books, A Best Book of April"Amazingly written characters in unforgettable settings. Okonkwo’s writing is transformative". -- Debutiful, A Best Book of April [P] Tin House Books / April 16, 2024 0.64" H x 8.52" L x 5.57" W (0.53 lbs) 224 pages

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“Steady-handed and gut-punching. I’m in awe.”—NoViolet Bulawayo
An Oprah Daily Most Anticipated Book of 2024
In ten vivid, evocative stories set in contemporary Nigeria, Uche Okonkwo’s extraordinary debut asks: why are the people and places we hold closest so often the ones that drive us to madness?
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A teenage girl from a poor family is dazzled by her rich, vivacious friend, but as the friend’s behavior grows unstable and dangerous, she must decide whether to cover for her or risk telling the truth to get her the help she needs. A young woman and her mother bask in the envy of their neighbors when the woman receives an offer of marriage from the family of a doctor living in Belgium—though when the offer fails to materialize, that envy threatens to turn vicious, pitting them both against their community. And a lonely daughter finds herself wandering a village in eastern Nigeria in an ill-fated quest, struggling to come to terms with her mother’s mental illness.
Across ten stories, Uche Okonkwo’s A Kind of Madness unravels the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, best friends, siblings, and more, marking the arrival of an extraordinary new talent in fiction.
BIO
Uche Okonkwo’s stories have been published in A Public Space, One Story, the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, and Lagos Noir, among others. A former Bernard O’Keefe Scholar at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and resident at Art Omi, she is a recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy, a Steinbeck Fellowship, and an Elizabeth George Foundation grant. Okonkwo grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and is currently pursuing a creative writing PhD at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
REVIEWS
"This debut short-story collection features 10 stories set in present-day Nigeria, all concerned with madness—both the literal madness of mental illness as well as the unruliness of outsize emotions like envy, shame, and desire." -- Oprah Daily, A Most Anticipated Book of 2024 "Okonkwo has a Chekhovian eye for the tangle of internal motivations and assumptions that steer her characters. . . .Readers will be eager for more of Okonkwo’s artful writing." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "Surprising, illuminating, and deeply human." -- Booklist "Vivid. . . . In addition to striking a perfect balance between humor and heartbreak, A Kind of Madness shows incredible wiseness on the complexity and at times maddening nature of loving our family, our friends, and our home.” -- Chicago Review of Books, A Best Book of April "Amazingly written characters in unforgettable settings. Okonkwo’s writing is transformative". -- Debutiful, A Best Book of April
[P]  Tin House Books  /  April 16, 2024
0.64" H x 8.52" L x 5.57" W (0.53 lbs) 224 pages

A Kind of Madness: Stories /// Uche Okonkwo

-- SIGNED COPIES - From the award-winning author of High on the Hog—inspiration for the “energetic, emotional, and deeply nuanced” (The New York Times) Netflix series of the same name—comes a new and updated edition of A Kwanzaa Keepsake, another important exploration of African American culture, food, and family, featuring recipes and stories to help this generation create unique holiday traditions.Now with a new introduction by award-winning writer and iconic culinary historian Jessica B. Harris, a foreword by chef and television personality Carla Hall, revised recipes and stories, and a fresh new package, A Kwanzaa Keepsake offers proverbs, ceremonies, family projects, inspirational biographies, blessings, and of course, wonderful recipes. Structured around the seven days of Kwanzaa and the virtues each day represents, Harris shares a themed feast for each night, designed to reflect the principle of the day. Some of the menus include:- Umoja (Unity), featuring dishes of multinational origin such as Seasoned Olives, Mechoui-Style Leg of Lamb with cumin, mint, and chili, and a classic Caribbean rum punch, and reminds readers of the union of all peoples of African descent. - Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), composed of dishes from the African continent including Sweet Potato Fritters, Grilled Pepper Salad, and Piment Aimee, a hot sauce from one of the author’s friends. - Kuumba (Creativity) is a healing supper and communal meal that opens the gates of remembrance through food. The repast is centered around a heritage recipe and includes others for Pickled Black-Eyed Peas, a fish dish from the the Ivory Coast, Spicy Cranberry Chutney, and a killer pecan pie with molasses whipped cream.Interspersed throughout the book are spaces to record family memories, sayings, and recipes. Rich in culinary history, and a source of inspiration for treasuring and recording family traditions both old and new, A Kwanzaa Keepsake is a book to cherish, and one that families will turn to again and again. BIO Dr. Jessica B. Harris holds a PhD from NYU and taught English at Queens College for more than thirty years. She lectures internationally. She is the author of High on the Hog, which inspired the hit 2021 Netflix show of the same name. She is also the author of a memoir, My Soul Looks Back, as well as twelve cookbooks. Her articles have appeared in Vogue, Food & Wine, Essence, and The New Yorker, among other publications. She has made numerous television and radio appearances and has been profiled in The New York Times. Considered one of the preeminent scholars of the food of the African Diaspora, Harris has been inducted into the James Beard Who’s Who in Food and Beverage in America, she received the James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020, and an Augie Award from the Culinary Institute of America in 2022. She also received an honorary doctorate from Johnson & Wales University and recently helped the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture to conceptualize its cafeteria. [H] Scribner Book Company / November 05, 2024 0.64" H x 9.13" L x 7.38" W (0.53 lbs) 256 pages

A Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook: Celebrating the Holiday with Family, Community, and Tradition /// Dr. Jessica B. Harris

In this lyrical picture book, world-renowned poet, New York Times bestselling author, and Coretta Scott King Honor winner Nikki Giovanni and fine artist Erin Robinson craft an ode to the magic of a library as a place not only for knowledge but also for imagination, exploration, and escape. In what other place can a child "sail their dreams" and "surf the rainbow" without ever leaving the room? This ode to libraries is a celebration for everyone who loves stories, from seasoned readers to those just learning to love words, and it will have kids and parents alike imagining where their library can take them. This inspiring read-aloud includes stunning illustrations and a note from Nikki Giovanni about the importance of libraries in her own childhood. BIO Nikki Giovanni, poet, activist, mother, and professor, is a seven-time NAACP Image Award winner and the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award, and holds the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry, among many other honors. The author of twenty-eight books and a Grammy nominee for The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection, she is the University Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Erin Robinson is a Fashion Designer by trade but also a trained fine artist from Parsons School of Design and the Corcoran School of Art. Her daydreamy, magical imagination is inspired by travel, color, texture, the feminine shape and the many shades and coifs of Brooklyn. She currently splits her time between New York City and Washington, D.C. Find her at brooklyndolly.com and on Instagram @brooklyndolly. REVIEWS “Powerful.... Playful and inspiring. Every lover of books, young or old, will see themselves in this story.” -- Booklist (starred review) “Vibrant, carefully composed digital illustrations, with bright colors that invite readers in.... A lushly illustrated homage to librarians.” -- Kirkus Reviews “In this picture-book celebration of libraries and reading, poet Giovanni writes about the Carnegie Library, which she regularly visited as a child. Robinson’s digital art resembles vibrant collages.” -- Horn Book Magazine “Poetic text and evocative, textured illustrations work in concert to show how books and libraries enable people to imagine other lives—including other versions of their own selves.... A must-have.” -- School Library Journal [H] Versify / September 27, 2022 0.3" H x 11.1" L x 9.0" W (0.95 lbs) 32 pages

A Library /// Nikki Giovanni, illustrations by Erin K. Robinson

Tyree Daye’s a little bump in the earth is an act of invention and remembrance. Through sprawling poems, the town of Youngsville, North Carolina, where Daye’s family has lived for the last 200 years, is reclaimed as the “Ritual House.” Here, “every cousin aunt uncle ghost” is welcome. Daye invokes real and imagined people, the ancestral dead, land, snakes, and chickens, to create a black town on a hill. Including dreams, letters, revised rental agreements, and “a little museum in the herein-&-after,” where collaged images appear beside documents from Daye’s ancestors—census records, marriage licenses, and WWII Draft Registration cards—the collection asks if the past can be a portal to the future, the present a catalyst for the past. a little bump in the earth explores what it means to love someone, someplace, even as it changes, dies right in front of your eyes. Poem by poem, Daye is honoring the people of Youngsville and “bringing back the dead.” BIO Tyree Daye is a poet from Youngsville, North Carolina. He is the author of two poetry collections, including River Hymns, the 2017 APR/Honickman First Book Prize winner. Daye is a 2017 Ruth Lilly Finalist and Cave Canem fellow. Daye’s work has been published in Prairie Schooner, The New York Times, and Nashville Review. Daye won the 2019 Palm Beach Poetry Festival Langston Hughes Fellowship, 2019 Diana and Simon Raab Writer-In-Residence at UC Santa Barbara and is a 2019 Kate Tufts Finalist. Daye most recently was awarded a 2019 Whiting Award and a 2019 Ragin Rubin Award winner. [P] Copper Canyon Press / April 02, 2024 0.5" H x 8.9" L x 6.9" W (0.45 lbs) 104 pages

a little bump in the earth /// Tyree Daye

THIS BOOK IS CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK. Born in 1923 in Madisonville, Louisiana, Leah Chase would marry into the Chase restaurant family in nearby New Orleans, but that small geographic move would end up taking her worlds away. Today she is a national-award-winning cook and civic figure. This novel, told in the form of letters to God, shares her inspirational journey with middle-grade readers. BIO Carol Allen was born in Elton, Louisiana, part of Cajun country. As a young girl, she traveled across the state with her father and became fascinated with the richness of Louisiana culture and her own unique heritage. In 1968, she began teaching at Oakdale High School, where she experienced the switch to the integrated school system. Soon after, she became an elementary-school principal and completed her doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After a year as an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, she returned home to become the superintendent of curriculum and instruction for New Orleans Public Schools. In 1985, Allen married a Frenchman and moved to France. There, she volunteered for various service organizations, served on boards for international schools, and worked for an educational institute in Paris that was affiliated with the American College in Paris. Allen helped plan and direct an international conference designed to address the needs and interests of expatriate women. The conference, organized and conducted entirely by volunteers, attracted four hundred conferees representing nineteen different nationalities from twenty-one different countries of residence. She went on to create the Paris Writers Workshop, now an internationally respected program that allows aspiring writers to develop their talents. Allen has written articles for the Writer's Chronicle, Washington Post, Epicurean Magazine, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Allen compiled and edited They Only Laughed Later: Tales of Women on the Move, a book of humorous essays written by women about their experiences living abroad. In 1996, she received honorable mention from Writer’s Market for a self-published book in the children's-literary category. She has been a guest lecturer at the Geneva Writers' Conference and is a motivational speaker for the European Speakers Bureau. Allen has been close friends with Leah Chase, the subject of her biography, Leah Chase: Listen, I Say Like This, for more than twenty years. For the book, she spent hours with Chase herself, in the woman's kitchen, reminiscing her own Louisiana childhood and the diverse background and joie de vivre that both the author and her subject share. In addition to writing, Allen loves to cook. Much to the surprise of her French neighbors, she garnered the grand prize in what is known as Les Journées Gourmandes in the region of the Vaucluse, Provence, where she lives most of the time. Her winning recipes were for jams and jellies in 1995 and for Wild-Mushroom Soup in 2001. [P] Pelican Publishing Company / August 24, 2020 0.6" H x 8.4" L x 5.4" W (0.65 lbs) 160 pages

THIS BOOK IS CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK.
<meta charset="utf-8">Born in 1923 in Madisonville, Louisiana, Leah Chase would marry into the Chase restaurant family in nearby New Orleans, but that small geographic move would end up taking her worlds away. Today she is a national-award-winning cook and civic figure. This novel, told in the form of letters to God, shares her inspirational journey with middle-grade readers.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Carol Allen was born in Elton, Louisiana, part of Cajun country. As a young girl, she traveled across the state with her father and became fascinated with the richness of Louisiana culture and her own unique heritage. In 1968, she began teaching at Oakdale High School, where she experienced the switch to the integrated school system. Soon after, she became an elementary-school principal and completed her doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After a year as an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, she returned home to become the superintendent of curriculum and instruction for New Orleans Public Schools. In 1985, Allen married a Frenchman and moved to France. There, she volunteered for various service organizations, served on boards for international schools, and worked for an educational institute in Paris that was affiliated with the American College in Paris. Allen helped plan and direct an international conference designed to address the needs and interests of expatriate women. The conference, organized and conducted entirely by volunteers, attracted four hundred conferees representing nineteen different nationalities from twenty-one different countries of residence. She went on to create the Paris Writers Workshop, now an internationally respected program that allows aspiring writers to develop their talents. Allen has written articles for the Writer's Chronicle, Washington Post, Epicurean Magazine, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Allen compiled and edited They Only Laughed Later: Tales of Women on the Move, a book of humorous essays written by women about their experiences living abroad. In 1996, she received honorable mention from Writer’s Market for a self-published book in the children's-literary category. She has been a guest lecturer at the Geneva Writers' Conference and is a motivational speaker for the European Speakers Bureau. Allen has been close friends with Leah Chase, the subject of her biography, Leah Chase: Listen, I Say Like This, for more than twenty years. For the book, she spent hours with Chase herself, in the woman's kitchen, reminiscing her own Louisiana childhood and the diverse background and joie de vivre that both the author and her subject share. In addition to writing, Allen loves to cook. Much to the surprise of her French neighbors, she garnered the grand prize in what is known as Les Journées Gourmandes in the region of the Vaucluse, Provence, where she lives most of the time. Her winning recipes were for jams and jellies in 1995 and for Wild-Mushroom Soup in 2001.
[P]  Pelican Publishing Company  /  <meta charset="utf-8">August 24, 2020
<meta charset="utf-8">0.6" H x 8.4" L x 5.4" W (0.65 lbs) 160 pages

A Long Way from the Strawberry Patch: The Life of Leah Chase /// Carol Allen with Leah Chase

Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers.One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way. Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked. BIO Tia Williams is an American novelist and editor. She has published six books and is best known for The Accidental Diva, The Perfect Find, and Seven Days in June. She is also a long-time fashion editor and the current editorial director for the Estée Lauder Companies. REVIEWS If this cover doesn’t raise your temperature a few degrees, the story will. Grab a fan before reading this one, because it really heats up.” -- Good Housekeeping A hugely satisfying romance that is electrifying and alive. -- KirkusWhat’s on its face is a delightfully steamy read is a story layered with nuance that gracefully examines thornier topics of parenting in the modern age, life with chronic pain, and Black identity. Through it all, Williams’ clever and witty writing will leave you clamoring to be part of Mercy’s world. -- Reader's DigestThrough this gripping love story, Williams reckons with family histories and shows the power in rewriting our origin stories. Readers will feel as attached to these characters as Eva and Shane are to each other. -- BookPageWilliams doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects of human experience, and her characters are fully formed and believable as a result. This is a winning romance. -- Publishers WeeklyWilliams proves once again that there is much more to romance novels than meet-cutes and other reliable tropes. -- BooklistWith funny, snappy writing and a strong eye for detail, Williams builds a compelling, glamorous Black literary world for the protagonists to inhabit. The book balances a second-chance romance with themes of motherhood, childhood trauma, and life with chronic pain. -- Library JournalWilliams’ writing is zippy and fun to read, but her characters are also complicated individuals, making their love feel authentic. -- The Week [H] Grand Central Publishing / February 06, 2024 1.06" H x 9.14" L x 6.33" W (1.2 lbs) 352 pages

Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing. Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her. When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers. One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.   Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked.  
BIO
Tia Williams is an American novelist and editor. She has published six books and is best known for The Accidental Diva, The Perfect Find, and Seven Days in June. She is also a long-time fashion editor and the current editorial director for the Estée Lauder Companies.
REVIEWS
If this cover doesn’t raise your temperature a few degrees, the story will. Grab a fan before reading this one, because it really heats up.” -- Good Housekeeping 
A hugely satisfying romance that is electrifying and alive. -- Kirkus What’s on its face is a delightfully steamy read is a story layered with nuance that gracefully examines thornier topics of parenting in the modern age, life with chronic pain, and Black identity. Through it all, Williams’ clever and witty writing will leave you clamoring to be part of Mercy’s world. -- Reader's Digest Through this gripping love story, Williams reckons with family histories and shows the power in rewriting our origin stories. Readers will feel as attached to these characters as Eva and Shane are to each other. -- BookPage Williams doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects of human experience, and her characters are fully formed and believable as a result. This is a winning romance. -- Publishers Weekly Williams proves once again that there is much more to romance novels than meet-cutes and other reliable tropes. -- Booklist With funny, snappy writing and a strong eye for detail, Williams builds a compelling, glamorous Black literary world for the protagonists to inhabit. The book balances a second-chance romance with themes of motherhood, childhood trauma, and life with chronic pain.   -- Library Journal Williams’ writing is zippy and fun to read, but her characters are also complicated individuals, making their love feel authentic. -- The Week
[H]  Grand Central Publishing  /  February 06, 2024
1.06" H x 9.14" L x 6.33" W (1.2 lbs) 352 pages

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde: A Novel /// Tia Williams

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In “one of Morrison’s most haunting works” (The New York Times), the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the story of a mother and a daughter—a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st CenturyIn the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in “flesh,” he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives. BIO Toni Morrison is the author of eleven novels, from The Bluest Eye (1970) to God Help the Child (2015). She received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She died in 2019. REVIEWS A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR “Spellbinding. . . . Dazzling. . . . [A Mercy] stands alongside Beloved as a unique triumph.” -- The Washington Post Book World “A Mercy conjures up the beautiful, untamed, lawless world that was America in the seventeenth-century with the same sort of lyrical, verdant prose that distinguished [Beloved]. . . . A heartbreaking account of lost innocence and fractured dreams. . . . One of Morrison's most haunting works yet.” -- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “Luminous and complex. . . . Some of Morrison's best writing in years.” -- Time “Magnificent . . . As with all Morrison’s finest work, A Mercy compellingly combines immediacy and obliquity. Its evocation of pioneer existence in America surrounds you with sensuous intensity. . . . An attack by a bear is described with thrilling power. . . . Idioms have potent directness, too. . . . Rich knowledgeability about 17th-century America is put to telling effect. Voices speak to you as if you were there. . . . The book keeps you vividly aware of the vital human individuality that racism’s crude categorizations are brutally trying to iron out. . . . A stark story of the evils of possessiveness and the perils of dispossession emerges slantwise. Hints, suspicions, secrets, ambivalences, scarcely acknowledged motives and barely noticeable nuances serve as signposts to enormities and desperations: around slavery’s large-scale uprootings, Morrison spotlights individual instances of loss (orphans and outcasts are, as often in her fiction, much in evidence; compensatory alliances they form are warmly portrayed). A Mercy is so enthralling that you’ll want to read it more than once. On each occasion, it further reveals itself as a masterpiece of rewarding complexity.” -- Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times (London) “In [A Mercy,] a mother chooses to give her daughter to a stranger, the man who will ‘own’ her, in hopes that she’ll find a better life. It is this act from which the book derives its title, but it is, of course, an ambivalent gesture whose tragic resonance will be slowly unveiled. . . . Morrison here is seeking some deeper truth about what she once called ‘the presence of the unfree within the heart of the democratic experiment.’ Some regard this novel as a kind of prelude to Beloved, but the author has even more provocative ideas at play. . . . In writing about the horror of slavery, she finds a kind of ragged hope.” -- Renée Graham, Boston Sunday Globe “[A Mercy] examines slavery through the prism of power, not race. Morrison achieves this by setting A Mercy in 1680s America, when slavery was a color-blind, equal-opportunity state of misery, not yet the rigid, peculiar institution it would become. . . . Morrison doesn’t write traditional novels so much as create a hypnotic state of poetic intoxication. You don’t read A Mercy, you fall into a miasma of language and symbolism. [It] offers an original vision of America in its primeval state, where freedom was a rare commodity.” -- Deirdre Donahue, USA Today “[Toni Morrison] bound[s] into literature with her new book as if it were the first time, with the spry energy of a doe. A Mercy . . . is that beguiling and beautiful, that deftly condensed, that sinewy with imaginative sentences, lyric flight and abundant human sensitivity. . . . Finely hammered phrases repeatedly come off the anvil, forming a story as powerful as the many she has shaped before. Elements of this writer’s art from way back remain part of her achievement here. Like a mighty telescope perched on a contemporary plateau, Morrison draws in signals, moods, torments, exhilarations from African American life and history . . . Morrison mixes the verbal music of an era with idiosyncratic wisdom, delivered indirectly rather than ex cathedra, recalling omniscient Russian masters without imitating them. . . . Along the way come moments whose artistry freezes one’s page-turning. Morrison’s tactile reports rivet . . . What’s the opposite of ‘lazy’ in a fiction writer’s style and research? Industrious? Indefatigable? Morrison wears her knowledge lightly, yet every page exhibits her control of [the 17th century’s] objects and artifacts, its worries and dangers. She surrounds A Mercy’s more fanciful arabesques with a broad border of realism. . . . A book as masterfully wrought as A Mercy behooves its author to swagger. Go to it, Ms. Morrison.” -- Carlin Romano, The Philadelphia Inquirer “A grand tragedy writ in miniature . . . Women, men, Africans, Native Americans, whites, masters, slaves–all are cast into the hard world that is the New World in Toni Morrison’s lustrous new novel. In the same way, the Nobel Prize winner casts us into her hypnotic, many-voiced narrative set in the 17th century in a nation yet unformed. . . . We’re beguiled from the opening sentence: ‘Don’t be afraid.’ The speaker is Florens, black, barely out of childhood, a slave but literate, whose eager-to-please ways and lyrical language endear her to us and to the Virginia household of Jacob Vaark. . . . The subject of [A Mercy] is slavery, and [Morrison] brings to it, along with some of her most haunting language, elements of history and mythos. . . . A Mercy is kindled by characters who are complex and vulnerable, full of what she describes in Beloved as ‘awful human power.’ . . . This novel’s release coincides with the presidential election of Barack Obama, a shining moment in our country’s history of which Morrison’s characters can barely dream.” -- Ellen Kanner, The Miami Herald “Themes of slavery and grief, of women’s struggles to escape the bitterness of the captive world, are at the center of Morrison’s work. They also lie at the heart of her new novel, A Mercy, which looks to history [as in Beloved]–in this case, the 1680s and 1690s–to explore the agonies of slavery among the settlers of the New World. Such a description makes Morrison’s novel sound far too pat, however; it slights the poetry and breadth of her work. Yes, A Mercy is about slavery, but in the most universal sense, meaning the limits we place on ourselves as well as the confinements we suffer at the hands of others. . . . [It is] a work of poetry and intelligence, and a continuation of what John Updike has called [Morrison’s] ‘noble and necessary fictional project of exposing the infamies of slavery and the hardships of being African American.’ The story assumes even greater metaphorical power at this particular moment, with the election of Barack Obama as our first African American president.” --Judith Freeman, Los Angeles Times Book Review [H] Knopf Publishing Group / November 11, 2008 0.88" H x 9.56" L x 5.88" W (0.85 lbs) 176 pages [P] Vintage / August 11, 2009 0.7" H x 7.9" L x 5.2" W (0.46 lbs) 208 pages

A Mercy: A Novel /// Toni Morrison

Through images and texts both historical and contemporary, this book looks at the Great Migration and its profound and ongoing impactThis thoughtful interweaving of text and imagery presents a variety of perspectives on the Great Migration (1915–70), the mass exodus and dispersion of millions of African Americans out of the South. Through archival photography, newspaper clippings, maps, journal articles, book excerpts, and ephemera such as family recipes, the book immerses readers in Black history, the Great Migration, and its legacy. The book includes texts by authors ranging from W. E. B. Du Bois and Jean Toomer to Toni Tipton-Martin and culminates in a candid roundtable discussion about familial migration stories among some of the most respected Black artists, writers, and scholars working today: Theaster Gates, Kiese Laymon, Carrie Mae Weems, and others. The material is presented in three unique, thematic sections that explore the Great Migration’s impact on the American city, Black Southern foodways, and cultural expression. Taken as a whole, this important volume provides powerful testimony to the systemic challenges such as social segregation, racism, and discrimination that Black communities have faced from the post-Emancipation period to the present moment. BIO Jessica Bell Brown is curator and department head of contemporary art at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Ryan N. Dennis is chief curator and artistic director of the Center for Art & Public Exchange at the Mississippi Museum of Art. [H] Yale University Press / June 21, 2022 ﻿1.5" H x 10.5" L x 8.2" W (3.45 lbs) 320 pages

A Movement in Every Direction: A Great Migration Critical Reader /// edited by Jessica Bell Brown and Ryan N. Dennis

Sharon G. Flake's groundbreaking novel The Skin I'm In ushered in a new voice that lit up the literary landscape and became a modern classic, passed down through generations. The Life I'm In, its sequel, furthered the power of unmistakable voices, opening the hearts and minds of teens everywhere. Now The Family I'm In presents John-John and Caleb, friends since childhood who have come face-to-face with the struggles and triumphs of growing into young men. They're living in a world where many Black boys are up against generational expectations, fears of the future, and how to navigate being "nice" kids who just want to be seen for who they are. Together, Caleb and John-John work through family illness, divorced parents, teachers who ask hard questions, and girls who think they have all the answers. BIO Sharon G. Flake is an American writer of children and young adult literature who lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. [H] Scholastic Press / April 01, 2025 1.1" H x 8.4" L x 5.7" W (0.85 lbs) 288 pages For ages 13 to 17

The Family I'm In /// Sharon G. Flake /// new

The first ever history of the many Asian Heritage chefs who have prepared meals for the presidents at the White House, at State Dinners, on Presidential Yachts, and at Camp David. From navy stewards to Executive White House Chefs, the presidential service of these chefs extends back more than a century and continues to the present day, yet many of their names are largely unknown.Two-time James Beard award winner Adrian Miller was inspired to uncover and share their stories after discovering the extraordinary but long out-of-print biography of Lee Ping Quan who served President Warren G. Harding and then President Calvin Coolidge aboard the presidential yacht USS Mayflower.Miller was inspired not only to make Quan’s story available again, but to expand the story to include experiences of many Asian Heritage chefs who have served the presidency. He explains that he was able to identify presidential chefs with roots in China, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand.With a representative, rather than a comprehensive, approach, Miller draws out the unique stories the Asian Heritage chefs whose culinary accomplishments and devotion to service combine to create a powerful chapter in America’s culinary history.Miller opens the book with chapters on immigrants who entered the U.S. Navy and were assigned to the culinary operations on presidential yachts and continues on to an in-depth focus on Lee Ping Quan’s life story. He then explores the stories of Asian Heritage chefs who cooked at presidential retreats, the Vice President’s Residence, and the Navy Mess in the West Wing and concludes with profiles of Asian Heritage Executive, Guest and Staff White House Chefs who bring the story to the present day.Miller’s research is enriched by the biographies, memoirs, cookbooks, and news coverage of the early chefs, and by his own interviews with former and current White House chefs. We learn that each chef has taken a unique path to the American dream, but they share remarkable talents, a devotion to excellence, and a pride in their service.Through Deborah Chang, who selected and shaped sixty recipes that can be made in a twenty-first-century home kitchen, we see that featured chefs specialize not only in Asian dishes but also in creative approaches to fusion cuisine, healthy choices, and American classics such as fried chicken and chocolate cream pie. BIO Adrian Miller is a food writer and attorney. A two-time James Beard Award winner, his books include Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time, The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, From the Washingtons to the Obamas and Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. He received his A.B. in International Relations from Stanford University in 1991, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1995. In 2022, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Denver Institute for Urban Studies and Adult College. From 1999 to 2001, Adrian served as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton with his Initiative for One America and went on to serve as a senior policy analyst for Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr. Since 2013, Adrian has been the executive director of the Colorado Council of Churches. Adrian is also the co-project director and lead curator for the “Proclaiming Colorado’s “Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History” exhibit at the Museum of Boulder. A certified barbecue judge, Adrian lives in Denver, Colorado. [H] White House Historical Association / May 08, 2025 11.0" H x 9.0" W, 184 pages

Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History: Cooking to the President’s Taste /// Adrian Miller and Deborah Chang

In Montego Bay, Jamaica, teenager Nyjah Messado witnesses a brutal assault by some of the boys in his circle of friends. Torn between the masculine code at his private all boys’ school and his own conscience, Nyjah fails to intervene, and comes of age haunted by the guilt of his inaction. Stylistically engaging, ambitious in scope, and brimming with poetic patois, the novel takes us through a sweeping movement between the younger and more mature selves of Nyjah. We see him trying to come to terms with his own place in multiple worlds: in his family; at school, with its colonial Eurocentric ethos; and within the religion and politics of Montego Bay and the city’s criminal gangs. Similar to Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life and Kate Walbert’s His Favorites, My Own Dear People looks unflinchingly at proclivities toward cruelty, particularly toward women and LGBTQ+ people. Dwight Thompson elevates the tradition of the coming-of-age novel by boldly examining how sexual predation crosses both gay and straight worlds. BIO Dwight Thompson is the award-winning author of the novel Death Register and has published short stories in PREE and the Caribbean Writer. He won the Charlotte and Isidor Paiewonsky Prize, was short-listed for the 2012 Small Axe Literary Competition, and was long-listed for the 2021 and 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. My Own Dear People is his second novel. He was born and raised in Jamaica, and currently works at an international school in Hiroshima, Japan. REVIEWS “Manhood, masculinity, what it means to grow up in a world where who you are and who you are expected to be exist in powerful, soul-deep struggle . . . Dwight Thompson’s My Own Dear People tackles all these issues and more, in an important, beautifully written novel about a young man’s struggle to come to terms with the actions (and inactions) of his own past. This is one of the best books I have read in a long, long time.” -- Jerry Stahl, author of Nein, Nein, Nein! [P] Akashic Books Ltd. / April 01, 2025 1.0" H x 9.2" L x 6.1" W (0.9 lbs) 344 pages

In Montego Bay, Jamaica, teenager Nyjah Messado witnesses a brutal assault by some of the boys in his circle of friends. Torn between the masculine code at his private all boys’ school and his own conscience, Nyjah fails to intervene, and comes of age haunted by the guilt of his inaction.
Stylistically engaging, ambitious in scope, and brimming with poetic patois, the novel takes us through a sweeping movement between the younger and more mature selves of Nyjah. We see him trying to come to terms with his own place in multiple worlds: in his family; at school, with its colonial Eurocentric ethos; and within the religion and politics of Montego Bay and the city’s criminal gangs. Similar to Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life and Kate Walbert’s His Favorites, My Own Dear People looks unflinchingly at proclivities toward cruelty, particularly toward women and LGBTQ+ people. Dwight Thompson elevates the tradition of the coming-of-age novel by boldly examining how sexual predation crosses both gay and straight worlds.
BIO
Dwight Thompson is the award-winning author of the novel Death Register and has published short stories in PREE and the Caribbean Writer. He won the Charlotte and Isidor Paiewonsky Prize, was short-listed for the 2012 Small Axe Literary Competition, and was long-listed for the 2021 and 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. My Own Dear People is his second novel. He was born and raised in Jamaica, and currently works at an international school in Hiroshima, Japan.
REVIEWS
<meta charset="utf-8">“Manhood, masculinity, what it means to grow up in a world where who you are and who you are expected to be exist in powerful, soul-deep struggle . . . Dwight Thompson’s My Own Dear People tackles all these issues and more, in an important, beautifully written novel about a young man’s struggle to come to terms with the actions (and inactions) of his own past. This is one of the best books I have read in a long, long time.” -- Jerry Stahl, author of Nein, Nein, Nein!
[P]  Akashic Books Ltd.  /  April 01, 2025
<meta charset="utf-8">1.0" H x 9.2" L x 6.1" W (0.9 lbs) 344 pages

My Own Dear People /// Dwight Thompson /// new

A tenacious curator fights to save her beloved library and a new, groundbreaking archive in this epic Afrofuturist debut."But the Earth is falling (apart), not just the sky, but humans too. They are tuned out. Appear to have given up. Some are preparing to flee; some are preparing for war. Where I stand, I’m not quite sure."The year is 2035, and Los Angeles County is awash in a tangelo haze of wildfire smoke. Xandria Anastasia Brown spends her days deep in the archives of the Huntington Library as the curator of African American Ephemera and associate curator of American Historical Manuscripts, supported by an array of AI personal assistants and health bots. Descended from a family of obsessive collectors who took part in the Great Migration, Xandria grew up immersed in African American ephemera and realia: boots worn by Negro Troopers during the Civil War, Black ATA tennis rackets, bandanas worn by the Crips....Although Xandria’s work may preserve collective memory, she is losing a grasp on her own. Evren, her new health bot, won’t stop reminding her that her symptoms of long COVID are worsening; not to mention that severe asthma, chronic fatigue, grief, and worrying lapses in reality keep disrupting progress on a new Octavia E. Butler exhibition, cataloging the new Diwata Collection, and organizing the Huntington against a stealth corporate takeover. Then, one morning a colleague Xandria can’t place calls to wish her a happy birthday—and the library goes into an emergency lockdown.Sequestered in the archive with only her adaptive technology and flickering intuition, Xandria fears that her life’s work is in danger—the Diwata Collection, a radical blueprint for humanity’s survival. Up against a faceless enemy and unsure of who her human or AI allies truly are, she must make a choice.A lyrical and strikingly original saga, The Ephemera Collector announces Stacy Nathaniel Jackson as a singular new voice in fiction. BIO Stacy Nathaniel Jackson is a trans poet, playwright, and visual artist whose work has appeared in Electric Literature, Georgia Review, and New American Writing, among other publications. He currently resides in Washington, DC. REVIEWS "A great novel. ... The Ephemera Collector is as visual as it jolting. It is as scenic as it is glaring. It is both burden and sacrifice left at an altar. The work prompted me to close my eyes at moments in order to have solace with what was awaiting on the other side of the blk. Although this is a novel, there is clearly a poet conducting. Producing. Each sentence a brush swiped right, and right! Each turn a new choir. Warbling each page into its own new short time." -- avery r. young "Reading The Ephemera Collector is like uncovering an archival box from the future! Stacy Nathaniel Jackson gives us the gift of Xandria Brown, a dedicated archivist with a unique perception of time, to weave a mind-bending and layered novel that takes us through the scorched earth of California, ocean civilizations, the cosmos, and even the inner lives of bots. Jackson’s powerful imagination blends technology, nature, and revolutionary vision to craft a blueprint for another world." -- Marytza K. Rubio "A transcendent map through the afropast, the afropresent and, of course, the afrofuture. I guarantee you’ve never read anything like it. Brilliant, bioluminescent work." -- Rion Amilcar Scott [H] Liveright Publishing Group / April 01, 2025 1.2" H x 9.1" L x 6.2" W (1.1 lbs) 320 pages

The Ephemera Collector /// Stacy Nathaniel Jackson /// new

An all-new stand-alone novel featuring Brenda Jackson’s fan-favorite Madaris family.Ninetysomething Mama Laverne is determined to find all of her great-grandchildren their perfect match before going home to glory. So far, her success rate is 100 percent—and she intends to keep it that way.After sustaining injuries in Iraq, US army ranger Chancellor (Chance) Madaris was told he’d never walk again. Chance credits his great-grandmother Mama Laverne with giving him the will and fortitude to heal and prove the doctors wrong. He has a healthy respect for her meddling ways and knows he’ll eventually end up next on her matchmaking list.When Zoey Pritchard was eight, she survived a car accident that left both her parents dead. She was sent to live with her great-aunt, who refused to speak about her parents. Zoey has no memory from before the crash, but she’s been having the same dream over and over…Guided by nothing but a hunch and images from her dream, Zoey travels to Houston. Searching for answers, Zoey uncovers a scandal involving her parents and the wealthy and powerful Madaris family. Her trail leads her straight to Chance’s door. The dislike and intense attraction are instant and simultaneous. Was it chance or Mama Laverne’s plan to throw this pair together? BIO Brenda Jackson is a New York Times bestselling author of more than one hundred romance titles. Brenda lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and divides her time between family, writing and traveling. REVIEWS "Brenda Jackson writes romance that sizzles and characters you fall in love with." -- Lori Foster, New York Times bestselling author"Jackson was the first African-American author to make both the New York Times and USA Today romance bestsellers list. And after twenty years in the business, books like Love in Catalina Cove prove that she's still a prevailing force in romance." -- BookPage [P] Canary Street Press / April 01, 2025 0.89" H x 8.01" L x 5.35" W (0.57 lbs) 352 pages

Spilling the Tea /// Brenda Jackson /// new

A small-town woman’s journey of self-discovery takes an unexpected detour when she inherits a Brooklyn brownstone—complete with one hot next-door neighbor—in this sexy, emotional contemporary romance.When you least expect it, love comes knocking…Holland Davenport is ready to go beyond her small-town existence. Her plan involves moving into an apartment in Charleston—not inheriting a run-down brownstone in Brooklyn from a relative she never knew. Yet in a burst of daring, Holland meets the challenge head-on, moving to New York to learn more about her family and renovate the place. Add to that a gorgeous next-door neighbor who turns out to be a board member at her new job, and she’s definitely out of her depth.Noble Washington is the successful CEO of a company he spent a decade building. But his carefully ordered life begins to unravel the second he meets fiery social worker Holland—and spends one unforgettable night with a woman who should be off-limits.There’s a wall and a world of differences lying between them. But the sheltered Southerner and the ambitious native New Yorker feel a pull that just won’t be denied… BIO Award-winning author Renee Daniel Flagler has written novels and poetry, and she has taught creative writing throughout the New York City Department of Education and served as a Writer in Residence at the Langston Hughes Library. Renee received an MFA in Creative Writing from The College of New Rochelle, where she obtained the graduate program’s inaugural Creative Writing Division Award for Excellence in Writing and Commitment to the Profession. Renee also created a scholarship for students pursuing studies in writing disciplines in higher education. Renee hails from the suburbs of New York City, where she lives with her husband and children. [P] Afterglow Books by Harlequin / April 01, 2025 0.71" H x 7.89" L x 5.36" W (0.47 lbs) 288 pages

Unlikely Neighbors /// Renee Daniel Flagler /// new

“One of our greatest living authors.”—Lauren LeBlanc, The Boston GlobeMarking a dramatic new direction for Jones, a riveting tale set in the Post WWII South, narrated by a Black soldier who returns to Jim Crow and searches for a mythical idealSet in the early 1950s, this latest novel from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Gayl Jones follows the witty but perplexing army veteran Buddy Ray Guy as he embodies the fate of Black soldiers who return, not in glory, but into their Jim Crow communities.A cook and tractor repairman, Buddy was known as Budweiser to his army pals because he’s a wise guy. But underneath that surface, he is a true self-educated intellectual and a classic seeker: looking for religion, looking for meaning, looking for love.As he moves around the south, from his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, primarily, to his second home of Memphis, Tennessee, he recalls his love affairs in post-war France and encounters with a variety of colorful characters and mythical prototypes: circus barkers, topiary trimmers, landladies who provide shelter and plenty of advice for their all-Black clientele, proto feminists, and bigots. The lead among these characters is, of course, The Unicorn Woman, who exists, but mostly lives in Bud’s private mythology.Jones offers a rich, intriguing exploration of Black (and Indigenous) people in a time and place of frustration, disappointment, and spiritual hope. BIO Gayl Jones was born in Kentucky in 1949. She attended Connecticut College and Brown University and has taught at Wellesley College and the University of Michigan. Her landmark books include Corregidora, Eva’s Man, and The Healing, the last a National Book Award Finalist and New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Palmares, her first publication in over twenty years, was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in fiction, a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection, and the recipient of countless other accolades. REVIEWS “Jones is, without a doubt, one of the most influential Black writers of the 20th and 21st centuries…The Unicorn Woman is smart, and immaculately constructed…” -- The New York Times“Her latest novel [The Unicorn Woman], infused with wordplay and humor, reveals her to be one of our greatest living authors.” -- Lauren LeBlanc, The Boston Globe“Through Buddy’s picaresque journey, Gayl Jones shows her mastery of both dialogue and interiority. There is a bare minimum of scene-setting and little indication of actions such as standing, sitting or leaving a room. Instead we find encounter after encounter with richly individuated characters, each sporting his or her own verbal idiosyncrasies, as noted by a well-read travelling man with an acute ear for speech patterns, just like his creator.” -- Suzi Feay, The Times Literary Supplement“In The Unicorn Woman, Gayl Jones presents a powerful portrait of post-war Black American life, blending history, mythology, and deep personal introspection.” -- New York Amsterdam News [H] Beacon Press / August 20, 2024 0.78" H x 9.06" L x 6.35" W (0.84 lbs) 192 pages

The Unicorn Woman /// Gayl Jones

“An immersive horror fairy tale marrying Crimson Peak to Pan’s Labyrinth upon strange foundations. You’re never really safe here, with Midnight Rooms wondrously defying expectation and refusing obedience. Donyae Coles leads us into a house of sinister magic, full of corners for peeking around, but careful—these walls have claws. A feverish, labyrinthine debut.”—Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth Set in a foreboding Gothic mansion and infused with the heightened paranoia and creeping horror of novels like Catherine House and Crimson Peak, a spine-chilling debut historical thriller from a fresh voice in the genre that will leave you questioning who, or what, you can trust . . . including your own sanity. England, 1840. Orabella Mumthrope spies an unexpected visitor in her uncle’s parlor. Scruffy in appearance yet claiming to be the scion of a fabulously wealthy family, Elias Blakersby declares a deep desire to make Orabella his wife. The orphaned daughter of a white man and a Black woman—an outsider with no fortune or connections—Orabella never expected to marry. But her uncle has many debts, and Orabella, curious about the seeming devotion Elias bestows upon her, agrees. The new bride is quickly whisked away to Korringhill Manor, the Blakersby family estate, and far from everything she knows. Expecting splendor, Orabella is shocked to find decay, skittish servants, and curt elders. But her kind new husband’s loving touch, promises of a happy life together, and his assurances she’ll never want for anything soothe her concerns. Yet there is a darkness deep within this house. Rooms are locked or hidden away, and the walls seem to thrum with secrets. Orabella can never venture outside unattended; she spends her days having tea with a catatonic sister-in-law and evenings at Elias’s side, dutifully hosting lavish dinners. The darkness soon begins to engulf her, too. Becoming dizzy and drowsy after dinner, she falls into a fitful sleep filled with macabre dreams, and is awakened by blood-curdling screams in the night. In the morning she rises from her bed covered in mysterious bruises. Confused and terrified, she begins to question where her dreams end and reality begins. The longer Orabella stays in this place, the more she loses parts of herself . . . how long until she no longer exists? Midnight Rooms is a sweeping saga with supernatural undertones set in Victorian England. Vibrating with tension, richly atmospheric—haunted by ghosts, guilt, and familial bonds—it is an electrifying story that will linger in your dreams. BIO Donyae Coles is a speculative fiction writer whose work spans the genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Her short works have appeared in numerous publications, including PseudoPod and Fantasy Magazine. She is also an artist working in acrylic and watercolor. She grew up overseas and now lives in Pennsylvania, one of the most haunted of states, with her husband and children. REVIEWS “A hallucinatory Gothic nightmare, at once beautiful, cruel, and feral.” -- Eden Royce, award-winning author of Root Magic 'Coles’s prose is evocative and strange and pairs brilliantly with the Gothic tropes she expertly deploys. This is a fever dream of a novel that readers won’t want to wake up from.' -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) 'An immersive horror fairy tale marrying Crimson Peak to Pan's Labyrinth upon strange foundations. You're never really safe here, with Midnight Rooms wondrously defying expectations and refusing obedience. Donyae Coles leads us into a house of sinister magic, full of corners for peeking around, but careful—these walls have claws. A feverish, labyrinthine debut.' -- Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth [H] Amistad Press / July 02, 2024 1.4" H x 9.1" L x 6.3" W (1.0 lbs) 336 pages

“An immersive horror fairy tale marrying Crimson Peak to Pan’s Labyrinth upon strange foundations. You’re never really safe here, with Midnight Rooms wondrously defying expectation and refusing obedience. Donyae Coles leads us into a house of sinister magic, full of corners for peeking around, but careful—these walls have claws. A feverish, labyrinthine debut.”—Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth
Set in a foreboding Gothic mansion and infused with the heightened paranoia and creeping horror of novels like Catherine House and Crimson Peak, a spine-chilling debut historical thriller from a fresh voice in the genre that will leave you questioning who, or what, you can trust . . . including your own sanity.
England, 1840. Orabella Mumthrope spies an unexpected visitor in her uncle’s parlor. Scruffy in appearance yet claiming to be the scion of a fabulously wealthy family, Elias Blakersby declares a deep desire to make Orabella his wife. The orphaned daughter of a white man and a Black woman—an outsider with no fortune or connections—Orabella never expected to marry. But her uncle has many debts, and Orabella, curious about the seeming devotion Elias bestows upon her, agrees.
The new bride is quickly whisked away to Korringhill Manor, the Blakersby family estate, and far from everything she knows. Expecting splendor, Orabella is shocked to find decay, skittish servants, and curt elders. But her kind new husband’s loving touch, promises of a happy life together, and his assurances she’ll never want for anything soothe her concerns.
Yet there is a darkness deep within this house. Rooms are locked or hidden away, and the walls seem to thrum with secrets. Orabella can never venture outside unattended; she spends her days having tea with a catatonic sister-in-law and evenings at Elias’s side, dutifully hosting lavish dinners. The darkness soon begins to engulf her, too. Becoming dizzy and drowsy after dinner, she falls into a fitful sleep filled with macabre dreams, and is awakened by blood-curdling screams in the night. In the morning she rises from her bed covered in mysterious bruises. Confused and terrified, she begins to question where her dreams end and reality begins. The longer Orabella stays in this place, the more she loses parts of herself . . . how long until she no longer exists?
Midnight Rooms is a sweeping saga with supernatural undertones set in Victorian England. Vibrating with tension, richly atmospheric—haunted by ghosts, guilt, and familial bonds—it is an electrifying story that will linger in your dreams.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Donyae Coles is a speculative fiction writer whose work spans the genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Her short works have appeared in numerous publications, including PseudoPod and Fantasy Magazine. She is also an artist working in acrylic and watercolor. She grew up overseas and now lives in Pennsylvania, one of the most haunted of states, with her husband and children.
REVIEWS
“A hallucinatory Gothic nightmare, at once beautiful, cruel, and feral.” -- Eden Royce, award-winning author of Root Magic
'Coles’s prose is evocative and strange and pairs brilliantly with the Gothic tropes she expertly deploys. This is a fever dream of a novel that readers won’t want to wake up from.' -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
'An immersive horror fairy tale marrying Crimson Peak to Pan's Labyrinth upon strange foundations. You're never really safe here, with Midnight Rooms wondrously defying expectations and refusing obedience. Donyae Coles leads us into a house of sinister magic, full of corners for peeking around, but careful—these walls have claws. A feverish, labyrinthine debut.' -- Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth
[H]  Amistad Press  /  July 02, 2024
<meta charset="utf-8">1.4" H x 9.1" L x 6.3" W (1.0 lbs) 336 pages

Midnight Rooms /// Donyae Coles

There is only one known queen who truly ruled a kingdom on American soil. Meet the queen of Happy Land. Transformative and breathtakingly honest, The American Queen is based on actual events that occurred between 1865 - 1889 and shares the unsung history of a Black woman who built a kingdom in Appalachia as a refuge for the courageous people who dared to dream of a different way of life. Over the twenty-four years she was enslaved on the Montgomery Plantation, Louella learned to feel one thing: hate. Hate for the man who sold her mother. Hate for the overseer who left her daddy to hang from a noose. Hate so powerful there's no room in her heart for love, not even for the honorable Reverend William, whom she likes and respects enough to marry. But when William finally listens to Louella's pleas and leads the formerly enslaved people off the plantation, Louella begins to replace her hate with hope. Hope that they will find a place where they can live free from fear. Hope that despite her many unanswered prayers, she can learn to trust for new miracles. Soon, William and Louella become the appointed king and queen of their self-proclaimed Kingdom of the Happy Land. And though they are still surrounded by opposition, they continue to share a message of joy and goodness--and fight for the freedom and dignity of all. The American Queen weaves together themes of love, hate, hope, trust, and resilience in the face of great turmoil. With every turn of the page, you will be transported to a pivotal period in American history, where oppressed people become extraordinary heroes. BIO Vanessa Miller is a bestselling, award-winning author and playwright. Her writing has been centered on themes of redemption and books about strong Black women in pivotal moments of history.Several of Vanessa’s novels have appeared on bestseller lists. The American Queen won the prestigious Christy Award and was the 2024 American Fiction Award winner for Historical Fiction. The American Queen was also the Woman Evolve Book Club Pick for October 2024; is a North Carolina Reads pick for 2025; and has been featured in GMA, Washington Post, and Essence roundups. Her novel Something Good was the 2022 Best Christian Fiction Award winner at the African American Literary Awards. Vanessa’s books have received countless favorable reviews.Vanessa is currently published through HarperCollins/Thomas Nelson. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and family. She graduated from Capital University with a degree in organizational communication.Connect with her online at vanessamiller.com; Facebook: @vanessamiller01; Instagram: @authorvanessamiller; X: @vanessamiller01. REVIEWS AS SEEN ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA: GMA 15 New Books to Read 2024 American Fiction Award WINNER for African American Fiction and Historical Fiction 2025 Audie Awards WINNER for Best Faith-Based Fiction or Non-Fiction 'The American Queen is beautifully told, a story rife with struggle, intrigue, and the indomitable spirit of a woman strong enough to carry the weight of a community, bold enough to dream the impossible, and determined enough to fashion dreams into reality. Louella Montgomery is a woman for the ages. I loved traveling alongside her and meeting the people of The Happy Land.' -- Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Friends 'The American Queen by Vanessa Miller is a rich, multilayered saga of a little-known true story that completely captivated me with one of the strongest and most compelling protagonists I've ever read. The dreams of Louella Montgomery were strong enough to infuse an entire community and carry them on the wings of hope off the plantation. I had to blink several times to come back to the present after finishing the last page of this wonderful novel. Everyone should read this book!' -- USA Today bestselling author Colleen Coble [P] Thomas Nelson / January 30, 2024 1.4" H x 8.0" L x 5.6" W (0.65 lbs) 368 pages

There is only one known queen who truly ruled a kingdom on American soil. Meet the queen of Happy Land.
Transformative and breathtakingly honest, The American Queen is based on actual events that occurred between 1865 - 1889 and shares the unsung history of a Black woman who built a kingdom in Appalachia as a refuge for the courageous people who dared to dream of a different way of life.
Over the twenty-four years she was enslaved on the Montgomery Plantation, Louella learned to feel one thing: hate. Hate for the man who sold her mother. Hate for the overseer who left her daddy to hang from a noose. Hate so powerful there's no room in her heart for love, not even for the honorable Reverend William, whom she likes and respects enough to marry.
But when William finally listens to Louella's pleas and leads the formerly enslaved people off the plantation, Louella begins to replace her hate with hope. Hope that they will find a place where they can live free from fear. Hope that despite her many unanswered prayers, she can learn to trust for new miracles.
Soon, William and Louella become the appointed king and queen of their self-proclaimed Kingdom of the Happy Land. And though they are still surrounded by opposition, they continue to share a message of joy and goodness--and fight for the freedom and dignity of all.
The American Queen weaves together themes of love, hate, hope, trust, and resilience in the face of great turmoil. With every turn of the page, you will be transported to a pivotal period in American history, where oppressed people become extraordinary heroes.
BIO
Vanessa Miller is a bestselling, award-winning author and playwright. Her writing has been centered on themes of redemption and books about strong Black women in pivotal moments of history.Several of Vanessa’s novels have appeared on bestseller lists. The American Queen won the prestigious Christy Award and was the 2024 American Fiction Award winner for Historical Fiction. The American Queen was also the Woman Evolve Book Club Pick for October 2024; is a North Carolina Reads pick for 2025; and has been featured in GMA, Washington Post, and Essence roundups. Her novel Something Good was the 2022 Best Christian Fiction Award winner at the African American Literary Awards. Vanessa’s books have received countless favorable reviews.Vanessa is currently published through HarperCollins/Thomas Nelson. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and family. She graduated from Capital University with a degree in organizational communication.Connect with her online at vanessamiller.com; Facebook: @vanessamiller01; Instagram: @authorvanessamiller; X: @vanessamiller01.
REVIEWS
AS SEEN ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA: GMA 15 New Books to Read 
2024 American Fiction Award WINNER for African American Fiction and Historical Fiction
2025 Audie Awards WINNER for Best Faith-Based Fiction or Non-Fiction
'The American Queen is beautifully told, a story rife with struggle, intrigue, and the indomitable spirit of a woman strong enough to carry the weight of a community, bold enough to dream the impossible, and determined enough to fashion dreams into reality. Louella Montgomery is a woman for the ages. I loved traveling alongside her and meeting the people of The Happy Land.' -- Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Friends
'The American Queen by Vanessa Miller is a rich, multilayered saga of a little-known true story that completely captivated me with one of the strongest and most compelling protagonists I've ever read. The dreams of Louella Montgomery were strong enough to infuse an entire community and carry them on the wings of hope off the plantation. I had to blink several times to come back to the present after finishing the last page of this wonderful novel. Everyone should read this book!' -- USA Today bestselling author Colleen Coble
[P]  Thomas Nelson  /  January 30, 2024
<meta charset="utf-8">1.4" H x 8.0" L x 5.6" W (0.65 lbs) 368 pages
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The American Queen /// Vanessa Miller

Award-winning author and critic Emily Raboteau crafts a powerfully moving meditation on race, climate, environmental justice—and what it takes to find shelter.Lessons for Survival is a probing series of pilgrimages from the perspective of a mother struggling to raise her children to thrive without coming undone in an era of turbulent intersecting crises.With camera in hand, Raboteau goes in search of birds, fluttering in the air or painted on buildings, and city parks where her children may safely play while avoiding pollution, pandemics, and the police. She ventures abroad to learn from Indigenous peoples, and in her own family and community, she discovers the most intimate examples of resilience. Raboteau bears witness to the inner life of Black womanhood, motherhood, the brutalities and possibilities of cities, while celebrating the beauty and fragility of nature. This innovative work of reportage and autobiography stitches together multiple stories of protection, offering a profound sense of hope. BIO Emily Raboteau writes at the intersection of social and environmental justice, race, climate change, and parenthood. Her books include Searching for Zion (2013), winner of an American Book Award and finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the cult classic novel, The Professor’s Daughter (2005). Since the release of the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, she has focused on writing about the climate crisis. A contributing editor at Orion Magazine and a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, Raboteau’s essays have appeared and been anthologized in the New Yorker, the New York Times, New York Magazine, The Nation, Best American Science Writing, Best American Travel Writing, and elsewhere. Her distinctions include an inaugural Climate Narratives Prize from Arizona State University, the Deadline Club Award in Feature Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists’ New York chapter, and grants and fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Bronx Council on the Arts, the Robert B. Silvers Foundation, the Lannan Foundation and Yaddo. She serves regularly as nonfiction faculty at the Bread Loaf Environmental Writing Conference and is a full professor at the City College of New York (CUNY) in Harlem, once known as “the poor man’s Harvard.” She lives in the Bronx with her husband, the novelist Victor LaValle, and their two children. REVIEWS Finalist for the Anisfield-Wolf Book AwardOne of Time’s “100 Must-Read Books of 2024”One of ELLE Magazines’ Best Nonfiction Books of 2024One of Electric Literature’s Best Nonfiction Books of 2024Named one of The New York Times’ “15 New Books to Read in March”Named one of the Los Angeles Times’ Books to Ease Climate AnxietyOne of the Los Angeles Times’ “10 Books to Add to Your Reading List in March”One of Vulture’s Book Highlights of 2024Named one of Science Friday’s “Best Science Beach Reads For Summer 2024”Named one of Electric Literature’s “75 Books by Women of Color to Read in 2024”Named one of Heatmap’s “17 Climate Books to Read in 2024”Named one of Lancaster Online’s Summer Books“A soulful exploration of the fraught experience of caretaking through crisis. . . . While Raboteau grapples with much that is wrong with our troubled world, she does so with bracing honesty and insight. The strength of her book is her willingness to express concerns that many feel but are reluctant to voice.” -- Tiya Miles, The New York Times Book Review“Interspersing punchy essays with striking photos of bird murals in her Bronx neighborhood, Raboteau chronicles her search for solace as a Black woman and mother in a world awash in political rage and threatened with climate disaster.” -- The New York Times“The question is, how do we push the politicians and corporations to figure out how to save our environment and acknowledge the economic and ecological discrepancies that still plague our culture? I suggest that every single one of them be required to read Lessons for Survival. Even for someone like me, always sympathetic to ecological concerns, it is eye-opening.” -- Jane Smiley, The Washington Post“Raboteau calls our attention to the ways in which environmental pressures will create even more social inequality between those who can afford to move, and those who are rooted by economic necessity and lack of access to alternatives.” -- Lorraine Berry, Los Angeles Times [H] Henry Holt & Company / March 12, 2024 0.83" H x 8.89" L x 6.12" W (0.82 lbs) 304 pages [P] Holt Paperbacks / March 11, 2025 0.83" H x 8.89" L x 6.12" W (0.82 lbs) 304 pages

Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against "The Apocalypse" /// Emily Raboteau

In his first new novel since winning the 2021 Nobel Prize, a master storyteller captures a time of dizzying global change.At the turn of the twenty-first century, three young people come of age in Tanzania. Karim returns to his sleepy hometown after university with new swagger and ambition. Fauzia glimpses in him a chance at escape from a smothering upbringing. The two of them offer a haven to Badar, a poor boy still unsure if the future holds anything for him at all. As tourism, technology, and unexpected opportunities and perils reach their quiet corner of the world, bringing, each arrives at a different understanding of what it means to take your fate into your own hands. BIO Abdulrazak Gurnah is the 2021 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is the author of ten previous novels, including Afterlives (named a 2022 Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, and The New Yorker), Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize), By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize), and Desertion. Born and raised in Zanzibar, he is Professor Emeritus of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent. He lives in Canterbury, England. REVIEWS “Theft takes many forms intimate and cultural, subtle and obvious in the newest web of interconnected lives masterfully spun by Nobel laureate Gurnah… Written with transfixing precision, wit, insight, and suspense, Theft is profoundly nuanced and revealing.” -- Booklist, starred review“Gurnah is a captivating, enthralling storyteller whose characters are vibrant and sympathetic. The pages fly by quickly in his wonderful new novel.” -- Library Journal, starred review“Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gurnah delivers a story whose title reverberates throughout. . . No word is wasted. . .A tightly constructed family drama with surprising complications.” -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review“At once culturally specific and emotionally universal. . . Gurnah is at the top of his game.” -- Publishers Weekly, starred review [H] Riverhead Books / March 18, 2025 1.19" H x 9.28" L x 6.35" W (0.98 lbs) 304 pages

Theft /// Abdulrazak Gurnah /// new

A guide to tackling the climate crisis from a prominent activist working on the front lines! Mikaela Loach’s approach is one of HOPE and big-hearted optimism, inspiring kids and making them feel truly empowered to change the world.Kids hear about the climate crisis pretty much every day. From their parents, from their teachers, on social media, and in the news, there is no escaping it. Against a broader backdrop of social inequity and unfairness, it’s easy for young people to feel a sense of “doom and gloom” about everything and to feel powerless. In CLIMATE IS JUST THE START, UK-based climate activist Mikaela Loach offers her urgent and inspiring message for kids who want to STOP the climate crisis and START building a better world for everyone. Mikaela explains the climate crisis and its broader social implications through personal stories about her activism journey. She writes about friends from around the world who are experiencing the worst of it today and about what they are doing to fight back. She delivers a message or not only hope, but of excitement for the opportunity to create not only a sustainable future for Earth, but better lives for people in the process.Mikaela is truly on the front lines of the climate movement: leading street protests, confronting fossil fuel executives, taking the UK government to court, and speaking up to those in power. Not only will kids love engage with her style, they will be inspired by her example. BIO Mikaela Loach, named by Forbes, BBC Women’s Hour and The Guardian as one of the most influential women in the UK climate movement, is a British-Jamaican former medical student, climate justice organiser and Director of the AWETHU School of Organising. Her first book, It’s Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World, was an instant indie bestseller. She was named the 2023 Non-Fiction Indie Champion by Bookshop.org and one of the “World’s Top Thinkers” by Prospect Magazine. Mikaela has boldly challenged powerful entities, calling out billionaires at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s annual event, taking the UK government to court in the landmark “Paid To Pollute” case in 2021, and challenging Shell’s CEO and board at their AGM for their human rights abuses to people of the Niger Delta in Nigeria. REVIEWS A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection!“It’s full of rousing advice that will motivate and energize young climate activists….Highly recommended for all.” -- Booklist, starred review“A rousing appeal for those concerned about the state of the world.” -- Kirkus Reviews [H] Bright Matter Books / March 18, 2025 0.9" H x 8.3" L x 5.6" W (0.65 lbs) 208 pages For ages 8 to 12

Climate Is Just The Start... /// Mikaela Loach /// new

New York Times bestselling author Connie Briscoe updates Daphne Du Maurier’s classic Rebecca in this chilling tale of domestic suspense centered on a spirited woman named Angel who marries a Black billionaire, only to discover that he remains haunted by his first wife who took her own life—or did she? A mansion haunted by the ghost of a cool, charismatic first wife. A second bride from a small Southern town who may be in over her head. A brooding billionaire who grows icier the more his new wife questions him about the past. In Connie Briscoe’s propulsive and entertaining novel, the elements of one of the most famous Gothic novels of all time is reimagined in surprising, yet still suspenseful, ways. Angel is a private chef for the Harrison’s, one of the most powerful Black families on Martha’s Vineyard. Impossibly supercilious Jillian Harrison often spends the entire summer on the island, while her husband Irvin and their twenty-nine-year-old daughter Norma commute from Washington, DC, on weekends. They always join Jillian for the month of August, when the family throws a lavish garden party on the expansive lawn that is attended by nearly one hundred guests. This year’s guests include Everette Bruce, an influential Black billionaire, still in mourning for his first wife, Chloe, who committed suicide. To the imperious Jillian’s surprise, Bruce ignores her and instead becomes enchanted with Angel. Eager to get away from the controlling Mrs. Harrison, Angel accepts Everett’s invitation to become the private chef at Riverwild, his massive mansion along the Potomac River. Her meals and company provide comfort Everett, and soon he and Angel begin a whirlwind romance that culminates in marriage. Though Angel is confident and strong, over time, she begins to feel the enigmatic Chloe's ghost. The house’s staff, the head housekeeper Ida—a menacingly rigid thorn in Angel’s side—and even Everett, cannot seem to let the dead woman go, nor explain why the wealthy, stunning woman would kill herself. The more questions Angel asks, the more melancholic Everett becomes, revealing a far less charming side of himself. Just how well does Angel know Everett? Did she marry in haste? The answers lie somewhere in Riverwild . . . BIO Born in Washington DC, Connie Briscoe is an author of romantic and historical fiction and has been a full-time published author for nearly three decades. Her novels have hit the New York Times and other national bestseller lists and she has been featured in numerous publications and on television programs, including Good Morning America. She lives in Maryland. REVIEWS "In this entertaining riff on Rebecca from bestseller Briscoe (You Never Know), a young chef embarks on a whirlwind romance with a billionaire…Briscoe folds some perceptive class critiques into her intoxicating blend of romance and suspense. This offers plenty of gothic pleasures." — Publishers Weekly [H] Amistad Press / March 18, 2025 0.91" H x 9.35" L x 6.34" W (0.76 lbs) 224 pages

New York Times bestselling author Connie Briscoe updates Daphne Du Maurier’s classic Rebecca in this chilling tale of domestic suspense centered on a spirited woman named Angel who marries a Black billionaire, only to discover that he remains haunted by his first wife who took her own life—or did she?
A mansion haunted by the ghost of a cool, charismatic first wife. A second bride from a small Southern town who may be in over her head. A brooding billionaire who grows icier the more his new wife questions him about the past.
In Connie Briscoe’s propulsive and entertaining novel, the elements of one of the most famous Gothic novels of all time is reimagined in surprising, yet still suspenseful, ways.
Angel is a private chef for the Harrison’s, one of the most powerful Black families on Martha’s Vineyard. Impossibly supercilious Jillian Harrison often spends the entire summer on the island, while her husband Irvin and their twenty-nine-year-old daughter Norma commute from Washington, DC, on weekends. They always join Jillian for the month of August, when the family throws a lavish garden party on the expansive lawn that is attended by nearly one hundred guests. This year’s guests include Everette Bruce, an influential Black billionaire, still in mourning for his first wife, Chloe, who committed suicide.
To the imperious Jillian’s surprise, Bruce ignores her and instead becomes enchanted with Angel. Eager to get away from the controlling Mrs. Harrison, Angel accepts Everett’s invitation to become the private chef at Riverwild, his massive mansion along the Potomac River. Her meals and company provide comfort Everett, and soon he and Angel begin a whirlwind romance that culminates in marriage.
Though Angel is confident and strong, over time, she begins to feel the enigmatic Chloe's ghost. The house’s staff, the head housekeeper Ida—a menacingly rigid thorn in Angel’s side—and even Everett, cannot seem to let the dead woman go, nor explain why the wealthy, stunning woman would kill herself. The more questions Angel asks, the more melancholic Everett becomes, revealing a far less charming side of himself. Just how well does Angel know Everett? Did she marry in haste?
The answers lie somewhere in Riverwild . . .
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Born in Washington DC, Connie Briscoe is an author of romantic and historical fiction and has been a full-time published author for nearly three decades. Her novels have hit the New York Times and other national bestseller lists and she has been featured in numerous publications and on television programs, including Good Morning America. She lives in Maryland.
REVIEWS
"In this entertaining riff on Rebecca from bestseller Briscoe (You Never Know), a young chef embarks on a whirlwind romance with a billionaire…Briscoe folds some perceptive class critiques into her intoxicating blend of romance and suspense. This offers plenty of gothic pleasures." — Publishers Weekly
[H]  Amistad Press  /  March 18, 2025
<meta charset="utf-8">0.91" H x 9.35" L x 6.34" W (0.76 lbs) 224 pages

Chloe: A Novel of Secrets and Lies /// Connie Briscoe /// new

Follow Faith on a joyful journey on a New York City train, where she learns a delicious lesson about courage and being kind. A perfect pick for fans of Milo Imagines the World, Last Stop on Market Street, and Saturday at the Food Pantry. Faith takes the train with her mother most days, and today she's eating one of Grandma's delicious sandwiches. Isaiah, who usually sings a song on their ride home, instead asks a question that quiets a busy train into awkward silence. “Can anyone please spare some change? A bite to eat?” When Faith sees his face, her heart goes thump-thump-thump. Will she have the courage to answer? This sweet and relatable picture book from author Kesi Augustine and illustrator Mokshini is sure to spark conversations about the small ways we can show kindness and help people in need. BIO Kesi Augustine is an author, educator, and scholar. She was born in Syracuse, New York, and raised downstate in New York City. Kesi filled her summers with books from local Queens libraries. Nowadays, when Kesi isn’t reading or writing, she is teaching language arts. Kesi lives in Central Florida. You can visit her at kesiaugustine.com. Faith Takes the Train is her first traditionally published picture book. REVIEWS “[D]electable…A lovely experience of wonder and empathy.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Affectionate... exuberant...resonant. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) [H] HarperCollins / March 11, 2025 0.4" H x 11.0" L x 8.7" W (0.9 lbs) 40 pages From ages 4 to 8

Follow Faith on a joyful journey on a New York City train, where she learns a delicious lesson about courage and being kind. 
A perfect pick for fans of Milo Imagines the World, Last Stop on Market Street, and Saturday at the Food Pantry.
Faith takes the train with her mother most days, and today she's eating one of Grandma's delicious sandwiches. Isaiah, who usually sings a song on their ride home, instead asks a question that quiets a busy train into awkward silence.
“Can anyone please spare some change? A bite to eat?”
When Faith sees his face, her heart goes thump-thump-thump. Will she have the courage to answer?
This sweet and relatable picture book from author Kesi Augustine and illustrator Mokshini is sure to spark conversations about the small ways we can show kindness and help people in need.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Kesi Augustine is an author, educator, and scholar. She was born in Syracuse, New York, and raised downstate in New York City. Kesi filled her summers with books from local Queens libraries. Nowadays, when Kesi isn’t reading or writing, she is teaching language arts. Kesi lives in Central Florida. You can visit her at kesiaugustine.com. Faith Takes the Train is her first traditionally published picture book.
REVIEWS
“[D]electable…A lovely experience of wonder and empathy.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Affectionate... exuberant...resonant.  -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
[H]  HarperCollins  /  March 11, 2025
<meta charset="utf-8"> 0.4" H x 11.0" L x 8.7" W (0.9 lbs) 40 pages
From ages 4 to 8

Faith Takes the Train /// Kesi Augustine, illustrations by Mokshini /// new

A heartfelt picture book about one child’s experience in foster care that reminds all kids that—just like a garden—love from the right source will help them bloom.Lamar has lived in seven homes in three years and has never stayed anywhere long enough to put down roots. As he watches his new foster mom tend to her garden each day, he soon joins her with cautious curiosity. Together, they plant, they weed, they water . . . until one day Lamar’s anger and feelings of uncertainty lead him to destroy the garden.But through his foster mother’s love and care, Lamar discovers that just like her garden, he is wanted, he is loved, he has been planted, and he will bloom.Written by a licensed social worker, Planted with Love illustrates that a loving home and a loving adult can provide a safe place for any child to grow and thrive. BIO Natasha Tripplett, a Jewish-Jamaican American author, lives in Northern California where she writes from a tree house perched in a sycamore tree. As a baby, Natasha was adopted into a Dutch, Christian family. Growing up on Vancouver Island in Canada, Natasha was acutely aware that she was different from her family; this did not keep her from integrating all the pieces of her identity. Natasha’s multicultural background has allowed her to flow seamlessly through different cultures while bridging gaps that typically divide people. Natasha has her masters degree in social work and practiced in the field of adoptions. She has counseled families, adoptees, and children in foster care. Natasha desires to help adoptees and those in foster care integrate their identity into one cohesive narrative. She has been published in various online magazines. Natasha is represented by Caryn Wiseman of Andrea Brown Literary Agency and has picture books with HarperCollins, Chronicle and WaterBrook. [H] Westbrook Press / March 11, 2025 0.3" H x 8.7" L x 8.6" W (0.55 lbs) 40 pages For ages 3 to 7

Planted with Love: Growing Into a Family /// Natasha Tripplett, illustrations by Adriana Predoi /// new

From America’s Mom—actress, New York Times bestselling author, NAACP Award–winning personality, and Emmy-winning host Tabitha Brown—comes an upbeat, inspiring story about finding your own light. "Hello there, sunshine!" Every morning, young Tabitha wakes up and greets the sun. She loves how it brings everyone JOY. But one day she wakes up and the sun is missing! So Tab hops on her strawberry shortcake bike with her puppy in tow and makes it her business to find the sun. Can she do it? Or will Tabitha find out that sometimes the shine we're looking for is inside of us? A perfect pick for fans of What Do You Do with an Idea?, You Matter, and Just Because, Brown’s children's debut is a marvelous read-aloud and a great gift that will remind the youngest reader to always stay positive. BIO Tabitha Brown is an Emmy Award–winning host, actress, and vegan food star who is affectionately known as “America’s Mom.” She has provided millions with food for the body and soul with her everyday wisdom rooted in love, kindness, and compassion. She is also the author of Seen, Loved, and Heard: A Guided Journal for Feeding the Soul, Cooking from the Spirit, and Feeding the Soul (Because It’s My Business), a #1 New York Times bestseller. Tabitha is the cocreator and host of her own children’s show, Tab Time, as well as the recipient of several NAACP Image Awards. She is also the cofounder and CEO of her own hair care line, Donna’s Recipe, and has product lines with Target and McCormick spices. Born and raised in Eden, North Carolina, she lives in Los Angeles with her family and dog. [H] HarperCollins / March 11, 2025 0.36" H x 11.04" L x 8.83" W (0.86 lbs) 40 pages For ages 4 to 8

From America’s Mom—actress, New York Times bestselling author, NAACP Award–winning personality, and Emmy-winning host Tabitha Brown—comes an upbeat, inspiring story about finding your own light.
"Hello there, sunshine!"
Every morning, young Tabitha wakes up and greets the sun. She loves how it brings everyone JOY. But one day she wakes up and the sun is missing! So Tab hops on her strawberry shortcake bike with her puppy in tow and makes it her business to find the sun.
Can she do it? Or will Tabitha find out that sometimes the shine we're looking for is inside of us?
A perfect pick for fans of What Do You Do with an Idea?, You Matter, and Just Because, Brown’s children's debut is a marvelous read-aloud and a great gift that will remind the youngest reader to always stay positive.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Tabitha Brown is an Emmy Award–winning host, actress, and vegan food star who is affectionately known as “America’s Mom.” She has provided millions with food for the body and soul with her everyday wisdom rooted in love, kindness, and compassion. She is also the author of Seen, Loved, and Heard: A Guided Journal for Feeding the Soul, Cooking from the Spirit, and Feeding the Soul (Because It’s My Business), a #1 New York Times bestseller. Tabitha is the cocreator and host of her own children’s show, Tab Time, as well as the recipient of several NAACP Image Awards. She is also the cofounder and CEO of her own hair care line, Donna’s Recipe, and has product lines with Target and McCormick spices. Born and raised in Eden, North Carolina, she lives in Los Angeles with her family and dog.
[H]  HarperCollins  /  March 11, 2025
<meta charset="utf-8">0.36" H x 11.04" L x 8.83" W (0.86 lbs) 40 pages
For ages 4 to 8

Hello There, Sunshine /// Tabitha Brown, illustrations by Olivia Duchess /// new

Here are Lorraine Hansberry's last three plays--Les Blancs, The Drinking Gourd, and What Use Are Flowers?--representing the capstone of her achievement. Includes a new preface by Jewell Gresham Nemiroff and a revised introduction by Margaret B. Wilkerson. BIO Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) electrified the theatrical world with her first play, A Raisin in the Sun, which won the New York Critics Circle Award for the 1958-59 season. Before her tragic death from cancer at the age of 34, she had already produced a remarkable body of work, including The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and Les Blancs. Her former husband and literary executor, the late Robert Nemiroff, posthumously produced and published her To Be Young, Gifted and Black and the musical Raisin. [P] Vintage / December 13, 1994 0.7" H x 8.0" L x 5.2" W (0.7 lbs) 288 pages

Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays: The Drinking Gourd/What Use Are Flowers? /// Lorraine Hansberry

In Making Modern Girls, Abosede A. George examines the influence of African social reformers and the developmentalist colonial state on the practice and ideology of girlhood as well as its intersection with child labor in Lagos, Nigeria. It draws from gender studies, generational studies, labor history, and urban history to shed new light on the complex workings of African cities from the turn of the twentieth century through the nationalist era of the 1950s. The two major schemes at the center of this study were the modernization project of elite Lagosian women and the salvationist project of British social workers. By approaching children and youth, specifically girl hawkers, as social actors and examining the ways in which local and colonial reformers worked upon young people, the book offers a critical new perspective on the uses of African children for the production and legitimization of national and international social development initiatives. Making Modern Girls demonstrates how oral sources can be used to uncover the social history of informal or undocumented urban workers and to track transformations in practices of childhood over the course of decades. George revises conventional accounts of the history of development work in Africa by drawing close attention to the social welfare initiatives of late colonialism and by highlighting the roles that African women reformers played in promoting sociocultural changes within their own societies. BIO Abosede A. George is an assistant professor of history and Africana studies at Barnard College in New York City. She holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University, and her articles have appeared in such venues as the Journal of Social History and Women’s Studies Quarterly. She is the founder of the Ekopolitan Project, a digital archive of family history resources on migrant communities in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Lagos. REVIEWS “One of the main planks on which this elegantly written book stands is the ideology of salvation as a political discourse and its deployment in the contestation over the notions of modern girlhood. The significance of Making Modern Girls in African studies is incontestable—it is by all standards one of the most sophisticated studies of girlhood in colonial Africa. George presents her carefully mined primary data in an engaging manner, rendering a first-rate analysis of the struggle about the ideas of modern girlhood by a spectrum of people (Nigerians and British).” -- American Historical Review “By profiling the experiences of working-class girls—namely girl hawkers and ‘those who set out to save them in nineteenth-century colonial Lagos’—[George] emphasizes children as colonial subjects and discusses how an examination of their interactions with the colonial state adds a new perspective to our understanding of European rule, citizenship building, and knowledge production in Africa. … Making Modern Girls has something to offer to all readers. … This work offers a deep perspective on the contours of modernity in colonial Africa, while presenting new insights into the links among gender, labor, and sexuality in colonial Africa.” -- African Studies Review “George approaches the history of girls and girlhood through the lens of labour, focusing on the constitutive relationship between gender, class, generation, and work. Because of the dearth of scholarship focusing on girls as historical subjects, the author had to determine the different types of work that girls performed in public spaces and how adults responded to their labour. … Making Modern Girls … makes a significant contribution to scholarly understandings of girls and girlhood in modern Africa. … It would be useful in a historical methods course to show how silences in the historical record can be read as sources in and of themselves.” -- Canadian Journal of History [P] Ohio University Press / September 02, 2014 0.9" H x 8.9" L x 5.9" W (0.85 lbs) 312 pages

Making Modern Girls: A History of Girlhood, Labor, and Social Development in Colonial Lagos /// Abosede A. George

From award-winning author and creative writing professor at Tulane University comes an intimate and powerful memoir exploring inherited trauma, family secrets, and the enduring bonds of love between mothers and daughters.On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died in a car crash near Detroit, only to be resuscitated after her mother pulled her from the flaming wreckage. Firstborn Girls traces her remarkable life from that moment up to the publication of her first novel, Sugar.Growing up in 1980s Brooklyn, Bernice finds solace in books, summer trips to Barbados, and boarding school to escape her alcoholic father. Discovering the works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, she finally sees herself and her loved ones reflected in their stories of “messy, beautiful, joyful Black people.”Interwoven with Bernice’s personal journey is her family’s history, beginning with her four-times enslaved great-grandmother Louisa Vicey Wilson in 1822 Hancock County, Georgia. Her descendants survived Reconstruction and Jim Crow, joined the Great Migration, and mourned Dr. King’s assassination during the Civil Rights Movement. These women’s wisdom, secrets, and fierce love are passed down like Louisa’s handmade quilt.A memoir of many threads, Firstborn Girls is an extraordinarily moving portrait of a life shaped by family, history, and the drive to be something more. BIO Bernice L. McFadden is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Tulane University and the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including Sugar, The Warmest December, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, Glorious, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), The Book of Harlan (winner of a 2017 American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction), and Praise Song for the Butterflies (long-listed for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction). She is a four-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of three awards from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. REVIEWS “A distinguished novelist explores the history that shaped her and the women in her family. . . . A powerful, richly tapestried book about race, history, love, and the healing power of the written word.” -- Kirkus“Novelist McFadden delivers the captivating, multigenerational stories of her family in a poignant memoir.” -- Booklist“In her remarkable memoir, Bernice McFadden revisits the chaos of girlhood and her journeys as a mother, daughter, and writer, all beneath the specter of white supremacy, patriarchy, and domestic violence. Hailing from generations of hard-loving, bold, flawed Black women, McFadden’s recounting of their lives and intimacies is masterful and mesmerizing. Fueled by compassion and anger, resilience and curiosity, McFadden reveals family secrets, strivings, and struggles, against the backdrop of our country’s long legacy of racial injustice. Revelatory and enthralling, Firstborn Girls is an absolute treasure.” -- Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies“Firstborn Girls does what Bernice McFadden does better than absolutely everybody, it takes you on a journey through the ages that makes you feel all of your feelings unabashedly. What makes it more special in her first non-fiction book is that it’s her story, her real, lived experience that she has boldly invited us to journey alongside her. Her ability to tell a story makes it one of the most engrossing memoirs I have read in a long time and allows you to forget that it is the real life of a family with such a rich and interesting history. People will talk about these Firstborn Girls for years to come!” -- Tarana Burke, activist and author of Unbound“Firstborn Girls, Bernice McFadden’s riveting memoir, cements her position as one of America’s most creative and necessary writers. Like Toni Morrison who focused her lens specifically on the lives of Black people, and hence told a universal story, so too does McFadden. With Firstborn Girls she has produced a vital and stunningly gorgeous work, again.” -- Sapphire, New York Times bestselling author of Push and The Kid [H] Dutton / March 04, 2025 1.35" H x 9.23" L x 6.37" W (1.18 lbs) 400 pages

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