"With sumptuous, visually stimulating spreads, this book delivers on its promise– to unearth strange stories, bizarre facts, or unexpected details about the books on our shelves. Good for curious readers, whether they want to delve into authors and books they love, feel competent faking knowledge about books everyone else seems to have read, or just dip into and out of literary worlds" – Library Journal Readers rejoice! From Mental Floss, an online destination for more than a billion curious minds since its founding in 2001, comes the ultimate book for lovers of literature. From Americanah to War and Peace, from Chinua Achebe and Jane Austen to Jesmyn Ward and George R.R. Martin, learn surprising facts about the world’s most famous novels and novelists. The Curious Reader will delight bookworms everywhere. This literary compendium from Mental Floss reveals fascinating facts about the world’s most famous authors and their literary works. Readers will learn about George Orwell’s near-death experience during the writing of 1984; meet the real man who may have inspired Pride and Prejudice’s Mr. Darcy; discover which famous author kept her husband’s heart after he passed away; and learn about the influence of psychedelics on Dune. The Curious Reader also contains the most-loved book-related articles from 20 years of Mental Floss, including “Cat-Loving Writers,” “Famous Authors’ Unfinished Manuscripts,” “Literary Characters Based on Real People,” and “Books You Didn’t Know Were Self-Published.” This literary miscellany is certain to inspire book lovers, aspiring writers, students, and teachers alike to discover a diverse selection of curated literary works—leading to an expansion of their library!

With unwavering humanity and light-footed humor, this intimate account of the interminable year of 2020 offers commentary on the COVID-19 pandemic, protests for racial justice, the U.S. presidential election, and more, all with a miraculous dose of groundedness in head-spinning times. From the award-winning book critic and best-selling author.

This book is so funny and so true. Charles Finch unpacks a year of plague, fear, shameless venality, and dizzying stupidity with an irrepressible wit and surgically precise cultural observations. I didn't know how badly I needed exactly this. Maybe you do too?
--Joe Hill, author of Heart-Shaped Box
 

In March 2020, at the request of the Los Angeles Times, Charles Finch became a reluctant diarist: As California sheltered in place, he began to write daily notes about the odd ambient changes in his own life and in the lives around him. The result is What Just Happened.

In a warm, candid, welcoming voice, and in the tradition of Woolf and Orwell, Finch brings us into his own world: taking long evening walks near his home in L.A., listening to music, and keeping virtual connections with friends across the country as they each experience the crisis. And drawing on his remarkable acuity as a cultural critic, he chronicles one endless year with delightful commentary on current events, and the things that distract him from current events: Murakami's novels, reality television, the Beatles.

What Just Happened is a work of empathy and insight, at once of-the-moment and timeless--a gift from one of our culture's most original thinkers.

‘No one ever fully recovers from their past. There is no cure for it. You just learn to manage and prioritise it. I believe the second you feel you have triumphed or overcome something, anything – an abuse, an injury to the body or the mind, an addiction, a character flaw, a habit, a person – you have merely decided to stop being vigilant and embraced denial as your modus operandi. And that is what this book is about, and for: to remind you not to buy in to the Hollywood ending.’ Baggage chronicles the actor’s life in Hollywood and the ways in which work has repeatedly whisked him away from personal calamities to sets and stages around the world. Taking us through the highs and lows of his career, his struggle with mental health, each failed relationship or encounter with a legend (Liza! X-Men! Gore Vidal! Kubrick! Spice Girls!), every bad decision or moment of sensual joy, Cumming shows how every experience – good or bad – has shaped who he is today: a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless middle-aged man, with a lot of baggage. Startlingly honest, both poignant and joyous, Baggage shines a light on how to embrace the complicated messiness of life.

The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays.

"Any story that starts will also end." As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart.

At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores "what it means to be seen, to find someone with whom you can be your best and most complete self." When Patchett chose an early galley of actor and producer Tom Hanks' short story collection to read one night before bed, she had no idea that this single choice would be life changing. It would introduce her to a remarkable woman--Tom's brilliant assistant Sooki--with whom she would form a profound bond that held monumental consequences for them both.

A literary alchemist, Patchett plumbs the depths of her experiences to create gold: engaging and moving pieces that are both self-portrait and landscape, each vibrant with emotion and rich in insight. Turning her writer's eye on her own experiences, she transforms the private into the universal, providing us all a way to look at our own worlds anew, and reminds how fleeting and enigmatic life can be.

From the enchantments of Kate DiCamillo's children's books (author of the upcoming The Beatryce Prophecy) to youthful memories of Paris; the cherished life gifts given by her three fathers to the unexpected influence of Charles Schultz's Snoopy; the expansive vision of Eudora Welty to the importance of knitting, Patchett connects life and art as she illuminates what matters most. Infused with the author's grace, wit, and warmth, the pieces in These Precious Days resonate deep in the soul, leaving an indelible mark--and demonstrate why Ann Patchett is one of the most celebrated writers of our time.

"A fresh take on George Orwell as a far more nature-loving figure than is often portrayed, and a dazzlingly rich meditation on roses, gardens, and the value and use of beauty and pleasure in the face of brutality and horror. "In the spring of 1936 a man planted roses." That man was George Orwell, shortly before he went off to fight against fascism in Spain. Today, those rosebushes are still thriving. This is the starting point for Rebecca Solnit's new book, which presents another side of Orwell, a neglected arcadian Orwell who took enormous pleasure in the natural world and found great meaning and value in it. Orwell's planting of the roses is an axle from which Solnit's chapters radiate out like spokes as she brilliantly explores its various contexts, perspectives, and meanings, following the contours of Orwell's life and tracking how deeply enmeshed the love of nature is in all his writing. Journeying to the cottage in Wallingford where Orwell lived in 1936, she examines his desire to be agrarian and settled, how gardening restored him, and how planting something can be an act of fidelity and faith. Probing at the beauty and meaning of roses, she draws in the revolutionary photography and politics of Tina Modotti and makes a clandestine visit to a Columbian rose factory, where 80% of America's roses for sale are grown. She tracks the history of gardening, showing how the desire to garden is culturally determined and often rooted in class, recounts the immense battles over breeding and genetics in Russia during Stalin's time, and probes into the colonialist roots of Orwell's forebears, who worked in opium production in India and profiteered from sugar and slavery in Jamaica. Solnit shows how these points of intersection illuminate Orwell's work, and how that illumination shines forth on larger questions about beauty, pleasure, meaning, relationship, and hope. Her book establishes that "Orwellian" could stand for something more than ominous, corrupt, and sinister"--

A brilliant psychoanalyst and professor of literature invites us to contemplate profound questions about the human experience by focusing on some of the best-known characters in literature--from how Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway copes with the inexorability of midlife disappointment to Ruth's embodiment of adolescent rebellion in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.

"So beautiful ... a fantastic book." --Zadie Smith, best-selling author of White Teeth

In supple and elegant prose, and with all the expertise and insight of his dual professions, Josh Cohen explores a new way for us to understand ourselves. He helps us see what Lewis Carroll's Alice and Harper Lee's Scout Finch can teach us about childhood. He delineates the mysteries of education as depicted in Jane Eyre and as seen through the eyes of Sandy Stranger in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

He discusses the need for adolescent rebellion as embodied in John Grimes in James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain and in Ruth in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. He makes clear what Goethe's Young Werther and Sally Rooney's Frances have--and don't have--in common as they experience first love; how Middlemarch's Dorothea Brooke deals with the vicissitudes of marriage. Vis-a-vis old age and death, Cohen considers what wisdom we may glean from John Ames in Marilynne Robinson's Gilead and from Don Fabrizio in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard.

Featuring:

- Alice--Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass
- Scout Finch--Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
- Jane Eyre--Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
- John Grimes--James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain
- Ruth--Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
- Vladimir Petrovitch--Ivan Turgenev, First Love
- Frances--Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends
- Jay Gatsby--F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
- Esther Greenwood--Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
- Clarissa Dalloway--Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
- And more!

Learn to read with Marvel's Spider-Man!

Miles Morales might seem like just a young kid from Brooklyn, but he has a few secrets. Firstly, he actually came from another Universe. Secondly - he is really Spider-Man!

Exciting images, simple vocabulary, and a fun quiz will engage young fans of Marvel Super Heroes and help them build confidence in reading.

© 2020 MARVEL

Barbie learns all about being a musician in this all-new Step 2 Step into Reading leveled reader!

Barbie learns all about writing music, playing instruments, and singing in perfect harmony with her favorite pop star! The latest in the Barbie: I Can Be career series, Children ages 4 to 6 will love to read how Barbie can become a musician in this Step 2 Step into Reading leveled reader. Step 2 readers use basic vocabulary and short sentences to tell simple stories. For children who recognize familiar words and can sound out new words with help.

Since 1959, Barbie has shown girls that they can live their dreams. From an astronaut to a chef to a president, she knows that girls can do anything!

This Step 3 Step into Reading leveled reader with more than 30 sparkling stickers is based on Disney's hit animated film Raya and the Last Dragon!

Experience the magic of the fantasy-action-adventure Raya and the Last Dragon, exploring themes of community and hope, and inspired by the beautiful and diverse cultures of Southeast Asia. Girls and boys ages 5 to 7 will love this Step 3 Step into Reading leveled reader based on Disney's upcoming animated film--with more than 30 sparkling stickers! Step 3 readers feature engaging characters in easy-to-follow plots about popular topics. For children who are ready to read on their own.

Walt Disney Animation Studios' Raya and the Last Dragon introduces Raya, a lone warrior from the fantasy kingdom of Kumandra who teams up with a crew of misfits in her quest to find the last dragon and bring light and unity back to their world. Awkwafina lends her voice to Sisu, the last dragon, who was left on Kumandra in case dark forces return to the world, and Kelly Marie Tran voices the lead character, Raya.

"Neigh!" said a horse.

"Quack!" said a duck.

"Beep!" said the friendly

Little Blue Truck.

Little Blue Truck is a joyful cacophony of animal and truck sounds that will have youngsters beeping and quacking—and begging for one more go-round! Along the way, readers see that it pays to be kind to our animal friends . . . if we show a friendly respect to others, we’re more likely to get help when we’re, say, stuck in the muck in a truck. Jill McElmurry’s gouache illustrations of wild-eyed farm animals and country roads are warm and wonderful, suiting the cheerfully rhyming text to a T. Beep!

A Netflix Original series


With over 30 million copies in print, Anna Dewdney's New York Times bestselling Llama Llama books have provided hours of comfort and fun-to-read-aloud rhyme.

I have something new to talk about . . . tonight I will be going out, Mama gently tells Llama Llama.
At first, Llama feels okay with this. After all, Mama has gone out before and Gram and Grandpa have stayed with him. But this time they can't. Someone new is coming over, and the more he thinks about it, the more he worries! He knows he will be miserable . . . and then the doorbell rings. It's Molly from the ice cream store. What is she doing here? And she has ice cream! Maybe having a new babysitter isn't nearly as bad as he thought!

A hilarious picture book from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jory John, paired with new illustrator Erin Kraan, about a bear whose friends help him make it through a bad day!

Jeff the bear has definitely forgotten something. He ate his breakfast, he watered his plant, he combed his fur...what could it be? Why does he feel so oddly off? So he asks his friend Anders the rabbit what could possibly be wrong. It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that he's wearing underwear...over his fur...could it?

Something's Wrong! is another read-out-loud, laugh-out-loud picture book from bestselling and beloved author Jory John, about that horrible nagging feeling that it just might not be your day—but you know you have a friend to support you no matter what.

Classic nursery rhymes with interactive elements makes this board book ideal for little hands!

With a lift-the-flap on every spread, this sturdy casebound board book is the perfect way to revisit five classic nursery rhymes: "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," "Hickory Dickory Dock," "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider," and "The Wheels on the Bus."

A beguiling array of felines from A to Z makes learning the alphabet the cat's pajamas.

Adorable cat with eyes of gold.
Baby cat just two weeks old.

From curious to elegant, grouchy to inquisitive, rowdy to tangled to . . . well, unusual (who says cats don't swim in the tub?), these twenty-six charming felines interact with oversize alphabet letters on rhyming spreads. Author Lesléa Newman and illustrator Isabella Kung offer a cat's-eye concept book that makes the ABCs go down easy--and is sure to inspire many a repeat viewing.

The perfect baby present and self-purchase for just the right moment in a baby and parent's life.

Introducing Beginning Baby, a new line of novelty board books and gifts from the Chronicle Children's group. Based on over 30 years of distinctive, innovative, bestselling, and award-winning children's publishing, Beginning Baby is the ultimate series for new parents and their children. We've taken our experience as creative professionals, moms, dads, aunts, uncles, siblings, and friends to create a line of books and gifts that we would want to share with the little ones in our lives. Every Beginning Baby book, toy, or game features simple icons to denote which developmental milestones it supports, along with the intended age range. With its distinctive yet accessible art, lovable characters, and educational concepts, Beginning Baby is designed to make growing and learning as easy as playing and dreaming—and will become the must-have gift or self-purchase for every baby's first library. Because a strong beginning sets the groundwork for a bright start!

In Welcome to Shape School!, readers join Gabriel Giraffe, Elijah Elephant, Riley Narwhal, Mia Monkey, Layla Llama, Paisley Octopus, and Mateo Red Panda as they tap, trace, and count the nine different shapes that they encounter during their day at school!

• DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE: Every book is conceived and written to address milestones in a baby's life, from fine motor skills to shape recognition and emotional awareness.
• A CHARMING WAY TO LEARN TO COUNT: Like Counting Kisses, this counting book teaches very young children how to count to ten and express their affection in many delightful ways.
• CUTE CHARACTERS: Evoking Richard Scarry's classic characters but for much younger readers, these adorable characters—from an artistic llama to a musical elephant and gardener octopus—teach toddler concepts while promoting socialization and community.
• BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED FOR DISCERNING EYES: Bright, peppy colors and patterns make this series of books attractive for both babies and adults!
• MORE TITLES COMING: Beginning Baby will launch with 3 titles and publish 2–3 titles per season through 2022.

Perfect for:

• Parents of babies and toddlers
• Grandparents
• Uncles and aunts
• Teachers and educators at daycare and early childhood centers

Learn how to code in Python by building and playing your own computer games, from mind-bending brainteasers to crazy action games with explosive sound effects and 3D graphics. Whether you're a seasoned programmer or a beginner hoping to learn Python, you'll find Computer Coding Python Games for Kids fun to read and easy to follow. Each chapter shows how to construct a complete working game in simple numbered steps. Using freely available resources, such as PyGame Zero and Blender, you can add animations, music, scrolling backgrounds, 3D scenery, and other exciting professional touches. After building the game, find out how to adapt it to create your own personalised version with secret hacks and cheat codes!

This charming picture book biography about the inventor of the Frisbee follows the twists and turns of innovation and highlights the persistence it takes to succeed.

Fred Morrison is credited with inventing this classic toy, but for centuries folks have been flipping for flying discs. Ancient Greeks flicked discs, and beginning in the 1920s, college kids at Yale University were tossing pie tins.

Fred's invention quest began in 1932 after tossing a tin popcorn lid around the backyard. For more than twenty years, Fred and his wife, Lu, tried and failed to perfect a flying-disc concept. Eventually they created what we know today as the Frisbee.

Fun and fact-filled, this Frisbee origin story is sure to delight sports and STEM fans alike.

New picture book by a two-time Newbery Honor-winning author!

The delightful story of an unconventional family of kids who learn the ups and downs of working together.

Merra, Locky, Roozle, Finn, and little Jory love their ramble shamble house. It's a lot of work taking care of the garden, the chickens, and themselves, but they all pitch in to make it easier--even Jory, who looks after the mud puddles. When they come across a picture of a "proper" house in a book, they start wondering if their own home is good enough. So they get to work "propering up" the garden, the chickens, and even the mud puddles. But the results aren't exactly what they expected, and when their now-proper household's youngest member goes missing, they realize that their ramble shamble home might be just right for their family, after all.

An instant classic with a bear-sized heart, Hannah Gold's debut novel is a touching story of kindness, adventure, and forging your own path--perfect for fans of Pax and A Wolf Called Wander.

There are no polar bears left on Bear Island. At least, that's what April's father tells her when his scientific research takes them to a faraway Arctic outpost.

But one night, April catches a glimpse of something distinctly bear shaped loping across the horizon. A polar bear who shouldn't be there--who is hungry, lonely and a long way from home.

An excellent choice for readers in grades 3 to 7, this fierce celebration of friendship includes full-page black-and-white illustrations throughout, as well as information about the real Bear Island and the plight of the polar bears.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Sorcery of Thorns and An Enchantment of Ravens comes a thrilling new YA fantasy about a teen girl with mythic abilities who must defend her world against restless spirits of the dead.

The dead of Loraille do not rest.

Artemisia is training to be a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the bodies of the deceased so that their souls can pass on; otherwise, they will rise as spirits with a ravenous hunger for the living. She would rather deal with the dead than the living, who trade whispers about her scarred hands and troubled past.

When her convent is attacked by possessed soldiers, Artemisia defends it by awakening an ancient spirit bound to a saint’s relic. It is a revenant, a malevolent being that threatens to possess her the moment she drops her guard. Wielding its extraordinary power almost consumes her—but death has come to Loraille, and only a vespertine, a priestess trained to wield a high relic, has any chance of stopping it. With all knowledge of vespertines lost to time, Artemisia turns to the last remaining expert for help: the revenant itself.

As she unravels a sinister mystery of saints, secrets, and dark magic, her bond with the revenant grows. And when a hidden evil begins to surface, she discovers that facing this enemy might require her to betray everything she has been taught to believe—if the revenant doesn’t betray her first.

Anacondas, woolly rhinos, and hyenas, oh my! Beware the beasts you'll meet inside these thrilling books, with special "X-Ray" pages that let you peer clear through to the animal's skeleton, colourful "call-out" illustrations, and myth-busting "Did You Know" questions - everything you need to safely get to know some of the scariest creature that ever lived!

When 12-year-old Cooper Vega moves for the third time in five years, he receives a state-of-the-art smartphone to help him stay in touch with old friends. He's had phones before, but this one is buggy and unpredictable. When a boy named Roderick Northrop communicates with him through the phone, Cooper realizes the phone isn't buggy at all; the thing is haunted!

An accessible and beautifully written middle grade novel-in-verse by award-winning Irish author Meg Grehan about Stevie, a young girl reckoning with anxiety about the many things she has yet to understand—including her feelings about her friend Chloe. Perfect for fans of Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World, Star Crossed, and George.

11-year-old Stevie is an avid reader and she knows a lot of things about a lot of things. But these are the things she'd like to know the most:

1. The ocean and all the things that live there and why it's so scary
2. The stars and all the constellations
3. How phones work
4. What happened to Princess Anastasia
5. Knots

Knowing things makes Stevie feel safe, powerful, and in control should anything bad happen. And with the help of her mom, she is finding the tools to manage her anxiety.

But there’s one something Stevie doesn’t know, one thing she wants to understand above everything else, and one thing she isn't quite ready to share with her mom: the fizzy feeling she gets in her chest when she looks at her friend, Chloe. What does it mean and why isn't she ready to talk about it?

In this poetic exploration of identity and anxiety, Stevie must confront her fears to find inner freedom all while discovering it is our connections with others that make us stronger.

From the New York Times bestselling author of THE MOST DANGEROUS BOOK, the true story behind the creation of another masterpiece of world literature, Fyodor Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.

THE SINNER AND THE SAINT is the deeply researched and immersive tale of how Dostoevsky came to write this great murder story--and why it changed the world. As a young man, Dostoevsky was a celebrated writer, but his involvement with the radical politics of his day condemned him to a long Siberian exile. There, he spent years studying the criminals that were his companions. Upon his return to St. Petersburg in the 1860s, he fought his way through gambling addiction, debilitating debt, epilepsy, the deaths of those closest to him, and literary banishment to craft an enduring classic.

The germ of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT came from the sensational story of Pierre François Lacenaire, a notorious murderer who charmed and outraged Paris in the 1830s. Lacenaire was a glamorous egoist who embodied the instincts that lie beneath nihilism, a western-influenced philosophy inspiring a new generation of Russian revolutionaries. Dostoevsky began creating a Russian incarnation of Lacenaire, a character who could demonstrate the errors of radical politics and ideas. His name would be Raskolnikov.

Lacenaire shaped Raskolnikov in profound ways, but the deeper insight, as Birmingham shows, is that Raskolnikov began to merge with Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky was determined to tell a murder story from the murderer's perspective, but his character couldn't be a monster. No. The murderer would be chilling because he wants so desperately to be good.

The writing consumed Dostoevsky. As his debts and the predatory terms of his contract caught up with him, he hired a stenographer to dictate the final chapters in time. Anna Grigorievna became Dostoevsky's first reader and chief critic and changed the way he wrote forever. By the time Dostoevsky finished his great novel, he had fallen in love.

Dostoevsky's great subject was self-consciousness. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT advanced a revolution in artistic thinking and began the greatest phase of Dostoevsky's career. THE SINNER AND THE SAINT now gives us the thrilling and definitive story of that triumph.

An Indie Next Selection for September 2021

From the author of the bestselling #ReadWithJenna/TODAY Show book club pick Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss

For the past four years, Margaret Renkl's columns have offered readers of The New York Times a weekly dose of natural beauty, human decency, and persistent hope from her home in Nashville. Now more than sixty of those pieces have been brought together in this sparkling new collection.

"People have often asked me how it feels to be the 'voice of the South, '" writes Renkl in her introduction. "But I'm not the voice of the South, and no one else is, either." There are many Souths--red and blue, rural and urban, mountain and coast, Black and white and brown--and no one writer could possibly represent all of them. In Graceland, At Last, Renkl writes instead from her own experience about the complexities of her homeland, demonstrating along the way how much more there is to this tangled region than many people understand.

In a patchwork quilt of personal and reported essays, Renkl also highlights some other voices of the South, people who are fighting for a better future for the region. A group of teenagers who organized a youth march for Black Lives Matter. An urban shepherd whose sheep remove invasive vegetation. Church parishioners sheltering the homeless. Throughout, readers will find the generosity of spirit and deep attention to the world, human and nonhuman, that keep readers returning to her columns each Monday morning.

From a writer who "makes one of all the world's beings" (NPR), Graceland, At Last is a book full of gifts for Southerners and non-Southerners alike.

A Forest on Many Stems: Essays on the Poet's Novel provides a unique entrance to the rare prose of many remarkable modern and contemporary poets including Etel Adnan, Renee Gladman, Langston Hughes, Kevin Killian, Alice Notley, Fernando Pessoa, Rainer Maria Rilke, Leslie Scalapino, Jack Spicer, and Jean Toomer, whose approaches to the novel defy conventions of plot, character, setting, and action. Contributors Brian Blanchfield, Anne Boyer, John Keene, Mónica de la Torre, Cedar Sigo, and C. D. Wright bring a variety of insights, approaches, and writing styles to the subject with creative and often surprising results. Kazim Ali on Fanny Howe Dan Beachy-Quick on W.G. Sebald Edmund Berrigan on Ted Berrigan Brian Blanchfield on Aaron Kunin Rachel Blau DuPlessis on Gertrude Stein Julia Bloch on Gwendolyn Brooks Anne Boyer on Elizabeth Barrett Browning Traci Brimhall on Hilda Hilst Vincent Broqua on Stacy Doris Brandon Brown on Kevin Killian Lee Ann Brown on Carla Harryman Angela Carr on Nicole Brossard Julie Carr on Lyn Hejinian Norma Cole on Emmanuel Hocquard Brent Cunningham on Laura Moriarty Mónica de la Torre on Martín Adán Marcella Durand on Robert Creeley Patrick Durgin on Tan Lin & Pamela Lu Norman Fischer on Phillip Whalen C.S. Giscombe on Audre Lorde Judith Goldman on Leslie Scalapino Carla Harryman on Gail Scott Jeanne Heuving on Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Laura Hinton on Alice Notley Daniel Katz on Jack Spicer John Keene on Fernando Pessoa Karla Kelsey on Barbara Guest Aaron Kunin on Lewis Carroll Sonnet L'Abbé on M. NourbeSe Philip Abigail Lang on Jacques Roubaud Kimberly Lyons on Mina Loy W. Jason Miller on Langston Hughes Mette Moestrup on Ingeborg Bachmann Laura Moriarty on Keith Waldrop Laura Mullen on Bhanu Kapil Denise Newman on Inger Christensen Aldon Lynn Nielsen on Amiri Baraka Geoffrey G. O'Brien on John Ashbery & James Schuyler Jena Osman on Thalia Field Julie Patton on Jean Toomer Elizabeth Robinson on Rosmarie Waldrop Jennifer Scappettone on H.D. Susan Scarlata on Forrest Gander Brandon Shimoda on Etel Adnan Cedar Sigo on Eileen Myles Sasha Steensen on Anne Carson Donna Stonecipher on Peter Waterhouse Brian Teare on Rainer Maria Rilke Tyrone Williams on Nathaniel Mackey C.D. Wright on Michael Ondaatje Lynn Xu on Ben Lerner Rachel Zolf on Juliana Spahr

Dispatches from the front lines of American culture by the great humorist

Ian Frazier, “America’s greatest essayist” (Los Angeles Times), has gathered his insights on the most urgent issues of today in Cranial Fracking. From climate change (what did Al Gore say at his colloquium on the rising temperatures in Hell?) to the state of culture (what do you do when you’re afflicted with Loss of Funding?) to Texas (what should we do with Texas?), he has all the answers. Or, at the very least, a lot of questions.

Frazier is endlessly curious and perpetually delighted, and seeing the absurdity of the world through his eyes is irresistible. Once more, the author of Hogs Wild and Travels in Siberia has struck oil.

Book 2 in the 5-book Christian fiction series that has sold over 1.5 million copies

A story of God's divine leading and the realization that peace comes only after forgiveness, from Karen Kingsbury, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of "heart-tugging and emotional" (Romantic Times) life-changing fiction.

A Deadly Accident
The Christian Kids Theater group is devastated by a tragedy greater than any of them could've imagined. Now their director, Katy Hart, must find a way to walk the kids through their grief and give them a reason to believe again. But will hatred and revenge have the final word?

An Aching Emptiness
Dayne Matthews is working on what could be his best movie yet. Still, he feels empty and unfocused, aching for real love and the family he'll never know. Then a friend tells him about a teaching center and a way to become like God. Is this the answer Dayne's been searching for?

A Shocking Discovery
John Baxter reconnects with an old friend and shares a buried secret, one that he and his wife kept hidden all their married lives. Now--in his wife's honor--he decides to continue a very special search. But in the process he makes a critical mistake and one of his daughters stumbles onto a letter she was never supposed to see. For the Baxters, grace and redemption will play a greater role in this season than ever before.

The Firstborn series is the second installment in the continuing Baxter Family Drama from America's number one inspirational novelist, Karen Kingsbury. Revisit the Baxter family in all their life-changing events, or share the series with someone who hasn't discovered it yet.

The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction--to the City of New York.

Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.

From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, a gloriously entertaining novel of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs set in Harlem in the 1960s.

"Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home. 

Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time. 

Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn't ask questions, either. 

Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the "Waldorf of Harlem"—and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes. 

Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs? 

Harlem Shuffle's ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem. 

But mostly, it's a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead.

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller
AARP The Magazine – Recommended Summer Reading
CNN – A Most Anticipated Book of August
Bustle – A Most Anticipated Book of August
Amazon Book Review – An Editors’ Pick for August
CrimeReads – 5 Must-Read Psychological Thrillers
CrimeReads – Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2021

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to Three Pines in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's latest spellbinding novel

You’re a coward.

Time and again, as the New Year approaches, that charge is leveled against Armand Gamache.

It starts innocently enough.

While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request.

He’s asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting Professor of Statistics will be giving a lecture at the nearby university.

While he is perplexed as to why the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec would be assigned this task, it sounds easy enough. That is until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture.

They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. Before long, Professor Robinson’s views start seeping into conversations. Spreading and infecting. So that truth and fact, reality and delusion are so confused it’s near impossible to tell them apart.

Discussions become debates, debates become arguments, which turn into fights. As sides are declared, a madness takes hold.

Abigail Robinson promises that, if they follow her, ça va bien aller. All will be well. But not, Gamache and his team know, for everyone.

When a murder is committed it falls to Armand Gamache, his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and their team to investigate the crime as well as this extraordinary popular delusion.

And the madness of crowds.

“A relentless exhibition of Groff’s freakish talent. In just over 250 pages, she gives us a character study to rival Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell .” – USA Today

“An electric reimagining . . . feminist, sensual . . . unforgettable.” – O, The Oprah Magazine

“Thrilling and heartbreaking.” –Time Magazine

“[A] page-by-page pleasure as we soar with her.” –New York Times

One of our best American writers, Lauren Groff returns with her exhilarating first new novel since the groundbreaking Fates and Furies.
Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, seventeen-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease.

At first taken aback by the severity of her new life, Marie finds focus and love in collective life with her singular and mercurial sisters. In this crucible, Marie steadily supplants her desire for family, for her homeland, for the passions of her youth with something new to her: devotion to her sisters, and a conviction in her own divine visions. Marie, born the last in a long line of women warriors and crusaders, is determined to chart a bold new course for the women she now leads and protects. But in a world that is shifting and corroding in frightening ways, one that can never reconcile itself with her existence, will the sheer force of Marie’s vision be bulwark enough?

Equally alive to the sacred and the profane, Matrix gathers currents of violence, sensuality, and religious ecstasy in a mesmerizing portrait of consuming passion, aberrant faith, and a woman that history moves both through and around. Lauren Groff’s new novel, her first since Fates and Furies, is a defiant and timely exploration of the raw power of female creativity in a corrupted world.

Bringing the lessons of Mister Rogers into the digital age
 
Playful and practical, When You Wonder, You're Learning introduces a new generation of families to the lessons of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. By exploring the science behind the iconic television program, the book reveals what Fred Rogers called the “tools for learning”: skills and mindsets that scientists now consider essential. These tools—curiosity, creativity, collaboration, and more—have been shown to boost everything from academic learning to children’s well-being, and they benefit kids of every background and age. They cost next to nothing to develop, and they hinge on the very things that make life worthwhile: self-acceptance; close, loving relationships; and a deep regard for one’s neighbor.
 
When You Wonder, You're Learning shows parents and educators the many ways they might follow in Rogers’ footsteps, sharing his “tools for learning” with digital-age kids. With insights from thinkers, scientists, and teachers—many of whom worked with Rogers himself—the book is an essential exploration into how kids and their parents can excel at what Rogers taught best: being human.

This positive, straightforward book offers kids with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) their own comprehensive resource for both understanding their condition and finding tools to cope with the challenges they face every day.

Some children with ASDs are gifted; others struggle academically. Some are more introverted, while others try to be social. Some get “stuck” on things, have limited interests, or experience repeated motor movements like flapping of pacing (”stims”). The Survival Guide for Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders covers all of these areas, with an emphasis on helping children gain new self-understanding and self-acceptance.

Meant to be read with a parent, the book addresses questions (”What is ASD?” “Why me?”) and provides strategies for communicating, making and keeping friends, and succeeding in school. Body and brain basics highlight symptom management, exercise, diet, hygiene, relaxation, sleep, and toileting. Emphasis is placed on helping kids handle intense emotions and behaviors and get support from family and their team of helpers when needed. The book includes stories from real kids, fact boxes, helpful checklists, and resources. Sections for parents offer additional information.

This sumptuous guide filled with beautiful photography and expert practical tips is guaranteed to be the only resource you will ever need to preserve fruit, vegetables, meat and fish.

Preserving food at home is vital to eating in a seasonal, sustainable, low-waste and, most importantly, utterly delicious way.
Everyone can master the art of preserving with this essential book on canning, which provides a one-stop resource. Whether you have foraged hedgerows, picked produce from your own vegetable garden or allotment, or searched out the best seasonal buys in the supermarket or market, this book contains more than 100 delicious recipes for preserving fruit and vegetables, meat or fish.
Emma Macdonald gives clear and comprehensive instructions for curing, drying, pickling, bottling/canning, crystalizing and jellying; as well as recipes for all kinds of jams, chutneys, cordials, fruit liqueurs, terrines, cheeses and butters. Every classic is covered, including: gravlax, confit chicken, candied peel, quince cheese, mint jelly, onion marmalade, mango chutney, sloe gin and piccalilli. There are many others, some of them centuries old, many of them with a modern twist, such as Banana and Date Chutney and Grapefruit and Elderflower Marmalade. Emma also includes expert tips on troubleshooting and information on all the equipment you will need. Pick up your cheesecloths and straining funnel and get preserving!

At the Chinese Table describes in vivid detail how, during the 1970s and '80s, celebrated cookbook writer and illustrator Carolyn Phillips crosses China's endless cultural and linguistic chasms and falls in love. During her second year in Taipei, she meets scholar and epicurean J. H. Huang, who nourishes her intellectually over luscious meals from every part of China. And then, before she knows it, Carolyn finds herself the unwelcome candidate for eldest daughter-in-law in a traditional Chinese family.

This warm, refreshingly candid memoir is a coming-of-age story set against a background of the Chinese diaspora and a family whose ancestry is intricately intertwined with that of their native land. Carolyn's reticent father-in-law--a World War II fighter pilot and hero--eventually embraces her presence by showing her how to re-create centuries-old Hakka dishes from family recipes. In the meantime, she brushes up on the classic cuisines of the North in an attempt to win over J. H.'s imperious mother, whose father had been a warlord's lieutenant. Fortunately for J. H. and Carolyn, the tense early days of their relationship blossom into another kind of cultural and historical education as Carolyn masters both the language and many of China's extraordinary cuisines.

With illustrations and twenty-two recipes, At the Chinese Table is a culinary adventure like no other that captures the diversity of China's cuisines, from the pen of a world-class scholar and gourmet.

For readers of Late Migrations and Vesper Flights

A stunning meditation on gardening and the wisdom of plants, "that rare book that will appeal to nonfiction readers everywhere ... Candid, tender, thoughtful and absorbing." --Shelf Awareness (STARRED Review)

With "chapters... [that] shimmer like lantern slides, lit with luminous imagery ... Seed to Dust is an invitation to read this world as Mr. Hamer does--with a close eye to what changes, and what does not."--The Wall Street Journal

Marc Hamer has nurtured the same 12-acre garden in the Welsh countryside for over two decades. The garden is vast and intricate. It's rarely visited, and only Hamer knows of its secrets. But it's not his garden. It belongs to his wealthy and elegant employer, Miss Cashmere. But the garden does not really belong to her, either. As Hamer writes, "Like a book, a garden belongs to everyone who sees it."

In Seed to Dust, Marc Hamer paints a beautiful portrait of the garden that "belongs to everyone." He describes a year in his life as a country gardener, with each chapter named for the month he's in. As he works, he muses on the unusual folklores of his beloved plants. He observes the creatures who scurry and hide from his blade or rake. And he reflects on his own life: living homeless as a young man, his loving relationship with his wife and children, and--now--feeling the effects of old age on body and mind.

As the seasons change, Hamer also reflects on the changes he has observed in Miss Cashmere's life from afar: the death of her husband and the departure of her children from the stately home where she now lives alone. At the book's end, Hamer's connection to Miss Cashmere changes shape, and new insights into relationships and the beauty and brutality of nature emerge.

Just like all good books and gardens, Seed to Dust is filled with equal parts life and death, beauty and decay, and every reader will find something different to admire.

Design a garden for the future—because what we grow matters.

"Matt Rees-Warren explains why every square inch of Earth, including our gardens, has ecological significance... Excellent, timely, essential!" —Douglas W. Tallamy, author of Nature’s Best Hope

Transform your garden into a self-sustaining haven for nature and wildlife. Ecological garden designer Matt Rees-Warren shares inspirational design ideas and practical projects to help you create a garden that is both beautiful today and sustainable tomorrow.

The Ecological Gardener will give you the tools to create an abundant, healthy garden from the soil up—a garden that welcomes birds and bees and allows native planting and wild flowers to flourish, with minimal carbon impact or need for fresh water. This book can guide both novice and experienced gardeners alike in their journey to a more ecological approach, and is full of practical projects and information, including:

• Finding the right design for your space
• Creating a wildflower meadow
• Building rainwater catchments and other tips for water conservation
• Making compost from kitchen waste, leaf mold, compost tea and more
• Creating a space for wildlife such as hedgehogs, bees and other pollinators
• Finding beauty in your garden during the winter

Matt will show you how to re-imagine how you garden, working with nature instead of controlling it, to create a space that promotes both wildlife and beauty.

Foreword by Alan Titchmarsh

For more than 45 years Hugh Johnson has written Trad's Diary, delighting in recording his observations of his own garden, as well as many others, and of the wider natural world.

Free to turn his attention to whatever is happening in that season, or simply something that piques his interest, his subjects are as diverse as the sounds of water, forest walks, the names of roses, the taste for shade he shares with Handel, the colours of autumn, the smell of rain, the private garden discovered within Beijing's Forbidden City or the first crocuses of spring. Month by month, Hugh shares with the reader through his easy, evocative writing an eclectic mix of thoughtful, topical and whimsical insights that will delight not only gardeners but anyone with an interest in nature in all its costumes.

A compelling and provocative essay collection that smashes stereotypes and redefines the meaning of the term "horse girl," broadening it for women of all cultural backgrounds.



As a child, horses consumed Halimah Marcus' imagination. When she wasn't around horses she was pretending to be one, cantering on two legs, hands poised to hold invisible reins. To her classmates, girls like Halimah were known as "horse girls," weird and overzealous, absent from the social worlds of their peers.

Decades later, when memes about "horse girl energy," began appearing across social media--Halimah reluctantly recognized herself. The jokes imagine girls as blinkered as carriage ponies, oblivious to the mockery behind their backs. The stereotypical horse girl is also white, thin, rich, and straight, a daughter of privilege. Yet so many riders don't fit this narrow, damaging ideal, and relate to horses in profound ways that include ambivalence and regret, as well as unbridled passion and devotion.

Featuring some of the most striking voices in contemporary literature--including Carmen Maria Machado, Pulitzer-prize winner Jane Smiley, T Kira Madden, Maggie Shipstead, and Courtney Maum--Horse Girls reframes the iconic bond between girls and horses with the complexity and nuance it deserves. And it showcases powerful emerging voices like Braudie Blais-Billie, on the connection between her Seminole and Quebecois heritage; Sarah Enelow-Snyder, on growing up as a Black barrel racer in central Texas; and Nur Nasreen Ibrahim, on the colonialist influence on horse culture in Pakistan.

By turns thought-provoking and personal, Horse Girls reclaims its titular stereotype to ask bold questions about autonomy and desire, privilege and ambition, identity and freedom, and the competing forces of domestication and wildness.

Everything you need to know before you take your four-legged friend on a run.

When looking for a consistent running buddy, it's only natural that you look towards your dog.Who wouldn't want to share a workout with their loyal and energetic canine companion? Plus, there are numerous physical and mental benefits that both you and your four-legged friend can gain from running. But just like humans, dogs need to train properly and build up their fitness before tackling a longer run. Without physical cues to judge from, it can be hard to tell if your dog is ready for a run. Luckily, Bryan Barrera'sbook, The Ultimate Guide to Running with Your Dog contains all the information that you need to safely hit the pavement with your pet.

Founder and owner of one of the nation's first dog-running companies, DC Dog Runner, Barrera is an expert on running with dogs. Weaving in personal experiences, The Ultimate Guide to Running with Your Dog provides a comprehensive look at dog running, including topics such as:
 

• Assessing your dog as a runner
• Running in different types of weather
• The best terrains to run on
• Running with multiple dogs
• The best collars and leashes for active dogs
• What to do if your dog gets injured
• How to hire a professional dog runner
• And more!

So whether you and your canine are novice harriers or seasoned trail warriors, The Ultimate Guide to Running with Your Dog will help you make your future runs safer and more enjoyable.

 

On the heels of her family’s beloved dog’s death, one woman returns to the canines of her past in order to imagine the human she hopes to become in the future in her memoir, What Is a Dog?

Chloe Shaw is in a dog house of her own choosing. A married mother with kids, the death of Booker, her children’s eldest family pet, has left her reeling and reckoning with her lifelong relationship with dogs. Unable to shake the feeling a year later, she asks her family for some time alone to be with nothing but her thoughts and remaining canines, Safari and Otter—only to find the dogs of her past pawing at her every memory and running, sticks in mouths, back into her life.

What follows is a meditation on one woman’s life through the dogs she's loved and lost. Since she was a child, Shaw had learned to escape the hardest parts of being human by immersing herself in the lives of her canine companions, an adaptive attachment that carried her to adulthood. Yet, in marriage and motherhood, Shaw finds herself facing her most human struggles yet. Her old ways of “being the dog” in the face of hardship prove destructive, and it’s not until she’s able to love herself and learn from the dogs of her past and present that can she truly thrive as a person, and show up for the family who needs her to be their person.

With artful prose and a philosophical touch, Shaw takes us on an emotional journey anyone who has ever loved and lost a dog will connect with—and discovers dogs do more than just make our lives better—they quietly (and sometimes loudly) pull us boldly toward the person we were always meant to be.

"A witty, romantic, deeply insightful debut." —Emma Lord, author of Tweet Cute

In this sparkling and romantic YA debut, a reserved Bangladeshi teenager has twenty-eight days to make the biggest decision of her life after agreeing to fake date her school’s resident bad boy.

How do you make one month last a lifetime?

Karina Ahmed has a plan. Keep her head down, get through high school without a fuss, and follow her parents’ rules—even if it means sacrificing her dreams. When her parents go abroad to Bangladesh for four weeks, Karina expects some peace and quiet. Instead, one simple lie unravels everything.

Karina is my girlfriend.

Tutoring the school’s resident bad boy was already crossing a line. Pretending to date him? Out of the question. But Ace Clyde does everything right—he brings her coffee in the mornings, impresses her friends without trying, and even promises to buy her a dozen books (a week) if she goes along with his fake-dating facade. Though Karina agrees, she can’t help but start counting down the days until her parents come back.

T-minus twenty-eight days until everything returns to normal—but what if Karina no longer wants it to?

"I. Love. This. Book." —Mark Oshiro, award-winning author of Anger Is a Gift and Each of Us a Desert
"A must-have addition to any YA bookshelf." —Sabina Khan, author of Zara Hossain Is Here and The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali
"Hand to fans of Netflix hit Never Have I Ever." —Booklist

This psychological sci-fi thriller from a debut author follows one doctor who must discover the source of her crew's madness... or risk succumbing to it herself.

Misanthropic psychologist Dr. Grace Park is placed on the Deucalion, a survey ship headed to an icy planet in an unexplored galaxy. Her purpose is to observe the thirteen human crew members aboard the ship--all specialists in their own fields--as they assess the colonization potential of the planet, Eos. But frictions develop as Park befriends the androids of the ship, preferring their company over the baffling complexity of humans, while the rest of the crew treats them with suspicion and even outright hostility.

Shortly after landing, the crew finds themselves trapped on the ship by a radiation storm, with no means of communication or escape until it passes--and that's when things begin to fall apart. Park's patients are falling prey to waking nightmares of helpless, tongueless insanity. The androids are behaving strangely. There are no windows aboard the ship. Paranoia is closing in, and soon Park is forced to confront the fact that nothing--neither her crew, nor their mission, nor the mysterious Eos itself--is as it seems.

To save the city, Rachel Morgan will need to show some teeth in the next Hollows novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison.

The new master vampire of Cincinnati has arrived . . . and she wants Rachel Morgan out. No matter where Rachel goes, Constance is there--threatening Rachel's allies, causing city-wide chaos, and, to add insult to injury, even forcing Rachel out of her current quarters. Ever since Rachel found a way to save the souls of vampires, the old undead's longtime ascendancy has been broken. Now Constance sees eliminating Rachel as the key to consolidating her own power.

Rachel has no desire to be enthralled or killed--and she's terrified of what may become of the city if Constance forces a return to the ancient ways. But even a witch-born demon can't stand against the old undead--at least, not alone. And if Rachel refuses to claim the role of Cincinnati's master demon, the city will tear itself apart, taking her and all those who stand beside her with it.

"I never was a sex symbol. Not in my head I wasn't." -- Jane Russell

By the early 1950s, Jane Russell (1921--2011) should have been forgotten. Her career was launched on what is arguably the most notorious advertising campaign in cinema history when film goers were invited to watch The Outlaw (1943) and "tussle with Russell," or gawk at two of the reasons for her rise to stardom. Completed by mid-1941, the movie did not premiere until 1943, and its wide release was delayed, gradually rolling out between 1946 and 1950. Throughout the 1940s, Russell was nicknamed the "motionless picture actress" and would only have three films projected in theaters the entire decade. With such an inauspicious and prolonged start to a career, most aspiring actresses would have given up or faded away. But not Jane. Instead, she carved out a place for herself in Hollywood and became one of its most recognizable figures.

In Mean...Moody...Magnificent!: Jane Russell and the Marketing of a Hollywood Legend, author Christina Rice offers a fresh perspective on how Russell learned to embrace the blatant publicizing of her physical appearance. Looking beyond the signature image of Russell lounging on bales of hay while wielding a gun and her Playtex commercials, Rice details a not-so-charmed life impacted by abuse, abortion, infertility, divorce, adoption struggles, and death. While often overshadowed by Marilyn Monroe, her costar in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Russell led a life and career that was confident and unapologetic. Working alongside actors such as Robert Mitchum, Clark Gable, Vincent Price, and Bob Hope, she was more of a movie personality than a serious actress but could electrify a screen and was a true celebrity of the Golden Age. Despite a movie career that was stalled for nearly a decade, Russell's filmography was respectable, and she had the opportunity to work with some of Hollywood's most talented directors, including Howard Hawks, Raoul Walsh, Nicholas Ray, and Josef von Sternberg. From her attempt to launch a musical career to her devout faith and weekly Bible study for Hollywood stars to her work in creating the WAIF foundation in 1955, an organization to place children with adoptive families, Mean...Moody...Magnificent! reveals Russell's full and fascinating life.

In the aftermath of the #MeToo movement, Rice gives voice to Russell's empowered reactions to the controversies surrounding her films and her feelings about the marketing campaigns promoting her physical appearance. Mean... Moody...Magnificent! will be the first book-length work on this actress who brought a wry wit and intelligence to her characters with a unique take on the playful sex bomb. This work will appeal to film historians and buffs alike.

This project is under consideration for UPK's Screen Classics series.

Christina Rice is senior librarian and archivist at the Los Angeles Public Library. She is the author of Ann Dvorak: Hollywood's Forgotten Rebel (UPK).

"Hear the dark liquor of her laughter rippling behind her sentences" in this magnetic memoir as it explores a journalist's obsession with pop culture and the difficulty of navigating relationships as a Black woman through fanfiction, feminism, and Southern mores (Saeed Jones).



A Roxane Gay Audacious Bookclub November Pick

Named "Most Anticipated Books of 2021" by Buzzfeed and Lithub



Pop culture is the Pandora's Box of our lives. Racism, wealth, poverty, beauty, inclusion, exclusion, and hope -- all of these intractable and unavoidable features course through the media we consume. Examining pop culture's impact on her life, Nichole Perkins takes readers on a rollicking trip through the last twenty years of music, media and the internet from the perspective of one southern Black woman. She explores her experience with mental illness and how the TV series Frasier served as a crutch, how her role as mistress led her to certain internet message boards that prepared her for current day social media, and what it means to figure out desire and sexuality and Prince in a world where marriage is the only acceptable goal for women.



Combining her sharp wit, stellar pop culture sensibility, and trademark spirited storytelling, Nichole boldly tackles the damage done to women, especially Black women, by society's failure to confront the myths and misogyny at its heart, and her efforts to stop the various cycles that limit confidence within herself. By using her own life and loves as a unique vantage point, Nichole humorously and powerfully illuminates how to take the best pop culture has to offer and discard the harmful bits, offering a mirror into our own lives.

An inspirational and gripping first-person account of determination, adversity and survival against the odds.

'Uplifting and brave' - Stylist

'A riveting account of loneliness, anxiety and survival' - Cosmopolitan

'A vibrantly physical book' - the Guardian

'Claire Nelson relives a life-changing four days' - The Times

'What a story; never heard a story like that before' - Chris Evans

The must-read true story of 2020.

In 2018, Claire Nelson made international headlines. She was in her thirties and was beginning to burn out - her hectic London life of work and social activity and striving to do more and do better in the big city was frenetic and stressful. Although she was surrounded by people all of the time, she felt increasingly lonely.

When the anxiety she felt finally brought her to breaking point, Claire decided to take some time off and travelled to Joshua Tree Park in California to hike and clear her head. What happened next was something she could never have anticipated.

While hiking, Claire fell 25 feet, gravely injuring herself and she lay alone in the desert - mistakenly miles off any trail, without a cell phone signal, fighting for her life. She lay in the elements for four days until she was miraculously found - her rescuers had not expected to find her alive.

In THINGS I LEARNED FROM FALLING Claire tells her incredible story and what it taught her about loneliness, anxiety and transformation and how to survive it all.

Between 1986 and 1991, nearly ten million people a week watched Pee-wee's Playhouse, the critically acclaimed and widely successful children's program broadcast on CBS. Now, on the 25th anniversary of the show, the complete behind-the-scenes story is being told for the first time by those who experienced it. Complete with an episode guide, biographical information about the cast and key members of the show's creative team, never-before-told anecdotes, and previously unpublished photos, Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse takes the first in-depth look behind the program TV Guide recently cited as one of the top ten cult classics of all time. Paul Reubens (as Pee-wee Herman) has been making a comeback since August 2010, appearing on Saturday Night Live, The View, The Jimmy Kimmel Show, Conan, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He starred in a successful stage revival of his live show in January and February of 2010, and it hit Broadway later that year. It's been turned into a special on HBO. His public Twitter and Facebook accounts boast over one million fans and followers. Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse is the first comprehensive look at this amazingly successful (and still revered) children's program. Pee-wee Herman fans have been energized recently by the character's re-emerging presence. From casual fans to devout followers, everyone will be interested in taking a look Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse.

In 1991 Clinton Heylin published what was considered the most definitive biography of Bob Dylan available. In 2001 he completely revised and reworked this hugely acclaimed book, adding new sections, substantially reworking text, and bringing the story up-to-date with Dylan's explosive career in 2000.

Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited follows the story of Dylan from his humble beginnings in Minnesota to his arrival in New York in 1961, his subsequent rise in the folk pantheon of Greenwich Village in the early '60s, and his cataclysmic folk-rock metamorphosis at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. In the succeeding eighteen months, Dylan released Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, and embarked on the legendary 1966 World Tour that culminated with an unforgettable concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Heylin details it all, along with the true story of Dylan's motorcycle accident, his remarkable reemergence in the mid-'70s, the only exacting account of his controversial conversion to born-again Christianity, the Neverending Tour, and yet another incredible Dylan resurgence with his 1997 Grammy Album of the Year Award-winning Time Out of Mind.

Deemed by The New Yorker as "the most readable and reliable" of all Dylan biographies, this book will give fans what they have always wanted -- a chance to get to know the man behind the shades.

Writing to his brother, G'Ra Asim reflects on building his own identity while navigating Blackness, masculinity, and young adulthood--all through wry social commentary and music/pop culture critique

How does one approach Blackness, masculinity, otherness, and the perils of young adulthood? For G'Ra Asim, punk music offers an outlet to express himself freely. As his younger brother, Gyasi, grapples with finding his footing in the world, G'Ra gifts him with a survival guide for tackling the sometimes treacherous cultural terrain particular to being young, Black, brainy, and weird in the form of a mixtape.

Boyz n the Void: a mixtape to my brother blends music and cultural criticism and personal essay to explore race, gender, class, and sexuality as they pertain to punk rock and straight edge culture. Using totemic punk rock songs on a mixtape to anchor each chapter, the book documents an intergenerational conversation between a Millennial in his 30s and his zoomer teenage brother. Author, punk musician, and straight edge kid, G'Ra Asim weaves together memoir and cultural commentary, diving into the depths of everything from theory to comic strips, to poetry to pizza commercials to mapping the predicament of the Black creative intellectual.

With each chapter dedicated to a particular song and placed within the context of a fraternal bond, Asim presents his brother with a roadmap to self-actualization in the form of a Doc Martened foot to the behind and a sweaty, circle-pit-side-armed hug.


Listen to the author's playlist while you read! Access the playlist here: https://sptfy.com/a18b

Post-production can make the difference between a good image and a great image, not to mention it's an essential process if you shoot in RAW to enjoy the most flexibility and control possible. This book will outline everything you need to know to gain a better understanding of how to apply darkroom style effects to your images using Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo.

Through detailed background knowledge designed to make you familiar with the software and to build your confidence, you'll learn a wide range of skills and techniques through step-by-step case studies that will make learning an active experience. Not only will this be a valuable reference resource, it will also be your very own personal tutor giving you everything you need to edit your images like a pro.

- Learn the essentials with a complete guide to every tool, filter and effect for both Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo
- Get the most out of your RAW files with detailed instructions on processing your digital image
- Master basic, intermediate, and advanced editing techniques with easy to follow step-by-step tutorials
- Get the best quality images for display with a complete guide to home printing

Longlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

A groundbreaking chronicle of the birth--and death--of a pair of jeans, that exposes the fractures in our global supply chains, and our relationships to each other, ourselves, and the planet

Take a look at your favorite pair of jeans. Maybe you bought them on Amazon or the Gap; maybe the tag says "Made in Bangladesh" or "Made in Sri Lanka." But do you know where they really came from, how many thousands of miles they crossed, or the number of hands who picked, spun, wove, dyed, packaged, shipped, and sold them to get to you? The fashion industry operates with radical opacity, and it's only getting worse to disguise countless environmental and labor abuses. It epitomizes the ravages inherent in the global economy, and all in the name of ensuring that we keep buying more while thinking less about its real cost.

In Unraveled, entrepreneur, researcher, and advocate Maxine Bédat follows the life of an American icon--a pair of jeans--to reveal what really happens to give us our clothes. We visit a Texas cotton farm figuring out how to thrive without relying on fertilizers that poison the earth. Inside dyeing and weaving factories in China, where chemicals that are banned in the West slosh on factory floors and drain into waterways used to irrigate local family farms. Sewing floors in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are crammed with women working for illegally low wages to produce garments as efficiently as machines. Back in America, our jeans get stowed, picked, and shipped out by Amazon warehouse workers pressed to be as quick as the robots primed to replace them. Finally, those jeans we had to have get sent to landfills--or, if they've been "donated," shipped back around the world to Africa, where they're sold for pennies in secondhand markets or buried and burned in mountains of garbage.

A sprawling, deeply researched, and provocative tour-de-force, Unraveled is not just the story of a pair of pants, but also the story of our global economy and our role in it. Told with piercing insight and unprecedented reporting, Unraveled challenges us to use our relationship with our jeans--and all that we wear--to reclaim our central role as citizens to refashion a society in which all people can thrive and preserve the planet for generations to come.

Bestselling author Dan Ariely reveals fascinating new insights into motivation—showing that the subject is far more complex than we ever imagined.

Every day we work hard to motivate ourselves, the people we live with, the people who work for and do business with us. In this way, much of what we do can be defined as being “motivators.” From the boardroom to the living room, our role as motivators is complex, and the more we try to motivate partners and children, friends and coworkers, the clearer it becomes that the story of motivation is far more intricate and fascinating than we’ve assumed.

Payoff investigates the true nature of motivation, our partial blindness to the way it works, and how we can bridge this gap. With studies that range from Intel to a kindergarten classroom, Ariely digs deep to find the root of motivation—how it works and how we can use this knowledge to approach important choices in our own lives. Along the way, he explores intriguing questions such as: Can giving employees bonuses harm productivity? Why is trust so crucial for successful motivation? What are our misconceptions about how to value our work? How does your sense of your mortality impact your motivation?

Too often we live lives that we find unfulfilling, fail to reach our own potential, and neglect to practice creativity in our daily routines. Gay Hendricks's The Genius Zone offers a way to change that by tapping into your own innate creativity.

Dr. Gay Hendricks broke new ground with his bestselling classic, The Big Leap, which has become an essential resource for coaches, entrepreneurs, executives, and health practitioners around the world. Originally published as The Joy of Genius, The Genius Zone has been updated and expanded throughout, making it the essential next step beyond The Big Leap.

In The Genius Zone, Hendricks introduces his brilliant exercise, the Genius Move, a simple, life-altering practice that allows readers to end negative thinking and thrive authentically. By using the Genius Move, readers will learn to spend more of their lives in their zone of genius—where creativity flows freely and they are actively pursuing the things that offer them fulfillment and satisfaction. Filled with hands-on exercises and personal stories from the author, The Genius Zone is an essential guide to creative fulfillment. If you are committed to bringing forth your innate genius and making your largest possible creative contribution, The Genius Zone will become a trusted companion for the journey.

"Dr. Shefali Tsabary was 44 years old when she had an epiphany: the only person stopping her from harnessing her inner power was herself. Awoken to the patriarchal forces that shape female consciousness, Dr. Shefali dedicated her life to inspiring women to take back their power and liberate themselves mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. [Her book] not only lays out a path to heal a woman's own wounds and those of women collectively, it prepares her to discover her own powers so that she may bring healing to others and the planet around her"--

A lively account of our age-old quest for brighter colors, which changed the way we see the world, from the best-selling author of Proof: The Science of Booze

From kelly green to millennial pink, our world is graced with a richness of colors. But our human-made colors haven't always matched nature's kaleidoscopic array. To reach those brightest heights required millennia of remarkable innovation and a fascinating exchange of ideas between science and craft that's allowed for the most luminous manifestations of our built and adorned world.

In Full Spectrum, Rogers takes us on that globe-trotting journey, tracing an arc from the earliest humans to our digitized, synthesized present and future. We meet our ancestors mashing charcoal in caves, Silk Road merchants competing for the best ceramics, and textile artists cracking the centuries-old mystery of how colors mix, before shooting to the modern era for high-stakes corporate espionage and the digital revolution that's rewriting the rules of color forever.

In prose as vibrant as its subject, Rogers opens the door to Oz, sharing the liveliest events of an expansive human quest--to make a brighter, more beautiful world--and along the way, proving why he's "one of the best science writers around."*
*National Geographic

Crowded, hot, subject to violent swings in climate, with a government unable or unwilling to face the most vital challenges, the rich and poor increasingly living in worlds apart; for most of the world, this picture is of a possible future. For India, it is the very real present.

In this lyrical exploration of life, loss, and survival, Meera Subramanian travels in search of the ordinary people and microenterprises determined to revive India's ravaged natural world: an engineer-turned-farmer brings organic food to Indian plates; villagers resuscitate a river run dry; cook stove designers persist on the quest for a smokeless fire; biologists bring vultures back from the brink of extinction; and in Bihar, one of India's most impoverished states, a bold young woman teaches adolescents the fundamentals of sexual health. While investigating these five environmental challenges, Subramanian discovers the stories that renew hope for a nation with the potential to lead India and the planet into a sustainable and prosperous future.

Finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction

An extraordinary narrative history of autism: the riveting story of parents fighting for their children ’s civil rights; of doctors struggling to define autism; of ingenuity, self-advocacy, and profound social change.

Nearly seventy-five years ago, Donald Triplett of Forest, Mississippi, became the first child diagnosed with autism. Beginning with his family’s odyssey, In a Different Key tells the extraordinary story of this often misunderstood condition, and of the civil rights battles waged by the families of those who have it. Unfolding over decades, it is a beautifully rendered history of ordinary people determined to secure a place in the world for those with autism—by liberating children from dank institutions, campaigning for their right to go to school, challenging expert opinion on what it means to have autism, and persuading society to accept those who are different. 

It is the story of women like Ruth Sullivan, who rebelled against a medical establishment that blamed cold and rejecting “refrigerator mothers” for causing autism; and of fathers who pushed scientists to dig harder for treatments. Many others played starring roles too: doctors like Leo Kanner, who pioneered our understanding of autism; lawyers like Tom Gilhool, who took the families’ battle for education to the courtroom; scientists who sparred over how to treat autism; and those with autism, like Temple Grandin, Alex Plank, and Ari Ne’eman, who explained their inner worlds and championed the philosophy of neurodiversity.

This is also a story of fierce controversies—from the question of whether there is truly an autism “epidemic,” and whether vaccines played a part in it; to scandals involving “facilitated communication,” one of many treatments that have proved to be blind alleys; to stark disagreements about whether scientists should pursue a cure for autism. There are dark turns too: we learn about experimenters feeding LSD to children with autism, or shocking them with electricity to change their behavior; and the authors reveal compelling evidence that Hans Asperger, discoverer of the syndrome named after him, participated in the Nazi program that consigned disabled children to death.

By turns intimate and panoramic, In a Different Key takes us on a journey from an era when families were shamed and children were condemned to institutions to one in which a cadre of people with autism push not simply for inclusion, but for a new understanding of autism: as difference rather than disability.

If you have a child in school, you may have heard stories of long-dormant diseases suddenly reappearing—cases of measles, mumps, rubella, and whooping cough cropping up everywhere from elementary schools to Ivy League universities because a select group of parents refuse to vaccinate their children. Between Hope and Fear tells the remarkable story of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases and their social and political implications. While detailing the history of vaccine invention, Kinch reveals the ominous reality that our victories against vaccine-preventable diseases are not permanent—and could easily be undone. In the tradition of John Barry’s The Great Influenza and Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies, Between Hope and Fear relates the remarkable intersection of science, technology, and disease that has helped eradicate many of the deadliest plagues known to man.

Learn How to Grow Flowering Plants

"Anyone wanting to get started with a flower garden will find plenty of expert guidance here." ―Publishers Weekly

#1 Best Seller in Annual Flowers Gardening, Bulb Flower Gardening, and Perennial Gardening.

In the mountains of Asheville, NC, Niki Irving's boutique flower farm grows specially cut, mountain-fresh flowers with sustainable, natural practices. Now, she brings her organic gardening techniques to your home, helping you grow, harvest, and arrange lush, seasonally inspired flowers.

Revel in flowering plants. This beautifully photographed book features simple, and engaging know-how enabling you to grow, harvest, and arrange a cutting garden of flowers. An instructional guide to gardening for beginners or if you're looking to hone your botanical skills, Growing Flowers teaches everything from caring for a cut flower garden to making simple-yet-gorgeous flower arrangements and botanical bouquets.

An indispensable gardening guide for homebody horticulturists and floral foragers. A flower book with a whimsical twist, Growing Flowers is a go-to reference for those new to herb and flower gardening. Discover flower arranging techniques using blooms, greenery, and even artichokes, vines and berries. Learn about tools of the trade. Get down and dirty with dirt, seasonal rotation, starting from seeds and/or seedlings, and more.

Inside find:

• Explanations of soil types and soil preparations
• A list of seasonal flowers such as peonies or garden roses for the spring and sunflowers and dahlias for the summer and fall
• Basic knowledge to create flower bouquets that include things like sprigs of greenery and even attractive weeds

Growing Flowers is a wonderful addition to any collection of garden books. If you're looking for gardening gifts for gardeners or enjoy flowering plant books and flower books like Floret Farms Cut Flower Garden book, Floret Farm's A Year in Flowers, or The Flower Gardener's Bible, you'll love Growing Flowers.

“A wonderful memoir … hands down the most charming book I read last year.”
—Margaret Renkl, The New York Times

In this charming, peaceful memoir, a traditional molecatcher shares the mysterious tricks of his trade, alongside poignant moments from his personal life, including his experience as a homeless teenager, his work as a professional gardener, and all that he has learned about our own humanity from a life spent outdoors.

Kneeling in a muddy field, clutching something soft and blue-black, Marc Hamer vows he will stop trapping moles—forever. In this earnest, understated, and sublime work of nonfiction literature, the molecatcher shares what led him to this strange career: from sleeping among hedges as a homeless teen, to toiling on the railway, to weeding windswept gardens in Wales.

Hamer infuses his wanderings with radiant poetry and stark, simple observations on nature’s oft-ignored details. He also reveals how to catch a mole—a craft long kept secret by its masters—and burrows into the unusual lives of his muses.

Moles, we learn, are colorblind. Their blood holds unusual amounts of carbon dioxide. Their vast tunnel networks are intricate and deceptive. And, like Hamer, they work alone.

Beautifully written, life-affirming, and highly original, How to Catch a Mole offers a gorgeous portrait of one man's deep, unbreakable bond with his natural surroundings, and offers hope and inspiration for anyone looking to improve their relationship with the natural world.

How to Cook That Dessert Cookbook: Pastries, Cakes and Sweet Creations

"How to Cook That is the most popular Australian cooking channel in all the world, and it's not hard to see why." ―PopSugar

Amazon Best Cookbook for Month of June 2021 and Editor's pick Best Books of 2021 So Far
#1 Best Seller in Chocolate Baking, Confectionary Desserts, Pastry Baking, Garnishing Meals, Holiday Cooking, Main Courses & Side Dishes, Cookies, and Cooking by Ingredient

Offering a fun-filled step-by-step dessert cookbook, Ann Reardon teaches you how to create delicious and impressive pastries, cakes and sweet creations.

Join food scientist Ann Reardon, host of the award-winning YouTube series How to Cook That, as she explores Crazy Sweet Creations. An accomplished pastry chef, Reardon draws millions of baking fans together each week, eager to learn the secrets of her extravagant cakes, chocolates, and eye-popping desserts. Her warmth and sense of fun in the kitchen shines through on every page as she reveals the science behind recreating your own culinary masterpieces.

For home cooks and fans who love their desserts, cakes, and ice creams to look amazing and taste even better. Take your culinary creations to influencer status, you'll also:

• Learn to make treats that get the whole family cooking
• Create baked goods that tap into beloved pop culture trends
• Impress guests with beautiful desserts

Readers of dessert cookbooks like Mary Berry's Baking Bible by Mary Berry, Cake Confidence by Mandy Merriman, or Pastry Love by Joanne Chang will love How to Cook That: Crazy Sweet Creations.

The expert baker and bestselling author behind Zo Bakes explores her favorite dessert--cakes --with more than 100 recipes to create flavorful and beautiful layers, loafs, bundts, and more.

Cake is the ultimate symbol of celebration, used to mark birthdays, weddings, or even just a Tuesday night. Yet too many people use chemical-laden mixes even though a cake is so easy to make from scratch and infinitely more fun to share. In Zo Bakes Cakes, bestselling author Zo Fran ois demystifies the craft of cakes with more than 100 easy-to-use recipes, showing how to get gorgeous confections on the table to mark any occasion, big or small.

In the opening chapter, Zo explores the techniques and tricks of cake baking, using step-by-step photos to break down baking fundamentals like creaming butter and sugar and whipping egg whites, making it easy to follow along. In the following chapters she gives simple, straightforward recipes for loaf cakes, layers, fillings, frostings, and more--including treats like Apple Cake with Honey-Bourbon Glaze, Lemon Curd Pound Cake, Coconut Candy Bar Cake, and Chocolate Devil's Food Cake. There's even a tutorial on how to make a wedding cake from scratch, complete with constructing the layers.

With Zo 's encouragement, as well as her lighthearted approach, delicious homemade cake is within reach for any celebration imaginable.

A beautiful, delicious celebration of two natural sweeteners in irresistible recipes

Honey and maple syrup might be better for you than sugar. They might be better for the environment. But even better, and sweet as anything, is how these natural ingredients taste and the wonders they do for a dish. James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Beth Dooley and gifted photographer Mette Nielsen make the most of these flavors in this celebration of honey and maple syrup in traditional kitchens as well as cutting-edge food culture.

Full of easy ideas that include honey and maple syrup in foods both savory and sweet, this book features a wide range of irresistible recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, for snacks and salads, condiments and vegetables, entrées and desserts, syrups, cocktails, and elixirs. Sweeten your table with rosemary honey butter, green tomato chutney, curry marinated herring, brown butter honey popcorn, savory maple black pepper biscotti, oven-roasted chicken thighs with pomegranate molasses, honey-glazed salmon salad, maple vanilla half-pound cake, elderberry throat coat, bourbon maple smash, and more.

With its innovative recipes, practical tips, conversion charts, historical and scientific facts, information on nutritional value, suggestions for storage and sourcing, and above all Mette Nielsen's remarkable photographs, Sweet Nature invites us to fully enjoy these two iconic ingredients from nature's pantry.

From the James Beard Award–winning chef Ashley Christensen comes a bold and revelatory reinvention of Southern food, as told through the recipes and stories from her iconic and beloved restaurant, Poole’s Diner. 

Ashley Christensen is the new face of Southern cooking, and her debut cookbook, Poole’s, honors the traditions of this celebrated cuisine, while introducing a new vernacular—elevated simple side dishes spiked with complex vinaigrettes, meatless mains showcasing vibrant vegetables, and intensified flavors through a cadre of back-pocket recipes that will become indispensable in your kitchen. Recipes like Turnip Green Fritters with Whipped Tahini; Heirloom Tomatoes with Crushed Olives, Crispy Quinoa, and White Anchovy Dressing; and Warm Broccoli Salad with Cheddar and Bacon Vinaigrette share the menu with the definitive recipe for Pimento Cheese, a show-stopping Macaroni au Gratin, and crave-worthy Challah Bread Pudding with Whiskey Apples and Creme Fraiche, all redefining what comfort food can be.

Poole’s is also the story of how Christensen opened a restaurant, and in the process energized Raleigh’s downtown. By fostering a network of farmers, cooks, and guests, and taking care of her people by feeding them well, she built a powerful community around the restaurant. The cookbook is infused with Christensen’s generous spirit and belief that great cooking is fundamental to good living.

With abundant, dramatically beautiful photography and a luxe presentation, Poole’s is a landmark addition to the cookbook canon, a collection from which readers will cook and find inspiration, and pass down for generations to come.

In this moving, tender memoir of losing a beloved spouse, the longtime editor of Texas Monthly, newly widowed, returns alone to a city whose enchantment he's only ever shared with his wife, in search of solace, memories, and the courage to find a way forward.

At the age of sixty-six, after thirty-five years of marriage, Gregory Curtis finds himself a widower. Tracy--with whom he fell in love the first time he saw her--has succumbed to a long battle with cancer. Paralyzed by grief, agonized by social interaction, Curtis turns to watching magic lessons on DVD--"a pathetic, almost comical substitute" for his evenings with Tracy.

To break the spell, he returns to the place he had the "best and happiest times" of his life. As he navigates the storied city and contemplates his new future, Curtis relives his days in Paris with Tracy, piecing together the portrait of a woman, a marriage, parenthood, and his life's great love through the memories of six unforgettable trips to the City of Lights.

Alone in Paris, Curtis becomes a tireless wanderer, exploring the city's grand boulevards and forgotten corners as he confronts the bewildering emotional state that ensues after losing a life partner. Paris Without Her is a work of tremendous courage and insight--an ode to the lovely woman who was his wife, to a magnificent city, and to the self we might invent, and reinvent, there.

A gripping, witty memoir about indigeneity, travel, and colonialism

When she was twenty-five, Ursula Pike boarded a plane to Bolivia and began her term of service in the Peace Corps. A member of the Karuk Tribe, Pike sought to make meaningful connections with Indigenous people halfway around the world. But she arrived in La Paz with trepidation as well as excitement, "knowing I followed in the footsteps of Western colonizers and missionaries who had also claimed they were there to help." In the following two years, as a series of dramatic episodes brought that tension to boiling point, she began to ask: what does it mean to have experienced the effects of colonialism firsthand, and yet to risk becoming a colonizing force in turn?

An Indian among los Indígenas, Pike's memoir of this experience, upends a canon of travel memoirs that has historically been dominated by white writers. It is a sharp, honest, and unnerving examination of the shadows that colonial history casts over even the most well-intentioned attempts at cross-cultural aid. It is also the debut of an exceptionally astute writer with a mastery of deadpan wit. It signals a shift in travel writing that is long overdue.

"I never was a sex symbol. Not in my head I wasn't." -- Jane Russell

By the early 1950s, Jane Russell (1921--2011) should have been forgotten. Her career was launched on what is arguably the most notorious advertising campaign in cinema history when film goers were invited to watch The Outlaw (1943) and "tussle with Russell," or gawk at two of the reasons for her rise to stardom. Completed by mid-1941, the movie did not premiere until 1943, and its wide release was delayed, gradually rolling out between 1946 and 1950. Throughout the 1940s, Russell was nicknamed the "motionless picture actress" and would only have three films projected in theaters the entire decade. With such an inauspicious and prolonged start to a career, most aspiring actresses would have given up or faded away. But not Jane. Instead, she carved out a place for herself in Hollywood and became one of its most recognizable figures.

In Mean...Moody...Magnificent!: Jane Russell and the Marketing of a Hollywood Legend, author Christina Rice offers a fresh perspective on how Russell learned to embrace the blatant publicizing of her physical appearance. Looking beyond the signature image of Russell lounging on bales of hay while wielding a gun and her Playtex commercials, Rice details a not-so-charmed life impacted by abuse, abortion, infertility, divorce, adoption struggles, and death. While often overshadowed by Marilyn Monroe, her costar in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Russell led a life and career that was confident and unapologetic. Working alongside actors such as Robert Mitchum, Clark Gable, Vincent Price, and Bob Hope, she was more of a movie personality than a serious actress but could electrify a screen and was a true celebrity of the Golden Age. Despite a movie career that was stalled for nearly a decade, Russell's filmography was respectable, and she had the opportunity to work with some of Hollywood's most talented directors, including Howard Hawks, Raoul Walsh, Nicholas Ray, and Josef von Sternberg. From her attempt to launch a musical career to her devout faith and weekly Bible study for Hollywood stars to her work in creating the WAIF foundation in 1955, an organization to place children with adoptive families, Mean...Moody...Magnificent! reveals Russell's full and fascinating life.

In the aftermath of the #MeToo movement, Rice gives voice to Russell's empowered reactions to the controversies surrounding her films and her feelings about the marketing campaigns promoting her physical appearance. Mean... Moody...Magnificent! will be the first book-length work on this actress who brought a wry wit and intelligence to her characters with a unique take on the playful sex bomb. This work will appeal to film historians and buffs alike.

This project is under consideration for UPK's Screen Classics series.

Christina Rice is senior librarian and archivist at the Los Angeles Public Library. She is the author of Ann Dvorak: Hollywood's Forgotten Rebel (UPK).

"Laura Sebastian is the next Madeline Miller. . . . a fierce, fresh, lyrical tale that will enthrall until the last page."--Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Huntress

A Popsugar Best Summer Read of 2021
A Bibliolifestyle Most Anticipated Summer 2021 Sci-fi and Fantasy Book

"Magical, haunting, unique--I haven't been so excited about an Arthur book since I read The Once and Future King ."--Tamora Pierce, #1 New York Times bestselling author

The Lady of Shalott reclaims her story in this bold feminist reimagining of the Arthurian myth from the New York Times bestselling author of Ash Princess.

Everyone knows the legend. Of Arthur, destined to be a king. Of the beautiful Guinevere, who will betray him with his most loyal knight, Lancelot. Of the bitter sorceress, Morgana, who will turn against them all. But Elaine alone carries the burden of knowing what is to come--for Elaine of Shalott is cursed to see the future.

On the mystical isle of Avalon, Elaine runs free and learns of the ancient prophecies surrounding her and her friends--countless possibilities, almost all of them tragic.

When their future comes to claim them, Elaine, Guinevere, Lancelot, and Morgana accompany Arthur to take his throne in stifling Camelot, where magic is outlawed, the rules of society chain them, and enemies are everywhere. Yet the most dangerous threats may come from within their own circle.

As visions are fulfilled and an inevitable fate closes in, Elaine must decide how far she will go to change destiny--and what she is willing to sacrifice along the way.

“Thrilling . . . one of the best Stephen King novels not written by the master himself. . . . The setup promises furious action, and Percy delivers, like [Richard] Matheson, like King. . . An awfully impressive literary performance.”—New York Times Book Review

“Masterful crafting . . . a horror story for our times.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
 
The Dark Net is real. An anonymous and often criminal arena that exists in the secret far reaches of the Web, some use it to manage Bitcoins, pirate movies and music, or traffic in drugs and stolen goods. And now, an ancient darkness is gathering there as well. This force is threatening to spread virally into the real world unless it can be stopped by members of a ragtag crew, including a twelve-year-old who has been fitted with a high-tech visual prosthetic to combat her blindness; a technophobic journalist; a one-time child evangelist with an arsenal in his basement; and a hacker who believes himself a soldier of the Internet.
            Set in present-day Portland, The Dark Net is a cracked-mirror version of the digital nightmare we already live in, a timely and wildly imaginative techno-thriller about the evil that lurks in real and virtual spaces, and the power of a united few to fight back.
 
“This is horror literature’s bebop, bold, smart, confident in its capacity to redefine its genre from the ground up. Read this book, but take a firm grip on your hat before you start.”—Peter Straub

"Taut and elegant, carefully introspected and thoughtfully explored."--The New York Times

From award-winning author Sarah Pinsker comes a novel about one family and the technology that divides them.
Everybody's getting one.

Val and Julie just want what's best for their kids, David and Sophie. So when teenage son David comes home one day asking for a Pilot, a new brain implant to help with school, they reluctantly agree. This is the future, after all.

Soon, Julie feels mounting pressure at work to get a Pilot to keep pace with her colleagues, leaving Val and Sophie part of the shrinking minority of people without the device.

Before long, the implications are clear, for the family and society: get a Pilot or get left behind. With government subsidies and no downside, why would anyone refuse? And how do you stop a technology once it's everywhere? Those are the questions Sophie and her anti-Pilot movement rise up to answer, even if it puts them up against the Pilot's powerful manufacturer and pits Sophie against the people she loves most.

Cici dreams of being a novelist. Her favorite subject: people, especially adults. She’s been watching them and taking notes. Everybody has one special secret, Cici figures, and if you want to write about people, you need to understand what’s hiding inside them. But now she’s discovered something truly strange: an old man who disappears into the forest every Sunday with huge pots of paint in all sorts of colors. What is he up to? Why does he look so sad when he comes back?

In a graphic novel interwoven with journal notes, scrapbook pieces, and doodles, Cici assembles clues about the odd and wonderful people she’s uncovered, even as she struggles to understand the mundane: her family and friends.

Experience music history with this memoir by one of the last of the genuine old school Blues and R&B legends, the Grammy-winning dynamic showman Bobby Rush.

This memoir charts the extraordinary rise to fame of living blues legend, Bobby Rush. Born Emmett Ellis, Jr. in Homer, Louisiana, he adopted the stage name Bobby Rush out of respect for his father, a pastor. As a teenager, Rush acquired his first real guitar and started playing in juke joints in Little Rock, Arkansas, donning a fake mustache to trick club owners into thinking he was old enough to gain entry. He led his first band in Arkansas between Little Rock and Pine Bluff in the 1950s. It was there he first had Elmore James play in his band. Rush later relocated to Chicago to pursue his musical career and started to work with Earl Hooker, Luther Allison, and Freddie King, and sat in with many of his musical heroes, such as Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and Little Walter. Rush eventually began leading his own band in the 1960s, crafting his own distinct style of funky blues, and recording a succession of singles for various labels. It wasn't until the early 1970s that Rush finally scored a hit with "Chicken Heads." More recordings followed, including an album which went on to be listed in the Top 10 blues albums of the 1970s by Rolling Stone and a handful of regional jukebox favorites including "Sue" and "I Ain't Studdin' Ya."

And Rush's career shows no signs of slowing down now. The man once beloved for performing in local jukejoints is now headlining major music/blues festivals, clubs, and theaters across the U.S. and as far as Japan and Australia. At age eighty-six, he is still on the road for over 200 days a year. His lifelong hectic tour schedule has earned him the affectionate title "King of the Chitlin' Circuit," from Rolling Stone. In 2007, he earned the distinction of being the first blues artist to play at the Great Wall of China. His renowned stage act features his famed shake dancers, who personify his funky blues and his ribald sense of humor. He was featured in Martin Scorcese's The Blues docuseries on PBS, a documentary film called Take Me to the River, performed with Dan Aykroyd on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and most recently had a cameo in the Golden Globe nominated Netflix film, Dolemite Is My Name, starring Eddie Murphy. He was recently given the highest Blues Music Award honor of B.B. King Entertainer of the Year. His songs have also been featured in TV shows and films including HBO's Ballers and major motion pictures like Black Snake Moan, starring Samuel L. Jackson.

Considered by many to be the greatest bluesman currently performing, this book will give readers unparalleled access into the man, the myth, the legend: Bobby Rush.

A dazzling biography of one of the twentieth century's most respected painters, Helen Frankenthaler, as she came of age as an artist in postwar New York

"The magic of Alexander Nemerov's portrait of Helen Frankenthaler in Fierce Poise is that it reads like one of Helen's paintings. His poetic descriptions of her work and his rich insights into the years when Helen made her first artistic breakthroughs are both light and lush, seemingly easy and yet profound. His book is an ode to a truly great artist who, some seventy years after this story begins, we are only now beginning to understand."--Mary Gabriel, author of Ninth Street Women

At the dawn of the 1950s, a promising and dedicated young painter named Helen Frankenthaler, fresh out of college, moved back home to New York City to make her name. By the decade's end, she had succeeded in establishing herself as an important American artist of the postwar period. In the years in between, she made some of the most daring, head-turning paintings of her day and also came into her own as a woman: traveling the world, falling in and out of love, and engaging in an ongoing artistic education. She also experienced anew--and left her mark on--the city in which she had been raised in privilege as the daughter of a judge, even as she left the security of that world to pursue her artistic ambitions.

Brought to vivid life by acclaimed art historian Alexander Nemerov, these defining moments--from her first awed encounter with Jackson Pollock's drip paintings to her first solo gallery show to her tumultuous breakup with eminent art critic Clement Greenberg--comprise a portrait as bold and distinctive as the painter herself. Inspired by Pollock and the other male titans of abstract expressionism but committed to charting her own course, Frankenthaler was an artist whose talent was matched only by her unapologetic determination to distinguish herself in a man's world.

Fierce Poise is an exhilarating ride through New York's 1950s art scene and a brilliant portrait of a young artist through the moments that shaped her.

The New York Times Bestseller

The Explosive National Bestseller

"A backstage pass to the wildest and loudest party in rock history—you'll feel like you were right there with us!" —Bret Michaels of Poison

Nothin' But a Good Time is the definitive, no-holds-barred oral history of 1980s hard rock and hair metal, told by the musicians and industry insiders who lived it.

Hard rock in the 1980s was a hedonistic and often intensely creative wellspring of escapism that perfectly encapsulated—and maybe even helped to define—a spectacularly over-the-top decade. Indeed, fist-pumping hits like Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” Mötley Crüe’s “Girls, Girls, Girls,” and Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” are as inextricably linked to the era as Reaganomics, Pac-Man, and E.T.

From the do-or-die early days of self-financed recordings and D.I.Y. concert productions that were as flashy as they were foolhardy, to the multi-Platinum, MTV-powered glory years of stadium-shaking anthems and chart-topping power ballads, to the ultimate crash when grunge bands like Nirvana forever altered the entire climate of the business, Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock's Nothin' But a Good Time captures the energy and excess of the hair metal years in the words of the musicians, managers, producers, engineers, label executives, publicists, stylists, costume designers, photographers, journalists, magazine publishers, video directors, club bookers, roadies, groupies, and hangers-on who lived it.

Featuring an impassioned foreword by Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist and avowed glam metal fanatic Corey Taylor, and drawn from over 200 new interviews with members of Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Winger, Warrant, Cinderella, Quiet Riot and others, as well as Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford and many more, this is the ultimate, uncensored, and often unhinged chronicle of a time where excess and success walked hand in hand, told by the men and women who created a sound and style that came to define a musical era—one in which the bands and their fans went looking for nothin’ but a good time...and found it.

The heartbreaking story of college athlete Madison Holleran, whose life and death by suicide reveal the struggle of young people suffering from mental illness today in this #1 New York Times Sports and Fitness bestseller.

If you scrolled through the Instagram feed of 19-year-old Maddy Holleran, you would see a perfect life: a freshman at an Ivy League school, recruited for the track team, who was also beautiful, popular, and fiercely intelligent. This was a girl who succeeded at everything she tried, and who was only getting started. But when Maddy began her long-awaited college career, her parents noticed something changed. Previously indefatigable Maddy became withdrawn, and her thoughts centered on how she could change her life. In spite of thousands of hours of practice and study, she contemplated transferring from the school that had once been her dream.

When Maddy's dad, Jim, dropped her off for the first day of spring semester, she held him a second longer than usual. That would be the last time Jim would see his daughter. What Made Maddy Run began as a piece that Kate Fagan, a columnist for espnW, wrote about Maddy's life. What started as a profile of a successful young athlete whose life ended in suicide became so much larger when Fagan started to hear from other college athletes also struggling with mental illness.

This is the story of Maddy Holleran's life, and her struggle with depression, which also reveals the mounting pressures young people -- and college athletes in particular -- face to be perfect, especially in an age of relentless connectivity and social media saturation.

In The Ultimate Guide to Hiking, readers interested in the outdoors are provided with time-tested advice on hiking and backpacking in the wilderness. Some practical tips include:
 

• How to choose the best gear
• How to set up a campsite
• How to interact safely with wildlife
• How to properly read a map
• How to forecast the weather
• Learning practical navigation skills
• And so much more!
  
   

A New York Times bestselling author and veteran board member offers an insider's view of corporate boards, their struggles, and why they must adapt to survive. Corporate boards are under great pressure. Scandals and malpractice at companies like Theranos, WeWork, Uber, and Wells Fargo have raised justified questions among regulators, shareholders, and the public about the quality of corporate governance. In How Boards Work, prizewinning economist and veteran board director Dambisa Moyo offers an insider's view of corporate boards as they are buffeted by the turbulence of our times. Moyo argues that corporations need boards that are more transparent, more knowledgeable, more diverse, and more deeply involved in setting the strategic course of the companies they lead. How Boards Work offers a road map for how boards can steer companies through tomorrow's challenges and ensure they thrive to benefit their employees, shareholders, and society at large.

"Anyone pursuing success must read this book." --Chris Voss, author of Never Split the Difference

A master class in leadership from the world's top body language expert

From internationally bestselling author and retired FBI agent Joe Navarro, a groundbreaking look at the five powerful principles that set exceptional individuals apart

Joe Navarro spent a quarter century with the FBI, pursuing spies and other dangerous criminals across the globe. In his line of work, successful leadership was quite literally a matter of life or death. Now he brings his hard-earned lessons to you. Be Exceptional distills a lifetime of experience into five principles that outstanding individuals live by:

Self-Mastery: To lead others, you must first demonstrate that you can lead yourself.

Observation: Apply the same techniques used by the FBI to quickly and accurately assess any situation.

Communication: Harness the power of verbal and nonverbal interaction to persuade, motivate, and inspire.

Action: Build shared purpose and lead by example.

Psychological Comfort: Discover the secret ingredient of exceptional individuals.

Be Exceptional is the culmination of Joe Navarro's decades spent analyzing human behavior, conducting more than 10,000 interviews in the field, and making high-stakes behavioral assessments. Drawing upon case studies from history, compelling firsthand accounts from Navarro's FBI career, and cutting-edge science on nonverbal communication and persuasion, this is a new type of leadership book, one that will have the power to transform for years to come.

Recent decades have seen a dramatic shift away from social forms of gambling played around roulette wheels and card tables to solitary gambling at electronic terminals. Slot machines, revamped by ever more compelling digital and video technology, have unseated traditional casino games as the gambling industry's revenue mainstay. Addiction by Design takes readers into the intriguing world of machine gambling, an increasingly popular and absorbing form of play that blurs the line between human and machine, compulsion and control, risk and reward.

Drawing on fifteen years of field research in Las Vegas, anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll shows how the mechanical rhythm of electronic gambling pulls players into a trancelike state they call the "machine zone," in which daily worries, social demands, and even bodily awareness fade away. Once in the zone, gambling addicts play not to win but simply to keep playing, for as long as possible--even at the cost of physical and economic exhaustion. In continuous machine play, gamblers seek to lose themselves while the gambling industry seeks profit. Schüll describes the strategic calculations behind game algorithms and machine ergonomics, casino architecture and "ambience management," player tracking and cash access systems--all designed to meet the market's desire for maximum "time on device." Her account moves from casino floors into gamblers' everyday lives, from gambling industry conventions and Gamblers Anonymous meetings to regulatory debates over whether addiction to gambling machines stems from the consumer, the product, or the interplay between the two.

Addiction by Design is a compelling inquiry into the intensifying traffic between people and machines of chance, offering clues to some of the broader anxieties and predicaments of contemporary life. At stake in Schüll's account of the intensifying traffic between people and machines of chance is a blurring of the line between design and experience, profit and loss, control and compulsion.

Why do you believe what you believe?

You’ve been lied to. Probably a lot. We’re always stunned when we realize we’ve been deceived. We can’t believe we were fooled: What was I thinking? How could I have believed that?

We always wonder why we believed the lie. But have you ever wondered why you believe the truth? People tell you the truth all the time, and you believe them; and if, at some later point, you’re confronted with evidence that the story you believed was indeed true, you never wonder why you believed it in the first place. In this incisive and insightful taxonomy of lies and liars, New York Times bestselling author Aja Raden makes the surprising claim that maybe you should.

Buttressed by history, psychology, and science, The Truth About Lies is both an eye-opening primer on con-artistry—from pyramid schemes to shell games, forgery to hoaxes—and also a telescopic view of society through the mechanics of belief: why we lie, why we believe, and how, if at all, the acts differ. Through wild tales of cons and marks, Raden examines not only how lies actually work, but also why they work, from the evolutionary function of deception to what it reveals about our own.

In her previous book, Stoned, Raden asked, “What makes a thing valuable?” In The Truth About Lies, she asks “What makes a thing real?” With cutting wit and a deft touch, Raden untangles the relationship of truth to lie, belief to faith, and deception to propaganda.

The Truth About Lies will change everything you thought you knew about what you know, and whether you ever really know it.

Learn to love yourself and your body with this interactive guide from the “shame-free, fun, cheerful, and no-nonsense” (Bustle) body acceptance advocate and influencer who founded Megababe beauty.

“Brilliant, hilarious, adorably illustrated.”—Goop
Can you imagine how much free time you’d have if you didn’t spend so much of it body shaming yourself? Katie Sturino knows all too well what it’s like to shit talk yourself. She spent thirty years of her life feeling ashamed of her body and its self-determined wrongness. Now she doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her; she only cares that she’s happy and comfortable with herself. Body positivity and size inclusivity is still a relatively new phenomenon, but Sturino has dedicated her life to unlearning all that beauty standard BS and uses her blog, Instagram, podcast, and non-toxic, solution-oriented beauty products to share the message that changed her life: YOUR BODY IS NOT THE PROBLEM.  

With Body Talk, an illustrated guide-meets-workbook, Sturino is here to help you stop obsessing about your body issues, focus on self-love, and free up space in your brain for creative and productive energy. Complete with empowering affirmations, relatable anecdotes, and actionable takeaways, as well as space to answer prompts and jot down feelings and inspirations, Body Talk encourages you to spend less time thinking about how you look and what you eat and more time discovering your inner fierceness.

Sandra Boynton and Yo-Yo Ma! Plus snoozing jungle animals!
Two celebrated artists come together for JUNGLE NIGHT, a soothing bedtime board book. (Okay, MOSTLY soothing.) The book guides us through the jungle to hear the distinctive, gentle snore of each animal: "Listen to the tiger: ZEEE-ZOOO-HAAA. Listen to the cheetah: CHEE-CHEE-TAAAH." A free downloadable JUNGLE NIGHT recording offers a narration of the book, with each and every animal snore interpreted by the expressive, playful cello of Yo-Yo Ma. He even does the elephant's stop-the-show snore—though admittedly that took Ma's cello PLUS the classic horn salute of the James R. Barker steamship. (Seriously.) All of this fabulousness leads into the coolest lullaby ever: "Jungle Gymnopédie No. 1", a polyrhythmic jungly arrangement by Boynton of Erik Satie's renowned piece, with Yo-Yo Ma on cello, guitar played by Ron Block of Alison Krauss Union Station, and drums by Kevin MacLeod. "Yo-Yo and I chose this piece because it's the most gorgeous and mesmerizing night song imaginable," explains Boynton. "And there was surely nothing else that could get those animals back to sleep after that elephant blast."

 

Based on the research that race, gender, consent, and body positivity should be discussed with toddlers on up, this read-aloud board book series offers adults the opportunity to begin important conversations with young children in an informed, safe, and supported way.

Developed by experts in the fields of early childhood and activism against injustice, this topic-driven board book offers clear, concrete language and beautiful imagery that young children can grasp and adults can leverage for further discussion.

While young children are avid observers and questioners of their world, adults often shut down or postpone conversations on complicated topics because it's hard to know where to begin. Research shows that talking about issues like race and gender from the age of two not only helps children understand what they see, but also increases self-awareness, self-esteem, and allows them to recognize and confront things that are unfair, like discrimination and prejudice.

This first book in the series begins the conversation on race, with a supportive approach that considers both the child and the adult. Stunning art accompanies the simple and interactive text, and the backmatter offers additional resources and ideas for extending this discussion.

★ "An accessible, important addition to any anti-racist bookshelf." --- starred review, Kirkus Reviews

★ "The book lives up to its promise by opening the door to rich conversations with explanations that are age-appropriate... This timely book is essential for all collections." --- starred review, School Library Connection

Do you know how unicorns got their horns? Find out in this charming picture book about friendship, family, and magic. (Hint: It’s something sweet!)

How did unicorns get their horns? It all began once upon a magical forest, where a little girl named June discovered tiny horses with soft fur and sparkly tails learning how to fly! But there was one poor, sad horsie that couldn’t fly at all. And of course, June was determined to help.
 
Find out how one girl’s sweet idea for cheering up her new friend turned into an unexpected treat for unicorn lovers everywhere. Featuring an imaginative little girl who loves to explore nature, this adorable story celebrates family, friendship, and finding the magic within yourself.

An everyday visit to the pool transforms into an unforgettable celebration of the water in this remarkable picture book from Jacqueline Davies, the award-winning author of children's classic The Lemonade War, and Sonia Sánchez, the illustrator of Meg Medina's Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away.

A day at the community pool is full of unwater magic--dunking and diving with friends; somersaulting, walking on your hands, and bursting up through the surface like a tortoise. But when a thunderstorm comes and a little brother ventures too close to the pool's edge, will our main character be quick enough and brave enough to save the day?

In this energetic read-aloud, the words swim off the pages as the underwater world comes to life through lush, dynamic illustrations and visual poetry. Journey to an imaginative world where, always and forever, bubbles . . . rise . . . UP!

A gigantic tyrannical toddler is out to play . . . with the whole town! A hilarious early reader from comics artist Jeffrey Ebbeler.

Molly doesn't want to clean her room; she wants to play. Before Molly can argue with her mom, they hear BOOM! BOOM! A giant toddler is on the loose!

Molly watches dumbfounded as Jack picks up cows and plucks airplanes out of the sky all for fun. He even picks up Molly and pretends to fly her around. Vroooom! When his giantess mother calls him home, he gleefully dumps everything and turns to leave. Now it's Molly's turn to say: Stop! This is a giant mess!

In this easy reader comic, Jeffrey Ebbeler has created an entertaining tale about cleaning up after yourself. The variety of panel styles, speech bubbles, and fonts are all perfect for engaging developing readers.

I Like to Read Comics are created for kids just learning to read. Sequential art and simple text--and a powerful relationship between the two--are the perfect for developing readers.

Introducing I Can Read Comics, a brand-new early reader line that familiarizes children with the world of graphic novel storytelling and encourages visual literacy in emerging readers.

One day, a bored little fish journeys up to the surface of the ocean, where it meets the sun. A wonderful friendship blooms... Only, right in the middle of their fun, the sun starts to set! Fish and Sun is a powerful story about newfound friendship by Sergio Ruzzier.

Fish and Sun is a Level One I Can Read Comic, a simple story for shared reading.

Junior Library Guild Selection

It's time to bake magical spring cakes! But can these adorable kittens find all the ingredients? Find out in this early graphic reader!

It's springtime! Mama Cat is ready to bake her famous spring cakes, enchanted cupcakes heaped with sparkling frosting. Can kittens Nutmeg, Cinnamon, and Ginger find all the magical ingredients she needs? The quest begins! This imaginative and adventurous graphic reader comes from rising comics star Miranda Harmon, co-creator of Mayor Good Boy.

I Like to Read Comics are created for kids just learning to read. Sequential art and simple text--and a powerful relationship between the two--are the perfect conditions for developing readers.

Elmo shares mindfulness tips to help his Sesame Street friends--and preschoolers everywhere--stay calm and focused.

Just like kids everywhere, Elmo, Grover, Cookie Monster, and their Sesame Street friends sometimes have trouble controlling their emotions. This board book offers thoughtful suggestions as to what to do when you're scared, angry, frustrated, upset, and overwhelmed. Young children can learn simple techniques to stay calm and focused such as belly breathing, counting to 10, hugging yourself, and using a glitter jar. This oversized board book, filled with color photographs and illustrations of Elmo and the other Sesame Street muppets, is a perfect format for parents and caretakers to read with their children.

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, aims to help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder through its many unique domestic and international initiatives. These projects cover a wide array of topics for families around the world.

Fun and educational science experiment pranks to teach kids about physics, biology, chemistry, and more--from the #1 science author for kids!

What's more fun than a practical joke? A SCIENTIFIC practical joke! Your friends and family might be annoyed at first...until they realize they're learning about science too! Written by a quantum physicist and two science teachers, Pranklab shows kids how they can use everyday household items to exploit the laws of physics, biology, and chemistry through entertaining (and perfectly safe) activities.

Each prank includes step-by-step instructions, colorful illustrations and diagrams, and additional notes and fun facts to explain the science behind the prank!

Includes awesome pranks like:

• Fountain Dew: Take advantage of water pressure to soak an unsuspecting sibling!
• Hunger Explosion: Trick a friend into creating an awesomely messy chemical reaction!
• Cheater's Dice: Secretly use statistics to win every time!
• Mind Control Elevator: Test out the mind-bending power of groupthink!
• and more!

Everybody needs a role model! Discover true stories of superstars, war heroes, world leaders, gusty gals, and everyday women who changed the world. From Sacagawea to Mother Teresa, Annie Oakley to Malala Yousafzai, these famous women hiked up their pants and petticoats and charged full-speed ahead to prove girls are just as tough as boys...maybe even tougher. Complete with amazing images and a fun design, this is the book that every kid with a goal, hope, or dream will want to own.

15 fun and fact-filled poems about soil--what makes it and who lives in it! This book unearths some of the glorious mysteries that lie beneath our feet!

Dirt! It's made of chipped rocks, rotting plants, decaying animals, fungi, and germs. It's food for plants and home to animals of all kinds.

15 poems explore the underground lives of earthworms, spiders, ants, chipmunks, and more.

Chipmunk, for such a little squirt
you sure do move a lot of dirt,
you sure do dig your tunnels deep,
you sure do find some nuts to keep,
you sure do know your underground.
Chipmunk, you sure do get around.

Spectacular art is oriented for an extra long view to better depict life down deep.

Table of Contents--Dirt Recipe At the Roots of Things, Doodlebug: One Way Ride, Trap Door Spider: The Waiting Game, Earthworm: Dirty Work, Ant: City Builder, Grub: Grass Killer, Mouse: Nightfall Calls, Bumblebee: Planning for Spring, Yellow Jacket Wasp: Warning! Warning! Warning!, Mole: Worm Search, Toad: Bedtime, Chipmunk: Busy, Busy, Busy!, Gopher Tortoise: The Innkeeper, And Now We Know, Author Notes

This is David L. Harrison and Kate Cosgrove's second nature book together after And the Bullfrogs Sing.
This book has been vetted by an expert. It includes back matter and a bibliography.

Follow a beekeeping bear through the seasons--and learn about the life cycle and ecology of bees--in this folksy step-by-step guide to caring for hives and harvesting honey.

With glowing, honey-hued illustrations and friendly text, this homespun year-in-the-life of a busy beekeeper and his bees is a definitive picture book primer--whether for families contemplating a new hobby or for readers just curious to know how bees make honey. Follow Bruno the bear through the seasons, beginning in late summer, as he demonstrates how he keeps his bees healthy and happy, from housing and maintaining the hive to harvesting honey and beeswax. Learn the anatomy and life cycle of bees, the difference between workers and queens, what flowers bees pollinate, and what predators they avoid. Gracefully translated from the original Czech--and paired with charming folk-style art that evokes the rural setting and cozy kitchen of a blended beekeeping family (complete with Grandma's recipe for homemade honey-gingerbread cookies)--this charming ode to sustainability and fostering nature's small wonders will delight readers of every stripe.

When Arnold wishes he had more information for his family tree, Ms. Frizzle revs up the Magic School Bus and the class zooms back to prehistoric times. First stop: 3.5 billion years ago!

There aren't any people around to ask for directions. Luckily Ms. Frizzle has a plan, and the class is right there to watch simple cells become sponges and then fish and dinosaurs, then mammals and early primates and, eventually, modern humans. It's the longest class trip ever!

This is the story of a species, of our species, as only Ms. Frizzle can tell it. Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen tackle this essential topic with the insight and humor that have made the Magic School Bus the bestselling science series of all time.

Hop on board for a class trip that spans billions of lifetimes!

Move over, Nancy Drew--there's a new sleuth in town! Inspired by the beloved comic series, Goldie Vance is ready to sleuth her way through never-before-seen mysteries in this original novel series by Lilliam Rivera featuring 16 full-color comic pages!
Marigold "Goldie" Vance lives and works at the Crossed Palms Resort Hotel in Florida with a whole slew of characters: her dad, Art, the manager of the joint; Cheryl Lebeaux, the concierge and Goldie's best friend; and Walter Tooey, the hired hotel detective. Her mom, Sylvie, works nearby at the Mermaid Club.
While life at the Crossed Palms is always busy, the resort is currently overrun with Hollywood-types filming the hottest new creature feature, and tensions are at an all-time high. Even Goldie's mom is in on the movie act, doing what she does best: playing a mermaid. Just when Goldie thinks the movie biz couldn't get any more exciting, a diamond-encrusted swimming cap goes missing, and all fingers point to Goldie's mom as the culprit. Can Goldie uncover the true thief before it's too late?
Based on Hope Larson and Brittney Williams's critically acclaimed Goldie Vance comic, this thrilling novel explores a never-before-seen caper and features 16 full-color comic pages essential to unraveling the mystery.
Text and Illustration copyright: © 2020 BOOM! StudiosGoldie Vance(TM) and © 2020 Hope Larson & Brittney Williams

In this beautifully reimagined story by NSK Neustadt Laureate and New York Times bestselling author Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Creek), Native American Lily and English Wendy embark on a high-flying journey of magic, adventure, and courage to a fairy-tale island known as Neverland…

Lily and Wendy have been best friends since they became stepsisters. But with their feuding parents planning to spend the summer apart, what will become of their family—and their friendship?

Little do they know that a mysterious boy has been watching them from the oak tree outside their window. A boy who intends to take them away from home for good, to an island of wild animals, Merfolk, Fairies, and kidnapped children, to a sea of merfolk, pirates, and a giant crocodile.

A boy who calls himself Peter Pan.

In partnership with We Need Diverse Books

A rebellion in space pits one boy's past against his future in this gripping adventure from the critically acclaimed author of In the Red! This out-of-this-world story about fighting for what's right, chasing your dreams, and believing in yourself is perfect for fans of Kevin Emerson, Yoon Ha Lee, and D. J. MacHale.

Lucas Adebayo grew up on a small mining ship in the asteroid belt, but wants to join the Navy and become the best pilot in the galaxy. The Navy has never accepted a Belter cadet before, but Lucas's skills secure him a place on the training ship, the Orpheus.

Life in the Navy couldn't be more different than life in the Belt, and Lucas struggles to find his place. As a Belter, he's an outsider among his peers; as a Navy cadet, he doesn't quite fit in at home anymore, either. Lucas is caught between the worlds of his past and his future when a Belter rebellion puts everyone's lives at risk. Only he can lead the way to peace.

Praise for In the Red

"It will leave you breathless."--New York Times bestselling author D. J. MacHale

"A non-stop, pulse-pounding adventure!"--Kevin Emerson, author of Last Day on Mars

"Stunning descriptions and harrowing feats of survival."--Booklist

“[A] charming novel [that] explores the complexity of immigration and identity.” —Teen Vogue

An Indian American girl navigates prejudice in her small town and learns the power of her own voice in this brilliant gem of a middle grade novel full of humor and heart, perfect for fans of Front Desk and Amina’s Voice.

As the only Indian American kid in her small town, Lekha Divekar feels like she has two versions of herself: Home Lekha, who loves watching Bollywood movies and eating Indian food, and School Lekha, who pins her hair over her bindi birthmark and avoids confrontation at all costs, especially when someone teases her for being Indian.

When a girl Lekha’s age moves in across the street, Lekha is excited to hear that her name is Avantika and she’s Desi, too! Finally, there will be someone else around who gets it. But as soon as Avantika speaks, Lekha realizes she has an accent. She’s new to this country, and not at all like Lekha.

To Lekha’s surprise, Avantika does not feel the same way as Lekha about having two separate lives or about the bullying at school. Avantika doesn’t take the bullying quietly. And she proudly displays her culture no matter where she is: at home or at school.

When a racist incident rocks Lekha’s community, Lekha realizes she must make a choice: continue to remain silent or find her voice before it’s too late.