Monthly Featured Topic
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Winters in the World
Interweaving literature, history, and religion, an exquisite meditation on the turning of the seasons in medieval England—now in paperback.
Winters in the World is a beautifully observed journey through the cycle of the year in Anglo-Saxon England, exploring the festivals, customs, and traditions linked to the different seasons. Drawing on a wide variety of source material, including poetry, histories, and religious literature, Eleanor Parker investigates how Anglo-Saxons felt about the annual passing of the seasons and the profound relationship they saw between human life and the rhythms of nature. Many of the festivals celebrated in the United Kingdom today have their roots in the Anglo-Saxon period, and this book traces their surprising history while unearthing traditions now long forgotten. It celebrates some of the finest treasures of medieval literature and provides an imaginative connection to the Anglo-Saxon world. -
2020
A meticulously reported, character-driven, unforgettable investigation of a time when nothing was certain and everything was at stake, by the acclaimed sociologist and best-selling author Eric Klinenberg
“A gripping, deeply moving account of a signal year in modern history, told through the stories of seven ordinary people. Klinenberg’s narrative shows how the legacy of that year continues to shape us, our politics and our personal lives.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies • "I can easily see this book being invaluable in the future."—Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times
2020 will go down alongside 1914, 1929, and 1968 as one of the most consequential years in history. This riveting and affecting book is the first attempt to capture the full human experience of that fateful time.
At the heart of 2020 are seven vivid profiles of ordinary New Yorkers—including an elementary school principal, a bar manager, a subway custodian, and a local political aide—whose experiences illuminate how Americans, and people across the globe, reckoned with 2020. Through these poignant stories, we revisit our own moments of hope and fear, the profound tragedies and losses in our communities, the mutual aid networks that brought us together, and the social movements that hinted at the possibilities of a better world.
Eric Klinenberg vividly captures these stories, casting them against the backdrop of a high-stakes presidential election, a surge of misinformation, rising distrust, and raging protests. We move from the epicenter in New York City to Washington and London, where political leaders made the crisis so much more lethal than it had to be. We bear witness to epidemiological battles in Wuhan and Beijing, along with the initiatives of scientists, citizens, and policy makers in Australia, Japan, and Taiwan, who worked together to save lives.
Klinenberg allows us to see 2020—and, ultimately, ourselves—with unprecedented clarity and empathy. His book not only helps us reckon with what we lived through, but also with the challenges we face before the next crisis arrives.
"A masterful piece of rigorous journalism, rigorous sociology, and incredible story-telling."—Chris Hayes, MSNBC News -
There's Always This Year
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A “powerful” (The Guardian) reflection on basketball, life, and home—from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America
“Mesmerizing . . . not only the most original sports book I’ve ever read but one of the most moving books I’ve ever read, period.”—Steve James, director of Hoop Dreams
ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Vulture, Chicago Public Library, BookPage
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, NPR, The Boston Globe, The New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, Electric Lit
Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, Hanif Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others weren’t. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with intimate, personal storytelling. “Here is where I would like to tell you about the form on my father’s jump shot,” Abdurraqib writes. “The truth, though, is that I saw my father shoot a basketball only one time.”
There’s Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus—whether it’s basketball, or music, or performance—Hanif Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.
LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION AND THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
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A Year of Last Things
From one of the most influential writers of his generation, a gorgeously surprising poetry collection about memory, history, and the act of looking back
Following several of his internationally acclaimed novels, A Year of Last Things is Michael Ondaatje’s long-awaited return to poetry. In pieces that are sometimes witty, sometimes moving, and always wise, we journey back through time by way of alchemical leaps, unearthing writings by revered masters, moments of shared tenderness, and the abandoned landscapes we hold on to to rediscover the influence of every border crossed.
Moving from a Sri Lankan boarding school to Molière’s chair during his last stage performance, to Bulgarian churches and their icons, to the California coast and his beloved Canadian rivers, Michael Ondaatje casts a brilliant eye that merges memory with the present, in the way memory as the distant shores of art and lost friends continue to influence everything that surrounds him.
From his poem "His chair, a narrow bed, a motel room, the fox":
At the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles Sam Cooke was shot dead.
‘See that shadow on the wall . . .’ All those motels and hotels
in literature and song, where X wrote this,
where Y got drunk, where Z overdosed.
The one Hank Williams was driven past, dead already in his car.
The Slavianski Bazaar Hotel in "The Lady with a Dog,"
where Dmitri imagines their dark but hopeful future.
The Hôtel de ville de Courtrai, where Verlaine shot Rimbaud.
The Casa Verdi in Milan, where retired opera singers were welcomed
along with various heteronyms of Fernando Pessoa in their afterlife. -
Gotham City: Year One
There once was a shining city on the water, a home for families, hope, and prosperity. It was Gotham and it was glorious.
The story of its fall from grace, the legend that would birth the Bat, has remained untold for 80 years.
That's about to change.
Superstar creators Tom King and Phil Hester team up for the first time to tell the definitive origin of Gotham City: how it became the cesspool of violence and corruption it is today, and how it harbored and then unleashed the sin that led to the rise of the Dark Knight. Two generations before Batman, private investigator Slam Bradley gets tangled in the "kidnapping of the century" as the infant Wayne heir disappears in the night...and so begins a brutal, hard-boiled, epic tale of a man living on the edge and a city about to burn. -
History Year by Year
Discover the world's most significant events through a detailed, dynamic, book-long timeline of over 7 million years.
When did Hannibal cross the Alps? What caused the War of Jenkins' Ear? Who was Rosa Parks? How did the Arab Spring unfold? Discover history's most decisive moments as and when they happened. Taking a chronological approach, History Year by Year invites you to explore momentous discoveries, ingenious inventions, and important events from around the world in the context of their time. Along the way, you'll meet charismatic leaders, brutal dictators, influential thinkers, and innovative scientists from around the globe.
Follow in the steps of your human ancestors as they colonized the planet, developed tools, harnessed fire, and painted cave walls. Learn how their descendants established great civilizations, founded huge empires, domesticated animals, built pyramids, produced great art, authored epic poems, and even traveled into space. There are wars, rebellions, voyages of adventure and discovery, extraordinary technological developments, and incredible sporting feats.
In this history book, you will find:
-Maps, photography, facts, and statistics about the timeline of the world for over 7 million years.
-Chapters with information about the origin of humans, early civilization, trade and invention, technology, and more.
-Detailed descriptions and information on significant moments in history that shaped life.
Accessible to everyone, History Year by Year's combination of bite-sized information, eye-catching images, crystal-clear maps, and memorable stats will delight history lovers and make an ideal gift for trivia fans wanting facts at their fingertips. If you've ever wondered exactly what happened when - and where it all took place - then this is the book for you. -
My Four Seasons in France
A little over ten years ago, Janine Marsh and her husband Mark gave up their city jobs in London to chase the good life in the countryside of northern France. Having overcome the obstacles of starting to renovate her dream home - an ancient, dilapidated barn - and fitting in with the peculiarities of her new neighbours, Janine is now the go-to expat in the area for those seeking to get to grips with a very different way of life.
In the Seven Valleys, each season brings new challenges as well as new delights. Freezing weather in February threaten the lives of some of the four-legged locals; snow in March results in a broken arm, which in turn leads to an etiquette lesson at the local hospital; and a dramatic hailstorm in July destroys cars and houses, ultimately bringing the villagers closer together.
With warmth and humour, Janine showcases a uniquely French outlook as two eternally ambitious expats drag a neglected farmhouse to life and stumble across the hidden gems of this very special part of the world
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Praise for Janine Marsh's My Good Life in France:
'Warm, uplifting, and effervescent ... Janine's voice and humor bubble right off the page, making you want to pack your bags and visit her fixer-upper home in rural France' - Samantha Verant, author of Seven Letters from Paris
'If you've ever dreamed of discovering "the real France", you won't want to miss this delightful book' - Keith Van Sickle, author of One Sip at a Time: Learning to Live in Provence -
One Year in Uvalde
From award-winning journalists John Quiñones and María Elena Salinas comes One Year in Uvalde, a narrative that builds on year-long ABC News reporting from Uvalde, Texas, chronicling how the community is forging on through grief with hope and activism in the shadow of tragedy.
Uvalde: 365 was a continuing ABC News series led by the network's Investigative Unit. As part of the initiative, ABC News opened a local satellite news bureau in Uvalde, Texas, in the aftermath of the tragic mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, that hosted a rotating crew of correspondents, producers, writers, and technical staff. Their gripping, vital reporting has been featured across all programs and platforms, from Good Morning America to World News Tonight with David Muir.
Award-winning journalists John Quiñones and María Elena Salinas became immersed in the Uvalde community, as their field reporting brought them ever closer to the people of this Texas city. Quiñones, Salinas, and other ABC reporters and producers on the ground documented the lives of victims' families; covered local community events; followed city council, school board, and Texas Legislature meetings; and attended congressional hearings in Washington, D.C., where victims' families have been advocating for gun reform.
One Year in Uvalde synthesizes this year-long story into a timely, humane, and important look at a community's activism and resiliency, as it follows several families and residents while events continue to unfold in the community. The intimate, sensitive reporting of Quiñones, Salinas, and the ABC News team examines a specific time and place in American life, thereby highlighting challenges that we face as a nation.
The authors have made donations to the following charities that serve the Uvalde community:
*The Uvalde CISD Moving Forward Foundation (https: //UvaldeCISDMovingForward.org/)
*The Uvalde Forever Fund of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country (www.CommunityFoundation.net)
*Uvalde High School Athletic Department (https: //Athletics.UCISD.net) -
A Year of Ravens
From seven bestselling authors, including New York Times bestseller Kate Quinn, comes a gripping and vividly imagined novel following an epic struggle of rebellion against the might of Rome.
Britannia: land of mist and magic clinging to the western edge of the Roman Empire. A red-haired queen named Boudica led her people in a desperate rebellion against the might of Rome, an epic struggle destined to consume heroes and cowards, young and old, Roman and Briton . . . and these are their stories.
A calculating queen foresees the fires of rebellion in a king's death.
A neglected slave girl seizes her own courage as Boudica calls for war.
An idealistic tribune finds manhood in a brutal baptism of blood and slaughter.
A death-haunted Druid challenges the gods themselves to ensure victory for his people.
A conflicted young warrior finds himself torn between loyalties to tribe and to Rome.
An old champion struggles for everlasting glory in the final battle against the legions.
A pair of fiery princesses fight to salvage the pieces of their mother's dream as the ravens circle.
A novel in seven parts, overlapping stories of warriors and peacemakers, queens and slaves, Romans and Britons who cross paths during Boudica's epic rebellion. But who will survive to see the dawn of a new Britannia, and who will fall to feed the ravens
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Good Lookin' Cookin'
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • You’re invited to pull up a chair to a year of meals, friends, and fun with the Partons, as Dolly and her sister (and favorite cook) Rachel share beloved, crowd-pleasing recipes and family stories.
“Hey, good lookin’—what ya got cookin’?”
This is what Dolly Parton sings to her sister Rachel Parton George whenever she walks into her kitchen. It’s what you do when a love for good music and good food runs in the family.
In Good Lookin’ Cookin’ Dolly and Rachel share tips for hosting events all year long, including twelve multi-course menus of cherished recipes for New Year’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and more. You’ll learn how much butter or whipped cream goes into a “Dolly Dollop,” what condiment is almost always on the table at Parton family meals, and what special dish Rachel makes at Dolly’s request every year for her birthday. Recipes include American classics such as Country Ham and Biscuits, Barbecue Spare Ribs, Family Favorite Meatloaf, Slaw of Many Colors, Watermelon Fruit Salad, Mac and Cheese, and Strawberry Shortcake.
Filled with more than 80 delicious dishes as well as photographs of Dolly and Rachel cooking and hosting all year long, Good Lookin’ Cookin’ is a treasured cookbook that will make you feel like part of the Parton family. With their trademark warmth and sisterly love, Dolly and Rachel remind you that cooking doesn’t need to be serious—it should be fun! And always good lookin’! -
The Year of the Horses
At the age of thirty-seven, Courtney Maum finds herself in an indoor arena in Connecticut, moments away from stepping back into the saddle. For her, this is not just a riding lesson, but a last-ditch attempt to pull herself back from the brink even though riding is a relic from the past she walked away from. She hasn’t been on or near a horse in over thirty years.
Although Maum does know what depression looks like, she finds herself refusing to admit, at this point in her life, that it could look like her: a woman with a privileged past, a mortgage, a husband, a healthy child, and a published novel. That she feels sadness is undeniable, but she feels no right to claim it. And when both therapy and medication fail, Courtney returns to her childhood passion of horseback riding as a way to recover the joy and fearlessness she once had access to as a young girl. As she finds her way, once again, through the world of contemporary horseback riding—Courtney becomes reacquainted with herself not only as a rider but as a mother, wife, daughter, writer, and woman. Alternating timelines and braided with historical portraits of women and horses alongside history’s attempts to tame both parties, The Year of the Horses is an inspiring love letter to the power of animals—and humans—to heal the mind and the heart.
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Your Best Year Ever
This is the year you finally close the gap between reality and your dreams.
We all want to live a life that matters. We all want to reach our full potential. But too often we find ourselves overwhelmed by the day-to-day. Our biggest goals get pushed to the back burner--and then, more often than not, they get abandoned and forgotten.
It doesn't have to be that way!
In this new, fully revised and updated edition of Your Best Year Ever, Michael Hyatt shares a powerful, proven, research-driven system for setting and achieving your goals. You'll learn how to design your best year ever by discovering:
● what's holding you back right now
● how to overcome your past setbacks
● the seven attributes of effective goals
● how to quit-proof your goals
● the role of habits in personal achievement
● what to do when you feel stuck
● and much more
If you're tired of not seeing progress in your personal, intellectual, business, relational, or financial goals, it's time for you to have your best year ever! -
The Five Year Lie
"I devoured this book in one day, and I guarantee you will too."--Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell
"An expertly woven story of love, revenge, and murder. In a world where so many books feel so similar--this was a refreshingly unique read and an addictive blend of love and mystery that I couldn't put down. This is storytelling at its finest and I can't recommend this book enough."--AR Torre, New York Times bestselling author of Every Last Secret
Bestselling romance author Sarina Bowen's debut thriller, about one woman's search for the truth after receiving a text from her deceased ex.
She thought it was love. Then he vanished.
On an ordinary Monday morning, Ariel Cafferty's phone buzzes with a disturbing text message. Something's happened. I need to see you. Meet me under the candelabra tree ASAP. The words would be jarring from anyone, but the sender is the only man she ever loved. And it's been several years since she learned he died.
Seeing Drew's name pop up is heart-stopping. Ariel's gut says it can't be real. But she goes to the tree anyway. She has to.
Nobody shows. But the text upends everything she thought she knew about the day he left her. The more questions she asks, the more sinister the answers get. Only two things are clear: everything she was told five years ago is wrong, and someone is still lying to her.
The truth has to be out there somewhere. To safeguard herself--and her son--she'll have to find it before it finds her. And with it, the answer to what became of Drew.
For fans of Laura Dave and Julie Clark, but with a heart-stopping romance that only Sarina Bowen can execute, The Five Year Lie is a page-turning, spine-tingling thriller that will have you guessing until the very end.
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A Year of Quilting
The ultimate week-by-week quilt-along companion from best-selling sewing author Debbie Shore and quilting expert Melissa Nayler: learn how to create 52 unique blocks - one for every week of the year - then combine them into a stunning patchwork quilt.
Follow the book from start to finish to create a stunning, harmonious quilt using all the block designs, or dip in and out, experiment with the techniques and then mix and match your favorite blocks to create your own unique creation. The book features:
- An inspiring variety of quilting techniques - from simple machine piecing and appliqué to foundation paper piecing, every block explores a different patchwork and/or quilting method.
- Simple instructions, perfect for beginners - each unique block is accompanied by easy-to-follow instructions, clear photography and full-size templates.
- All the patchwork and quilting techniques needed - from piecing your initial shapes right through to binding your finished quilt.
- Matching, bonus projects - if you're looking to make items to match your quilt, Debbie has shared ideas on how to transform individual blocks into homewares and accessories, including pillows, pouches and placemats.
This book is inspired by Debbie and Melissa's incredibly popular Block of the Month quilt-along from the award-winning Half Yard Sewing Club: www.halfyardsewingclub.com -
The Year of Jubilee
The Year of Jubilee is a lyrical coming-of-age novel set against the backdrop of the turbulent South in the early 1960s.
The Mockingbird family has always lived peacefully in Jubilee, Kentucky, despite the divisions that mark their small town. Until the tense summer of 1963, when their youngest child, Isaac, falls gravely ill. Middle sister Grace, nearly fourteen, is determined to do whatever it takes to save her little brother. With her father and mother away at the hospital, Grace is left under the loving but inexperienced eye of her aunt June, with little to do but wait and worry. Inspired by a young teacher's mission for change, she begins to flirt with danger--and with a gifted boy named Golden, who just might be the key to saving Isaac's life. Then the unthinkable happens, and the world as she knows it shifts in ways she never could have imagined. Grace must decide what she believes amid the swirling, conflicting voices even of those she loves the most.
From gifted songwriter Cindy Morgan comes this lyrical, tender tale of a girl standing at the threshold of adulthood, learning the depths of the human heart and the bonds of family that bend, break, and bind together over and over again.- Southern historical fiction that explores the civil rights movement
- Beautifully written with themes of growing up, community, and faith
- Includes discussion questions for book clubs
New Non-Fiction
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Food for Thought
From Alton Brown, the New York Times bestselling cookbook author and beloved culinary food personality, a debut collection of personal essays defined by his flair, wit, and insight.
From cameraman to chef, musician to food scientist, Alton Brown has had a diverse and remarkable career. His work on the Food Network, including creating Good Eats and hosting Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen, has resonated with countless viewers and home cooks. Now, he shares exactly what’s on his mind, mixing compelling anecdotes from his personal and professional life with in-depth observations on the culinary world, film, personal style, defining meals of his lifetime, and much more.
With his whip-smart and engaging voice, Brown explores everything from wrestling a dumpster full of dough to culinary cultural appropriation to his ultimate quest for the perfect roast chicken. Deliciously candid and full of behind-the-scenes stories fans will love, Food for Thought is the ultimate reading experience for anyone who appreciates food and the people that prepare it. -
Source Code
The origin story of one of the most influential and transformative business leaders and philanthropists of the modern age
The business triumphs of Bill Gates are widely known: the twenty-year-old who dropped out of Harvard to start a software company that became an industry giant and changed the way the world works and lives; the billionaire many times over who turned his attention to philanthropic pursuits to address climate change, global health, and U.S. education.
Source Code is not about Microsoft or the Gates Foundation or the future of technology. It’s the human, personal story of how Bill Gates became who he is today: his childhood, his early passions and pursuits. It’s the story of his principled grandmother and ambitious parents, his first deep friendships and the sudden death of his best friend; of his struggles to fit in and his discovery of a world of coding and computers in the dawn of a new era; of embarking in his early teens on a path that took him from midnight escapades at a nearby computer center to his college dorm room, where he sparked a revolution that would change the world.
Bill Gates tells this, his own story, for the first time: wise, warm, revealing, it’s a fascinating portrait of an American life. -
The Way of Play
The simple way to help your kids face their fears, handle big emotions, and bolster their social skills—from the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Whole-Brain Child and a renowned play therapist
“A parenting guide as useful as it is scientifically sound, The Way of Play is a gift for anyone who cares about human development and the growth-promoting importance of having fun in life!”—Daniel J. Siegel, MD
Most parents understand that free, unstructured playtime is great for children’s development. What they may not know is that playful interaction with parents is also a powerful way for kids to cultivate healthy emotional development and resilience. Kids often want their parents to play with them, but many parents don’t know how to play or see it only as an (often boring) way to kill time.
Playing with your kids doesn’t have to mean enrolling in countless parent-and-me classes or getting on all fours and making toy car sounds; the little daily moments together can make the most impact. In The Way of Play, world-renowned pediatric therapists and play experts Tina Payne Bryson and Georgie Wisen-Vincent break down seven simple, playful techniques that harness this caregiving magic in only a few minutes each day:
• Leaning in to emotions helps children let go of anxieties, drama, and chaotic behavior.
• Tuning in to the body teaches children to practice the art of surfing sensory waves.
• Storytelling promotes better problem-solving.
• Thinking out loud fosters calmer thinking and stronger communication with parents, siblings, and everyone else.
Full of science-backed research, real-life stories, and charming line illustrations to bring this novel advice to life, The Way of Play will help you nurture your kids and encourage them to become calm listeners, cooperative problem solvers, and respectful communicators. Just as important, it will help your whole family have more fun together and build stronger relationships. -
I Am Nobody's Slave
A 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist and former Wall Street Journal writer exhaustively examines his family's legacy of post-enslavement trauma and resilience, in this riveting memoir--a soulful, shocking, and spellbinding read that blends the raw power of Natasha Tretheway's Memorial Drive and the insights of Clint Smith's How the Word is Passed.
I Am Nobody's Slave tells the story of one Black family's pursuit of the American Dream through the impacts of systemic racism and racial violence. This book examines how trauma from enslavement and Jim Crow shaped their outlook on thriving in America, influenced each generation, and how they succeeded despite these challenges.
To their suburban Minnesotan neighbors, the Hawkinses were an ideal American family, embodying strength and success. However, behind closed doors, they faced the legacy of enslavement and apartheid. Lee Hawkins, Sr. often exhibited rage, leaving his children anxious and curious about his protective view of the world. Thirty years later, his son uncovered the reasons for his father's anxiety and occasional violence. Through research, he discovered violent deaths in his family for every generation since slavery, mostly due to white-on-Black murders, and how white enslavers impacted the family's customs.
Hawkins explores the role of racism-triggered childhood trauma and chronic stress in shortening his ancestors' lives, using genetic testing, reporting, and historical data to craft a moving family portrait. This book shows how genealogical research can educate and heal Americans of all races, revealing through their story the story of America--a journey of struggle, resilience, and the heavy cost of ultimate success.
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Defy
Why is it so hard to speak up, even when we know something’s wrong?
This is the definitive book on defiance, a clear-eyed dissection of the forces that silence us, featuring groundbreaking research and legendary stories alongside everyday examples and strategies for how to unleash the power of a “True No.”
Many of us comply much more than we realize. How many times have you wanted to object, disagree, or opt out of something but ended up swallowing your words, shaking your head, and just going along? Analyzing cases ranging from corporate corruption and sexual abuse to everyday acquiescence at work, the doctor’s office, and in our personal lives, award-winning organizational psychologist Dr. Sunita Sah delves deep into why the pressure to comply is a corrosive and often invisible force in our society.
With her own revelatory research, she radically transforms our idea of defiance from a misunderstood negative trait into a crucial, positive force for personal and societal change. Taking us through her five stages of defiance, Dr. Sah equips readers with simple tools to make decisions that align with their values. Defy is the essential playbook for how to speak up and act when it matters most. -
Save Our Souls
From the bestselling author of The Taking of Jemima Boone, the unbelievable true story of a real-life Swiss Family Robinson (and their dog) who faced sharks, shipwreck, and betrayal.
On December 10, 1887, a shark fishing boat disappeared. On board the doomed vessel were the Walkers--the ship's captain Frederick, his wife Elizabeth, their three teenage sons, and their dog--along with the ship's crew. The family had spotted a promising fishing location when a terrible storm arose, splitting their vessel in two and leaving those onboard adrift on the perilous sea.
When the castaways awoke the next morning, they discovered they had been washed ashore--on an island inhabited by a large but ragged and emaciated man who introduced himself as Hans. Hans appeared to have been there for a while and could quickly educate the Walkers and their crew on the island's resources. But Hans had a secret . . . and as the Walker family gradually came to learn more, what seemed like a stroke of luck to have the mysterious man's assistance became something ominous, something darker.
Like David Grann and Stacy Schiff, Matthew Pearl unveils one of the most incredible yet little-known historical true stories, and the only known instance in history of an actual family of castaways. Save Our Souls asks us to consider who we might become if we found ourselves trapped on a deserted island.
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Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old
From generational icon Brooke Shields comes an intimate and empowering exploration of aging that flips the script on the idea of what it means for a woman to grow older
Brooke Shields has spent a lifetime in the public eye. Growing up as a child actor and model, her every feature was scrutinized, her every decision judged. Today Brooke faces a different kind of scrutiny: that of being a “woman of a certain age.”
And yet, for Brooke, the passage of time has brought freedom. At fifty-nine, she feels more comfortable in her skin, more empowered and confident than she did decades ago in those famous Calvin Kleins. Now, in Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old, she’s changing the narrative about women and aging.
This is an era, insists Brooke, when women are reclaiming agency and power, not receding into the shadows. These are the years when we get to decide how we want to live—when we get to write our own stories.
With remarkable candor, Brooke bares all, painting a vibrant and optimistic picture of being a woman in the prime of her life, while dismantling the myths that have, for too long, dimmed that perception. Sharing her own life experiences with humor and humility, and weaving together research and reporting, Brooke takes aim at the systemic factors that contribute to age-related bias.
By turns inspiring, moving, and galvanizing, Brooke’s honesty and vulnerability will resonate with women everywhere, and spark a new conversation about the power and promise of midlife. -
The Power Pause
A paradigm-shifting guide to career breaks after kids that rebrands stay-at-home parenthood for a new generation of women and families.
"So, what do you do?"
When Neha Ruch had to answer this seemingly innocent question for the first time after leaving her corporate job to care for her infant son, she drew a shameful blank. She couldn’t find the words to describe this new stage of life she’d just embarked on. She wasn’t a 1950s June Cleaver type, nor was she one of today’s updated stereotypes. (Craft Project Mom? Exhausted-in-Sweatpants Mom?) How, then, was she to navigate this identity shift?
Frustrated, Ruch embarked on a mission to rebrand the stay-at-home mother for a new generation of women who don’t want to leave their ambition behind just because they decide to pause or change their careers post-kids. Her online community, Mother Untitled, has become the leading voice and resource for women navigating this transition. In The Power Pause, Ruch addresses all the questions women face at this inflection point, such as, Can I afford to pause? Who am I without my career identity? How do I find meaning in the role? And can I ever transition back to paid work?
With expert advice and diverse stories of stay-at-home mothers who buck every stereotype, as well as interactive exercises to help the reader plot a course for the long term, The Power Pause is an essential handbook for a new generation of caregivers. -
Mayo Clinic Guide to Better Sleep
If there's one thing over a century of sleep science has established, it's that sleep deserves to be a priority.
We hear much about the importance of exercise for our long-term well-being, and how diet and health are inextricably linked. Sleep, however, is typically an afterthought.
As many as 70 million U.S. adults are being deprived of the restful sleep their bodies require for good health and optimal performance.
Whether you are desperately seeking a solution to your sleep woes or are simply curious if there's more that you can do to improve your sleep and,ultimately, your health, this book has the answers. Inside you'll find information on:- Healthy lifestyle habits to improve sleep.
- The importance of your body's internal clock and how to keep it in sync.
- How sleep changes with age.
- Effective therapies to treat insomnia.
- The risks and benefits of sleep medicines.
- Improved and emerging devices to treat sleep apnea.
- Unusual behaviors during sleep and what causes them.
- Narcolepsy, restless legs syndrome and other less common sleep disorders.
With the right approach, most sleep problems can be successfully treated -- or prevented. Use the science-based methods and advice of Mayo Clinic sleep specialists to start sleeping better today.
Mayo Clinic's Center for Sleep Medicine is one of the largest sleep medicine facilities in the United States, with staff caring for more than 60,000 adult and pediatric patients with sleep disorders each year. The center partners with physicians around the world to find answers for patients with some of the most complex sleep conditions. -
The Disengaged Teen
“Our education systems are shortchanging far too many teenagers. This book is brimming with insights on how to change that. It’s an engaging, evidence-based, and practical read about how to develop a generation of lifelong learners.”—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential and Think Again, and host of the podcast Re:Thinking
A powerful toolkit for parents of both checked-out and stressed-out teens that shows exactly what to do (and stop doing) to support their academic and emotional flourishing.
Adolescents are hardwired to explore and grow, and learning is mainly how they do this. But a shocking majority of teens are disengaged from school, simultaneously bored and overwhelmed. This is feeding an alarming teen mental health crisis. As kids get older and more independent, parents often feel powerless to help. But fear not, there are evidence-backed strategies to guide them from disengagement to drive, in and out of school.
For the past five years, award-winning journalist Jenny Anderson and the Brookings Institution’s global education expert Rebecca Winthrop have been investigating why so many children lose their love of learning in adolescence. Now, weaving extensive original research with real-world stories of kids who transformed their relationships with learning, they identify four modes of learning that students use to navigate through the shifting academic demands and social dynamics of middle and high school, shaping the internal narratives about their skills, potential, and identity:
• Resister. When kids resist, they struggle silently with profound feelings of inadequacy or invisibility, which they communicate by ignoring homework, playing sick, skipping class, or acting out.
• Passenger. When kids coast along, consistently doing the bare minimum and complaining that classes are pointless. They need help connecting school to their skills, interests, or learning needs.
• Achiever. When kids show up, do the work, and get consistently high grades, their self-worth can become tied to high performance. Their disengagement is invisible, fueling a fear of failure and putting them at risk for mental health challenges.
• Explorer. When kids are driven by internal curiosity rather than just external expectations, they investigate the questions they care about and persist to achieve their goals.
Understanding your child’s learning modes is vital for nurturing their ability to become Explorers. Anderson and Winthrop outline simple yet counterintuitive parenting strategies for connecting with your child, tailoring your listening and communication styles to their needs, igniting their curiosity, and building self-awareness and emotional regulation. -
Before Elvis
In this thought-provoking book, the Black musicians who influenced Elvis Presley's music finally receive recognition and praise.
After Baz Luhrmann's movie, Elvis, hit theaters, audiences and critics alike couldn't help but question the Black origins of Elvis Presley's music and style, reigniting a debate that has been circling for decades. In Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King, author Preston Lauterbach answers these questions definitively, based on new research and extensive, previously unpublished interviews with the artists who blazed the way and the people who knew them.
Within these pages, Lauterbach examines the lives, music, legacies, and interactions with Elvis Presley of the four innovative Black artists who created a style that would come to be known as Rock 'n' Roll: Little Junior Parker, Big Mama Thornton, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, and mostly-unknown eccentric Beale Street guitarist Calvin Newborn. Along the way, he delves into the injustices of copyright theft and media segregation that resulted in Black artists living in poverty as white performers, managers, and producers reaped the lucrative rewards.
In the wake of continuing conversations about American music and appropriation, Before Elvis is indispensable. -
Simply Jamie
PRE-ORDER THE BRAND NEW COOKBOOK FROM JAMIE OLIVER
This edition has been adapted for the US market.
In five knockout chapters covering Midweek Meals, Weekend Wins, Reliable Roasting Pans, Pantry Love and Delicious Desserts, Jamie has produced a cookbook that will fit seamlessly into your life.
Simply Jamie exists to inspire you to get cooking – it’s full of delicious, achievable recipes you’ll love to make. Whatever your needs, you can trust that these tried and tested recipes will slot right into the rhythms of your week – from 20-minute-to-table dishes and no-time-to-shop pantry rescues to weekend wins that create smart leftover ideas, meaning mealtimes are simple in the days that follow.
Recipes include:
Jarred Pepper Pasta
Roasted Veg with Camembert Fondue
Batch-It-Up Bolognese
Gochujang Chicken Noodle Bake
8 Cool Ways With Salmon
Smash Burger
Spicy Paneer & Veg Squash Bake
Pantry Raid Fishcakes
Hot & Crispy Ice Cream Parcel
Epic Sticky Toffee Pudding
This is a book about inspiration and bringing joy back into the kitchen. -
The Sinners All Bow
Acclaimed journalist, podcaster, and true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson tells the true story of the scandalous murder investigation that became the inspiration for both Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and the first true-crime book published in America.
On a cold winter day in 1832, Sarah Maria Cornell was found dead in a quiet farmyard in a small New England town. When her troubled past and a secret correspondence with charismatic Methodist minister Reverend Ephraim Avery was uncovered, more questions emerged. Was Sarah’s death a suicide...or something much darker? Determined to uncover the real story, Victorian writer Catharine Read Arnold Williams threw herself into the investigation as the trial was unfolding and wrote what many claim to be the first American true-crime narrative, Fall River. The murder divided the country and inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter—but the reverend was not convicted, and questions linger to this day about what really led to Sarah Cornell’s death. Until now.
In The Sinners All Bow, acclaimed true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson travels back in time to nineteenth-century small-town America, emboldened to finish the work Williams started nearly two centuries before. Using modern investigative advancements—including “forensic knot analysis” and criminal profiling (which was invented fifty-five years later with Jack the Ripper)—Dawson fills in the gaps of Williams’s research to find the truth and bring justice to an unsettling mystery that speaks to our past as well as our present, anchored by three women who subverted the script they were given. -
The Woman Who Knew Everyone
A TOWN & COUNTRY MUST READ BOOK OF 2025
A deeply researched biography of the socialite, political hostess, activist and United States envoy to Luxembourg, Perle Mesta, from New York Times bestselling author Meryl Gordon.
Perle Mesta was a force to be reckoned with. In her heyday, this wealthy globe-trotting Washington widow was one of the most famous women in America, garnering as much media attention as Eleanor Roosevelt. Renowned for her world-class parties featuring politicians and celebrities, she was very close to three presidents-Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson. Truman named her as the first female envoy to Luxembourg, which inspired the hit musical based on Perle's life - "Call Me Madam" - which starred Ethel Merman, ran on Broadway for two years and later became a movie. A pioneering supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, she was a prodigious Democratic fundraiser and rescued Harry Truman's financially flailing 1948 campaign.
In this intensely researched biography, author Meryl Gordon chronicles Perle's lavish life and society adventures in Newport, Manhattan and Washington, while highlighting her important, but nearly forgotten contribution to American politics and the feminist movement.
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Eat Your Age
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dr. Ian K. Smith, learn how to defy the effects of aging by implementing simple changes at every decade.
Whether we like it or not, lots of things change as we age: our joints start to creak, our muscles weaken, and we lose coordination. Our bodies simply don't look or perform the same each decade of life, and our risks for various diseases and medical conditions also increase as the years do. Getting old may be inevitable, but feeling old is not: we can age well and maximize each decade of life if we do the right things at the right time.
In Eat Your Age, acclaimed doctor and bestselling author Ian K. Smith shows readers the steps they need to take in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond to increase longevity and stave off future illnesses and ailments. By eating the right foods, keeping tabs on the right numbers, moving the right way, and sleeping better, we can slow the hands on the proverbial clock. Since food is medicine, this book will teach you what to eat at every age to prevent life-threatening diseases. For example:
- 30s--vitamin B6 (milk, ricotta cheese, tuna, eggs, sweet potato, bananas), magnesium (dark leafy greens, black beans, lentils, pumpkin seeds), Brussel sprouts, cauliflower
- 40s--probiotic, plant-based milk, avocado, spinach, chickpeas
- 50s--bromelain (pineapple, papaya, kiwifruit, asparagus, yogurt, sauerkraut), turmeric, berries, tomatoes, squash, carrots
- 60s+--Omega-3 (fatty fish like salmon and mackerel as well as chia, flaxseed, edamame), vitamin B12 (clams, beef, fortified cereal, tuna, milk and dairy products, fortified nondairy products), probiotic, high fiber foods (pinto beans, acorn squash, collard greens, guava, strawberries, broccoli)
With specific lifestyle and diet advice including fitness tests for each decade of life, this book proves that it's never too late to start battling the aging process. With Dr. Smith's sage plan, readers have the opportunity to function their best and find greater joy in life at any age.
New Fiction & Mysteries
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Good Dirt
The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake, a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick
When ten-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well.
The crime was never solved—and because the Freemans were one of the only Black families in a particularly well-to-do enclave of New England—the case has had an enduring, voyeuristic pull for the public. The last thing the Freemans want is another media frenzy splashing their family across the papers, but when Ebby's high profile romance falls apart without any explanation, that's exactly what they get.
So Ebby flees to France, only for her past to follow her there. And as she tries to process what's happened, she begins to think about the other loss her family suffered on that day eighteen years ago—the stoneware jar that had been in their family for generations, brought North by an enslaved ancestor. But little does she know that the handcrafted piece of pottery held more than just her family's history—it might also hold the key to unlocking her own future.
In this sweeping, evocative novel, Charmaine Wilkerson brings to life a multi-generational epic that examines how the past informs our present. -
To Save the Man
In the vein of Never Let Me Go and Killers of the Flower Moon, one of America’s greatest storytellers sheds light on an American tragedy: the Wounded Knee Massacre, and the ‘cultural genocide’ experienced by the Native American children at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School . . .
In September of 1890, the academic year begins at the Carlisle School, a military-style boarding school for Indians in Pennsylvania, founded and run by Captain Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt considers himself a champion of Native Americans. His motto, “To save the man, we must kill the Indian,” is severely enforced in both classroom and dormitory: Speak only English, forget your own language and customs, learn to be white.
As the young students navigate surviving the school, they begin to hear rumors of a “ghost dance” amongst the tribes of the west—a ceremonial dance aimed at restoring the Native People to power, and running the invaders off their land. As the hope and promise of the ghost dance sweeps across the Great Plains, cynical newspapers seize upon the story to whip up panic among local whites. The US government responds by deploying troops onto lands that had been granted to the Indians. It is an act that seems certain to end in slaughter.
As news of these developments reaches Carlisle, each student, no matter what their tribe, must make a choice: to follow the white man’s path, or be true to their own way of life . . . -
Haunting and Homicide
Lou Thatcher is haunted by ghosts–friendly ghosts–but when she finds herself involved in a murder investigation, she’s in for the fright of a lifetime in this new cozy mystery, perfect for fans of Amanda Flower and Ellen Byron.
Tallulah “Lou” Thatcher has a gift: she can see dead people. But in New Orleans, Louisiana, this is not a drawback. On the contrary, her ability to see ghosts helps her host viral ghost tours through the historic Garden District. When rival tour guide Adam Brandt–who accused her of faking her encounters to undercut his business–is found murdered, Lou is the only one who can see him . . . his ghost, that is.
It’s no secret Adam and Lou were feuding and with the absence of a suspect, she’s the only one with a clear motive. After detective Dylan Finch, Lou’s longtime crush, reveals the murder weapon was a ceremonial dagger from Lou’s shop, she’s officially declared the prime suspect. Determined to prove her innocence, Lou starts investigating right away.
Weaving her way through Adam’s business partnerships, friendships, and kinships, Lou must uncover who wished to see him dead before the killer tries to silence her forever.
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The Queen of Fives
Nothing is quite as it seems in Victorian high society in this clever novel set against the most magnificent wedding of the season, as a mysterious heiress sets her sights on London's most illustrious family
A confidence scheme, when properly executed, will follow five movements in close and inviolable order:
I. The Mark II. The Intrusion. III. The Ballyhoo. IV. The Knot. V. All In.
There may be many counter-strikes along the way, for such is the nature of the game; it contains so many sides, so many endless possibilities...
1898. Quinn le Blanc, London's most talented con woman, has five days to pull off her most ambitious plot yet: trap a highly eligible duke into marriage and lift a fortune from the richest family in England.
Masquerading as the season's most enviable debutante, Quinn puts on a brilliant act that earns her entrance into the grand drawing rooms and lavish balls of high society--and propels her straight into the inner circle of her target: the charismatic Kendals. Among those she must convince are the handsome bachelor heir, the rebellious younger sister, and the esteemed duchess eager to see her son married.
But the deeper she forges into their world, the more Quinn finds herself tangled in a complicated web of love, lies, and loyalty. The Kendals all have secrets of their own, and she may not be the only one playing a game of high deception... -
A Death in Diamonds
Two murders in Chelsea plague amateur detective Queen Elizabeth II in the fourth book in the charming series, perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Jacqueline Winspear.
1957, England. Young Queen Elizabeth II is finding her way in postwar Europe, trying to repair friendships with foreign governments. Advised by her father's old courtiers, the Queen suspects that they may not have her best interests at heart. One of them is trying to sabotage her public appearances: that much she is sure of.
When two bodies turn up in Chelsea, the Queen finds herself unwillingly used as the alibi for somebody very close to her. With the reputation of the monarchy at stake, Elizabeth knows she can't face these challenges alone. She needs support from someone she can trust. Therefore, she enlists the help of an ex-code breaker, Joan McGraw, to uncover the truth.
But as Elizabeth and Joan are uncovering secrets from the past, the clock is ticking, and they are in more danger than they know. -
Good Girl
An electric debut novel about the daughter of Afghan refugees and her year of self-discovery—“a stunning coming-of-age story” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and a portrait of the artist as a young woman set in a Berlin that can’t escape its history
A girl can get in almost anywhere, even if she can’t get out.
“A no-bullsh*t, must-read debut.”—Kaveh Akbar
“Kaleidoscopic, full of style and soul.”—Raven Leilani
“I loved this book.”—Leslie Jamison
A Most Anticipated Book of 2025: The New York Times, Elle, Lit Hub, Bustle, Autostraddle
In Berlin’s artistic underground, where techno and drugs fill warehouses still pockmarked from the wars of the twentieth century, nineteen-year-old Nila at last finds her tribe. Born in Germany to Afghan parents, raised in public housing graffitied with swastikas, drawn to philosophy, photography, and sex, Nila has spent her adolescence disappointing her family while searching for her voice as a young woman and artist.
Then in the haze of Berlin’s legendary nightlife, Nila meets Marlowe, an American writer whose fading literary celebrity opens her eyes to a life of personal and artistic freedom. But as Nila finds herself pulled further into Marlowe’s controlling orbit, ugly, barely submerged racial tensions begin to roil Germany—and Nila’s family and community. After a year of running from her future, Nila stops to ask herself the most important question: Who does she want to be?
A story of love and family, raves and Kafka, staying up all night and surviving the mistakes of youth, Good Girl is the virtuosic debut novel by a celebrated young poet and, now, a major new voice in fiction. -
The Lost House
In Melissa Larsen's The Lost House comes the mesmerizing story of a young woman with a haunting past who returns to her ancestral home in Iceland to investigate a gruesome murder in her family.
Forty years ago, a young woman and her infant daughter were found buried in the cold Icelandic snow, lying together as peacefully as though sleeping. Except the mother’s throat had been slashed and the infant drowned. The case was never solved. There were no arrests, no conviction. Just a suspicion turned into a certainty: the husband did it. When he took his son and fled halfway across the world to California, it was proof enough of his guilt.
Now, nearly half a century later and a year after his death, his granddaughter, Agnes, is ready to clear her grandfather’s name once and for all. Still recovering from his death and a devastating injury, Agnes wants nothing more than an excuse to escape the shambles of her once-stable life—which is why she so readily accepts true crime expert Nora Carver’s invitation to be interviewed for her popular podcast. Agnes packs a bag and hops on a last-minute flight to the remote town of Bifröst, Iceland, where Nora is staying, where Agnes’s father grew up, and where, supposedly, her grandfather slaughtered his wife and infant daughter.
Is it merely coincidence that a local girl goes missing the very same weekend Agnes arrives? Suddenly, Agnes and Nora’s investigation is turned upside down, and everyone in the small Icelandic town is once again a suspect. Seeking to unearth old and new truths alike, Agnes finds herself drawn into a web of secrets that threaten the redemption she is hell-bent on delivering, and even her life—discovering how far a person will go to protect their family, their safety, and their secrets.
Set against an unforgiving Icelandic winter landscape, The Lost House is a chilling and razor-sharp mystery packed with jaw-dropping twists that will leave you breathless. -
What Happened to the McCrays?
"What Happened to the McCrays? is the story of a man and a woman who need to heal, and the middle school hockey team that might help them get there. When Kyle McCray gets word his father has suffered a debilitating stroke he returns to his hometown of Potsdam, New York, even though he expects to see few friendly faces there. Kyle left Potsdam suddenly two and a half years earlier, bailing on people who depended on him: his father, his employees, his friends-not to mention Casey, his ex-wife of sixteen years, a beloved teacher known for her selfless deeds. Kyle's plan is to lie low and help his dad recuperate until he can leave town again, especially after Casey makes it clear she wants him gone. But the longer he's home the more Kyle understands the deeper impact his departure had on the people he left behind. Including Casey, who doesn't seem to be doing as well as she'd like everyone to believe. He begins to find compassion in unexpected places, like his ex-brother-in-law. And he's presented with opportunities to find redemption, particularly when he agrees to temporarily coach the floundering junior hockey team. But whether Kyle stays in Potsdam or leaves again, he and Casey must finally confront the awful pain of the past if they stand a chance of healing. This novel takes an intimate look at both sides of a marriage that has suffered trauma. It is ultimately a story about the resilience of love and family and the power of community. A deeply empathetic story"--
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The Naming of the Birds
Something is troubling Inspector Henry Cutter. Sergeant Gideon Bliss is accustomed to his ill-tempered outbursts, but lately the inspector has grown silent and withdrawn.
Then, the murders begin. The first to die is the elderly Sir Aneurin Considine, a decorated but obscure civil servant who long ago retired to tend his orchids. If the motive for his killing is a mystery, the manner of his death is more bewildering still. The victims that follow suffer similar fates, their deaths gruesome but immaculately orchestrated. The murderer comes and goes like a ghost, leaving only carefully considered traces. As the hunt for this implacable adversary mounts, the inspector's gloom deepens, and to Sergeant Bliss, his methods seem as mystifying as the crimes themselves.
Why is he digging through dusty archives while the murderer stalks further victims? And as hints of past wrongdoing emerge--and with them the faint promise of a motive--why does Cutter seem haunted by some long-ago failing of his own?
To find the answers, the meek and hapless sergeant must step out of the inspector's shadow. Aided by Octavia Hillingdon, a steely and resourceful journalist, Bliss will uncover truths that test his deepest beliefs.
Hypnotic and twisty, Paraic O'Donnell's The Naming of the Birds will ensnare you until the final pages and leave you questioning what matters most--solving a case or serving justice. -
I'll Come to You
“Rebecca Kauffman writes like a sunbeam, strong and warm on whatever lands in her path. This book only looks short—in reality, it reveals a family so richly drawn, so deep and complex, that it contains the whole world.” —Emma Straub
A modern and classic story of family, I'll Come to You chronicles intersecting lives over the course of one year—1995—anchored by the anticipation and arrival of a child. With empathy, insight, and humor, Rebecca Kauffman explores overlapping narratives involving a couple whose struggle to become pregnant has both softened and hardened them, a woman whose husband of forty years has left her for reasons he’s unwilling to share and the man who is now disastrously attempting to woo her, a couple in denial about a looming health crisis, and their son who is fumbling toward middle age and can’t stop lying. Ultimately, these storylines crescendo and converge into a dramatic and harrowing turn of events. With heart, wit, and courage, and through pain, these characters traverse territory that both challenges and defines the bonds of family.
Sweeping yet compact, I’ll Come to You investigates themes of intimacy, memory, loss, grief, and reconciliation, and the wonder, terror, frustration, fear, and magic of brushing up against the unknowable—both around us and within us. -
Mothers and Sons
A mother and son, estranged for years, must grapple with the shared secret that drove their lives apart in this enthralling story about family, forgiveness, and how a fleeting act of violence can change a life forever, by "one of the country's most talented writers" (Wall Street Journal)
At forty, Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of immigrants only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him.
Ann, his mother, who runs a women's retreat center she founded after leaving his father, is hurt by the estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built. She long ago put behind her the decision that divided her from her son. But as Peter's case plunges him further into the fraught memory of his first love and the night of violence that changed his life, he and his mother must confront the secret that tore them apart.
With unsurpassed emotional depth, Mothers and Sons reveals all that is lost by looking away from the past and the love that might be restored by facing it. In his spellbinding new novel, Adam Haslett demonstrates yet again his mastery of "a rich assortment of literary gifts" (New York Times). -
Beg, Borrow, or Steal
Two feuding second-grade teachers (and neighbors) find themselves teaming up in this new rivals-to-lovers romance set in Rome, Kentucky—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rule Book and Practice Makes Perfect.
“Sarah Adams writes books with heart and soul. They speak to the people finding their way and being unapologetically themselves in the process. I love her style.”—Hannah Grace, author of Icebreaker
Emily Walker hates having her carefully crafted world disrupted by anyone, most of all her legendary nemesis, Jack Bennett. He’s the opposite of the wonderful heroes she dreams up in her double life as a romance writer, which is why Emily was perfectly happy when Jack left Rome, Kentucky, mid-school year with his fiancée. The last thing Emily saw coming was Jack’s return at the start of the summer after calling off the wedding and ending his relationship, but he’s here to stay—as her colleague and her neighbor.
Jack is glad to be back, eager to renovate his house and work on the next mystery novel under his bestselling pen name. But when he realizes he’s now neighbors with the one woman who has always pushed his buttons, he discovers something he’s even more excited about—thwarting Emily and her petty plans to sabotage his return.
With their chemistry-fueled animosity at an all-time high, Emily accidentally sends an email to their school’s principal that could reveal her secret literary side hustle. She needs to steal back her manuscript, and Jack—she hates to admit—is just the man to help her. Surprisingly, he agrees. Will their unlikely alliance put an end to their rivalry? Or could it lead to a steamy plot twist they never saw coming?
Look for all of Sarah Adams’s When in Rome books:
WHEN IN ROME • PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT • BEG, BORROW, OR STEAL (Coming Soon!) -
Homeseeking
An epic and intimate tale of one couple across sixty years as world events pull them together and apart, illuminating the Chinese diaspora and exploring what it means to find home far from your homeland.
A single choice can define an entire life.
Haiwen is buying bananas at a 99 Ranch Market in Los Angeles when he looks up and sees Suchi, his Suchi, for the first time in sixty years.
To recently widowed Haiwen it feels like a second chance, but Suchi has only survived by refusing to look back.
Suchi was seven when she first met Haiwen in their Shanghai neighborhood, drawn by the sound of his violin. Their childhood friendship blossomed into soul-deep love, but when Haiwen secretly enlisted in the Nationalist army in 1947 to save his brother from the draft, she was left with just his violin and a note: Forgive me.
Homeseeking follows the separated lovers through six decades of tumultuous Chinese history as war, famine, and opportunity take them separately to the song halls of Hong Kong, the military encampments of Taiwan, the bustling streets of New York, and sunny California, telling Haiwen’s story from the present to the past while tracing Suchi’s from her childhood to the present, meeting in the crucible of their lives. Throughout, Haiwen holds his memories close while Suchi forces herself to look only forward, neither losing sight of the home they hold in their hearts.
At once epic and intimate, Homeseeking is a story of family, sacrifice, and loyalty, and of the power of love to endure beyond distance, beyond time. -
The Heart of Winter
The extraordinary new novel by Jonathan Evison, about a married couple in their golden years, from when they met across big ups, deep downs, and survive-it-all, opposites-attract love
Abe Winter and Ruth Warneke were never meant to be together—at least if you ask Ruth. Yet their catastrophic blind date in college evolved into a seventy-year marriage and a life on a farm on Bainbridge Island with their hens and beloved Labrador, Megs. Through the years, the Winters have fallen in and out of lockstep, and from their haunting losses and guarded secrets, a dependable partnership has been forged.
But when Ruth’s loose tooth turns out to be something much more malicious, the beautiful, reliable life they’ve created together comes to a crisis. As Ruth struggles with her crumbling independence, Abe must learn how to take care of her while their three living children question his ability to look after his wife. And once again, the couple has to reconfigure how to be there for each other.
In this bighearted and profound portrait of a marriage, Jonathan Evison explores seventy years of big moments in subtle ways, elegantly braiding the Winters’ turbulent history with their present-day battles, showing us how the oddly paired college kids became parents, fell apart and back together, and grew into the Abe and Ruth of today. Endlessly heartwarming and moving, The Heart of Winter is a reminder that true love lives in small, everyday moments. -
The Life of Herod the Great
A never before published novel from beloved author Zora Neale Hurston, revealing the historical Herod the Great--not the villain the Bible makes him out to be but a religious and philosophical man who lived a life of valor and vision.
In the 1950s, as a continuation of Moses, Man of the Mountain, Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel about one of the most infamous figures in the Bible, Herod the Great. In Hurston's retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the "slaughter of the innocents," but a forerunner of Christ--a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea.
From the peaks of triumph to the depths of human misery, the historical Herod "appears to have been singled out and especially endowed to attract the lightning of fate," Hurston writes. An intimate of both Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, the Judean king lived during the first century BCE, in a time of war and imperial expansion that was rife with political assassinations and bribery, as the old world gave way to the new.
Portraying Herod within this vivid and dynamic world of antiquity, little known to modern readers, Hurston's unfinished manuscript brings this complex, compelling, and misunderstood leader fully into focus. Hurston shared her findings about Herod's rise, his reign, and his waning days in letters to friends and associates. Text from three of these letters concludes the manuscript in an intimate way. Scholar-Editor Deborah Plant's "Commentary: A Story Finally Told" assesses Hurston's pioneering work and underscores Hurston's perspective that the first century BCE has much to teach us and that the lens through which to view this dramatic and stirring era is the life and times of Herod the Great.
Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror
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When the Moon Hits Your Eye
New York Times bestseller John Scalzi flies you to the moon with his most fantastic tale to date: When the Moon Hits Your Eye
The moon has turned into cheese.
Now humanity has to deal with it.
For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible.
Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives -- over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you’d expect, and then to so many places you wouldn’t.
It’s a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket. -
Close Your Eyes and Count to 10
"Pacy and gripping, I couldn't read fast enough." --Sarah Pearse, New York Times bestselling author of The Sanatorium
An extreme game of hide-and-seek turns deadly in this riveting new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger
When the real game begins, who will make it to the count of 10?
Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be.
Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves.
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A Curse for the Homesick
"A lyrical, melancholy, and deeply moving story about the people we love and the places we long for. Aching and poignant."
--Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning
On Stenland, there comes a time known as skeld season: one day, any woman on the island can wake with three black lines on her forehead, the mark of a skeld. Skeld season comes around without warning, and while each window of time lasts only three months, anyone a skeld turns to stone is very much dead.
That's how Tess's mother killed Soren's parents. Maybe for this reason alone, Tess and Soren should not have fallen in love. Since the time her mother was a skeld, Tess has wanted to leave Stenland, to run from the windswept island, from her family and friends. She is unwilling to bear the responsibility of one day killing anyone, let alone someone she loves. Soren has been determined to stay, to live out his life in the place he knows as home, even if that life could be cut short during the latest skeld season. They cannot see eye to eye--and yet they cannot stay apart. She tries to come back for him. He tries to leave for her. But can your love for one person outweigh everything else combined? And how do you decide how much you're willing to risk, if it might mean destroying someone else in the process?
Laura Robson has crafted a fascinating story about the choices we make, the responsibilities we carry, and the ambiguities of regret. -
Victorian Psycho
Virginia Feito's Mrs. March was hailed as "a brilliant debut . . . [by] a writer who keeps pace with the grandees she invokes" (Sarah Ditum, Guardian)--from Daphne Du Maurier and Shirley Jackson to Patricia Highsmith. Now, Feito returns with her "silver-polish sentences and her eerie psychological acumen" (Constance Grady, Vox) to unleash an entirely new antihero on us all.
Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess--she'll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate's dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family--Mr. Pounds can't keep his eyes off Winifred's chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband's wandering gaze. Compounded with her disdain for the entitled Pounds children, Winifred finds herself struggling at every turn to stifle the violent compulsions of her past. French tutoring and needlework are one way to pass the time, as is admiring the ugly portraits in the gallery . . . and creeping across the moonlit lawns. . . .
Patience. Winifred must have patience, for Christmas is coming, and she has very special gifts planned for the dear souls of Ensor House. Brimming with sardonic wit and culminating in a shocking conclusion, Victorian Psycho plunges readers into the chilling mind of an iconic new literary psychopath. -
The Bones Beneath My Skin
A spine-tingling standalone novel by bestselling author TJ Klune—a supernatural road-trip thriller featuring an extraordinary young girl and her two unlikely protectors on the run from cultists and the government.
There's nothing more human than a broken heart.
In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his only brother wants nothing to do with him, and he's been fired from his job as a journalist in Washington, DC.
With nothing left to lose, he returns to his family's summer cabin outside the small mountain town of Roseland, Oregon, to try and find some sense of direction. The cabin should be empty. It's not.
Inside is a man named Alex. And with him is an extraordinary ten-year-old girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. Artemis, who isn't exactly as she appears.
Soon it becomes clear that Nate must make a choice: let himself drown in the memories of his past, or fight for a future he never thought possible. Because the girl is special. And forces are descending upon them who want nothing more than to control her. -
Onyx Storm (Standard Edition)
After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty.
Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it’s impossible to know who to trust.
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.
Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything.
They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth.
But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.
The Empyrean series is best enjoyed in order.
Reading Order:
Book #1 Fourth Wing
Book #2 Iron Flame
Book #3 Onyx Storm -
The Inheritance
“Insanely readable with a brilliant setting and characters that jump off the page. I absolutely loved The Inheritance!” —Lisa Jewell
Most family reunions end in tears. This one will end in murder.
Meet the Agarwals, who have gathered on a private, luxury island off the west coast of Scotland for a much-anticipated family reunion.
Raj, the patriarch and a business tycoon, is about to announce to his wife and three children the succession plan for his multimillon-dollar Delhi-based company. Shalini, the fragile matriarch, is ready to have her husband to herself after years of sacrifice to the family business. Myra, the golden child, owner of the island and host of the reunion, is, unbeknownst to her family, on the brink of bankruptcy. Aseem, the son and supposed heir, is torn between his love for his wife and his duty to family. Aisha, the youngest, a party girl whose antics are legendary, can’t pass up an opportunity to wreak havoc. And then there’s Zoe, Aseem’s wife, the outsider whose #InstaPerfect life is built on a foundation of lies.
They’ve all got secrets they would die to protect. Who will survive this high-stakes reunion, and who will become a victim of their own greed? One thing is certain: this family gathering will shatter more than just their illusions of unity. -
The Last Room on the Left
The caretaker at an isolated mountain hotel finds herself fighting for her life—and sanity—in this twisty, addictive thriller.
Kerry’s life is in shambles: Her husband has left her, her drinking habit has officially become a problem, and though the deadline for her big book deal—the one that was supposed to change everything—is looming, she can’t write a word. When she sees an ad for a caretaker position at a revitalized roadside motel in the Catskills, she jumps at the chance. It's the perfect getaway to finish her book and start fresh.
But as she hunkers down in a blizzard, she spots something through the window: a pale arm peeking out from a heap of snow. Trapped in the mountains and alone with a dead, frozen body, Kerry must keep her head and make it out before the killer comes for her too. But is the deadly game of cat-and-mouse all in her mind? The body count begs to differ . . . -
Clever Little Thing
“Clever Little Thing taps into the heart of maternal fear and will shock you in the best way. This one will give you goose bumps.” —Ashley Elston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of First Lie Wins
"Sharp and unflinching—a perfectly unnerving story." —Ashley Audrain, New York Times bestselling author of The Push
A taut, powerful psychological thriller following a mother who must confront a sudden and terrifying change in her daughter after the abrupt death of their babysitter
Charlotte’s daughter Stella is sensitive and brilliant, perhaps even a genius, but a recent change in her behavior has alarmed her mother. Following the sudden death of Stella’s babysitter, Blanka, the once disruptive and anti-social child has become docile and agreeable. But what’s unsettling is that she has begun to mirror Blanka’s personality, from Blanka’s repetitive phrases to her accent, to fierce cravings for Armenian meat stew after being raised a vegetarian.
Charlotte is pregnant with her second child, and depleted and sick with the pregnancy. She is convinced that Blanka herself is somehow responsible for Stella’s transformation. But how could Blanka, dead, still be entwined in their lives? Has Blanka somehow possessed Stella? Has Stella become Blanka? As Charlotte becomes increasingly obsessed, she is sure that only she can save her daughter. . . even though it’s soon clear that her husband believes this is all in Charlotte’s head.
Helena Echlin’s singular, chilling voice holds light to the blurred lines of diagnosis in children and to the vital power of maternal instinct. Kaleidoscopic and tense, pulse-pounding and genuinely creepy, and infused with shades of the supernatural, Clever Little Thing is an ode to motherhood and a nuanced critique of the caretaking industry, a page-turner that will haunt readers long after its epic, surprising finale. -
The Business Trip
"A stunning and accomplished debut, with hugely relatable characters and an addictive storyline that kept me turning the pages well into the night. Bravo!" --BA Paris, New York Times bestselling author
"Wow, The Business Trip was nonstop twists and turns. I loved the unusual way that the story was told, and I kept reading all day long because I couldn't wait to see how it ended!" -- Freida McFadden, New York Times bestselling author
THE BUSINESS TRIP is the gripping, page-turning debut from author Jessie Garcia.
Stephanie and Jasmine have nothing and everything in common. The two women don’t know each other but are on the same plane. Stephanie is on a business trip and Jasmine is fleeing an abusive relationship. After a few days, they text their friends the same exact messages about the same man—the messages becoming stranger and more erratic.
And then the two women vanish. The texts go silent, the red flags go up, and the panic sets in. When Stephanie and Jasmine are each declared missing and in danger, it begs the questions: Who is Trent McCarthy? What did he do to these women— or what did they do to him?
Twist upon twist, layer upon layer, where nothing is as it seems, The Business Trip takes you on a descent into the depths of a mastermind manipulator. But who is playing who? -
A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage
Two former serial killers trying to keep their past buried realize that old habits die hard in this “wildly original, razor-sharp thriller” (Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All the Colors of the Dark).
“An invaluable manual that I return to again and again.”―Hugh Grant
I wasn't smashing the patriarchy; I was killing it. Literally.
Hazel and Fox are an ordinary married couple with a baby. Except for one small thing: they're murderers. Well, they used to be. They had it all. An enviable London lifestyle, five-star travels, and plenty of bad men to rid from the world. Then Hazel got pregnant.
Now, they’re just another mom-and-dad-and-baby. They gave up vigilante justice for life in the suburbs: arranged play dates instead of body disposals, diapers over daggers, mommy conversations instead of the sweet seduction right before a kill. Hazel finds her new life terribly dull. And the more she forces herself to play her monotonous, predictable role, the more she begins to feel that murderous itch again.
Meanwhile, Fox has really taken to being a father. Always the planner, he loves being five steps ahead of everyone and knowing exactly what’s coming around the bend. Plus, if anyone can understand Hazel needing one more kill, it’s Fox. But then Hazel kills someone without telling Fox. And when police show up at their door, Hazel realizes it will take everything she has to keep her family together. -
Water Moon
A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical quest when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike fantasy novel.
FEATURES A UNIQUE ORIGAMI JACKET that folds into a boat, joining the characters in an enchanting way. The jacket artwork is also printed directly onto the hardcover case underneath.
“Race through a lush world of pure wonder and romance—kites made of wishes that become stars, origami that holds time in its folds, and a night market in the clouds—in this lovely, cozy fantasy reminiscent of Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea.”—Booklist (starred review)
On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.
Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it.
Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds.
But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back.
“Highly recommended . . . Readers who have been swept up in the cozy charm of Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee will fall hard for the mix of magical realism, fantasy mystery, and star-crossed romance.”—Library Journal (starred review) -
The In-Between Bookstore
A whimsical and healing novel about a trans man in New York who--almost 30, laid off, broke--moves back to his small Illinois hometown, walks into the bookstore he worked at in high school. . . and slips through time to come face-to-face with his pre-transition, teenage self.
If you had one chance to talk to your younger self...would you? What would you say?
When Darby left Oak Falls for college in NYC, all he wanted was to get as far away as possible, find a community where he could start fresh--and finally forget about his childhood best friend Michael, and just how painfully their friendship ended.
Now, about to turn thirty, Darby suddenly finds himself unemployed. With no better alternative, and questioning where he really belongs, he moves back to his hometown. But the changes in Oak Falls--the planned community with his mother's new town home, the trendy coffee shop--make him feel off balance. And Michael's still here, their relationship still distant and strained. Even though they've both changed.
One thing is familiar: In Between Books, Darby's refuge growing up and eventual high school job. When he walks into the bookstore now, Darby feels an eerie sense of déjà vu--everything is exactly the same. Even the newspapers are dated 2009. And behind the register is a teen who looks a lot like Darby did at sixteen. . . who just might give Darby the opportunity to change his own present for the better--if he can figure out how before his connection to the past vanishes forever.
The In-Between Bookstore is a stunning novel of love, self-discovery, and the choices that come with both, for anyone who has ever wondered what their life might be like if they had the chance to go back and take a bigger, braver risk.
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Mother of Rome
A powerful and fierce reimagining of the earliest Roman legend: the twins, Romulus and Remus, mythical founders of history’s greatest empire, and the woman whose sacrifice made it all possible.
The names Romulus and Remus may be immortalized in map and stone and chronicle, but their mother exists only as a preface to her sons’ journey, the princess turned oath-breaking priestess, condemned to death alongside her children.
But she did not die; she survived. And so does her story.
Beautiful, royal, rich: Rhea has it all—until her father loses his kingdom in a treacherous coup, and she is sent to the order of the Vestal Virgins to ensure she will never produce an heir.
Except when mortals scheme, gods laugh.
Rhea becomes pregnant, and human society turns against her. Abandoned, ostracized, and facing the gravest punishment, Rhea forges a dangerous deal with the divine, one that will forever change the trajectory of her life…and her beloved land.
To save her sons and reclaim their birthright, Rhea must summon nature’s mightiest force – a mother’s love – and fight.
All roads may lead to Rome, but they began with Rhea Silvia. -
All the Water in the World
In the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York’s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future.
"Gripping...tense, delightful and rich with resonance." —Scientific American
"Captivating...The setting, the detailed emotive descriptions, and nail-biting adventure are incandescent." —Library Journal (starred)
All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water. In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They carry with them a book that holds their records of the lost collections. Racing on the swollen river towards what may be safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they've saved.
Inspired by the stories of the curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect their collections from war, All the Water in the World is both a meditation on what we save from collapse and an adventure story—with danger, storms, and a fight for survival. In the spirit of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Parable of the Sower, this wild journey offers the hope that what matters most – love and work, community and knowledge – will survive.
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