All Books
- Trippy : The Peril and Promise of Medicinal Psychedelics
Trippy : The Peril and Promise of Medicinal Psychedelics
Ernesto Londoño
$18.99A riveting look at the tremendous promise and inherent risks of the use of psychedelics in mental health treatment through the lens of a New York Times reporter whose journalistic exploration of this emerging field began with a personal crisis.
- NOW IN PAPERBACK WITH NEW ORIGINAL MATERIAL -- Since the initial publication, there will undoubtedly be further decriminalization and therapeutic uses for psychedelics for mental health. We will update book accordingly in new Readers Group Guide material.
- Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Londoño ascended to the top echelons of American journalism at an early age. He covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the Washington Post and later joined the New York Times, where he served on the editorial board and as Brazil bureau chief. As a trilingual, bicultural narrator, Londoño writes poignantly about the role of psychedelics in healing his depression and changing his outlook on the intergenerational mental health battles within his own family.
- The therapeutic potential of psychedelics is widely regarded as a potential game changer in mental health treatment. The Food and Drug Administration is widely expected to approve the use of MDMA-assisted therapy in 2024. Two states (Colorado and Oregon) and several cities have recently decriminalized psychedelics as their recreational and therapeutic use grows.
- Takes readers behind the scenes of the first MDMA trial conducted at a Veterans Affairs hospital, which marked the first time the federal government administered psychedelics as an experimental medicine since the 1960s. It also sheds new light on the decades-long quest to use religious freedom laws to expand access to illegal drugs in spiritual settings. Trippy will be the most thorough examination to date of the emerging field of therapeutic psychedelics.
- The book was acquired with both the author and The New York Times, who will promote it heavily through advertising (on site and email newsletters) and earned media. The #1 NYT bestseller THE 1619 PROJECT by Nikole Hannah-Jones was a similar arrangement.
"New York Times correspondent Londoño debuts with an arresting survey of the “medicinal psychedelic field” and where it’s headed...a scrupulous study of a fascinating development in mental health care.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Blending solid research and personal experience, the author points to a new frontier for trauma treatment.”
—Kirkus
“An engaging memoir…Trippy is a fascinating account of the world of medicinal psychedelics.”
—LA Times
“A moving, tender and thoughtful exploration of a complicated subject. If you want to understand psychedelics better, this is a great place to start.”
—Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author of Stolen Focus and Lost Connections
"A compulsively readable romp through a burgeoning scene that has immense potential for both harm and healing."
—Dan Harris, New York Times bestselling author of 10% Happier and host of the Ten Percent Happier podcast (1/7/2025) - Nefando
Nefando
Mónica Ojeda
Sold outA techno-horror portrait of the fears and desires of six young artists whose lives are upended by a controversial video game, from National Book Award finalist Mónica Ojeda.
Six young artists share an apartment in Barcelona: Kiki Ortega, a researcher writing a pornographic novel; Iván Herrera, a writer whose prose reveals a deeply conflicted relationship with his body; three siblings, Irene, Emilio, and Cecilia, who quietly search for ways to transcend their abuse as children; and El Cuco Martínez, a video-game designer whose creations push beneath the substrate of the digital world. All of them are connected in different ways to Nefando, a controversial cult video game whose purpose remains a mystery. In the parallel reality of the game, players found relief from the pain of past trauma and present shame, but also a frighteningly elastic sense of self and ethics. Is Nefando a game for horror enthusiasts, a challenge to players' morals, or a poetic exercise? What happens in a virtual world that admits every taboo?
Unsparing, addictive, and perverse, Nefando takes us to the darkest corners of the web, revealing the inevitable entanglement of digital and physical worlds, and of technology and horror.
- Black Ephemera: The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive
Black Ephemera: The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive
Mark Anthony Neal
$28.00PROSE Award- Music and Performing Arts Category Winner
A framework for understanding the deep archive of Black performance in the digital era
In an era of Big Data and algorithms, our easy access to the archive of contemporary and historical Blackness is unprecedented. That iterations of Black visual art, such as Bert Williams’s 1916 silent film short “A Natural Born Gambler” or the performances of Josephine Baker from the 1920s, are merely a quick YouTube search away has transformed how scholars teach and research Black performance.
While Black Ephemera celebrates this new access, it also questions the crisis and the challenge of the Black musical archive in a moment when Black American culture has become a global export. Using music and sound as its primary texts, Black Ephemera argues that the cultural DNA of Black America has become obscured in the transformation from analog to digital. Through a cross-reading of the relationship between the digital era and culture produced in the pre-digital era, Neal argues that Black music has itself been reduced to ephemera, at best, and at worst to the background sounds of the continued exploitation and commodification of Black culture. The crisis and challenges of Black archives are not simply questions of knowledge, but of how knowledge moves and manifests itself within Blackness that is obscure, ephemeral, fugitive, precarious, fluid, and increasingly digital.
Black Ephemera is a reminder that for every great leap forward there is a necessary return to the archive. Through this work, Neal offers a new framework for thinking about Black culture in the digital world.
- A Raisin in the Sun: The Unfilmed Original Screenplay
A Raisin in the Sun: The Unfilmed Original Screenplay
Lorraine Hansberry
$9.99Under the editorship of the late Robert Nemiroff, with a provocative and thoughtful introduction by preeminent African-American scholar Margaret B. Wilkerson and a commentary by Spike Lee, this completely restored screenplay is the accurate and authoritative edition of Lorraine Hansberry's script and a testament to her unparalled accomplishment as a Black artist.
The 1961 film version of A Raisin in the Sun, with a screenplay by the author, Lorraine Hansberry, won an award at the Cannes Film Festival even though one-third of the actual screenplay Hansberry had written had been cut out. The film did essentially bring Hansberry's extraordinary play to the screen, but it failed to fulfill her cinematic vision.
Now, with this landmark edition of Lorraine Hansberry's original script for the movie of A Raisin in the Sun that audiences never viewed, readers have at hand an epic, eloquent work capturing not only the life and dreams of a Black family, but the Chicago—and the society—that surround and shape them.
Important changes in dialogue and exterior shots, a stunning shift of focus to her male protagonist, and a dramatic rewriting of the final scene show us an artist who understood and used the cinematic medium to transform a stage play into a different art form—a profound and powerful film.
- Sun Ra: Art on Saturn: The Album Cover Art of Sun Ra's Saturn Label
Sun Ra: Art on Saturn: The Album Cover Art of Sun Ra's Saturn Label
Sun Ra
$75.00Considered the foremost exponent of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra mastered a wide array of styles that spanned jazz, R&B, experimental, and chamber works. In his 45-year recording career, he issued an epic number of albums and was one of the first Black musicians to own an independent label, which he named Saturn, after the planet on which he claimed to have been born. The covers of Saturn LPs, issued from 1957 to 1988, are iconic―some rolled off commercial printing presses but many were hand-crafted and were sold at concerts, club dates, and by mail order. As collectibles, original handmade Saturn covers sell for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars. More than just packaging for a slab of vinyl, they are works of art in their own right. Sun Ra: Art on Saturn is the first comprehensive collection of all Saturn printed covers, along with hundreds of the best hand-designed, one-of-a-kind sleeves and disc labels, decorated by Ra himself and members of his Arkestra. Essays by Ra preservationist Irwin Chusid, noted Ra scholar John Corbett, and Glenn Jones, who signed Ra to a distribution deal that put countless homemade covers into circulation, add insights into the interplanetary life and work of Sun Ra and his Saturn partner Alton Abraham.
- Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest (American Music Series)
Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest (American Music Series)
Hanif Abdurraqib
Sold outA New York Times Best Seller
2019 National Book Award Longlist, Nonfiction
2019 Kirkus Book Prize Finalist, Nonfiction
A February IndieNext Pick
Named A Most Anticipated Book of 2019 by Buzzfeed, Nylon, The A. V. Club, CBC Books, and The Rumpus, and a Winter's Most Anticipated Book by Vanity Fair and The Week
Starred Reviews: Kirkus and Booklist
"Warm, immediate and intensely personal."—New York TimesHow does one pay homage to A Tribe Called Quest? The seminal rap group brought jazz into the genre, resurrecting timeless rhythms to create masterpieces such as The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. Seventeen years after their last album, they resurrected themselves with an intense, socially conscious record, We Got It from Here . . . Thank You 4 Your Service, which arrived when fans needed it most, in the aftermath of the 2016 election. Poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib digs into the group’s history and draws from his own experience to reflect on how its distinctive sound resonated among fans like himself. The result is as ambitious and genre-bending as the rap group itself.
Abdurraqib traces the Tribe's creative career, from their early days as part of the Afrocentric rap collective known as the Native Tongues, through their first three classic albums, to their eventual breakup and long hiatus. Their work is placed in the context of the broader rap landscape of the 1990s, one upended by sampling laws that forced a reinvention in production methods, the East Coast–West Coast rivalry that threatened to destroy the genre, and some record labels’ shift from focusing on groups to individual MCs. Throughout the narrative Abdurraqib connects the music and cultural history to their street-level impact. Whether he’s remembering The Source magazine cover announcing the Tribe’s 1998 breakup or writing personal letters to the group after bandmate Phife Dawg’s death, Abdurraqib seeks the deeper truths of A Tribe Called Quest; truths that—like the low end, the bass—are not simply heard in the head, but felt in the chest.
- The Beginner Birder's Deck: 40 Cards for Birdwatching
The Beginner Birder's Deck: 40 Cards for Birdwatching
Danielle Belleny
$20.00A gorgeously illustrated deck of cards that helps new and current birdwatchers identify birds in the wild, from wildlife biologist and co-organizer of Black Birders Week, Danielle Belleny.
* Gorgeously Illustrated: Each of the 40 cards in this deck features Michelle Carlos's stunning artwork, accompanied by bite-sized facts about bird's habitats, songs, and physical traits.
* Deluxe Set: This portable deck is made up of 40 full-color illustrated cards (3 x 5 inches); a four-color, double-sided poster (12 x 15 inches); and, a keepsake magnetic closure box; cards and travel case are embedded in an interior tray.
* Perfect Gift: This stunning deck is appropriate for beginner birders of all ages and can be taken on your next outdoor expedition or while sitting by your window! - Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares: Black Leadership in Texas, 1868-1898 (Sara and John Lindsey Series in the Arts and Humanities)
Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares: Black Leadership in Texas, 1868-1898 (Sara and John Lindsey Series in the Arts and Humanities)
Merline Pitre
Sold outThrough Many Dangers, Toils and Snares, originally published in 1985, was the first book to make an in-depth examination of the cadre of African American lawmakers in Texas after the Civil War. Those few books that addressed the subject at all treated black legislators en masse and offered little or nothing about their individual histories. Early scholars tended to present isolated events of the violence and political deterrents inflicted upon black voters but said very little about how these obstacles affected black lawmakers.
Author Merline Pitre has departed from this traditional method and relied upon the untapped original materials found on these black lawmakers. This third edition features a new preface and extended, updated appendixes, ensuring that this study will remain useful to political scientists, sociologists, and historians of Texas political history, Afro-American history, and revisionists of Reconstruction.
- Our South: Black Food Through My Lens
Our South: Black Food Through My Lens
Ashleigh Shanti
$40.00Raised in Appalachia, native daughter Ashleigh Shanti, a queer Black woman and acclaimed chef, knows Southern Black cooking means more than we’ve come to believe. While hot buttered cast-iron-pan cornbread and crunchy, juicy, lard-fried chicken have their roles to play, they are far from the entire story.
The key to understanding how Black influence has defined foodways and cultures in the South is to explore its microregions, each with its own distinct flora and fauna, dialects, traditions, and dishes. In Our South, Ashleigh takes you through the five regions closest to her heart, beginning with a glimpse of mountain life in the Backcountry through recipes like Fish Camp Hush Puppies and quail spiked with black pepper. A swing over to the coastal Lowcountry fills your plate with smoky grilled oysters and benne seed–topped crab toasts. Seasonal produce shines in the Midlands, where bountiful stone fruits enrich dishes from shortcakes to salads. Lowlands nods to the diversity of food cultures that meet in the region, where Ashleigh grew up eating noodle dishes like Virginia yock alongside Southern classics like Brunswick stew. The book culminates in Homeland, with foods that share what it’s like to cook—and live—as a Black Southern chef now.
Long before competing on Top Chef and earning a coveted James Beard Award Rising Star Chef nomination for her cooking at Asheville, North Carolina’s Benne on Eagle, Ashleigh shelled boiled peanuts and coveted the jars of pickles in her great-aunt Hattie Mae’s larder. In high school, she pored over food and travel magazines and marveled at how her mother never failed to put a hot meal on the table, whether instant grits or slowly cooked celebration dishes. After spending a gap year in Nairobi and graduating from culinary school, Ashleigh entered the restaurant world, bartending, catering, teaching, and staging. She rekindled her connection to the cuisine of her roots before opening her own restaurant, Good Hot Fish, named for a phrase her ancestors would shout to draw in customers.
Our South takes readers on a mouthwatering journey through Appalachia and beyond, revealing the depth and diversity of Southern cooking through the eyes of a rising culinary star. Perfect for fans of other regional Southern cookbooks like the Mosquito Supper Club cookbook or soul food cookbooks like Jubilee, Our South stands as a testament to the rich tapestry of Black culinary traditions, offering a contemporary exploration of Black Southern foodways that's both personal and universal.
- Not Without Laughter (Penguin Vitae)
Not Without Laughter (Penguin Vitae)
Langston Hughes
$25.00A collectible hardcover edition of our greatest African American poet's award-winning first novel, about a black boy's coming-of-age in a largely white Kansas town, featuring an introduction by National Book Award finalist Angela Flournoy
A Penguin Vitae Edition
When first published in 1930, Not Without Laughter established Langston Hughes as not only a brilliant poet and leading light of the Harlem Renaissance but also a gifted novelist. In telling the story of Sandy Rogers, a young African American boy in small-town Kansas, and of his family--his mother, Annjee, a housekeeper for a wealthy white family; his irresponsible father, Jimboy, who plays the guitar and travels the country in search of employment; his strong-willed grandmother Hager, who clings to her faith; his Aunt Tempy, who marries a rich man; and his Aunt Harriet, who struggles to make it as a blues singer--Hughes gives the longings and lineaments of black life in the early twentieth century an important place in the history of racially divided America.
Penguin Vitae--loosely translated as “Penguin of one’s life”--is a deluxe hardcover series from Penguin Classics celebrating a dynamic and diverse landscape of classic fiction and nonfiction from seventy-five years of classics publishing. Penguin Vitae provides readers with beautifully designed classics that have shaped the course of their lives, and welcomes new readers to discover these literary gifts of personal inspiration, intellectual engagement, and creative originality.
- Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse
Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse
Thomas Chatterton Williams
$30.00An incisive, culturally observant analysis of the evolving mores, manners and taboos of social justice (“anti-racist”) orthodoxy, which has profoundly influenced how we think about diversity and freedom of expression, often with complex or paradoxical consequences.
In this provocative book, Thomas Chatterton Williams, one of the most revered and reviled social commentators of our time, paints a clear and detailed picture of the ideas and events that have paved the way for the dramatic paradigm shift in social justice that has taken place over the past few years. Taking aim at the ideology of critical race theory, the rise of an oppressive social media, the fall from Obama to Trump, and the twinned crises of COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd, Williams documents the extent to which this transition has altered media, artistic creativity, education, employment, policing, and, most profoundly, the ambient language and culture we use to make sense of our lives.
Williams also decries how liberalism—the very foundation of an open and vibrant society—is in existential crisis, under assault from both the right and the left, especially in our predominantly networked, Internet-driven monoculture.
Sure to be highly controversial, Summer of Our Discontent is a compelling look at our place in a radically changing world.
- This Kind of Trouble: A Novel
This Kind of Trouble: A Novel
Tochi Eze
$29.00A riveting, emotionally-charged tale of forbidden love, centered on an estranged couple who are brought together to reckon with the events that tore their family apart decades ago.
In 1960s Lagos, a city enlivened with its newfound independence, headstrong Margaret meets British-born Benjamin, a man seeking his roots after the death of his half-Nigerian father. Their connection is immediate, but as the two begin to fall in love, they discover their pasts are more interwoven than they imagined. The shadow of events which unfolded almost a century ago, combined with Margaret’s deteriorating mental health, eventually tear them apart.
By 2005, Margaret has retired to an upscale gated community in Lagos, and seemingly happy Benjamin lives alone in Atlanta, managing his heart problems with no options when asked to name as his next of kin. But their attempt at a settled life is shattered when their grandson begins to show ominous signs echoing the struggles Margaret once faced. The long estranged couple are forced to reunite to confront the buried secrets they had dismissed in the passion of their youth—secrets that continue to ripple through their family.
A startling and propulsive tale of forbidden love, This Kind of Trouble traces the intertwined legacies of one family’s history, exploring the complex relationship between tradition, modernity, and the ways we seek healing in a changing world. With this debut novel, Tochi Eze announces herself as a dazzling new literary voice in world literature.
- My Abuela Is a Bruja
My Abuela Is a Bruja
Mayra Cuevas
$18.99From an award-winning author comes a vibrant and heartwarming story of the bond between grandmother and grandchild, with a touch of Puerto Rican magic!
My abuela is a bruja.
There is magic in everything she does.There is nothing more magical than a grandmother's love. But one lucky girl suspects her grandmother has actual magic. It's in the tun-tun-tun of the way she dances salsa, in the warmth of her hugs, and the delicious smell of her cooking. The granddaughter wonders: will I have magic of my own one day?
Follow the magic in this heartfelt picture book that features extensive backmatter that includes two special recipes from Mayra Cuevas and uplifiting illustrations from Lorena Alvarez Gómez.
- Chichi and Didi Love Their Names
Chichi and Didi Love Their Names
Peace Amadi
$13.99Perfect for back-to-school, this empowering and joyous picture book shows kids the importance of loving your name, having pride in your culture, and standing up for yourself.
Nigerian American sisters Chichi and Didi are ready for the first day of school! But after Chichi is teased for her "different" name, she comes home feeling discouraged.
Daddy and Mama tell the sisters the stories behind their names, helping Chichi return to school with her head held high.
Inspired by the childhood experiences of real-life sisters Peace Amadi and Ndidi Amadi, Chichi and Didi Love Their Names will teach readers:
* to be curious about the origin and meanings of their own names
* the importance of identity and saying names correctly
* the beauty in celebrating difference and taking pride in uniqueness - My Mouth Says
My Mouth Says
Ammi-Joan Paquette
$8.99The third title in a powerful board book series about the strength and potential our bodies hold.
My Mouth Says showcases all the wonderful things a mouth can do—from the physical to the meaningful. This book will provide young readers with a deep understanding of and appreciation for their own bodies, inviting them to look beyond what’s known or obvious.
Written in a lyrical, affectionate tone, and illustrated in bright, warm colors, this series celebrates bodies everywhere and is sure to spark wonder, love, and respect for everything of which we are capable.
- Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral (Modern Library Torchbearers)
Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral (Modern Library Torchbearers)
Jessie Redmon Fauset
$17.00A rediscovered classic from the Harlem Renaissance about a young Black woman’s journey passing as white in 1920s New York City and her quest for self-acceptance—with an introduction by Glory Edim, founder and author of Well-Read Black Girl.
Jessie Redmon Fauset is one of the literary titans and foremost tastemakers of the Harlem Renaissance—hired by W. E. B. Du Bois to edit The Crisis, she helped popularize writers like Nella Larsen, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, amongst countless others. And yet, her own work has been largely underread in the twenty-first century. Written in 1929, at the height of the Harlem renaissance, Fauset’s celebrated second novel tells the story of Angela Murray.
Growing up in a Black middle-class Philadelphia neighborhood, Angela has always dreamed of becoming a painter. But the profession is largely reserved for white society. So when Angela’s parents prematurely pass away, she moves to roaring New York City, where she befriends elite artists and presents herself as a white woman. While her sister Virginia’s complexion resembles that of their father’s, Angela’s is lighter, like her mother’s, and passing, she believes, is the only way she’ll ever achieve success. Virginia, meanwhile, refuses to bow to racist pressures, and stays in Philadelphia to embrace her heritage with pride.
Each time Angela thinks she’s found artistic, professional, and romantic fulfillment, her ethnicity gets exposed and she finds herself stripped of everything she cares about. As she navigates a world of seduction, betrayal, lust, and heartbreak, she’s forced to consider: What does it mean to find genuine success in a society marred by injustice? Fauset’s “novel without morals” never passes judgement and stays teeming with tenderness. Full of moments that underline the joy of every day Black life, Plum Bun is a pertinent meditation on art, identity, and what it means to find community—as relevant today as ever before. - Dead Girl Cameo: A Love Song in Poems
Dead Girl Cameo: A Love Song in Poems
m. mick powell
$18.00A dazzling docupoetic debut collection interweaving ripped-from-the-headlines pop culture herstories with the personal narratives of Whitney Houston, Aaliyah, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and others, to interrogate celebrity, identity, sexuality, industry abuse, death, and the afterlives of stardom.
“I made, of my bones, an earth for you: turned the oceans
your favorite shade of light, that deepened, nearly bruised
dusk. reflected in my palms, what I’ve made into water
glows amethyst: when you drink from it, you are iridescent”
In Dead Girl Cameo, m. mick powellclosely examines the experiences of Aaliyah Haughton, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Whitney Houston, and other notable superstars who died tragically too soon. How did these starlets challenge conventional representations of Black femininity and friendship, and forever transform the musical landscape? How were the artistries and addictions of these women of color impacted from surviving in the limelight and, often, in the very same industry as their abusers? How did the literal and metaphorical deaths of these Black women superstars establish legacies of Black queer femme existence and afterlife?
In stunning imagery and sensual wordplay using ekphrasis, erasure, digital collage, archival research, and speculative nonfiction in verse, Dead Girl Cameo traverses the intimate realms of superstars to reconfigure Black girlhood, survivorhood, femme friendship, and queer fandom. - The Education of Kia Greer
The Education of Kia Greer
Alanna Bennett
$19.99How can you trust your heart in a world that’s plastic? The story of a teen girl who longs to escape the spotlight, and the PR relationship that helps her find real happiness.
"Smart, fearless, romantic, and so very alive." — Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author of Red, White and Royal Blue
Growing up in the public eye, Kia would gladly give up her privileged life as the daughter of a reality star for the freedom to find her own way—go to high school parties, gossip with the drama club, apply to college, make mistakes, and fall in love like any other teen.
Then she meets Cass, and he offers a glimpse at the ordinary life she craves. But Cass is a rising star in his own right, and what starts as something sweet and undefined soon becomes a magnet for rumor and speculation—as if first love wasn’t messy enough on its own.
The pressure of the spotlight takes its toll, chipping away at Kia’s sense of self, pushing and pulling and reshaping her—body and mind—to fit the expectations of everyone around her. But what does Kia want for herself? And can her fragile new relationship survive the fallout?
- Braided Heritage: Recipes and Stories on the Origin of American Cuisine
Braided Heritage: Recipes and Stories on the Origin of American Cuisine
Jessica B. Harris
$35.00Discover the sweeping story of how Indigenous, European, and African traditions intertwined to form an entirely new cuisine, with over 90 recipes for the modern home cook—from the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Famer and star of the Netflix docuseries High on the Hog.
One of our preeminent culinary historians, Dr. Jessica B. Harris has conducted decades of research throughout the Americas, the Caribbean, and Africa. In this telling of the origins of American food, though, she gets more personal. As heritage is history, she intertwines the larger sweeping past with stories and recipes from friends she’s made over the years—people whose family dishes go back to the crucial era when Native peoples encountered Europeans and the enslaved Africans they brought with them.
Through this mix, we learn that Clear Broth Clam Chowder has both Indigenous and European roots; the same, too, with Enchiladas Suizas, tomatillo-smothered tortillas made “Swiss” with cheese and dairy; and that the hallmarks of African American food through the centuries have been evolution based on region, migration, and innovation, resulting in classics like Red Beans and Rice and Peach Bread Pudding Cupcakes with Bourbon Glaze.
With recipes ranging from everyday meals to festive spreads, Braided Heritage offers a new, in-depth, delicious look at American culinary history.
- All of Us: A First Conversation About Disability (First Conversations)
All of Us: A First Conversation About Disability (First Conversations)
Dr. Megan Pamela Ruth Madison
$9.99Based on the research that race, gender, disability, and other important topics should be discussed with toddlers on up, this read-aloud 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, this topic-driven picture book offers clear, concrete language and compelling imagery to introduce the concept of disability. This book celebrates all bodies and abilities, just as they are, and addresses the inequities and opportunities for change in today's world.
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 tough issues 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.
These books offer a supportive approach that considers both the child and the adult. Stunning art accompanies the simple and interactive text, and the back matter offers additional resources and ideas for extending this discussion.
- People Like Us: A Novel
People Like Us: A Novel
Jason Mott
$30.00The riveting new novel by the author of the 2021 National Book Award winner and bestseller Hell of a Book
People Like Us is Jason Mott’s electric new novel. It is not memoir, yet it has deeply personal connections to Jason’s life. And while rooted in reality, it explodes with dreamlike experiences that pull a reader in and don’t let go, from the ability to time travel to sightings of sea monsters and peacocks, and feelings of love and memory so real they hurt.
In People Like Us, two Black writers are trying to find peace and belonging in a world that is riven with gun violence. One is on a global book tour after a big prize win; the other is set to give a speech at a school that has suffered a shooting. And as their two storylines merge, truths and antics abound in equal measure: characters drink booze out of an award trophy; menaces lurk in the shadows; tiny French cars putter around the countryside; handguns seem to hover in the air; and dreams endure against all odds.
People Like Us is wickedly funny and achingly sad all at once. It is an utter triumph bursting with larger-than-life characters who deliver a very real take on our world. This book contains characters experiencing deep loss and longing; it also is buoyed by riotous humor and characters who share the deepest love. It is the newest creation of a writer whose work amazes, delivering something utterly new yet instantly recognizable as a Jason Mott novel.
Finishing the novel will leave you absolutely breathless and, at the same time, utterly filled with joy for life, changed forever by characters who are people like us.
- Black Capitalists: A Blueprint for What Is Possible
Black Capitalists: A Blueprint for What Is Possible
Rachel Laryea PhD
$30.00A groundbreaking look at how Black visionaries—from Wall Street to Lagos and beyond—are reimagining capitalism to benefit the needs of Black people and, ultimately, everyone.
“Black Capitalists is a dive into the history of how money is made and our attitudes about wealth. A must read.”—Vanessa Williams, singer, actress, author, producer, and former Miss America
To many, the term “Black Capitalists” is oxymoronic. Black people were the labor force that built the infrastructure of American capitalism through the violent enforcement of legalized slavery, so they cannot, and should not, aspire to be the beneficiaries of it. But Wall Street professional and Yale-educated anthropologist Dr. Rachel Laryea poses a provocative question: What if there was a way to thrive within capitalism without diminishing someone else’s life chances through exploitative practices? There is—and Black Capitalists are showing us how.
Told through Dr. Laryea's own compelling narrative—growing up the child of a single mother who immigrated to the United States from Ghana and rose to the Ivy League and on Wall Street—with original on-the-ground reporting and rigorous historical analysis, Black Capitalists challenges readers to reconsider who gets to be the beneficiary of capitalism and reckons with the responsibility that comes with using the tools of our imperfect economic system to advance social good.
Dr. Laryea reveals in detail how race profoundly shapes the way we participate in capitalism—and how understanding these differences can guide us toward a more inclusive and equitable future. From newly minted undergraduates who find themselves working twenty-hour days to prove their worth on Wall Street to Nigerian startup founders working to build global credit scores, spanning the streets of Accra to the boardrooms of Goldman Sachs, Black Capitalists’ stories and analysis of innovators who are as ambitious as they are altruistic demonstrate the resilience, creativity, and ingenuity of Black people who have long been excluded from the full benefits of the American economic system. At its core, Black Capitalists shows a more productive, and more inclusive, way forward.
- What Happened to the Naked Mole Rat?: A Graphic Novel (Class Pet Ghost Detective)
What Happened to the Naked Mole Rat?: A Graphic Novel (Class Pet Ghost Detective)
Akeem S. Roberts
$9.99The first book in a funny supernatural graphic novel series for early readers about an eight-year-old boy who solves mysteries with the ghost of his former class pet.
Mr. Pebbles is dead, and everyone thinks it’s Carter’s fault!
When Carter’s third-grade class accuses him of killing the class pet, a naked mole rat named Mr. Pebbles who shivers a lot and smells a little funny, can Carter clear his name . . . with the help of Mr. Pebbles's ghost?
- All the Mothers: A Novel
All the Mothers: A Novel
Domenica Ruta
$30.00Welcome to “the mommune.”
From New York Times bestselling author Domenica Ruta comes a heartfelt, hilarious novel about a single mom reimagining what the perfect family can look like.
“A delight, a romp, a tale of redemption; sexy and relatable, heartwarming and true . . . This story will resound as a rallying cry for mothers everywhere for generations to come.”—Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman
Sandy thought she was making her greatest mistake yet when she got unexpectedly pregnant in her mid-thirties by a dating-app flop. Now, her baby Rosie is the love of her life, but trying to co-parent with her daughter’s dad, a wannabe rock star, is a challenge—and seems to be veering into catastrophe territory when Sandy finds out through social media that her daughter has a half-sibling Sandy doesn’t know anything about.
Enter her ex’s ex, Stephanie, the other mother. Sandy is prepared to hate her but when the two women meet, they are shocked to learn how much they have in common beyond the deadbeat father their children share. Now Sandy needs to figure out what her and Rosie’s family looks like with all these new additions. Could life in a “mommune” be the answer to her prayers, or just a new brand of chaos?
In this winning story of family both born and chosen, Sandy is about to discover that when nothing goes as planned, the best things become possible.
- Black Looks: Race and Representation
Black Looks: Race and Representation
bell hooks
$38.99In the critical essays collected in Black Looks, bell hooks interrogates old narratives and argues for alternative ways to look at blackness, black subjectivity, and whiteness. Her focus is on spectatorship―in particular, the way blackness and black people are experienced in literature, music, television, and especially film―and her aim is to create a radical intervention into the way we talk about race and representation. As she describes: "the essays in Black Looks are meant to challenge and unsettle, to disrupt and subvert." As students, scholars, activists, intellectuals, and any other readers who have engaged with the book since its original release in 1992 can attest, that's exactly what these pieces do.
- Writing Beyond Race
Writing Beyond Race
bell hooks
Sold outWhat are the conditions needed for our nation to bridge cultural and racial divides? By "writing beyond race," noted cultural critic bell hooks models the constructive ways scholars, activists, and readers can challenge and change systems of domination.
In the spirit of previous classics like Outlaw Culture and Reel to Real, this new collection of compelling essays interrogates contemporary cultural notions of race, gender, and class. From the films Precious and Crash to recent biographies of Malcolm X and Henrietta Lacks, hooks offers provocative insights into the way race is being talked about in this "post-racial" era.
- Beyond They/Them: 20 Influential Nonbinary and Gender-Diverse People You Should Know
Beyond They/Them: 20 Influential Nonbinary and Gender-Diverse People You Should Know
Em Dickson
$21.99Beyond They/Them is a captivating, gorgeously illustrated book celebrating 20 trailblazing nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit individuals who have left an indelible mark on music, sports, film and television, politics, and more.
Explore 20 biographies of game-changing and noteworthy nonbinary people of diverse backgrounds and in a wide variety of industries. Beyond They/Them: 20 Influential Nonbinary People You Should Know is a fully illustrated guide to celebrities, activists, musicians, and other influential people of various identities across the nonbinary spectrum. Complete with beautiful illustrations by the talented artist Cameron Mukwa and written by Em Dickson, this book is a celebration of nonbinary joy and proves that there has been, and always will be, a place for people of all genders.
Featured individuals include:
* ND Stevenson
* JanelleMonáe
* Rebecca Sugar
* Maia Kobabe
* Sarah Gailey
* Joshua Whitehead
* Quinn
* Layshia Clarendon
* Jaiyah Saelua
* Vico Ortiz
* Sam Smith
* Demi Lovato
* Cris Derksen
* Amita Kuttner
* Uzomo Asagwara
* Maebe A. Girl
* Audrey Tang
* Dr. James Makokis
* Dr. Jonathan P. Higgins
* Judith Butler - The Best Jollof Rice Ever
The Best Jollof Rice Ever
Onyinye Iwu
$18.95A warm and funny picture book about the popular West African dish, from Nigerian author Onyinye Iwu, that shows how things work out best when you do them together.
Jollof is a a delicious, spicy rice, and vegetable dish originating in West Africa and now known and enjoyed world-wide. It’s the favorite food of best friends Kwame and Kamsi. But who makes the best Jollof? “My mom,” says Kwame. “No, my mom,” says Kamsi.
The two boys have a great idea. “Let’s each make our own and see whose is really best!” Carefully they pick their ingredients. But Kwame likes playing tricks on Kamsi, and Kamsi likes playing tricks on Kwame. Kamsi secretly adds nettles to Kwame’s Jollof, and Kwame pops a caterpillar into Kamsi’s. Puddle water, fiery ants and old dry chewing gum follow. What a mess! They’ve both made the worst Jollofs ever.
But in the kitchen their moms are sharing the preparation of a real Jollof rice dish, and call the two sad boys in to help. What a difference! “Alone we make good Jollof,” say the moms. “But together we make the best Jollof ever.” And the boys agree–it’s best to work together (but sometimes they still play tricks on each other).
- A is for Arab: ABCs of the Arab World
A is for Arab: ABCs of the Arab World
Aya Mobaydeen
$11.95Celebrate Arab culture and tradition with this joyful early concept board book!
Discover the ABCs with a journey through the vibrant culture of the Arab world in A is for Arab, a bright joyful early concept board book. From "P for Palestine" to "H for Habibi", "S for Sitti", and "J for Jiddo", each page introduces young readers to beloved words, people, and traditions. Accompanied by Aya Mobaydeen’s captivating illustrations, this board book offers a warm, joyful introduction to Arab culture for little ones and their families. Perfect for read-aloud, A is for Arab is a celebration of heritage, language, and love that will bring families together across generations.
- The Blue Velvet Chair
The Blue Velvet Chair
Rio Cortez
$19.99A young girl contemplates the passing of time and changing of seasons as she looks out on the world from her favorite chair in this heartwarming picture book by award-winning poet and New York Times bestselling author Rio Cortez.
In the morning, a young child opens her eyes, and, after one biiiiig streeeeetch, heads straight for her favorite place in the house: the blue velvet chair. Perched from the chair set by the living room window, the child daydreams about each season of the year and the changes that come with them. A now-snowy roof was once pelted by the slick rain of spring showers. Icy windows will once again transform into conveyors of sunshine and warmth against her skin.
And just as the seasons change, the child will continue to change too. But one thing will always remain the same: the coziness of the blue velvet chair.
- The Family I'm In
The Family I'm In
Sharon G. Flake
$18.99The bestselling and award-winning author of The Skin I'm In and The Life I'm In returns with a novel that explores the complex relationships between Black boys and their fathers, and what it truly means to be a man.
Sharon G. Flake’s groundbreaking novel The Skin I’m In ushered in a new voice that lit up the literary landscape and became a modern classic, passed down through generations. The Life I’m In, its sequel, furthered the power of unmistakable voices, opening the hearts and minds of teens everywhere. Now The Family I’m In presents John-John and Caleb, friends since childhood who have come face-to-face with the struggles and triumphs of growing into young men. They’re living in a world where many Black boys are up against generational expectations, fears of the future, and how to navigate being “nice” kids who just want to be seen for who they are. Together, Caleb and John-John work through family illness, divorced parents, teachers who ask hard questions, and girls who think they have all the answers.
- Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
$10.00NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The award-winning author of We Should All Be Feminists and Americanah gives us this powerful statement about feminism today—written as a letter to a friend.
A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a childhood friend, a new mother who wanted to know how to raise her baby girl to be a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie’s letter of response: fifteen invaluable suggestions—direct, wryly funny, and perceptive—for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. Filled with compassionate guidance and advice, it gets right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century, and starts a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.
A Skimm Reads Pick ● An NPR Best Book of the Year
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