*Paperback Release Date - 7/21/26*

“A game-changer for workplace dynamics” ―Eve Rodsky, New York Times bestselling author of Fair Play

The author of The Memo helps you discover what you need to navigate every workplace communication challenge with confidence.

We are living in a world of broken trust, especially in the workplace. Employees have heard too many empty promises and are unmotivated. Managers are scrambling to keep eyes on direct reports in demanding environments. Nobody knows how to talk to one another. Trust is the central pillar of any functioning workplace. But without it too many of us are unhappy, fed up, and ready to walk out the door.

Minda Harts knows from years of experience as a highly sought-after workplace consultant how a lack of trust between colleagues, managers, and executive leaders is bad for business and our own professional well-being. That’s where the seven workplace trust languages come into play. Earning trust is different for every one of us. Some respond well to verbal affirmations of their contributions, while others need visibility to see how business decisions are made. By understanding the seven languages of trust―transparency, security, demonstration, feedback, acknowledgment, sensitivity, and follow-through―we can all learn to navigate conflict, be more productive, and communicate more effectively.

In Talk to Me Nice, you’ll learn what workplace trust languages work for you and how to show colleagues, managers, and direct reports that they are valued. When we’re talking one another’s languages, we can rebuild a more equitable, sustainable, and profitable workplace that works for us all.

Powerful interviews with scholars, organizers, and activists who are leading the movement to end policing and prison.

Award-winning journalist Kolhatkar presents a visionary outlook for a future rooted in liberation, freedom, and justice.

Abolitionist thinkers have been envisioning police-free communities for decades, but only in the aftershock of the racial justice uprisings of 2020 have their radical ideas entered into mainstream discourse. In Talking About Abolition, award-winning journalist Sonali Kolhatkar presents an inspiring collection of her conversations with scholars, movement figures, and activists who are leading the movement to end policing and prisons. From articulating the best counter-arguments to pervasive “copaganda,” to exposing the moral bankruptcy of reformism, each conversation connects the dots between past and present while imagining a collective future rooted in liberation, freedom, and justice.

Featuring interviews with Alicia Garza, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Leah Penniman, Gina Dent, Cat Brooks, Andrea Ritchie, Eunisses Hernandez, Noelle Hanrahan, Ivette Alé-Ferlito, Melina Abdullah, Reina Sultan, and Dylan Rodriguez, and with an introduction by Robin D. G. Kelley.

In childhood, bell hooks was taught that "talking back" meant speaking as an equal to an authority figure and daring to disagree and/or have an opinion. In this collection of personal and theoretical essays, hooks reflects on her signature issues of racism and feminism, politics and pedagogy. Among her discoveries is that moving from silence into speech is for the oppressed, the colonized, the exploited, and those who stand and struggle side by side, a gesture of defiance that heals, making new life and new growth possible.

Talking to the Dead is an ethnography of seven Gullah/Geechee women from the South Carolina lowcountry. These women communicate with their ancestors through dreams, prayer, and visions and traditional crafts and customs, such as storytelling, basket making, and ecstatic singing in their churches. Like other Gullah/Geechee women of the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, these women, through their active communication with the deceased, make choices and receive guidance about how to live out their faith and engage with the living. LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant emphasizes that this communication affirms the women's spiritual faith-which seamlessly integrates Christian and folk traditions-and reinforces their position as powerful culture keepers within Gullah/Geechee society. By looking in depth at this long-standing spiritual practice, Manigault-Bryant highlights the subversive ingenuity that lowcountry inhabitants use to thrive spiritually and to maintain a sense of continuity with the past.

In a collection of linked tales filled with irony, humor, and magic, Talking with Boys introduces an unforgettable cast of characters in the Pakistani diaspora in Houston navigating crises of their own making and beyond their control.

Via generations and geographies, the stories expand from Houston into tales from the characters’ pasts in Dubai and Lahore. A community of Pakistani immigrants distract ICE with unlikely bait. A housekeeper in a Dubai mansion plots to liberate her fellow indentured workers. In Lahore, an empty nester finds herself bound by more than a jinxed bracelet. Throughout, Tayyba Kanwal’s remarkable characters navigate economic upheavals, political turmoil, and personal betrayals to pursue love, plot for survival, and play subtle power games to triumph against patriarchal forces of all genders.

In the summer of 1970, in the small town of Lowell, Mississippi, ten-year-old Bailey Connor lives in constant fear of his abusive father, Otis. His mother, Annie, dreams of an escape and accepts a job working for Jim Cunningham, a wealthy white plantation owner. But when Jim is found brutally stabbed to death, Annie, a Black woman in a town still deeply segregated, is quickly accused of the crime. Since the Connors have no money for a lawyer and the nearly all-white jury is poised to convict, Annie's fate seems sealed-the electric chair waits in the shadows.

While visiting Lowell, Jonathan Streeter, a prominent Black attorney with a troubled past, reluctantly agrees to take on Annie's case. With Bailey's world thrown further into turmoil, he desperately tries to help Jonathan free his mother.

As the trial gains national attention, Jonathan uncovers a tangled web of lies, corruption, and deep-seated racial hatred woven into the very fabric of Lowell, all tied to Jim's murder. While violence escalates and interference from the local KKK grows, Jonathan and Bailey become trapped in a life-and-death struggle against those determined to bury the truth... and the two of them along with it.

A sweeping, multicultural family story of keen observation and the supernatural in which one man’s journey to wholeness against the collapse of the West Indies’ banana industry during the 1990s reflects the lasting impacts of colonialism, Catholicism, and immigration.

Before the gadèt-zafè came to warn his mother she would die, six-year-old Fidel knew only the everyday mystery of the Guadeloupe around him. The lush greenery, the dusty roads, the sugar cane growing and the neighbors arguing, the push and pull of love and resentment between people who rely on each other—his world is small but full. Until a few moments of violence change his life forever.

Orphaned, Fidel returns to his mother’s native Dominica and whirls from one relative and reality to another, learning pieces of his own story. His heritage is one of layered secrets and sharp divisions—between the grandmothers who love him and the aunt who wants him dead, the Catholic orthodoxy of his school and the Obeah knowledge of his grandfather, and the indigenous and the colonial. The violence he’s witnessed inhabits not only strangers but himself. The spirits of the dead visit him with advice, threats, and explanations. And when he sees a path toward happiness in Canada, he must reconcile his intense, bittersweet love of his home with the possibility of leaving it.

Picture Book

Ringgold recounts the dream adventure of eight-year-old Cassie Louise Lightfoot, who flies above her apartment-building rooftop, the 'tar beach' of the title, looking down on 1939 Harlem.

Part autobiographical, part fictional, this allegorical tale sparkles with symbolic and historical references central to African-American culture. The spectacular artwork resonates with color and texture. Children will delight in the universal dream of mastering one's world by flying over it. 

Learning new words and phrases has never been so fun—and funny! 

Taro Gomi introduces toddlers to first words in unforgettable ways: From flowers to a face, to greetings and games, this one-of-a-kind collection not only provides first-word basics but a fresh and fun-filled approach all while letting the youngest of readers “travel” to Japan through its pages. At once a first word and phrases primer and an introduction to new people and places, this content-rich collection will be treasured by kids and caregivers alike. 

A STAND-OUT GIFT: Just right for birthdays, baby showers, and any giving occasion! A one-of-a-kind art style and unique take on a first-words book for toddlers and babies make this collection a must-have as well as a treasured keepsake.

TARO IS THE BEST TEACHER: From Everyone Poops to I Know Numbers!, kids love learning from Taro Gomi! With quirky and expressive illustrations paired with first words and phrases, young children will build their vocabulary while learning about the exciting world around them. 

PACKED WITH HUMOR: With Taro Gomi's attention to detail, each page captures countless laugh-out-loud moments sure to make this book a fan favorite.

FOCUS ON FIRST WORDS AND FEELINGS: This book is a powerful and important springboard, modeling first words and providing important social-emotional learning by allowing kids to talk about their emotions and inner life.

Perfect for:
* Fans of Taro Gomi's Everyone Poops and other bestselling children's books
* Gift givers seeking a book for babies and toddlers who are starting to learn new words
* Teachers and librarians looking for fun, engaging books that teach children a wide variety of words
* Readers of Richard Scarry books, First 100 Words, and other popular alphabet and early learning books for kids

Learn all kinds of playful action words—verbs!—with the help of bestselling author-illustrator Taro Gomi!

In Taro Gomi’s inimitable world, every scene brims with energy. From a bustling marketplace to a lively school to a dazzling amusement park, each illustration is filled with action. How many characters can you spot:
* Running, riding, or climbing
* Looking, choosing, or eating
* Sleeping, screaming, or reading
* Bumping, twirling, or chatting
* And, of course, laughing?

Just as in Taro Gomi's Big Book of Words, toddlers are introduced to words—this time in verb form—in unforgettable ways. Open the pages of this book to read, play, and learn!

ONE-OF-A-KIND CREATOR: From Everyone Poops to My Friends to Spring Is Here, there is no other author-illustrator quite like Taro Gomi.

REPEAT READING: Taro Gomi’s irresistible illustrations are chock-full of detail that readers will return to again and again, each time finding something new.

ENGAGING HUMOR: Every page captures countless laugh‑out‑loud moments that will make this learning resource book a fan favorite.

MAKES LEARNING FUN: The energetic images will motivate young readers to explore the exciting world around them as they learn all about action words.

Perfect for:
* Fans of Taro Gomi’s bestselling children’s books and games
* Teachers, librarians, and early-learning educators looking for fun, engaging books that teach children about verbs
* Parents, caregivers, and grandparents
* Gift-givers looking for books for children entering preschool and kindergarten
* Readers of Richard Scarry books, First 100 Words, and other popular language learning books for kids

Ten years ago, bell hooks astonished readers with Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Now comes Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope - a powerful, visionary work that will enrich our teaching and our lives. Combining critical thinking about education with autobiographical narratives, hooks invites readers to extend the discourse of race, gender, class and nationality beyond the classroom into everyday situations of learning. bell hooks writes candidly about her own experiences. Teaching, she explains, can happen anywhere, any time - not just in college classrooms but in churches, in bookstores, in homes where people get together to share ideas that affect their daily lives.

In Teaching Community bell hooks seeks to theorize from the place of the positive, looking at what works. Writing about struggles to end racism and white supremacy, she makes the useful point that "No one is born a racist. Everyone makes a choice." Teaching Community tells us how we can choose to end racism and create a beloved community. hooks looks at many issues-among them, spirituality in the classroom, white people looking to end racism, and erotic relationships between professors and students. Spirit, struggle, service, love, the ideals of shared knowledge and shared learning - these values motivate progressive social change.

Teachers of vision know that democratic education can never be confined to a classroom. Teaching - so often undervalued in our society -- can be a joyous and inclusive activity. bell hooks shows the way. "When teachers teach with love, combining care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust, we are often able to enter the classroom and go straight to the heart of the matter, which is knowing what to do on any given day to create the best climate for learning."

In Teaching Critical Thinking, renowned cultural critic and progressive educator bell hooks addresses some of the most compelling issues facing teachers in and out of the classroom today.

In a series of short, accessible, and enlightening essays, hooks explores the confounding and sometimes controversial topics that teachers and students have urged her to address since the publication of the previous best-selling volumes in her Teaching series, Teaching to Transgress and Teaching Community. The issues are varied and broad, from whether meaningful teaching can take place in a large classroom setting to confronting issues of self-esteem. One professor, for example, asked how black female professors can maintain positive authority in a classroom without being seen through the lens of negative racist, sexist stereotypes. One teacher asked how to handle tears in the classroom, while another wanted to know how to use humor as a tool for learning.

Addressing questions of race, gender, and class in this work, hooks discusses the complex balance that allows us to teach, value, and learn from works written by racist and sexist authors. Highlighting the importance of reading, she insists on the primacy of free speech, a democratic education of literacy. Throughout these essays, she celebrates the transformative power of critical thinking. This is provocative, powerful, and joyful intellectual work. It is a must read for anyone who is at all interested in education today.

"After reading Teaching to Transgress I am once again struck by bell hooks's never-ending, unquiet intellectual energy, an energy that makes her radical and loving." -- Paulo Freire

In Teaching to Transgress,bell hooks--writer, teacher, and insurgent black intellectual--writes about a new kind of education, education as the practice of freedom. Teaching students to "transgress" against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for hooks, the teacher's most important goal.

bell hooks speaks to the heart of education today: how can we rethink teaching practices in the age of multiculturalism? What do we do about teachers who do not want to teach, and students who do not want to learn? How should we deal with racism and sexism in the classroom?

Full of passion and politics, Teaching to Transgress combines a practical knowledge of the classroom with a deeply felt connection to the world of emotions and feelings. This is the rare book about teachers and students that dares to raise questions about eros and rage, grief and reconciliation, and the future of teaching itself.

"To educate is the practice of freedom," writes bell hooks, "is a way of teaching anyone can learn." Teaching to Transgress is therecord of one gifted teacher's struggle to make classrooms work.

*Ships in 7-10 Business Days*

 Learn how to incorporate equitable teaching practices in your everyday classroom with this helpful guide designed to help your young students thrive.

Bringing racial equity into the classroom doesn’t have to be an intimidating task. Teaching with Equity will help you take the first step in making your classroom a fun, safe, and fulfilling environment for all students.

First, start off by establishing a baseline: Where is racial equity lacking in your classroom and where are there opportunities for change? Then learn about the common stereotypes that students of color often face before finally diving into resources like interactive worksheets, surveys, grading rubrics, lesson plans, and more designed to help teachers:

• Talk about race effectively with your young students
• Include diverse people and cultures in assignments and homework
• Provide learning resources and material that feature people of color
• Build racial comfort in your classroom
• And more!

Aderyn
Resident playboy, Samson Morgan, thinks he can beat me at my own game.
The hockey captain truly believes he can stop playing the field for longer than I can start having one-night stands.
Okay, sure, historically I'm known for being an all-in, ask-to-be-your-girlfriend-on-the-first-date romantic. But being a player isn't that hard. And I came to Mendell University to win. Whether that's on the ice or off.
Morgan doesn't realize it yet but he's finally met an opponent who can take him down.

Sam
My bet with the women's hockey team captain feels like an easy win.
Three months pretending to be a one-woman kind of man? Easy...scary easy, actually.
Somewhere along the line, I start taking my role too seriously.
This semester isn't the time for me to get distracted from my main goal - ensuring my team gets a fair shot this season.
But Aderyn Jacobs consistently makes me rethink everything I've ever wanted. I'm in danger of losing something far bigger than our bet.
__

Team Players is a college hockey romance starring two cocky and competitive hockey captains. This is book two of the Mendell Hawks series. It's recommended to read the series in order.

*ships 7 - 10 business days*

Teddy needs glasses but he's a little nervous about the process. With the help of his parents and doctor, Teddy learns that having his eyes checked and getting glasses isn't so bad after all. It's actually pretty cool!

A major work of American literature from a major American writer that powerfully portrays the anguish of being Black in a society that at times seems poised on the brink of total racial war.

"Baldwin is one of the few genuinely indispensable American writers." —Saturday Review

At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable.

For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make irresistible claims on Leo's loyalty. 

Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is overpowering in its vitality and extravagant in the intensity of its feeling.

The gripping new emotional thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ice Cream Girls,My Best Friend's Girl and The Brighton Mermaid.

Pieta has a secret
Ten years ago, Pieta survived a weekend with a sadistic serial killer. She never told anyone what happened and instead moved on with her life. But now, the man who kidnapped her is hunting down his past victims meaning she may have to tell her deepest secret to stay alive . . .

Jody has a secret
Fifteen years ago, policewoman Jody made a terrible mistake that resulted in a serial killer escaping justice. When she discovers journalist Pieta is one of his living victims, Jody realises she has a way to catch him - even if it means endangering Pieta's life. . .

Will telling their secrets save or sacrifice each other?

'Gripping ... full of heart and truth' Caroline Smailes

'I raced through this compelling thriller' Catherine Isaac

'Stunningly tense' Miranda Dickinson

'Honest and raw' Black Girls Book Club

“Strikingly dramatic, yet simple and unrestrained . . . an unusual and intensely interesting book richly packed with strange information.”

—New York Times Book Review

A groundbreaking debut collection portraying the lived experiences of Black Muslims grappling with faith, family, and freedom in America.

In Temple Folk, Black Muslims contemplate the convictions of their race, religion, economics, politics, and sexuality in America. The ten stories in this collection contribute to the bounty of diverse narratives about Black life by intimately portraying the experiences of a community that resists the mainstream culture to which they are expected to accept and aspire to while functioning within the country in which they are born.

In “Due North,” an obedient daughter struggles to understand why she’s haunted by the spirit of her recently deceased father. In “Who’s Down?” a father, after a brief affair with vegetarianism, conspires with his daughter to order him a double cheeseburger. In “Candy for Hanif” a mother’s routine trip to the store for her disabled son takes an unlikely turn when she reflects on a near-death experience. In “Woman in Niqab,” a daughter’s suspicion of her father’s infidelity prompts her to wear her hair in public. In “New Mexico,” a federal agent tasked with spying on a high-ranking member of the Nation of Islam grapples with his responsibilities closer to home.

With an unflinching eye for the contradictions between what these characters profess to believe and what they do, Temple Folk accomplishes the rare feat of presenting moral failures with compassion, nuance and humor to remind us that while perfection is what many of us strive for, it’s the errors that make us human.

What can you do with ten black dots? First published in 1968, Donald Crews’s bestselling classic is now a board book and just the right size and shape for its ideal audience—the very curious youngest readers. Ten Black Dots is a counting book, a book of simple rhymes, and a book of everyday objects. It’s a preschool masterpiece by the creator of such award winners as Freight Train and Truck.

Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans—though no one calls them that anymore.

His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.

This powerful deck of 50 cards offers validation, support, encouragement to anyone who has endured racial trauma--from the author of Racial Wellness. From racial wellness visionary Jacquelyn Ogorchukwu Iyamah, these fifty cards give Black, Indigenous, and People of Color the rare opportunity to experience revolutionary healing in the face of systemic racism. This powerful deck features tender reminders on one side and thoughtful questions on the other, offering compassion and validation while allowing you to reflect on your unique experiences and resist some of the ways that racism shows up in your life. Whether you’re displaying these affirmations in your home or adding the reflection questions to your journaling or meditation practice, Tender Reminders is a space for you to pour back into yourself and grant yourself the tenderness you deserve.

*ships in 7 - 10 business days*

In this “outstanding volume” (Boston Herald) that “ought to be at the top of everyone’s must-read list” (Essence), Black women and men evocatively explore what could make a smart woman ignore doctor’s orders; what could get a hardworking employee fired from her job; what could get a black woman in hot water with her white boyfriend? In a word: hair.

In a society where beauty standards can be difficult if not downright unobtainable for many Black women, the issue of hair is a major one. Now, in this evocative and fascinating collection of essays, poems, excerpts, and more, Tenderheaded speaks to the personal, political, and cultural meaning of Black hair.

From A’​Leila Perry Bundles, the great-granddaughter of hair care pioneer Madam C.J. Walker celebrating her ancestor’s legacy, to an art historian exploring the moving ways in which Black hair has been used to express Yoruba spirituality, to renowned activist Angela Davis questioning how her message of revolution got reduced to a hairstyle, Tenderheaded is as rich and diverse as the children of the African diaspora.

With works from authors including Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, bell hooks, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and more, this “remarkable array of writings and images” (Publishers Weekly) will stay with you long after you turn the final page.

The compelling memoir that explores race, cultural representation, Black media’s legacy, privilege, and identity from VIBE’s founding fashion editor and CNN correspondent Michaela Angela Davis.

As VIBE’s founding fashion editor and a CNN correspondent, Michaela Angela Davis has been at the forefront of cultural shifts, working alongside iconic figures like Diana Ross, Prince, and Beyoncé. Her memoir is a celebration of Black media’s vibrant history and a critical examination of its challenges and erasure in mainstream narratives.

In Tenderheaded, Davis journeys back through her career as both a celebration and an interrogation of Black media, exploring the difficult truth of how historically Black media titles and brands have had such mighty, culture-shifting starts, then disappeared or limped along in mainstream obscurity. Her story is one of self-discovery and liberation, as she navigates the complexities of identity politics, sexism, and racism within the media industry. Her career has been a tapestry of glamorous adventures from the bustling streets of 1980s New York City to the exotic markets of Morocco, all while styling some of the most influential figures in music and culture. Yet, beneath the surface of this dazzling world lies a poignant narrative of struggle and resilience.

Tenderheaded is not just a memoir; it is a cultural manifesto that questions the legacy of Black media and the stories of Black women that remain untold. Davis’s narrative is both a romance and a tragedy, reflecting her American life and the broader story of American media.

*Ships/ready for pick-up in 7-10 business days*

“Camille Sapara Barton is a gift to all of us. ... This is what emergent strategy looks like at the precipice.”
—adrienne maree brown, author of Pleasure Activism

An embodied guide to being with grief individually and in community—practical exercises, decolonized rituals, and Earth-based medicines for healing and processing loss

We live in a culture that suppresses our ability to truly feel our grief—deeply, safely, and on our own terms. But each person’s experience is as unique as the grief itself. Here, Camille Sapara Barton’s take on grief speaks directly to the ways that BIPOC and queer readers disproportionately experience unique constellations of loss.

Deeply practical and easy to use in times of confusion, trauma, and pain, Tending Grief includes rituals, reflection prompts, and exercises that help us process and metabolize our grief—without bypassing or pushing aside what comes to the fore. Sapara Barton includes exercises that can be done both alone and in community, including:

* Altar practices to honor and connect with ancestors known and unknown
* Locating, holding, and dancing your grief
* Sharing circles for processing communal loss
* Water, fire, and nature-based rituals
* Honoring the survival utility of numbness—and knowing when it’s time to release it
* Peer support and integration
* Herbal medicines and plant-based healing

Sapara Barton honors each and every experience: The loss of displacement from homelands, from severed lineages and ancestral ways of knowing. The grief of colonization and theft. The deep heaviness that burrows into our bodies when society tells us our bodies are wrong. Practical tools and rituals help readers feel into their grief, honor what comes up, and move forward in healing.

Written specifically to center and hold the grief of BIPOC readers, Tending Grief is an invitation to reconnect to what we’ve lost, to find community in our grief, and to tend to our own suffering for our individual and collective wellbeing.