Products
- Born Palestinian, Born Black: & The Gaza Suite
Born Palestinian, Born Black: & The Gaza Suite
Suheir Hammad
Sold out*Ships/ready for pick up in 5-8 business days*
UpSet Press has restored to print Suheir Hammad's first book of poems, Born Palestinian, Born Black, originally published by Harlem River Press in 1996. The new edition is augmented with a new author's preface, and new poems, under the heading, The Gaza Suite, as well as a new publisher's note by Zohra Saed, an introduction by Marco Villalobos, and an afterword by Kazim Ali.
- Born to Read, Forced to Work Hat: 100% Cotton Denim Baseball Cap, Adjustable Brass Metal Buckle Closure, Dark Blue
Born to Read, Forced to Work Hat: 100% Cotton Denim Baseball Cap, Adjustable Brass Metal Buckle Closure, Dark Blue
$29.00For avid readers who'd prefer to be engrossed in a great book, our 'Born to Read, Forced to Work' cap is an ideal accessory. This trendy and clever cap is designed for those who'd rather be reading but find themselves navigating daily life. Product 100% cotton denim baseball cap, adjustable brass metal buckle closure, dark blue. - Born to Serve: A History of Texas Southern University (Volume 14) (Race and Culture in the American West Series)
Born to Serve: A History of Texas Southern University (Volume 14) (Race and Culture in the American West Series)
Merline Pitre
$21.95Texas Southern University is often said to have been “conceived in sin.” Located in Houston, the school was established in 1947 as an “emergency” state-supported university for African Americans, to prevent the integration of the University of Texas. Born to Serve is the first book to tell the full history of TSU, from its founding, through the many varied and defining challenges it faced, to its emergence as a first-rate university that counts Barbara Jordon, Mickey Leland, and Michael Strahan among its graduates.
Merline Pitre frames TSU’s history within that of higher education for African Americans in Texas, from Reconstruction to the lawsuit that gave the school its start. The case, Sweatt v. Painter, involved student Heman Marion Sweatt, who was denied entry to the University of Texas Law School because he was black. Pitre traces the tortuous measures by which Texas legislators tried to meet a provision of the state’s constitution that called for the establishment and maintenance of a “branch university for the instruction of colored youths of the State.” When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1950 that the UT Law School’s efforts to remain segregated violated the U.S. Constitution, the future of the institution that would become Texas Southern University in 1951 looked doubtful.
In its early years the university persevered in the face of state neglect and underfunding and the threat of merger. Born to Serve describes the efforts, both humble and heroic, that faculty and staff undertook to educate students and turn TSU into the thriving institution it is today: a major metropolitan university serving students of all races and ethnicities from across the country and throughout the world.
Launched during the early civil rights movement, TSU has a history unique among historically black colleges and universities, most of which were established immediately after the Civil War. Born to Serve adds a critical chapter to the history of education and integration in the United States.
- Boundaries Are Self-Care: A Journal to Help You Set Boundaries, Redefine Strength, and Put Yourself First
Boundaries Are Self-Care: A Journal to Help You Set Boundaries, Redefine Strength, and Put Yourself First
by Asha Gibson
Sold out*ships in 7-10 business days*
Learn to establish healthy boundaries and prioritize your own needs
Many women struggle with setting boundaries—saying no, speaking up, and believing their own needs are as important as everyone else’s. This journal helps readers figure out where they need stronger boundaries, and gives them the inspiration and encouragement they need to set and maintain them, encouraging and empowering happier, healthier lives.
- Boundless (Scholastic Focus)
Boundless (Scholastic Focus)
$18.99World champion high jumper Chaunté Lowe pens the captivating story of her journey from an impoverished childhood full of big dreams and devastating hurdles, to becoming a bronze medal-winning US Olympian.
Scholastic Focus is the premier home of thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and thoughtfully designed works of narrative nonfiction aimed at middle-grade and young adult readers. These books help readers learn about the world in which they live and develop their critical thinking skills so that they may become dynamic citizens who are able to analyze and understand our past, participate in essential discussions about our present, and work to grow and build our future.
Everything seemed set against Chaunté Lowe. Growing up with a single mother in Paso Robles, California, where she experienced food insecurity, homelessness, and domestic abuse, Chaunté couldn't imagine a future that offered a different sort of life. But then, one day, she turned on the TV and there was Flo Jo, competing in the Olympics and shattering records in track and field. Almost immediately, Chaunté knew what she wanted to do. She started running.
With the help of a small community of friends, family, and coaches, Chaunté worked as hard as she could - both in the classroom and out on the sports field - and through her own fierce determination and grit, she overcame every imaginable obstacle, eventually propelling herself to the place she always dreamed about: the Olympic medal podium.
Boundless is a story that will move anyone who's ever had a big dream, ever dared to hope for a better future, and ever believed that nothing was impossible. In her own words, Chaunté presents her remarkable and inspiring story of loss and survival, perseverance and hope.
- Bounty
Bounty
$80.00Artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen continues his exploration of colonial history and its legacies in this new book comprised of meditative photographs of Grenada’s flora. Taken on a trip to the island in the summer of 2024, these images reckon with the connections between landscape and historical trauma, studying Grenada’s plant life as permanent markers of beauty in a land ravaged by exploitation. Rendered in vivid colour, the images reflect the complex interlocking of history, heritage, and survival contained in the simplicity of the island flora. Taking as his touchpoint the late Saint Lucian poet Derek Walcott’s elegy to his mother, ‘The Bounty’, McQueen’s project adopts a similarly poetic sensibility, attuned to the resilience of the island’s landscape and the dualities of the word ‘bounty’, which alludes to both the generosity of nature and the sum paid to slave catchers. Grounded in a deep reverence for the sublime natural world, Bounty invites a visceral engagement with the silent endurance of nature despite the grim realities of human history.
- Boustany: A Celebration of Vegetables from my Palestine [A Cookbook]
Boustany: A Celebration of Vegetables from my Palestine [A Cookbook]
$37.99Celebrate the diverse cuisine of Palestine with more than 100 plant-based and vegetarian recipes for festive meals, breads, desserts, and more, from the award-winning co-author of Jerusalem, Falastin and co-founder of Ottolenghi.
“With recipes rooted in nostalgia and memory, Sami Tamimi brings his heritage to life, plate by plate.”—Andy Baraghani, James Beard award–winning author of The Cook You Want to Be
The first solo cookbook from Ottolenghi co-founder Sami Tamimi, Boustany is anhomage to Palestinian food and culture. "Boustany" translates from Arabic as "my garden," which reflects Sami's signature style and approach to food: colorful and simple vegetable- and grain-led dishes. Bold, inspiring and ever-evolving, Boustany picks up where Falastin left off, with flavor-packed vegetable-based dishes, including pantry items, midweek easy meals and special to-be-shared dishes. It’s an approach that’s strongly present in Palestinian cuisine, from building your mooneh, or pantry, by preserving seasonal vegetables and herbs to lining the dinner table with a variety of salads and condiments reflective of a love for fresh and vibrant food.
This is how Sami grew up eating—platters of eggplant and chickpeas with a spicy green lemon sauce and fragrant lentil fatteh that always tasted better the next day. These are the 100 vegan and vegetarian dishes he has known, loved, cooked, and shared with friends, including:
• Braised eggs with pita bread, tomatoes & za’atar
• Smoky chickpeas with cilantro tahini
• Crushed butter beans with orange, makdous & mint
• Fried halloumi with purslane salad
• Couscous fritters with preserved lemon yogurt
• Jerusalem sesame bread
• Fenugreek & onion buns
• Pan-baked tahini, halva & coffee brownie
• Labneh & pomegranate ice creamBoustany is filled with vibrant and lively photographs of everyday meals that invite you into Sami's home. With recipes for breads, dinner parties, fermenting your own vegetables, and more, Sami shares the cultural fabric of Palestine through his eyes.
- Boy 2.0 (Boy 2.0, 1)
Boy 2.0 (Boy 2.0, 1)
Tracey Baptiste
Sold outAn action-packed superhero story from New York Times bestselling author Tracey Baptiste
Win “Coal” Keegan has just landed in his latest foster home, with a big, noisy, slightly nosy family named the McKays. They seem eager to welcome Coal, but he’s wary of trusting them. So, he doesn’t tell them that he went for a walk with chalk in his pocket to cover a nearby street with his art. He doesn’t tell them that a neighbor found Coal drawing, pulled a gun on him, and fired it. He doesn’t tell them the police chased him. And he definitely doesn’t tell them that when everything went down, Coal somehow turned invisible.
But he did.
Now he has to figure out how. Is he a superhero? Some kind of mutant? A science experiment? Is that why he has no family of his own? As Coal searches for answers and slowly learns to control his invisibility, he turns to the McKay kids and friends both new and old for help. But they soon discover they’re not the only ones looking for a Black boy with superpowers, and the situation is far stranger—and more dangerous—than they ever could have expected.
- Boy Dad
Boy Dad
by Sean Williams
$21.99*Ships in 7-10 business days*
There’s nothing a dad won’t do for his favorite boy.
Told in upbeat rhyming verse, Boy Dad is a picture book that celebrates fathers who raise, love, and uplift little men. A companion to Girl Dad, this keepsake will make a fun read aloud and gift for the special dad in your life.
- boy maybe: poems
boy maybe: poems
WJ Lofton
$17.0051 achingly eloquent poems from a young Cave Canem fellow: W. J. Lofton's verses explore Black queer Southern identity, grief, love, and intimacy while enduring and witnessing unfreedom in America
W. J. Lofton writes vivid, accessible poems that channel the energy, urgency, ambitions, joys, and sorrows of a young Black queer artist. They are about love and flirtation, sweet tea and hot sauce, God and family, life and death, police brutality and extrajudicial killings. His verses honor some of the young lives extinguished by these killings—Breonna Taylor, Kendrick Johnson, Ahmaud Arbery. He also pays tribute to some of the towering figures of Black culture who have come before him—Richard Pryor, Assata Shakur. His style is endlessly propulsive, informed by some of the Harlem Renaissance greats—Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks—but also transforming that rich tradition for the present day.
- Braided Roots: The interweaving of history, family, and a father's love
Braided Roots: The interweaving of history, family, and a father's love
Pasha Westbrook
$19.99A stunning, poetic debut picture book from Pasha Westbrook about honoring one’s roots and the unbreakable bond of familial love, brought to life with enchanting illustrations by Madelyn Goodnight.
Father braids my hair, just like his,
scented of coconut oil, the familiar tug of fingers on my scalp,
love in every twist...
As a young girl’s father lovingly yet painstakingly braids her hair, he weaves a story about the strength and resilience of their ancestors, Freedmen who walked the Trail of Tears from Mississippi to Oklahoma.
In this enchanting picture book, past and present come together in a tale about endurance, history, and love. With beautiful, sweeping illustrations by Madelyn Goodnight and debut author Pasha Westbrook's lyrical writing, Braided Roots tenderly explores the unwavering love between a father and daughter.
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Sold outUpdated with a new introduction from Robin Wall Kimmerer, the special edition of Braiding Sweetgrass, reissued in honor of the fortieth anniversary of Milkweed Editions, celebrates the book as an object of meaning that will last the ages. Beautifully bound with a new cover featuring an engraving by Tony Drehfal, this edition includes a bookmark ribbon and five brilliantly colored illustrations by artist Nate Christopherson. In increasingly dark times, we honor the experience that more than 350,000 readers in North America have cherished about the book—gentle, simple, tactile, beautiful, even sacred—and offer an edition that will inspire readers to gift it again and again, spreading the word about scientific knowledge, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of plants.
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
- Brand New School, Brave New Ruby (Ruby and the Booker Boys #1)
Brand New School, Brave New Ruby (Ruby and the Booker Boys #1)
by Derrick Barnes
$5.99*ships or ready for pick up in 7 - 10 business days*
Eight-year-old ultra-fabulous Ruby Marigold Booker returns in this reissue of the Ruby and the Booker Boys series by Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor author Derrick Barnes!Eight-year-old ultra-fabulous Ruby Marigold Booker returns in this reissue of the Ruby and the Booker Boys series by Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor author Derrick Barnes!Brought to you by Newbery Honor author Derrick Barnes, eight-year-old Ruby Booker is the baby sis of Marcellus (11), Roosevelt (10), and Tyner (9), the most popular boys on Chill Brook Ave. When Ruby isn't hanging with her friend, Theresa Petticoat, she's finding out what kind of mischief her brothers are getting into. She's sweet and sassy and every bit as tough as her older siblings. She sings like nobody's business; she has a pet iguana named Lady Love; her favorite color is grape-jelly purple; and when she grows up, she's going to be the most famous woman animal doctor on the planet. She's the fabulous, oh-so-spectacular Ruby Marigold Booker! - Brave. Black. First. Puzzle
Brave. Black. First. Puzzle
$16.99*This item will ship or be ready for pick up in 7-10 business days
ABOUT BRAVE. BLACK. FIRST. PUZZLE
A one-of-a-kind puzzle featuring groundbreaking African American women, published in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Based on the children’s book Brave. Black. First., this puzzle celebrates the artists, athletes, activists, politicians, and writers who championed civil rights in their communities. From Sojourner Truth and Ruby Bridges to Angela Davis and Michelle Obama, the collaged image captures the iconic moments of African American women whose heroism and bravery rewrote the American story for the better.
The included poster offers additional biographical information, serving as both a handy reference tool and a beautiful way to honor these heroes on a wall or in a school locker. - Break Room
Break Room
$23.00A gripping and incisive psychological gameshow drama from one of the biggest stars in Korean fiction, author of million-copy bestseller The Dallergut Dream Department Store.
Eight unsuspecting people receive an invitation to participate in a new reality show called Break Room. But what starts as an opportunity for fame is quickly revealed to be something far more unsettling when they learn how they were chosen--voted in by their respective coworkers as "the office villain."
Among them is an imposter--a mole planted by the show's producers. The only way to win the prize money is to uncover the saboteur before time runs out.
As alliances shift and paranoia festers, the contestants begin to realize that the true challenge isn't surviving the show--it's facing their own selves.
Welcome . . . Step into the world of the reality show, Break Room, where every smile hides suspicion, and every word could be a clue.
- Break This House
Break This House
by Candice Iloh
$17.99*ships/available for pickup in 7-10 business days
From Printz honoree and National Book Award Finalist Candice Iloh, a prose novel about a teenager reckoning with her family’s--and her home town's--secrets.
Yaminah Okar left Obsidian and the wreckage of her family years ago. She and her father have made lives for themselves in Brooklyn. She thinks she’s moved on to bigger and better things. She thinks she's finally left behind that city she would rather forget. But when a Facebook message about her estranged mother pierces Yaminah’s new bubble, memories of everything that happened before her parents' divorce come roaring back. Now, Yaminah must finally reckon with the truth about her mother and the growing collapse of a place she once called home.
- Breaking Generational Silence: A Guide to Disrupt Unhealthy Family Patterns and Heal Inherited Trauma
Breaking Generational Silence: A Guide to Disrupt Unhealthy Family Patterns and Heal Inherited Trauma
Nicole Russell-Wharton
$20.99From regarded mental health expert Nicole Russell-Wharton, a guide to disrupt family patterns and heal from inherited trauma so you can break the cycle of silence for generations to come
What if one conversation was able to redirect a person’s life and create a ripple effect of healing that spans generations? It took a near-death experience for mental health expert Nicole Russell-Wharton to realize that after 35 years, she didn't know the body she was living in. After being diagnosed with a rare life-altering genetic condition that others in her family had, Nicole couldn't understand how everyone remained silent. “I’ve suffered through many things in silence over the years,” says Russell-Wharton. “It wasn’t until I started collecting data on generational issues like poverty and trauma that I had this awakening: our healing challenges are rooted in our families’ silence and psychological pathology.”
It's the silence that's harming us.
“Generational silence” is a term applied to families who have experienced suppressed thoughts or repressed emotions for at least two generations. In this book, Nicole speaks from personal experience about how slavery left an intergenerational impact on her family’s emotional and physical health, and it invites readers to explore the legacy of their own family history. This book will help you explore:
• The cycle and impact of issues like substance abuse, religion, racism, education inequality, and parenting
• Research, practical tools, and exercises to begin to explore your family history and open up conversations
• The root of silence in your own life, so you can break the cycle for generations to comeBreaking Generational Silence will help you begin to break the cycle of silence, find the courage to face your family challenges, and become your own best advocate.
- Breakout
Breakout
$19.99Trapped at a luxurious resort off the coast of Florida, a group of elite teens are about to have a spring break they will never forget . . . but not all of them are coming home. The star-studded team of authors behind New York Times bestsellers Blackout and Whiteout returns with a thrillerfull of intrigue, betrayal, and heart-stopping romance.
For Thurgood Marshall Academy's best and brightest--five friends who've been thick as thieves since kindergarten--this spring break is all about forgetting: they want nothing more than to wash away last year's tragedy, and the human-shaped hole it left in their friend group.
It's a hole the new kid, Anthony Brooks, seems to fit right into. So when he invites the Five to join him on a private island for a week at his dad's luxury resort, they agree with zero hesitation. No one's counting on a freak tropical storm swooping in and killing the vibe. And speaking of killing, they're also ill-prepared for the mounting collection of dead bodies... including (another) one of their own.
As their dream trip unravels, everything they tried to leave behind--secrets, lies, betrayals, dead best friends--seems to be washing up on the shore of their lives for everyone to see. Will any of them make it out alive?
From the bestselling, award-winning team behind Blackout and Whiteout—Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon—comes a thriller that begs the question: is it possible to outrun the worst thing you've ever done?
- Breath of the Dragon: Breathmarked (Breathmarked, 1)
Breath of the Dragon: Breathmarked (Breathmarked, 1)
Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee
Sold outFeaturing beautiful sprayed edges!
A young warrior dreams of proving his worth in the elite Guardian Tournament, fighting not only for himself but the fate of everything he loves.
Sixteen-year-old Jun dreams of proving his worth as a warrior in the elite Guardian’s Tournament, held every six years to entrust the magical Scroll of Heaven to a new protector. Eager to prove his skills, Jun hopes that a win will restore his father’s pride―righting a horrible mistake that caused their banishment from his home, mother, and twin brother.
But Jun’s father strictly forbids him from participating. He believes there is no future in Jun honing his skills as a warrior, especially considering Jun is not breathmarked, born with a patch of dragon scales and blessed with special abilities like his twin. Determined to be the next Guardian, Jun stows away in the wagon of Chang and his daughter, Ren, performers on their way to the capital where the tournament will take place.
As Jun competes, he quickly realizes he may be fighting for not just a better life, but the fate of the country itself and the very survival of everyone he cares about.
- Breath, Eyes, Memory
Breath, Eyes, Memory
Edwidge Danticat
$18.00The 20th anniversary edition of Edwidge Danticat's groundbreaking debut, now an established classic--revised and with a new introduction by the author, and including extensive bonus materials
At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished Haitian village to New York to be reunited with a mother she barely remembers. There she discovers secrets that no child should ever know, and a legacy of shame that can be healed only when she returns to Haiti—to the women who first reared her. What ensues is a passionate journey through a landscape charged with the supernatural and scarred by political violence. In her stunning literary debut, Danticat evokes the wonder, terror, and heartache of her native Haiti—and the enduring strength of Haiti’s women—with vibrant imagery and narrative grace that bear witness to her people’s suffering and courage.
- Breathe
Breathe
by Imani Perry
$19.95*ships in 7-10 business days*
2020 Chautauqua Prize Finalist
2020 NAACP Image Award Nominee - Outstanding Literary Work (Nonfiction)
Best-of Lists: Best Nonfiction Books of 2019 (Kirkus Reviews) · 25 Can't-Miss Books of 2019 (The Undefeated)
Explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world.
Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love—finding beauty and possibility in life—and she exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition.
Perry draws upon the ideas of figures such as James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ida B. Wells. She shares vulnerabilities and insight from her own life and from encounters in places as varied as the West Side of Chicago; Birmingham, Alabama; and New England prep schools.
With original art for the cover by Ekua Holmes, Breathe offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience. - Briarcliff Prep
Briarcliff Prep
by Brianna Peppins
$17.99*ships/available for pickup in 7-10 business days
Set at a luxe, aspirational boarding school inspired by the author's beloved alma mater Spelman College, this debut is a captivating celebration of the friends we choose, the family we protect, and the love we owe ourselves.
It's fourteen-year-old Avielle "Avi" LeBeau's turn to do what everyone in her family has done: leave home to attend Briarcliff Prep—a Historically Black Boarding School (HBBS). And as scared as she is to say goodbye to her parents and move to Georgia, she knows her fearless big sister Belle will be there to show her the ropes.
Before long, Avi settles into life at Briarcliff. New friends (and foes), challenging classes (at times too challenging), and maybe a cute tutor-turned-something-more (if her brothers don't get in the way). Meanwhile, Belle does what she always does: she runs the campus's social scene, especially now that she's dating Logan, the pride and joy of Briarcliff's sibling school Preston Academy.
But something about Logan doesn't sit well with Avi, no matter how many times Belle reassures her Logan is a good guy. And when Avi stumbles across the truth, her relationship with Belle is put to the test. If Avi reveals what she knows, their sisterhood might never recover. But if she doesn't, she might lose Belle forever.
Debut author Brianna Peppins deftly balances a celebration of sisterhood, self-discovery, and Black joy with an empathetic exploration of teen dating violence in this novel that is, at its heart, a love letter to Black girls. - Brida: From the Bestselling Author of The Alchemist
Brida: From the Bestselling Author of The Alchemist
$15.99New York Times Bestseller
“In Brida, my third novel, which I wrote just after The Alchemist, I tell the story of a young woman who dives into sorcery and her experiences with different magical traditions. I explore many themes that are dear to me, such as the Great Mother, pagan religions, and the perceptions of love.”
-- Paulo Coelho
This is the spellbinding tale of Brida, a beautiful young Irish woman, and her quest for knowledge. On her journey, she meets a wise man who teaches her about overcoming her fears, and a woman who teaches her ancient rituals. They see in her a gift, but must let Brida make her own voyage of discovery.
- Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End
Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End
by Alua Arthur
from $18.99A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives, from America’s most visible death doula.
"A truly unique, inspiring perspective on the time we have, what we do with it, and how we let go of this world.... There is no one I'd trust more to guide me through an understanding of death, and how it informs life." — Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Mad Honey and The Book of Two Ways
"Briefly Perfectly Human is a beautiful, raw, light-bringing experience. Alua's voice is shimmering, singular, and pulses with humor, vulnerability, insight, and refreshing candor.... Be prepared for it to grab you, hold you tight, and raise the roof on the power of human connection." — Tembi Locke, author of From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home
For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country’s leading death doula, she’s spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death—whether imminent or not—will breathe wild, new potential into your life.
Warm, generous, and funny AF, Alua supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels. The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air—or maybe not shown up at all—and her clients become deeply contemplative and want to talk. Aching, unfinished business often emerges. Alua has been present for thousands of these sacred moments—when regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally said aloud. When this happens, Alua focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients’ anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace.
This has had a profound effect on Alua, who was already no stranger to death’s periphery. Her family fled a murderous coup d’état in Ghana in the 1980s. She has suffered major, debilitating depressions. And her dear friend and brother-in-law died of lymphoma. Advocating for him in his final months is what led Alua to her life’s calling. She knows firsthand the power of bearing witness and telling the truth about life’s painful complexities, because they do not disappear when you look the other way. They wait for you.
Briefly Perfectly Human is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmers on the page. Alua Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care—what she calls “death embrace.” Hers is a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives, by embracing the fact of our own mortality. “Hold that truth in your mind,” Alua says, “and wondrous things will begin to grow around it.”
- Bring on the Blessings
Bring on the Blessings
by Beverly Jenkins
$16.99*ships/available for pickup in 7-10 business days
Bestselling author Beverly Jenkins makes the move to trade paperback with this rich and moving story that introduces us to the beautiful Kansas town of Henry Adams, and the townspeople who make it unique
Bernadine Brown is a woman with money to spend. Henry Adams is a town in desperate need of cash. But after Bernadine puts up the money, she has some ideas about how the town should be run. Will the townspeople be willing to shake up their comfortable lives to share the gift they’ve been given with others who really need it?
One of the few all Black towns founded after Reconstruction, over a century later Henry Adams was falling apart. So Mayor Trenton July took a chance and put his town up for sale on the internet. With a new owner in town, and the ex mayor and his friends up in arms and doing everything they can to turn the deal on its head, will this be the death of Henry Adams...or its rebirth? - Broken Clocks
Broken Clocks
Danielle Allen
Sold outAccording to my grandma, a broken clock being right twice a day meant that in any given situation, perfect timing only happens twice. I fell for William Grayson in a matter of minutes. The connection between us was undeniable, but our timing was off. I was dating someone and by the time I was single again, he was taken. And a year later, when we finally got together, it was clear that we were soulmates. But circumstances out of our control cut our time short. We were a little older, a little wiser, when our paths crossed again. I was entering a new phase of independence in both my career and my life. He was growing professionally and moving to a new city. And even though our timing was off, it was still clear that we were soulmates. But for the second time, circumstances out of our control cut our time short. My grandma was a wise woman, but my love life taught me that there's no such thing as perfect timing. There's just timing... Because nothing is perfect. There's just right now... Because tomorrow isn't promised. For as long as we'd known each other, William and I just wanted to be together. It was as simple and as complicated as that. - Brooklyn
Brooklyn
by Tracy Brown
Sold out*ships in 7 - 10 business days*
Tracy Brown crafts a tale about a master manipulator and serial survivor, who will scorch earth to get what she wants. The question isn’t who murdered her; the question is who wouldn’t? Brooklyn Melody James has finally gotten the punishment she deserves after leaving a web of lies, heartache, and betrayal behind her. As her life slips away, Brooklyn remembers the events that shaped her into the cold, calculating creature she became. Brooklyn learned the art of hustling from her parents who used the church to get money. Idolizing her father and despising her mother, Brooklyn’s determined to be the type of woman who makes her own rules. When her back’s up against the wall, she sacrifices her family, takes the burnt offering that remains, and runs away. In NYC, young Brooklyn charms her way into the inner circle of hustlers and stick-up kids, learning tricks along the way. She catches the eye of a major player in the drug game, Hassan, and they have a breathless love affair. Brooklyn becomes integrated into his operation, earning the trust of Hassan and his associates. But when she gets the keys to the kingdom, driven by unfettered ambition and a ruthless desire to survive, Brooklyn snatches the pot of gold, leaving bitter retribution promises behind her. From DC to Maryland, Brooklyn burns bridges and breaks hearts. What she doesn't realize is that someone is prepared to end her reign of terror. As she faces her killer and her fate, Brooklyn’s stunned that justice comes from the least likely place.
- Brooms
Brooms
by Jasmine Walls
$18.99*ships in 7-10 business days*
A queer, witchy Fast and the Furious - starting 6 BIPOC witches - that shines light on history not often told
It’s 1930s Mississippi. Magic is permitted only in certain circumstances, and by certain people. Unsanctioned broom racing is banned. But for those who need the money, or the thrills...it's there to be found.
Meet Billie Mae, captain of the Night Storms racing team, and Loretta, her best friend and second-in-command. They’re determined to make enough money to move out west to a state that allows Black folks to legally use magic and take part in national races.
Cheng-Kwan – doing her best to handle the delicate and dangerous double act of being the perfect “son” to her parents, and being true to herself while racing.
Mattie and Emma -- Choctaw and Black -- the youngest of the group and trying to dodge government officials who want to send them and their newly-surfaced powers away to boarding school.
And Luella, in love with Billie Mae. Her powers were sealed away years ago after she fought back against the government. She’ll do anything to prevent the same fate for her cousins.
Brooms is a queer, witchy Fast and the Furious that shines light on history not often told – it’s everything you’d ever want to read in a graphic novel. - Brotherhood
Brotherhood
$18.00WINNER of the French Voices Grand Prize, Prix Ahmadou Kourouma, and Grand Prix du Roman Métis
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s searing and thought-provoking debut novel, Brotherhood takes place in the imaginary town of Kalep, where a fundamentalist Islamist government has spread its brutal authority.
Under the regime of the so-called Brotherhood, two young people are publicly executed for having loved each other. In response, their mothers begin a secret correspondence, their only outlet for the grief they share and each woman’s personal reckoning with a leadership that would take her beloved child’s life.
At the same time, spurred on by their indignation at what seems to be an escalation of The Brotherhood’s brutality, a band of intellectuals and free-thinkers seeks to awaken the conscience of the cowed populace and foment rebellion by publishing an underground newspaper. While they grapple with the implications of what they have done, the regime’s brutal leader begins a personal crusade to find the responsible parties, and bring them to his own sense of justice.
In this brilliant analysis of tyranny and brutality, Mbougar Sarr explores the ways in which resistance and heroism can often give way to cowardice, all while giving voice to the moral ambiguities and personal struggles involved in each of his characters’ search to impose the values they hold most dear.
- Brothers in the Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr.
Brothers in the Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr.
by Marc Andrus
$17.95The never-before-told story of the friendship between Martin Luther King Jr. and Thich Nhat Hanh—icons who changed each other and the world
The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a heartbroken letter to their mutual friend Raphael Gould. He said: "I did not sleep last night. . . . They killed Martin Luther King. They killed us. I am afraid the root of violence is so deep in the heart and mind and manner of this society. They killed him. They killed my hope. I do not know what to say. . . . He made so great an impression in me. This morning I have the impression that I cannot bear the loss."
Only a few years earlier, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote an open letter to Martin Luther King Jr. as part of his effort to raise awareness and bring peace in Vietnam. There was an unexpected outcome of Nhat Hanh's letter to King: The two men met in 1966 and 1967 and became not only allies in the peace movement, but friends. This friendship between two prophetic figures from different religions and cultures, from countries at war with one another, reached a great depth in a short period of time. Dr. King nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He wrote: "Thich Nhat Hanh is a holy man, for he is humble and devout. He is a scholar of immense intellectual capacity. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity."
The two men bonded over a vision of the Beloved Community: a vision described recently by Congressman John Lewis as "a nation and world society at peace with itself." It was a concept each knew of because of their membership within the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an international peace organization, and that Martin Luther King Jr. had been popularizing through his work for some time. Thich Nhat Hanh, Andrus shows, took the lineage of the Beloved Community from King and carried it on after his death.
In Brothers in the Beloved Community, Marc Andrus tells the little-known story of a friendship between two giants of our time. - Brown Baby Lullaby
Brown Baby Lullaby
by Tameka Fryer Brown, AG Ford (Illustrated by)
$8.99This #OwnVoices lyrical bedtime picture book is a must-have for every sweet brown baby.
From sunset to bedtime, two brown-skinned parents lovingly care for their beautiful brown baby: first, they play outside, then it is time for dinner and a bath, and finally a warm snuggle before bed.
With Spanish words sprinkled throughout and featuring warm art by New York Times–bestselling and NAACP-Award–winning illustrator AG Ford, Brown Baby Lullaby is the perfect new baby or baby shower gift. - Brown Girl Dreaming
Brown Girl Dreaming
by Jacqueline Woodson
$12.99*Ships in 7-10 Business Days*
Jacqueline Woodson's National Book Award and Newbery Honor winner, now available in paperback with 7 all-new poems.
Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.
Includes 7 new poems, including "Brown Girl Dreaming"
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