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  • GOAL (St. Louis Sires)

    Alexandria House

    $24.99

    For Maleek Jones, hockey is his wife. Everything and everyone else is his mistress, an aside. When unexpected responsibilities land in his lap, the balance of his world is disrupted, changing the way he sees everything.

    Trying to figure out life while recovering from trauma, Nuri Knox finds herself in desperate need of the one thing Maleek has to offer.

    In each other, they discover what neither of them expects.

    Love.

  • Slices of Black American Life

    MR. TOMONOSHi

    $24.00

    Slices of Black American Life is a raw, electrifying yet polished articulation of Black America—its past, present, and future woven through Blaxploitation-inspired poetry and storytelling with cinematic flair.

    It possesses a jazz rhythm in tone, MR. TOMONOSHi!’s words tap dance across the page—each syllable hitting like a beat, each line swinging with improvised brilliance.

    Each piece offers a window into the fantastical worlds of Black American life, where reality and imagination collide—the characters breathe, move, speak, inviting you in, pulling you close, immersing you deep into the roots of the Black American experience.

    A whimsical realness pulsates throughout its entirety.

    This collection is more than homage—it’s an ode to the brilliance of Blaxploitation, capturing its bold aesthetics, fearless spirit, and unfiltered truth. Every poem, every story, cuts deep, speaks loud, and refuses to be forgotten.

  • Sweet Little Hearts

    Shanora Williams

    $16.99

    From New York Times bestselling author Shanora Williams comes a deeply heartfelt romance about the tragedies that put our lives on hold―and the love that makes us want to start again.

    Javier Valdez hasn’t had much luck with nannies, and he can’t imagine this one will be any different. Octavia Klein is all sass to his stoicism, free spirit to his hard work. But he’s a widower, and with a career in the NBA, he can’t keep doing this alone.

    Despite Javier’s reservations, Octavia turns out to be the best thing for his four-year-old daughter…and for him. But he’s reluctant to admit it. Javier swore off love after his wife died, and Octavia has her own reasons for avoiding relationships.

    As their bond deepens far past professionalism or even friendship, it’s hard to deny the crackling tension of something more. They’re both toeing lines they said they wouldn’t cross―and when their pasts come rushing back, there’s no telling which way they’ll fall.

    With old wounds reopened, can Javier and Octavia overcome the pain once again? Or will their future together become just another scar?

  • A Day at Abbott Elementary (Official Abbott Elementary Picture Book)

    Halcyon Person

    $18.99

    This official Abbott Elementary picture book features all your favorite characters and tells a hilarious and heartwarming new story not seen on the show!

    Abbott Elementary is ABC’s hottest new comedy! This official picture book features an original adventure starring your favorite teachers and students from the show, including Janine, Ava, Gregory, Melissa, Barbara, Jacob, and Mr. Johnson.

    It’s just a normal day at Abbott Elementary. That is, until Miss Teagues finds a squirrel hiding in her second-grade classroom! But the sneaky critter isn’t the only problem. The squirrel has been hiding acorns in the walls -- and the nuts have caused a huge crack, which is spreading all over the school! Can the teachers work together to find the squirrel and its stash of acorns before it’s too late?

    Featuring hilarious illustrations, heartwarming text, speech bubbles, and a diverse cast of characters, this picture book is perfect for Abbott Elementary fans of all ages -- and anyone who likes to laugh!

  • When Devils Sing: Deluxe Edition

    Xan Kaur

    $21.99

    This deluxe edition is printed with stenciled edges!

    In this Southern gothic horror novel, four unlikely allies in a small town investigate a local teen's disappearance, and what they discover festering at the core of their community is far more sinister and ancient than they could’ve ever imagined. For fans of She is a Haunting, True Detective, Mexican Gothic, and Midsommar.

    When Dawson Sumter goes missing, all he leaves behind is a smattering of blood in room 4 of the debt-ridden motel owned by Neera Singh's family. Disappearances like this aren't uncommon in the rural Georgia town of Carrion, especially every thirteen years when a periodical cicada brood returns from underground, shrieking their deafening screams.

    For Neera, Dawson is another reminder that in this corner of the South, the rich only get richer, and the poor―well, nothing good comes their way.

    Neera sets out to investigate Dawson’s whereabouts―if he even still lives―along with three other teens: Isaiah, son of a prominent judge and clandestine true crime podcaster; Reid, son of the wealthiest man in the region; and Sam, estranged daughter of the local hitman. As they find themselves entangled in a messy web of secrets and lies, they discover the riches of the adjacent Lake Clearwater community may have a terrifying source of power dating back to the town’s founding and an ancient urban legend about three devils, each more sinister than the next. How deep does the rot go, and can they find a way to escape its reach?

  • Here Forever

    Zee Reneè

    $22.00

    Here, in, at, or to this place or position.

    Truce Wright is soft when it comes to who he loves, and ruthless when it comes to everything else. The kind of man who’ll build Sanai a safe space with one hand and tear the world down with the other. He isn’t a man that folds, not even when the past comes knocking like it still has a key.

    Forever, for all future time; for always.

    Sanai Lee is learning how to breathe in love again. She’s no longer asking to be saved, she’s choosing to stay open, even when it hurts. With enemies watching and old wounds reopening, she’s learning that peace doesn’t come without a fight.

    Lust brought them here. Love built the foundation. Now, they must decide which will stand the test of time, the challenges of life, the test of loyalty, or the power of love?

  • Folk Horror Short Stories (Beyond and Within)

    Paul Kane

    $26.99

    From the award-winning anthologists, a beautiful new book of short stories, designed as a perfect gift for readers of the supernatural, and a lifetime of reading pleasure.

    A new anthology of Folk Horror stories, covering a wide range of mythologies and dark corners from around the world, revealing tales from the shadows of isolation, creepy forests and horrors rising from the land itself. Award-winning anthologists Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan have commissioned and chosen an outstanding selection of stories with contributions from authors including Neil Gaiman, John Connolly, Adam L.G. Nevill, Alison Littlewood and Jen Williams. Five brand new stories have also been selected from open submissions.

    The full list of featured authors in this book is: Linda D. Addison, V. Castro, John Connolly, Neil Gaiman, Helen Grant, Kathryn Healy, H.R. Laurence, Alison Littlewood, Lee Murray, Adam L.G. Nevill, Cavan Scott, Christina Sng, Benjamin Spada, Stephen Volk, Jen Williams, Katie Young and B. Zelkovich.

    The Flame Tree Beyond and Within short story collections bring together tales of myth and imagination by modern and contemporary writers, carefully selected by anthologists, and sometimes featuring short stories from a single author. Overall, the series presents a wide range of diverse and inclusive voices with myth, folkloric-inflected short fiction, and an emphasis on the supernatural, science fiction, the mysterious and the speculative. The books themselves are gorgeous, with foiled covers, printed edges and published only in hardcover editions, offering a lifetime of reading pleasure.

  • Nubia & the Amazons

    Stephanie Williams

    Sold out

    Nubia, Queen of Themyscira! But what challenges await our new queen?

    Named one of ALA GNCRT's 2022 Best Graphic Novels for Adults!

    After the thrilling events of Infinite Frontier, Nubia becomes queen of Themyscira, but the new title also brings challenges. With the unexpected arrival of new Amazons, our hero is forced to reckon with her past and forge a new path forward for her sisters. Little does she know, a great evil grows beneath the island and it’s up to this former guardian of Doom’s Doorway to unite her tribe before paradise is lost forever!

    This thrilling collection includes tales from Infinite Frontier #0 and Nubia & the Amazons #1-6!

  • Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (A Vera Wong Novel)

    Jesse Q. Sutanto

    $19.00

    A USA Today bestseller
    Edgar Award Winner for Best Original Paperback
    Audie Award Winner for Mystery
    Libby Award Winner for Best Mystery

    A lonely shopkeeper takes it upon herself to solve a murder in the most peculiar way in this captivating mystery by Jesse Q. Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties.

    Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady—ah, lady of a certain age—who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to.

    Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing—a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer.

    What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?

  • The Fantasies of Future Things: A Novel

    Doug Jones

    $27.99

    In this powerful debut reminiscent of Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight, two men in Atlanta reconcile their human dignity against the price of their professional ambitions working for a real estate development company displacing Black residents in preparation for the 1996 Olympics.

    Daily interactions between Jacob and Daniel are a powder keg of sexual tension and uncertainty. A recent Morehouse graduate and Brooklyn transplant, Jacob fears that accepting the truth of his sexuality will disappoint the hopes his parents have for him to lead a respectable life. Grieving the death of his mother while searching for answers about a father he has never known, Daniel, an Atlanta native, has resigned himself to the reality that men who love men don’t have happy endings.

    When Jacob meets Sherman, a social worker fighting for one of the families being displaced by the project, he must decide if rejecting security is worth the risk of embracing the unknown. In the midst of navigating his grief, and volatile relationship with Jacob, Daniel learns of his father’s identity. Though meeting his father could provide Daniel with the closure he has always sought, the distance between what Daniel wants and what he’s willing to do for it remains a question only he can answer.

  • I Think They Love You: A Novel

    Julian Winters

    $18.00

    With his funny, big-hearted adult rom com debut, bestselling, award-winning YA author Julian Winters shows sometimes fake dating your ex can turn into a second chance.

    When Denzel “Denz” Carter’s workaholic father and CEO of 24 Carter Gold unexpectedly announces his retirement, the competition is on for who will become his successor. To convince his family members that he’s capable of commitment, Denz impulsively lies about being in a serious relationship.

    Now Denz needs to find a fake boyfriend to seal the deal on the CEO position. Denz is forced to turn to the last person he wants to be in a pretend (or any) relationship with: Braylon, the man who broke his heart.

    Braylon’s sudden reappearance in Denz’s life turns everything upside down. But, apparently, he needs Denz’s connections to the mayor to win his own promotion. So, they strike a deal. It’s all business until the funny texts and the confusing kisses leave Denz struggling to separate this temporary arrangement from the affairs of his heart.

    I Think They Love You is a celebration of love, queer communities, big families―in all their beautiful complications― healing, and, most importantly, falling in love with the person you’re becoming.

  • Notes of a Native Son (Beacon Classics)

    James Baldwin & Edward P. Jones

    $24.00

    A deluxe hardcover edition of one of James Baldwin’s most admired works, exploring what it means to be Black in America and his own search for identity

    Part of the Beacon Classics series

    Originally published in 1955, James Baldwin's timeless and moving essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad inaugurated him as one of the leading interpreters of the dramatic social changes erupting in the United States in the 20th century. Through a mix of autobiographical and analytical essays, Baldwin delivers honest and raw revelations about what it means to be Black in America, specifically pre-Civil Rights Movement, and how, he himself, came to understand the nation.

    Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin examines everything from the significance of the protest novel to the motives and circumstances of the many Black expatriates of the time, from his home in “The Harlem Ghetto” to a sobering “Journey to Atlanta.” He was one of the few writing on race at the time who addressed the issue with a powerful mixture of outrage at the gross physical and political violence against Black citizens and measured understanding of their oppressors, which helped awaken a white audience to the injustices under their noses.

    For fans of Baldwin's well-known works or those new to Baldwin altogether, this celebrated essay collection showcases his extraordinary writing, revolutionary analyses, and prophetic insight into American culture and politics.

  • Ms. V's Hot Girl Summer: A Spicy Black Age-Gap Romance

    A.H. Cunningham

    $12.99

    Trinidad Velasquez plays by the rules. Now she has one chance—one sizzlin’ Carnival weekend—to leave it all behind.

    Go on, get spicy…

    For the last sixteen years, Trinidad Velasquez has done everything right. Raised her twin sons on her own, worked her butt off and created a stable life. But Trinidad is done waiting for a happy ending to show up at her door, and when her current boyfriend proposes, she can’t help but wonder if, at her age, love should be practical, not butterflies and heart-racing chemistry.

    But then her teenage sons trick her into a Caribbean Carnival vacation. And she finds herself staying with the one guy who’s always revved her engine…even if he’s a decade south of her dating range.

    Orlando Wiggins has never been able to take his eyes off Ms. V. He’s mentored her boys for two years, and she’s never suggested there could be more. But at Carnival, between the sensual dancing, heated looks and electric touches, whatever he’s been feeling for her is definitely reciprocated.

    Now Trinidad is having the time of her life. Every cell in her body is charged, alive. But will this new version of who she’s become stick around for the return to real life?

    From showing up to glowing up, the characters in Afterglow Books are on the path to leading their best lives and finding sizzling romance along the way. Don’t miss any of these other fun titles…

    Out of Office by A.H. Cunningham

    The Summer of Perfect Mistakes by Cynthia St. Aubin

    Church Girl by Naima Simone

  • Homemade Love: A Short Story Collection

    by J. California Cooper

    $19.00

    In one of the best-loved volumes of her work, J. California Cooper tells exuberant tales full of wonder at the mystery of life and the hardness of fate. Awed, bedeviled, bemused, all of Cooper's characters are borne up by the sheer power of life itself.

  • Zora Neale Hurston: Novels & Stories

    by Zora Neale Hurston

    $40.00
    This Library of America volume, with its companion, brings together for the first time all of Zora Neale Hurston’s best writing in one authoritative set. When she died in poverty and obscurity in 1960, all of her books were out of print. Today Hurston’s groundbreaking works, suffused with the culture and traditions of African Americans and the poetry of black speech, have won her recognition as one of the most significant modern American writers.

    Hurston’s fiction is free-flowing and frequently experimental, exuberant in its storytelling and open to unpredictable and fascinating digressions. Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934), based on the lives of her parents and evoking in rich detail the world of her childhood, recounts the rise and fall of a powerful preacher torn between spirit and flesh in an all-black town in Florida.

    “There is no book more important to me than this one,” novelist Alice Walker has written about Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Hurston’s lyrical masterpiece about a woman’s determined struggle for love and independence. In this, her most acclaimed work, she employs a striking range of tones and voices to give the story of Janie and Tea Cake the poetic intensity of a myth.

    In Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939), her high-spirited and utterly personal retelling of the Exodus story, Hurston again demonstrates her ability to use the black vernacular as the basis for a supple and compelling prose style.

    Seraph on the Suwanee (1948), Hurston’s last major work, is set in turn-of-the-century Florida and portrays the passionate clash between a poor southern “cracker” and her willful husband.
    A selection of short stories (among them “Spunk,” “The Bone of Contention,” and “Story in Harlem Slang”) further displays Hurston’s unique fusion of folk traditions and literary modernism—comic, ironic, and soaringly poetic.

    The chronology of Hurston’s life prepared for this edition sheds fresh light on many aspects of her career. In addition, this volume contains detailed notes and a brief essay on the texts.

    LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
  • Butter Honey Pig Bread

    by Francesca Ekwuyasi

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    An intergenerational saga about three Nigerian women: a novel about food, family, and forgiveness.

    Finalist, Lambda Literary Award, Governor General's Literary Award, and Amazon Canada First Novel Award; Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize

    Spanning three continents, Butter Honey Pig Bread tells the interconnected stories of three Nigerian women: Kambirinachi and her twin daughters, Kehinde and Taiye. Kambirinachi believes that she is an Ogbanje, or an Abiku, a non-human spirit that plagues a family with misfortune by being born and then dying in childhood to cause a human mother misery. She has made the unnatural choice of staying alive to love her human family but lives in fear of the consequences of her decision.

    Kambirinachi and her two daughters become estranged from one another because of a trauma that Kehinde experiences in childhood, which leads her to move away and cut off all contact. She ultimately finds her path as an artist and seeks to raise a family of her own, despite her fear that she won’t be a good mother. Meanwhile, Taiye is plagued by guilt for what her sister suffered and also runs away, attempting to fill the void of that lost relationship with casual flings with women. She eventually discovers a way out of her stifling loneliness through a passion for food and cooking.

    But now, after more than a decade of living apart, Taiye and Kehinde have returned home to Lagos. It is here that the three women must face each other and address the wounds of the past if they are to reconcile and move forward.

    For readers of African diasporic authors such as Teju Cole and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Butter Honey Pig Bread is a story of choices and their consequences, of motherhood, of the malleable line between the spirit and the mind, of finding new homes and mending old ones, of voracious appetites, of queer love, of friendship, faith, and above all, family.
  • Love in Color

    by Bolu Babalola

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    *This item will ship or be ready for pick up in 7-10 business days

    A vibrant collection of love stories from a debut author, retelling myths, folktales, and histories from around the world.

    A high-born Nigerian goddess, who has been beaten down and unappreciated by her gregarious lover, longs to be truly seen.

    A young businesswoman attempts a great leap in her company, and an even greater one in her love life.

    A powerful Ghanaian spokeswoman is forced to decide whether she should uphold her family’s politics or be true to her heart.

    In her debut collection, internationally acclaimed writer Bolu Babalola retells the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology with incredible new detail and vivacity. Focusing on the magical folktales of West Africa, Babalola also reimagines Greek myths, ancient legends from the Middle East, and stories from long-erased places.

    With an eye towards decolonizing tropes inherent in our favorite tales of love, Babalola has created captivating stories that traverse across perspectives, continents, and genres.

    Love in Color is a celebration of romance in all its many splendid forms.

  • The Ecstatic

    by Victor LaValle

    $15.95

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

    Anthony James weighs 315 pounds, is possibly schizophrenic, and he’s just been kicked out of college. He’s rescued by his mother, sister, and grandmother, but they may not be altogether sane themselves. Living in the basement of their home in Queens, New York, Anthony is armed with nothing but wicked sarcasm and a few well-cut suits. He intends to make horror movies but takes the jobs he can handle, cleaning homes and factories, and keeps crossing paths with a Japanese political prisoner, a mysterious loan shark named Ishkabibble, and packs of feral dogs. When his invincible 13-year old sister enters yet another beauty pageant—this one for virgins—the combustible Jameses pile into their car and head South for the competition.

    Will Anthony’s family stick together or explode? With electrifying prose, LaValle ushers us into four troubled but very funny lives.

  • Where We End & Begin by Jane Igharo
    $17.00

    *ships in 7-10 business days

    Star-crossed lovers get a second chance at romance when they’re reunited at a wedding in Nigeria, in a heartfelt novel from the acclaimed author of The Sweetest Remedy.

    Dunni hasn’t seen her high school boyfriend, Obinna, since she left Nigeria to attend college in America. Before their devastating separation, they vowed to find their way back to each other one day.
     
    Twelve years later, and their vow is a thing of the past. Dunni works as a geneticist in Seattle and is engaged to a man she doesn’t love but one her parents approve of. Her future is laid out for her, and everything is going according to plan until she returns to Nigeria for a friend’s wedding and runs into Obinna. The shy, awkward boy she loved as a teenager is now a sophisticated, confident man. Things have changed, but there’s still an undeniable connection between them.
     
    As they rediscover each other, their days filled with desire and passion, Dunni is reminded of the beautiful future she once planned with Obinna. But when devastating secrets are revealed and the reckless actions of their past bring new challenges, she’s left questioning everything, including if the love that consumed her as a teenager is still worth holding on to.

  • The Accidental Pinup

    by Danielle Jackson

    $17.00

    Rival Chicago photographers are forced to collaborate on a body-positive lingerie campaign, but they might have to readjust their focus when sparks fly.

    Photographer Cassie Harris loves her job—her company Buxom Boudoir makes people look beautiful and feel empowered with her modern twist on classic pinup photography. Cassie’s best friend, Dana, is about to launch her own dangerously dreamy lingerie line and wants Cassie to shoot and direct the career-changing national campaign. But company politics and Dana’s complicated pregnancy interfere, and Cassie finds herself—a proud plus size Black woman—not behind the camera but in front of it.

    Though she’s never modeled herself, Cassie’s pretty sure she can handle the sheer underwear and caution tape bralettes. She’s not sure she can work so intimately with the chosen photographer, her long-time competitor in the Chicago photography scene, Reid Montgomery. Their chemistry is undeniable on set, however, and feelings can develop faster than film…

  • The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer

    by Janelle Monáe

    from $18.99

    *Ships in 7-10 business days*

    In The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, singer-songwriter, actor, fashion icon, activist, and worldwide superstar Janelle Monáe brings to the written page the Afrofuturistic world of one of her critically acclaimed albums, exploring how different threads of liberation—queerness, race, gender plurality, and love—become tangled with future possibilities of memory and time in such a totalitarian landscape…and what the costs might be when trying to unravel and weave them into freedoms.

    Whoever controls our memories controls the future.

    Janelle Monáe and an incredible array of talented collaborating creators have written a collection of tales comprising the bold vision and powerful themes that have made Monáe such a compelling and celebrated storyteller. Dirty Computer introduced a world in which thoughts—as a means of self-conception—could be controlled or erased by a select few. And whether human, A.I., or other, your life and sentience was dictated by those who’d convinced themselves they had the right to decide your fate.

    That was until Jane 57821 decided to remember and break free.

    Expanding from that mythos, these stories fully explore what it’s like to live in such a totalitarian existence…and what it takes to get out of it. Building off the traditions of speculative writers such as Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor—and filled with the artistic genius and powerful themes that have made Monáe a worldwide icon in the first place—The Memory Librarian serves readers tales grounded in the human trials of identity expression, technology, and love, but also reaching through to the worlds of memory and time within, and the stakes and power that exists there.

  • The Book of Harlan by Bernice L. McFadden
    from $18.95

    The Book of Harlan opens with the courtship of Harlan's parents and his 1917 birth in Macon, Georgia. After his prominent minister grandfather dies, Harlan and his parents move to Harlem, where he eventually becomes a professional musician. When Harlan and his best friend, trumpeter Lizard Robbins, are invited to perform at a popular cabaret in the Parisian enclave of Montmartre--affectionately referred to as "The Harlem of Paris" by black American musicians--Harlan jumps at the opportunity, convincing Lizard to join him.

    But after the City of Light falls under Nazi occupation, Harlan and Lizard are thrown into Buchenwald--the notorious concentration camp in Weimar, Germany--irreparably changing the course of Harlan's life. Based on exhaustive research and told in McFadden's mesmeric prose, The Book of Harlan skillfully blends the stories of McFadden's familial ancestors with those of real and imagined characters.

  • The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann
    $16.00

    Thirty, flirty, and asexual Joy is secretly in love with her best friend Malcolm, but she’s never been brave enough to say so. When he unexpectedly announces that he's met the love of his life—and no, it's not Joy—she's heartbroken. Malcolm invites her on a weekend getaway, and Joy decides it’s her last chance to show him exactly what he’s overlooking. But maybe Joy is the one missing something…or someone…and his name is Fox.

     
    Fox sees a kindred spirit in Joy—and decides to help her. He proposes they pretend to fall for each other on the weekend trip to make Malcolm jealous. But spending time with Fox shows Joy what it’s like to not be the third wheel, and there’s no mistaking the way he makes her feel. Could Fox be the romantic partner she’s always deserved?

  • Children of the Night

    edited by Gloria Naylor

    $24.99
    *Ships in 7-10 Business Days*
    The sequel to Langston Hughes's 1967 classic anthology The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, Gloria Naylor's Children of the Night is a "brilliant collection" of short stories by black writers including Maya Angelou, Ralph Ellison, and Edward P. Jones (Booklist).

    In 1969, Langston Hughes edited The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, the classic compendium of African-American short fiction from 1899 to 1967. A quarter of a century later, Gloria Naylor compiled an encore volume, Children of the Night, gathering together the most gifted black writers of the later twentieth century -- from 1967 to its publication in 1997 -- in a rich and varied collection of stories.

    The portrait that emerges of the African-American experience in the post-Civil Rights era is stirring, compelling, sometimes disturbing, and certainly provocative. Arranged in in four thematic section -- "Remembering," "Affirming," "Revealing the Self Divided," and "Moving On" -- the thirty-seven stories included brilliantly capture the many facets of the black experience in America.
  • Here Comes the Sun

    by Nicole Dennis-Benn

    $15.95

    Capturing the distinct rhythms of Jamaican life and dialect, Nicole Dennis- Benn pens a tender hymn to a world hidden among pristine beaches and the wide expanse of turquoise seas. At an opulent resort in Montego Bay, Margot hustles to send her younger sister, Thandi, to school. Taught as a girl to trade her sexuality for survival, Margot is ruthlessly determined to shield Thandi from the same fate. When plans for a new hotel threaten their village, Margot sees not only an opportunity for her own financial independence but also perhaps a chance to admit a shocking secret: her forbidden love for another woman. As they face the impending destruction of their community, each woman—fighting to balance the burdens she shoulders with the freedom she craves—must confront long-hidden scars. From a much-heralded new writer, Here Comes the Sun offers a dramatic glimpse into a vibrant, passionate world most outsiders see simply as paradise.

  • Cane

    Jean Toomer

    $15.00

    Jean Toomer’s Cane is one of the most significant works to come out of the Harlem Renaissance, and is considered to be a masterpiece in American modernist literature because of its distinct structure and style.

    First published in 1923 and told through a series of vignettes, Cane uses poetry, prose, and play-like dialogue to create a window into the varied lives of African Americans living in the rural South and urban North during a time when Jim Crow laws pervaded and racism reigned. While critically acclaimed and known today as a pioneering text of the Harlem Renaissance, the book did not gain as much popularity as other works written during the period. Fellow Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes believed Cane’s lack of a wider readership was because it didn’t reinforce the stereotypes often associated with African Americans during the time, but portrayed them in an accurate and entirely human way, breaking the mold and laying the groundwork for how African Americans are depicted in literature.

    For the first time in Penguin Classics, this edition of Cane features a new introduction, suggestions for further reading, and notes by scholar George Hutchinson, and National Book Award Foundation 5 Under 35 novelist Zinzi Clemmons contributes a foreword.

  • How Beautiful We Were

    by Imbolo Mbue

    from $18.00

    *Ships in 7-10 Business Days*

    So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made—and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interest. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle will last for decades and come at a steep price.

  • The Secret Crush Book Club: A Spicy Small Town Black Sapphic Rom Com (Peach Blossom, 3)
    Sold out

    A dedicated single mother and a librarian with a secret write their own sweet and sexy love story in this small-town rom-com about family, friendships and embracing the next chapter.

    “[Such] HAWT sex scenes.… Every touch, kiss, caress, feels incredibly real and deliciously sexy.”—Autostraddle on The 7-10 Split

    Nothing cures a lonely heart quite like a good book

    and an unexpected crush…

    For Dani, life is a juggling act. As a single mom devoted to her son and family, she barely has a moment to herself. But when her sister announces she’s moving out of the house, the ache of loneliness creeps in, and Dani can’t help but wonder if there’s something else she’s been missing in her life…

    Zoey came to Peach Blossom eager to start her new job as the town’s librarian and do a little research for her next book. Yet she never expected to find inspiration in fellow book club member Dani, whose captivating brown eyes tell a story of their own. Before they know it, lingering glances over their favorite fiction turn into first dates and sizzling nights.

    As their connection deepens, the two women must decide if they should turn the page on what their lives used to look like or if this thrilling plot twist is the happily-ever-after they’ve been chasing all along.

    From showing up to glowing up, the characters in Afterglow Books are on the path to leading their best lives and finding sizzling romance along the way. Don’t miss any of these other fun titles…

    Peach Blossom

    Book 1: The 7-10 Split
    Book 2: The Relationship Mechanic
    Book 3: The Secret Crush Book Club

  • Sunny Disposition
    $19.99

    Naomi
    I can't understand why – out of the four hockey players I'm sharing a house with this semester – Finn Howard's the one who catches my eye.

    The guy never smiles. He doesn't say much and disapproves plenty.

    But, something about him feels familiar. Something about him feels safe.

    I'm not falling for Finn, I'm just curious. Could I make him smile? It wouldn't hurt to try. I love a good challenge. And who knows, maybe it'll distract me from pining over a guy I meet online.

    Finn
    I don't get nervous unless I'm on the ice. So why does my chest feel tight whenever Naomi Lewis looks in my direction?

    She's witty, kind, and happy. How is someone that happy all the time?

    If her sunny disposition isn't enough to distract me, the fact that her voice sounds exactly like the streamer I anonymously moderate for will.

    If Naomi is her, she's in for a huge disappointment. I'm not the guy she thinks I am...not anymore, at least. And for that reason alone, I should stay away from her. I should stop trying to get closer. I should stop wanting her because she fell for someone else. Someone I will never be again.

    __

    Sunny Disposition is a slow burn, hidden identity romance featuring a grumpy, amnesic hockey player and sunshine cozy game streamer.

  • Black Girl, Bloom Bright (Black, Brown, and Beautiful)
    $18.99

    Dear Black Girl
    You teach the world
    The power of creativity
    Just by being yourself

    Celebrate the creativity, bravery, dreams, and laughter of Black girls with this purposeful, powerful text from poet and author Mahogany L. Browne. With lush, bright illustrations from artist Sawyer Cloud, this picture book is perfect for honoring big milestones and finding joy in everyday moments―a heartwarming and jubilant love letter to Black girls everywhere.

  • To Steal a Throne
    Sold out

    In this YA fantasy novel perfect for fans of Heartless Hunter, a girl who has always served others decides to take power for herself.

    Her magic feeds on lies.
    His magic could destroy her.

    Mira Kyler runs the court of Virdei from the shadows. Ever since she helped her half-brother Luc cheat his way into the role of Virdei's leader, she's used her lie-powered magic to collect secrets from members of court, then used them as blackmail to keep her brother in power.

    But when newcomer Kaidren Vale shows up and challenges Luc's leadership, he threatens the stability Mira has worked so hard for. Kaidren also has magic-magic that can detect the precise nature of someone else's power with a single touch. If Kaidren so much as brushes against her, everyone will discover that Mira is the one who's been manipulating the court for years.

    As Kaidren and Luc compete in three deadly challenges called The Trials, Mira realizes that no matter who wins, she'll be stuck serving a mediocre man who doesn't deserve to be in charge. She's done hiding in the shadows. She wants power of her own.

    To get it, she'll have to betray both her own brother and Kaidren-but the fiercer the competition gets, the more Mira realizes that the one boy who could destroy everything is the one boy she might not be able to resist.

  • Black American Short Stories (American Century Series)
    $22.00

    The success of John Henrik Clarke's American Negro Short Stories, first published in 1966, affirmed the vitality and importance of black fiction. Now this expanded edition of that best-selling book, with a new title, offers the reader thirty-one stories included in the original―from Charles W. Chesnutt and Paul Laurence Dunbar in the late nineteenth century to the rich and productive work of the Harlem Renaissance: writers like Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright; the World War II accomplishments of Chester Himes, Frank Yerby, and many others; and the later fiction of James Baldwin, Paule Marshall, and LeRoi Jones (Imamu Amiri Baraka). Seven additional contributions round out a century of great stories with the work of Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Eugenia Collier, Jennifer Jordan, James Allan McPherson, Rosemarie Robotham, and Alice Walker. Dr. Clarke has included a new introduction to this 1993 edition, and a short biography of each contributor.

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