Fiction

Availability

Price

$
$

More filters

  • Would I Lie to You?: A Novel
    $19.99
    Would I Lie to You is a thrilling spy next door story that may have you cheering for all the wrong people, perfect for fans of Finley Donovan and Killers of a Certain Age.

    What if a covert, high-stakes cat burglar is given one last job before she can retire, but the gig steal the classified code to an innovative genetic editing tool her unaware husband is developing? 

    Ask anyone about Lucille “Lu” Barlow and they’ll tell you that she’s a loving wife and mom, fire-body Pilates studio owner, and kind neighbor. But none of them know the true Lu. Because Lu is a liar and a thief—albeit reluctantly lately. She’s been part of a dangerous, deeply covert crime syndicate for the last 30 years, with a string of incredible, international heists under her belt and a shoebox full of fake passports, weapons, cash stacks, and skeletons.

    But when her unsuspecting husband, Harry, accepts a lucrative job at the nation’s leading biotech company, it means moving the family from her familiar Brooklyn base to the well-heeled New England town of Partridge Hollow. Lu sees it as her shot to finally retire from crime life, something she’s wanted since her son’s birth eight years ago. But Partridge Hollow isn’t what it seems either. Lu quickly discovers that her new Stepford-esque neighbors each have their own secrets hidden inside their mansions, into which she occasionally creeps.

    She also uncovers the most scandalous truth of that this move for her husband's career was orchestrated by her illicit employer. Worse, she’s tasked with stealing the highly classified code for an innovative gene editing tool that Harry is developing.

    Fans of Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, Counterfeit, and Killers of a Certain Age will devour this book!
  • When I Was Death
    $19.99

    A group of girls does Death incarnate's bidding in this haunting speculative young adult novel by the author of The Year of the Witching.

    Roslyn isn’t herself anymore. It’s been a year since her sister, Adeline, died under mysterious circumstances, and Roslyn is still tormented by her absence. So when the elusive caravan of girls that Adeline spent her last summer with rolls back into town, Roslyn joins them to finally figure out what happened to her sister.

    Strange, beautiful, and intriguing, the girls are closed off from the world. And as it turns out, they’re brought together by a force more sinister than Roslyn’s nightmares could’ve conjured up: Death himself.

    Death has spared the girls from untimely endings, and to pay for their lives, the girls travel the country reaping souls on his behalf. Now Roslyn must decide if finding closure is worth the price of striking the same deal.

  • The Starter Ex
    $19.00

    From the USA Today bestselling author of When Javi Dumped Mari comes a hilarious twist on How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days.

    Vanessa Cordero used to run a profitable side gig: For a reasonable fee, she’d date your crush...and make his life miserable. Too clingy? Check. Jealous? Check. A parent's worst nightmare? Triple check. By the time Vanessa was done with him, your guy was practically begging for you.

    Enter Jason Torres, a certified commitment-phobe who doesn't plan on getting married anytime soon, much to his mother’s dismay. What he needs is a temporary girlfriend. A totally inappropriate girlfriend. Someone his mother will hate, so she'll finally abandon her dreams of getting him to the altar.

    Vanessa's younger sister, Lisa, has her eye on Jason, and convinces Vanessa to come out of retirement for one last starter ex engagement. The rules are simple: no touching, no fooling around, and definitely no falling in love. But nothing's going according to plan. Because Vanessa can't ditch Jason no matter how hard she tries to scare him away. And the longer they're around each other, the more neither of them wants to be apart.

  • The Bush Tea Murder (A Caribbean Island Mystery)
    Sold out

    Culinary journalist Naomi Sinclair is cooking up a maelstrom of trouble upon her return to the blue waters of her native Saint Thomas.

    A new cozy mystery set in the US Virgin Islands, this charming amateur sleuth will enrapture readers of Joanne Fluke and Carrie Doyle.

    Food journalist Naomi Sinclair doesn’t expect a side of murder with her passion fruit juice. But when her return to Saint Thomas heralds a series of troubling cases, ranging from petty theft to cold-blooded murder, that threaten her tight-knit community, that is exactly the kind of unsavory treat she must sink her teeth into.

    Luckily for her neighbors, Naomi is as deft at solving puzzles as rolling johnnycake dough—a good thing, since her island community, though small, keeps serving up plenty of trouble. With the help of her friends and her crush, Mateo, Naomi must navigate the tumultuous turquoise waters of life in the Caribbean, all as her beloved father battles an illness that keeps tugging her back to her island amid her rising career stateside.

    Rich with mouthwatering recipes, lush landscapes, and a hefty dose of fun under the sun, The Bush Tea Murder has all the ingredients to make up the perfect beach read.

  • Love That Baby Hair!
    $17.99

    Nothing like that baby hair, baby waby baby hair! A joyful celebration of newborns and toddlers, highlighting the beauty of their precious curls and coils.

    An inclusive and rhythmic celebration of babies and their ever-evolving hair, perfect for 3 to 7 year olds still rocking their baby hair.

    From no hair to 'fro hair and just-got-my-first-haircut-hair, delight in playful descriptions of diverse baby hair styles seen on newborns to toddlers. Love That Baby Hair! encourages young ones in the earliest stages of life to embrace the characteristics that make us special and unique.

    A perfect read-aloud picture book for young readers to learn about positive self-image and self-confidence.

  • I Am Smart, I Am Blessed, I Can Do Anything!
    $8.99

    The story of how one boy's positive energy and sunny outlook can turn everything around.

    Now available in board book!

    It's a new day and Ayaan has woken up on the wrong side of the bed, where nothing feels quite right. What if he doesn't know the answer at school? What if he messes up? But as he sets out that morning, all it takes are a few pointers from his mom and some friends in the neighborhood to remind him that a new day is a good day, because...
    HE IS SMART,
    HE IS BLESSED,
    AND HE CAN DO ANYTHING!

  • Chaotic Energy: The hilarious, heartfelt, must-read romantic comedy
    $18.99

    Watch out world, Artemis Owusu is entering her villain era...
    Artemis 'Temz' Owusu has bags of confidence, and plenty of opportunity for hook-ups; she fiercely embraces her beautiful size 26 body and expects any man to do the same. Her marketing career is on fire, and she has a thriving side-hustle as a 'plantfluencer'.

    But for some reason, her romantic relationships just won't stick.

    So, when sexy California-based tech entrepreneur Ruben slides into her DMs looking for plant care advice, Temz doesn't waste an opportunity. Soon their long-distance digital flirtation is growing roots - until, in an out-of-character bout of self-doubt, Temz commits the cardinal online sin...

    Suddenly she's embroiled in a web of deception as her relationship with Ruben gets increasingly serious. When her job lands her the opportunity to visit her man's stomping ground in Oakland, could it be a chance for her to finally come clean - or it could lead to total chaos?
    For fans of Bolu Babalola, Bethany Rutter and Candice Carty-Williams, CHAOTIC ENERGY is a romcom with a difference.

  • Late Match
    $13.99

    Fifteen years ago, the Match decided their futures.

    It didn’t prepare them for this.

    MacKenzie was never supposed to see Evan again. Not after their relationship fell apart during internship year—when matching to different cities shattered their plans and their engagement. She’s built a new life since then. She's raising her son, minding her business, and staying far away from the mess of her past.

    But when her son enrolls at an elite swim academy, MacKenzie walks straight into a reunion she never asked for.
    Evan. Her ex. Older. Finer. Still the one man who makes her forget how to breathe.

    Evan has questions. About why things ended the way they did. About why seeing MacKenzie again makes it so hard to focus on anything else. About whether fifteen years is too long to fix something that never should’ve broken.

    The chemistry between them? Unresolved.

    The baggage? Unpacked and sitting poolside.

    The meddling exes? Working overtime.

    They never got closure. Now, they might get something hotter.

  • Charmed and Dangerous
    $12.99

    “An absolutely delightful romp that you need in your life.” —C. B. Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe

    A teen mystic will do anything to solve a series of love-related magical mishaps plaguing her high school, including fake dating her boss's daughter, in this charming sapphic romance.

    Magic lingers in the cozy town of Fair Glen, Illinois, and it’s up to the agents at the Bureau of Mystical Affairs to keep it in check. Monroe Bennett, a junior recruit at the Bureau, is ready to ace her first assignment: tracking down the source of a rogue love charm.

    Protecting her charmed classmates, including the Bureau Director’s daughter Iris James, is top priority. But when Iris asks Monroe to fake date her to make her ex jealous, things get complicated.

    Monroe believes in duty, not romance. Yet the more time she spends with Iris, the harder it is to ignore the very real sparks flying between them. Can Monroe protect herself from love long enough to solve this case, or will her growing feelings get in the way?

  • Call of the Dragon
    $19.99

    In the first book of a new series inspired by African mythology, dragon gods rule the earth and sky—until the gods are betrayed, and one girl embarks on a journey to save the world from war and ruin. From the New York Times bestselling author of Skin of the Sea.

    The people are calling . . .
    And the gods will answer.

    Moremi has only ever known peace in the Kingdom of Kwa, thanks to the two dragon gods keeping an unspeakable evil at bay. But when the king tries to claim the gods’ power for himself, it all goes dreadfully wrong. The great dragons are injured and flee . . . and the world’s darkest shadows are released.

    Suddenly, Kwa’s ancient tales of monsters become all too real. Yet as death comes for those around her, Moremi somehow finds herself magically connected to both dragon gods—a feat that should be impossible.

    Now, Moremi is Kwa’s only hope for restoring the gods to full strength. But will Jagun, the mysterious prince, let her anywhere near the dragons? And how does her childhood friend, Nox, feel about it all? It may not matter in the end, because if Moremi fails her quest, then she risks the earth caving in and the sky crumbling down.

  • The Purrfect Show (Home for Meow #1)
    $5.99

    All the "awwws" of animal adoption stories are combined with sugary sweetness is this new, fun-filled chapter book series about a cat café!

    Every home needs a cat!

    Kira Parker lives above The Purrfect Cup, the cat café that her family owns and runs. Every day is a new adventure with her cat friends! Except lately, The King County Dog Show seems to be the only thing the regulars can talk about!

    Kira doesn’t get why everyone is so excited. After all, her cat friends are much smarter and more talented than those dogs. Then Kira has a GREAT IDEA -- she’s going to train the cats, and enter them in the competition. It’s sure to be her best plan yet!

  • Fire Sword and Sea: A Novel
    $30.00

    "In her latest, Riley provides a fresh take on high seas adventure through the eyes of the courageous, swashbuckling, based-on-a-real-life female pirate Jacquotte Delahaye. The research Riley has done on this 1600s saga is truly remarkable, second only to her depictions of the lush Caribbean setting and the diverse, multi-faceted cast of characters. This is one to be savored."  —Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Queen

    The real Pirates of the Caribbean were Black, and women! From Vanessa Riley, acclaimed author of Queen of Exiles, comes a sweeping, immersive saga based on the life of the legendary seventeenth-century pirate Jacquotte Delehaye.

    The Caribbean Sea, 1675. Jacquotte Delahaye is the mixed-race daughter of a wealthy tavern owner on the island of Tortuga. Instead of marriage, Jacquotte dreams of joining the seafarers and smugglers whose tall-masted ships cluster in the turquoise waters around Tortuga. She falls in love with a pirate, but when he returns to the sea, Jacquotte decides to make her own way. In Haiti she becomes Jacques, a dockworker, earning the respect of those around her while hiding her gender.

    Jacquotte discovers that secret identities are fairly common in the chaotic world of seafaring, which is full of outsiders and misfits. She forms a deep bond with Bahati, an African-born woman who has escaped slavery and also disguises herself as a man to navigate the world. They join forces with Dirkje De Wulf, a fearless adventurer who also lives as a man at sea. As Jacques, Jacquotte falls in love with Lizzôa d'Erville, a beautiful courtesan who deals in secrets and sex. While others see their work clothes as a disguise, Lizzôa’s true self is as a woman.

    For the next twenty years, Jacquotte raids the Caribbean, making enemies and amassing a fortune in stolen gold. When her fellow pirates decide to increase their profits by entering the slave trade, Jacquotte turns away from piracy and the pursuit of riches. Risking her life in one deadly skirmish after another, she instead begins to plot a war of liberation.

  • A Love Tap
    $16.95

    Bernardo Wade’s A Love Tap—introduced by award-winning poet and essayist Ross Gay—reckons with complexities of racial identity, masculinity, recovery, and spirituality, revealing the narrative and psychic evolution of a poet who has found himself in the language.

    Wade’s evocative debut swaggers through time, through family, through love, through the perseverance of growing up in the deep South as a Black son with a white mom. Illustrating the strangeness and cacophony of his native New Orleans, he divines sweet relief in small mercies—a rosary strung with Mardi Gras beads, a Sunday football game, Nigel Hall covering Frankie Beverly in Lafayette Square, bare feet in a stream, a mother kneading dough. In intimate, nuanced portraits of loved ones, in requiems and broken sestinas, he pushes past his trauma, troubling the years he spent in addiction or resenting his father.

    As he maps out the parts he played in his life’s most formative moments, he can’t help but “retune the heart / strings of hard men,” teaching us how to become more human, often in the face of inhumanity. Here, he manages to land, not a crushing blow, but a love tap—the softest way to knuckle another’s cheek.

  • Come Catch a Dream
    $19.99

    Nothing is impossible—not even being brave enough to ice skate again after a fall! With a poetic text and dazzling illustrations, Come Catch a Dream will appeal to every child chasing their dream, and fans of The Snowy Day, Jabari Jumps, and After the Fall.

    A young Black child passes an ice rink every day walking home with Momma. Last year, the rink was tricky. It looked clear and smooth, but felt rough and rude after a fall. Brrr! Ouch! Even so, the child hasn’t been able to stop thinking about that rink. The young skater is determined to do something for the first time: a spin on the ice. Because, as Momma says, nothing is impossible.

    Award-winning author Brittany J. Thurman’s rich use of language and rhythm makes for a text that is perfect for reading aloud, while illustrator Islenia Mil’s vibrant artwork captures the anticipation and excitement of a winter day at the ice rink. For fans of Gaia Cornwall and Dan Santat.

  • The Sovereign (Magic of the Lost, 3)
    $19.99

    The Sovereign brings princess Luca and soldier Touraine together one last time in the thrilling conclusion to C. L. Clark's beloved queer political fantasy trilogy. 

    Luca is the new queen of Balladaire. Her empire is already splintering in her hands. Her uncle wasn’t the only traitor in the court, and the Withering plague will decimate her people if she can’t unearth Balladaire’s magic. The only person who can help her wants the only thing Luca won’t give—the end of the monarchy. 

    Touraine is Luca’s general. She has everything she ever wanted. While Luca looks within Balladaire’s borders, Touraine looks outward—the alliance with Qazal is brittle and Balladaire’s neighbors are ready to pounce on its new weakness. When the army comes, led by none other than Touraine’s old lover, Touraine must face the truth about herself—and the empire she once called home. 

    A storm is coming. Touraine and Luca will stand against it together, or it will tear them apart once and for all.

    Magic of the Lost
    The Unbroken
    The Faithless
    The Sovereign

  • Ms. Marvel: Stretched Thin (Original Graphic Novel)
    $12.99

    An original middle-grade graphic novel starring breakout character (and New Jersey's own) Ms. Marvel!

    Kamala Khan (a.k.a Ms. Marvel) is stretched too thin-literally. She's having a hard time balancing schoolwork with being a good friend, being there for her family, becoming the best fanfic writer this side of the Hudson River ... and, you know, becoming a Super Hero. She's tired and just barely keeping control, BUT she's handling it. Totally.

    But when a mysterious robot tries to infiltrate Avengers Tower, it'll be up to Ms. Marvel to (again, literally) pull herself together, learn to ask for help, and fix the mess she's made before anyone gets hurt!

  • Mimi and the Boo-Hoo Blahs: A Graphix Chapters Book (Mimi #2)
    Sold out

    Mimi returns for another misadventure in this sweet, funny Graphix Chapters series by Shauna J. Grant.

    Get drawn into reading with Graphix Chapters!

    Graphix Chapters are ideal books for beginning and newly independent readers aged 6-8. With approachable page counts, easy-to-follow paneling, and artwork that supports text comprehension, these engaging stories with unforgettable characters help children become lifelong readers.

    Boo-hoo! Mimi is not having a good day. She can't get her pigtails to sit right, she's not in the mood for her favorite breakfast, and she's far from feeling like her usual self. Mimi has a case of the Blahs, where nothing feels quite right. With the help of Penelope, her magical toy dog and best friend, she sets out to find a way to get rid of this icky feeling. Will Mimi reclaim her spark, or will the Blahs get the best of her?

  • Champagne Taste on a Bad Boy Budget: A Spicy Opposites Attract Romance About Redemption

    Zuri Day

    $15.99

    “Perfectly balancing sweetness and steam.”

    —Publishers Weekly, starred review, on Stuck in the Country with You

    She's a good girl trying to rebuild her restaurant.

    He's a felon trying to rebuild…everything.

    Second chances have never been so sweet.

    For Jamilah Carver, a by-the-books entrepreneur with refined tastes, running her own restaurant has been a dream come true. Until she’s buried in debt and without a chef, her once-bustling eatery on the brink of collapse. Enter Rashad White, a newly released ex-con who happens to be a culinary genius…and likes to play by his own rules.

    With nothing in common but their love for food, the two clash at every turn. But when they’re not bickering over menu items or cooking methods, neither can deny the attraction that simmers between them. After Rashad proposes a daring plan, they’ll have to put their differences aside to work together—that’s when things really start heating up in the kitchen.

    Can two completely different people, from two completely opposite worlds, find the perfect recipe for a fresh start…and maybe even love?

    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…

    Stuck in the Country with You by Zuri Day

    Ms. V's Hot Girl Summer by A.H. Cunningham

    The Grump Whisperer by Katy James

  • Song of Ancient Lovers: A Novel

    Laura Restrepo

    $30.00

    Award-winning Colombian author Laura Restrepo weaves contemporary themes and ancient myth in this story of star-crossed lovers in a world on the brink of collapse.

    Retelling the mythical love story between the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon in the refugee camps of the present day, Song of Ancient Lovers is a sublime ode to love and desire as forces shaping human history, with power that rivals forces of destruction.

    Ethereal in its weaving of the real and the mythical, the contemporary and the ancient, this is the story of Bos Mutas, a young writer traveling from South America to northern Africa in search of traces of his obsession. His research unveils the Queen of Sheba as unyielding and committed to her independence, with remarkable influence both in her time—over Solomon and all the subjects in her expansive kingdom—and on thinkers and artists across the centuries, from Thomas Aquinas to Gérard de Nerval, Frida Kahlo to Patti Smith. He also finds traces of her influence in the magic made of devastating circumstances by women he meets on his journey, especially Zahra Bayda, a Somali midwife who has taken it upon herself to show him around.

    Stunning and evocative, Song of Ancient Lovers is a triumph of imagination and reverence for the spirit that connects us across boundaries of time and geography.

    Translated from the Spanish by Caro De Robertis

  • It's Me They Follow: A Novel

    Jeannine A. Cook

    $25.00

    An allegorical love story — a modern day Alchemist meets The Never Ending Story —set in a world where a book shopkeeper becomes a reluctant matchmaker, bringing soulmates together through books.

    It’s Me They Follow is an allegorical love story set in a not so distant past. It follows The Shopkeeper, a bookseller and reluctant matchmaker. Helping others find love through books comes easily for The Shopkeeper, until it is time for her to find love for herself.

    She secretly yearns for her first customer, ME, who took both her most prized book and a piece of her heart when he left. But just when she begins to lose hope, she discovers that she may hold the key to her own happily ever after as well.

    Real life Shopkeeper and author Jeannine A. Cook has conjured a magical story that is a book within a book within a book. Soon, readers will find themselves falling under the same love spell as her customers and characters. In this magical bookshop where the line between fiction and reality blurs, stories and real life intertwine in an enchanting and moving narrative about human connection, the power of storytelling, and the spirit of love.

  • No Place to Bury the Dead: A Novel

    Karina Sainz Borgo

    $17.99

    “[A] rich and lyrical tale of desperation and redemption . . . Throughout, Sainz Borgo applies stark poetry to the terrifying setting, where 'moans and cries attributed to ghosts sometimes masked executions and beatings.' It’s a stunner.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    “[A] deeply felt meditation on migration, mourning and the simultaneous entanglement and estrangement of the living and the dead” —Los Angeles Times

    Winner of the 2023 Jan Michalski Prize, a searing novel of loss and resilience that illuminates the often-overlooked human dimension of the migrant crisis, re-imagining the border as a dreamlike purgatory bridging life and death.

    In an unnamed Latin American country, a mysterious plague quickly spreads, erasing the memory of anyone infected. Angustias Romero flees with her family, but their flight is tragically cut short when she loses both her children. Consumed by grief, she finds herself within the hallucinatory expanse of Mezquite––a town corrupted by greed and populated by storytellers, refugees, and violent, predatory gangs.

    Here, Angustias is finally able to lay her children to rest at the Third Country, a cemetery run by the larger-than-life Visitación Salazar and a refuge beyond suffering and fear. While Visitación remains defiant in her mission to care for the dead, the cemetery she oversees is the focal point of a bitter land dispute with Alcides Abundio, the most feared landowner of the border. Caught in this power struggle, Angustias and Visitación–friends and sometimes rivals– stand their ground on a frontier where the law is dictated by violence; a surreal territory whose very nature blurs the boundaries between life and death.

    Exploring what we are capable of and how far we will go when we have nothing to lose, No Place to Bury the Dead confirms Karina Sainz Borgo’s importance amongst the voices of modern Latin American literature, merging thriller, western, and classic tragedy in an unforgettable and urgent novel that won the 2023 Jan Michalski Prize.

    Translated from the Spanish by Elizabeth Bryer

  • ¡Solo brilla!/ Just Shine!: Cómo Ser La Mejor Versión De Ti Mismo/ How to Be a Better You (Spanish Edition)

    Sonia Sotomayor

    $18.99

    De la autora del bestseller #1 del New York Times ¡Solo pregunta!, llega un cuento dulce y potente sobre cómo serte fiel a ti mismo y brillar con toda tu luz. Esta edición en español de ¡Solo brilla! pregunta: ¿Cómo ayudarás a los demás a brillar?

    Había una vez una niña que creció en Puerto Rico con un don increíble: era capaz de ayudar a brillar a todos los que la rodeaban. Escuchaba y comprendía a los demás, trabajaba duro y sacaba a relucir la belleza interior de cada persona que conocía.

    En este cuento inspirado por el don de su madre de ayudar a los demás a hallar su luz interna, la jueza de la Corte Suprema Sonia Sotomayor les demuestra a los lectores que ayudar a otros es iluminar el mundo entero.

    Con ilustraciones por la galardonada artista Jacqueline Alcántara, ¡Solo brilla! ayudará a los lectores a hallar su propia luz interna—y a reconocer la misma en los demás.

    From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Just Ask! comes a sweet and powerful story about being true to yourself and shining your brightest. This Spanish edition of Just Shine! asks: How will you help people shine?

    There once was a little girl who grew up in Puerto Rico with an incredible ability—she was able to make everyone around her shine. She listened, she understood, she worked hard, and she brought out the beauty in each person she met.

    In a story inspired by her mother’s ability to help people see their own brilliance, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor shows readers how helping others shine makes the whole world brighter.

    With art by award-winning illustrator Jacqueline Alcántara, Just Shine! will help readers find their own inner glow—and recognize that glow in those around them.

  • Swallows: A Novel

    Natsuo Kirino

    Sold out

    The highly anticipated new novel. When a young single woman in Tokyo decides she’s ready to sell anything—even her womb—to escape the precarity of her life, an agency pairs her with a wealthy couple desperate to have a child. The match seems made in heaven. She even looks a little like the wife. But is anything ever that simple?

    Nothing has ever gone right for Riki. She left her boring hometown in Hokkaido, where she worked at a nursing home, for a better life in Tokyo. But as a temp in the big city she has no job security, and barely scrapes by. She eats the same old discount boiled egg for lunch every day, sometimes for dinner, too. Many of her peers have to take on a side hustle just to make ends meet. So when her friend discovers an agency offering a hefty sum for egg donation, both leap at the chance for an interview.

    Meanwhile, former ballet star Motoi Kusaoke and his wife, Yuko, have been trying to conceive for years. After trying what feels like every available option, it seems futile—until Motoi dives deep into his research and learns that, while surrogacy is technically illegal in Japan, there is a company that’s found a loophole.

    Before long, everyone has an opinion on the matter: from Yuko’s sex-obsessed, asexual best friend, to Motoi’s controlling prima ballerina mother, and even the affable sex-worker-slash-therapist that Riki has been to a couple of times, after she accepted a down payment to be a surrogate.

    Acutely funny and addictively page-turning, Swallows pulls at the seams of society, reassessing our understanding of motherhood, self-worth, bodily autonomy, and class. What does it mean to be “in control”? And can money really buy happiness?

  • Queen Nanny & The White Witch of Rosehall

    Bobby Spears Jr.

    $14.95

    Part historical fiction, part horror mystery, this thrilling novel is perfect for fans ofBlack Leopard, Red Wolf and Black Sun.

    A leader of the Jamaican Maroons crosses paths with an enigmatic sorceress in thisspine-tingling tale of ancient enemies, based on real Jamaican history and legend

    Deep in the heart of Jamaica, the stories of insatiable bloodthirsty creatures and dark rituals brought over from the old country have been the stuff of legends for centuries. Queen Nanny, the leader of a community of Maroons, is well versed in military leadership
    and spiritual wisdom. But how do you beat an enemy that possesses the power over life and death?

    One such figure is the enigmatic White Witch, shrouded in mystery and
    superstition—some say she was once a wealthy woman who murdered her husbands while others believe she was a powerful sorceress who used dark magic. As the White Witch threatens the safety of Queen Nanny’s home, she must use every weapon at her disposal to protect her people.

    With action and mystery that brings to life a legendary urban myth, this thrilling novel provides a fresh perspective on Jamaica's rich cultural history and is a must-read for horror and thriller enthusiasts.

  • Salon Saturday

    Janelle Harper

    $18.99

    A picture book that celebrates the community built at the hair salon and the dynamic variety of natural hairstyles!

    Today is the day!

    A little girl’s first trip to the salon is a rite of passage, but choosing a new hairstyle is feeling like an impossible task! There are so many styles to choose from—bobs, buns, coils, fros, and more. And according to Grandma, Momma, and Sissy, choosing the best one means thinking about ease, lifestyle, and personality…It’s A LOT to think about!

    When the options seem overwhelming, the young girl decides to search for what feels right today, and that there’s always a future salon visit to try something new. While admiring the three loving women who have guided her through this big day, she finally sees it…her own kind of beautiful!

    From coils and long locs to waves and braids, Salon Saturday offers a vibrant portrayal of Black hairstyles, cherishing them as both a ritual and an ever-evolving journey of self-expression.

  • Beetlecreek: A Novel

    William Demby

    $17.00

    After several years of silence and seclusion in Beetlecreek's black quarter, a carnival worker named Bill Trapp befriends Johnny Johnson, a Pittsburgh teenager living with relatives in Beetlecreek. Bill is white. Johnny is black. Both are searching for acceptance, something that will give meaning to their lives. Bill tries to find it through good will in the community. Johnny finds it in the Nightriders, a local gang. David Diggs, the boy's dispirited uncle, aspires to be an artist but has to settle for sign painting. David and Johnny's new friendship with Bill kindles hope that their lives will get better. David's marriage has failed; his wife's shallow faith serves as her outlet from racial and financial oppression. David's unhappy routine is broken by Edith Johnson's return to Beetlecreek, but this relationship will be no better than his loveless marriage. Bill's attempts to unify black and white children with a community picnic is a disaster. A rumor scapegoats him as a child molester, and Beetlecreek is titillated by the imagined crimes.

    This novel portraying race relations in a remote West Virginia town has been termed an existential classic. It would be hard, said The New Yorker, to give Mr. Demby too much praise for the skill with which he has maneuvered the relationships in this book. During the 1960s Arna Bontemps wrote, "Demby's troubled townsfolk of the West Virginia mining region foreshadow present dilemmas. The pressing and resisting social forces in this season of our discontent and the fatal paralysis of those of us unable or unwilling to act are clearly anticipated with the dependable second sight of a true artist."

    First published in 1950, Beetlecreek stands as a moving condemnation of provincialism and fundamentalism. Both a critique of racial hypocrisy and a new direction for the African-American novel, it occupies fresh territory that is neither the ghetto realism of Richard Wright nor the ironic modernism of Ralph Ellison. Even after fifty years, more or less, William Demby said in 1998, "It still seems to me that Beetlecreek is about the absence of symmetry in human affairs, the imperfectibility of justice the tragic inevitability of mankind's inhumanity to mankind."

    William Demby is the author of The Catacombs and Love Black. He lives in Sag Harbor, N. Y. James C. Hall, a professor of African-American Studies and English at the University of Illinois, Chicago, is the author of the forthcoming book, Mercy, Mercy, African-American Culture and the American Sixties, and editor of Langston A Collection of Poems.

  • Dork Diaries 14: Tales from a Not-So-Best Friend Forever (14)

    Rachel Renée Russell

    Sold out

    Nikki Maxwell’s summer is packed with drama in this fourteenth installment of the #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries series!

    Nikki and her bandmates are looking forward to an AWESOME summer on tour as the opening act for the world famous Bad Boyz! Nikki is a little worried when her frenemy, MacKenzie Hollister, weasels her way into a social media intern position with the tour. But she has a total MELTDOWN when she learns that MacKenzie is her new roommate! Will Nikki survive her dream tour as it quickly goes from AWESOME to AWFUL?!

  • Latin American Shared Stories (Beyond and Within)

    V. Castro

    $26.99

    From pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, via the powerful figure of Santa Muerte, to racism in the Bronx, this anthology of speculative stories and essays by Latin American writers, about Latin American life and beyond, is an engrossing and important read.

    This vibrant anthology presents a selection of speculative stories and fascinating essays highlighting the many voices, mythologies, folklore and storytelling prowess of authors from Latin American countries or writing in the traditions of the Latin American diaspora.

    Edited by the wonderful V. Castro, Mexican-American speculative, horror and sci-fi writer extraordinaire and author of Mestiza Blood and The Queen of the Cicadas, the authors featured are: Hector Acosta, Alyssa Alessi, Gustavo Bondoni, David Bowles, Arasibo Campeche and Carra Flowers, Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut, Angel Luis Colón, Rios de la Luz, Ivette N. Diaz, Laura Diaz de Arce, J.F. Gonzalez, L.P. Hernandez, Pedro Iniguez, Ruth Joffre, S. Alessandro Martinez, Juliana Spink Mills, Vanessa Molina, Mo Moshaty, Richie Narvaez, Wi-Moto Nyoka, Daniel A. Olivas, Monique Quintana, A.E. Santana and Richard Z. Santos.These are complemented by new stories selected from open submissions.

    Spanning the many cultures of the region, stories range from those that explore heritage and the importance of ancestors to ones that imagine new worlds and futures, but at their core they all celebrate and give agency to oft-underrepresented Latin American characters and concerns, while the book will help counter the lack of contemporary Latin American literature.

    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.

  • Dear Jackie

    Jessixa Bagley

    $14.99

    A middle schooler’s plan to fit in with her new friends by writing herself a fake love letter backfires spectacularly in this funny and all-too-relatable graphic novel perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and the Berrybrook Middle School series.

    Jackie and Milo have been best friends since they were born. Whether they’re reading comic books in their tree house hideout, playing video games, or spying on their neighbors using walkie talkies and code names, it’s always been the two of them versus the world. But in middle school, things are changing. Milo joins the soccer team and starts hanging out with a new crew. Jackie gets taken under the wing of Adelle, who wants to give her a total makeover and find her a crush. Suddenly, it seems like there are certain acceptable ways to be a girl or a boy, and Jackie starts to feel like everything about her is wrong.

    In an effort to get Adelle and her new friends off her back, Jackie sends herself an anonymous love letter. But her plan backfires, and soon Jackie’s secret admirer is all anybody at school can talk about. Now she’s wondering: Dear Jackie, how are you going to get out of this?

  • Khaled and Jamila

    Anan Ameri

    $18.95

    Khaled and Jamila is a sweeping, multigenerational novel by Palestinian-American writer Anan Ameri that explores the enduring power of love and family across continents and cultures, asking what, in a divided world, truly lasts.

    What in the world is beautiful forever? When disconnection rocks a family, the mistakes of one generation become the heartaches of the next …

    1959, the West Bank, Palestine. Khaled’s bossy, hot-tempered father insists that his son go to college in the States so he can learn to help him run his business. Khaled, Arabic for forever, is reluctant to leave his secret, hometown crush. But he’s bullied into taking off for Ann Arbor. There he falls for a blue-collar American girl. One thing leads to another, including a daughter named Jamila, Arabic for beautiful. Family mayhem erupts on all sides.

    Fast forward to 1984. Jamila has come of age growing up in Ann Arbor during the turbulent sixties and seventies. There she falls for her brother’s best friend, Ali, who she’s known for years. But even though he’s practically a member of the family, Ali is Black. Interracial marriages in the US are still few and far between. Mayhem breaks out again, tearing close ties apart.

    And so, what might Sitti, the grandmother conciliator, have to say?

    The names and heartaches of Khaled and Jamila ask, what in this mad world is beautiful forever? In Anan Ameri’s noisy, impatient, vibrant novel, enduring beauty is the kind of love that family can teach us. And it’s the larger, ever-expanding family of connections that love can show us when we learn to let it.

  • Around the Spider-Verse (Original Spider-Man Graphic Novel Anthology)

    Pablo Leon

    $12.99

    Beloved Marvel characters Spider-Man, Ghost-Spider, and Araña star in three original Spider-verse stories! Don't miss this collection from bestselling authors Justin A. Reynolds, Roseanne A. Brown, and Eisner nominee Pablo Leon!

    Take a trip around the Spider-Verse (and New York City) in three comic adventures! The tour guide on his field trip to the Museum of Natural History has Miles Morales's Spidey Sense tingling... Gwen Stacy's punk band's concert at the Central Park Bandshell is interrupted by the Jackal ... and Anya Corazón must save her father from a trap laid by Kraven the Hunter at the Bronx Zoo. Filled with tons of action and laughs, this graphic novel is perfect for young readers in search of more spider-thrills!

  • Life’s Little Lessons: Bye-Bye Bottle

    Bernette Ford

    $8.99

    Piggy and Ducky have a new friend: Bunny, who drinks from his bottle at mealtime, naptime, and playtime. But now Bunny has an invitation to Piggy’s lovely tea party . . . and no one drinks tea from a bottle! Will Bunny grow up and start using a cup?

Stay Informed. We're building a community committed to celebrating Black authors + artisans. Subscribe to keep up with all things Kindred Stories.