A tender, searching collection that breaks open notions of faith to ask how a daughter, alienated from kin, can find love and a home in the world, from the award-winning author of If They Come for Us and When We Were Sisters

at the edge of an edge
is an edge. at that edge
is a cliff. beyond that cliff
is me.

Exiled from ancestral homelands, how can one find a place for themself in the world? In this stunning sophomore collection, the acclaimed poet Fatimah Asghar unweaves residual grief to reckon with their relationship to Allah, long-estranged but deeply loved kin, the landscape of their ancestors, and love itself.

In meditative poems, Daughter of the Mountains grapples with multiple facets of fulfillment, betrayal, love, loss, and longing, illustrating how place, lineage, and environment inform the practice of spirituality and vice versa. With wisps of humor, imagery that is as beautiful as it is startling, and powerfully disruptive formal invention, this is an intimately lyrical and explosive collection.

A radical reclamation of the Black Madonna as a liberatory figure that offers a richly spiritual and politically charged vision of Black divinity and resistance.

Social psychologist and author of God Is a Black Woman Christena Cleveland brings forth Black Madonna as a Divine icon and spiritual home. This is a call to reclaim a spirituality that has always been ours. Through story, image, reflection, and ritual, the spiritually curious and justice-minded are invited to move beyond dogma and toward embodied, mystical liberation. Written in a voice that bridges scholarship and devotion, this work is for all who are longing for a decolonized, diasporic, and feminine-rooted sacred—one that speaks directly to the soul’s hunger for belonging, meaning, and collective healing.

Drawing on Christian mysticism, Black feminist theology, ancestral memory, and global iconography, this work is both a historical excavation and a contemporary invocation of an iconic figure. Each chapter brings the reader into conversation with a different embodiment of the Black Madonna, from ancient statues hidden in caves to modern artistic visions, illuminating her power as a sacred symbol.

A heartfelt coming-of-age debut about a girl starting over while keeping secret that she’s spent the last year in juvenile detention. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Leah Johnson.

Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Cooper is back after twelve months at Guiding Hearts Home for Troubled Girls, and nothing is the way it was. Her mom has remarried and now there’s a big new house, a shiny new family, and a fancy new school. Jas feels completely out of place, and things only get more complicated when her mom insists that her “fresh start” include hiding the truth of where she’s been and cutting off people from her past.

As Jas settles into her new life bonding with her seemingly perfect stepsister, making a close-knit group of besties, and maybe even falling for the cute girl in class, it starts to feel like her second chance might actually be real.

But when a friend from the detention center reaches out to reconnect, Jas worries that everything she’s built could fall apart. How long can she keep her past a secret? And how many times can she spin the truth before she forgets who she really is?

Sizzling, seductive fiction from the bestselling author of The Idea of You, which was adapted to become Amazon Studios’ hit movie starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine

When Cecilia Chen finds herself in an accident shortly after a move to Los Angeles, she’s shocked to recognize the swan-necked beauty in the other car as the Anouk Ferrand. It’s been twenty years since she last encountered the enigmatic model on a photo shoot in Mexico. And it’s this chance second meeting that will upend Cecilia’s life.

In a complicated marriage to a French film director whose career―once seemingly so allied with Cecilia’s as a photographer―has catapulted beyond hers, and raising her children on the westside of Los Angeles, a toxic playground of privilege and power, Cecilia is forced to take stock of her emotional history. From an early love―a Connecticut establishment foil to Cecilia’s Jamaican immigrant upbringing―that she’d thought was true, to the many stages of life with her husband François, Cecilia questions where she truly fits in. Can the intensity of her explosive physical and emotional entanglement with Anouk finally give her the answer?

Sexy and emotionally involving, Crash Into Me is propulsive fiction from a writer who layers elegant prose, sharp emotional observations, and intense high stakes plotlines into her stories.

Luster meets The Idiot in this riveting debut novel about a volatile friendship between two outsiders who escape their bleak childhoods and enter the glamorous early '90s art world in New York City, where only one of them can make it.

Ruth, an only child of recent immigrants to New England, lives in an emotionally cold home and attends the local Catholic girl’s school on a scholarship. Maria, a beautiful orphan whose Panamanian mother dies by suicide and is taken care of by an ill, unloving aunt, is one of the only other students attending the school on a scholarship. Ruth is drawn forcefully into Maria’s orbit, and they fall into an easy, yet intense, friendship. Her devotion to her charming and bright new friend opens up her previously sheltered world. 
 
While Maria, charismatic and aware of her ability to influence others, eases into her full self, embracing her sexuality and her desire to be an artist, Ruth is mostly content to follow her around: to college and then into the early-nineties art world of New York City. There, ambition and competition threaten to rupture their friendship, while strong and unspoken forces pull them together over the years. Whereas Maria finds early success in New York City as an artist, Ruth stumbles along the fringes of the art world, pulled toward a quieter life of work and marriage. As their lives converge and diverge, they meet in one final and fateful confrontation.
 
Ruth and Maria's decades-long friendship interrogates the nature of intimacy, desire, class and time. What does it mean to be an artist and to be true to oneself? What does it mean to give up on an obsession? Marking the arrival of a sensational new literary talent, Lonely Crowds challenges us to reckon honestly with our own ambitions and the lives we hope to lead.

Three girls with entangled pasts compete for glory in their elite all-girls private school’s annual tournament, putting their survival skills and their relationships to the test, in this young adult thriller that’s “Shakespearean…stunning…dark academia at its finest” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Gardner isn’t like other boarding schools. They take in those who’ve been rejected everywhere else, they offer a survival skills class that has students killing and gutting animals, and then there’s the Tournament.

A competition available only to seven elite seniors, the Tournament is revered by the entire student body. They’d do almost anything—including completing a series of grueling physical challenges—to win the champion’s cup.

And this year, three seniors make the Tournament more cutthroat than ever.

Max, the ruthless scholarship student who can’t afford any distractions, not even her ex best friend Nora’s stupid confession of love at the end of last year that ruined everything between them.

Nora, who always put herself on the sidelines so Max could have everything she wanted, but might just be ready for center stage now that Max has brutally excised herself from Nora’s life.

And Teddy, the transfer who’s on her last chance and will chase any high that can pull her back from the gaping, dark void inside herself that’s always threatening to pull her in.

If one of them wants to win, then they can’t let anything—or anybody—get in their way.

A poet watches the limbs of a eucalyptus tree get sawed off: the image persists, refracting and recurring across poems of art, language, selfhood, memory, and loss.

Joan Mitchell said, When I talk about love, I mean loving a tree. When I talk about love, I mean loving where a tree used to be.

Men assess the eucalyptus tree growing on the poet’s street; a crane arrives. The sound of a chainsaw rings in the air and branches begin to fall. This tree-cutting haunts the poet and becomes the locus from which the rest of the collection spirals. It refracts across works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Mitchell, and Hilma af Klint, whose painting series lends the collection its title and who becomes a model for engaging with the world. At the core of the collection, the long poem “Eureka” examines the violent 1885 expulsion of Chinese Americans from the eponymous California town. Roving, evocative, and intricate, Tree of Knowledge is rooted in Victoria Chang’s crystalline voice and generous, probing gaze, and by certain images ―trees, a hanging figure, a branch, fingertips, a briefcase―that resurface like apparitions.

Can a dare made at Notting Hill Carnival turn into true love? He’s All That meets How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days in this trope-filled sizzling summer romance, perfect for fans of Joya Goffney and Lynn Painter.
 
Popular girl Eva Òjó is used to boys falling for her without her even trying. So when her friend dares her to dance with a random guy at Notting Hill Carnival, she meets Saint.

Comic obsessed Saint Rowe-Falade thinks Eva is cute, but he's not interested in her in that way. He’d rather get lost in stories than look for romance.

When Eva’s birthday party gets out of control and causes damage to her dad’s beloved car, her friends set the ultimate dare: get Saint to take her on one date and they’ll help her pay to fix her dad’s car. Operation fall-in-love-with-Eva is set in motion and Eva makes it her mission to make Saint fall head over heels. But just as Saint starts to warm to Eva, and her own feelings towards him grow, Saint finds out about the dare. Can Eva convince Saint she’s truly into him, or has she lost him for good?

PRAISE FOR ABIOLA BELLO'S LOVE IN WINTER WONDERLAND:

‘A screen-worthy holiday romance.’ Joya Goffney, author of Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

‘Gorgeous writing, witty dialogue, a magical setting and two characters you'll fall head over heels for.’ Jennifer Niven, author of All the Bright Places
 
‘I devoured this delicious YA rom-com. A treat to read any time of year.’ Katherine Webber, author of Twin Crowns
 
‘A wonderfully warm love story.’ Candice Brathwaite, author of Cuts Both Ways

‘A warm and cosy read that pulls you into the perfect winter romance. Abiola has given us all a gift to swoon over.’ Benjamin Dean, author of The King is Dead

Two friends must dig into their town's forgotten past and uncover the forgotten truth -- before their whole town goes up in flames. For fans of Small Spaces and Mary Downing Hahn, a spooky ghost story from the award-winning author of The Forgotten Girl and The Girl in the Lake.

Burn it all down.

Gianna and Carter John are best friends, but they couldn’t be more different. Gianna is small for her age, gets straight A’s, and is the teacher’s favorite. Meanwhile, Carter John gets in trouble no matter what he does, just because he’s tall and his voice is loud.

Then one day while working on a class project in the town library, Carter John gets in trouble yet again and reaches his breaking point. As his anger builds, a stack of books flies off the shelf, hitting the librarian.

Now everywhere he goes, strange things are happening. The smell of smoke hangs in the air. Sparks fly when Carter John gets in trouble. And he hears the voice of a young girl singing a song . . . a song about burning . . .

When fires start breaking out around town, Carter John and Gianna are determined to figure out who’s responsible. They are certain that these are no normal fires . . . Something terrible once happened where the town library now stands, and someone’s trying to send them a message about it.

But who is she―and why is she determined to get revenge?

From the author of The Forgotten Girl and The Girl in the Lake, this is both a bonechilling ghost story, and a book about the history of segregated libraries.

A vital critical resource on the artist who helped transform the landscape of the Bay Area with her public artworks

Published with Oakland Museum of California.

The American artist Mildred Howard (born 1945) is best known for her mixed-media assemblages and sculptural installations that engage with memory, place, identity and the Black experience. Her work has been associated with the Black Arts Movement and distinctly Californian aesthetics such as Bay Area expressionism, West Coast conceptual art and San Francisco funk. In recent decades, Howard has produced numerous large-scale public artworks both within the Bay Area and throughout the country. These installations vary from site-specific outdoor environments, to architecturally integrated surface treatments, to stand-alone sculptural objects and structures.
This compendium covers the entire scope of Howard's multifaceted, politically engaged practice, featuring a selection of works that represent different aspects of her oeuvre alongside essays and an interview with the artist. Poetics of Memory also includes photographs of Howard's archive and studio commissioned specifically for the volume.

“Ahmad’s compassion, her deep care for the psychological and emotional nuances of her characters, never wavers.” – The New York Times Book Review

In a searing collection by the award-winning author of The Return of Faraz Ali, characters seek to make their futures their own in a Pakistan riven by class, gender and religion

In these seven powerful stories, Aamina Ahmad finds a world of pathos in the narrowest circumstances, from the fugitive intimacies of villages where nothing escapes notice to the crevices where city dwellers seek refuge from urban striving and indifference. Capturing the plight of ordinary people caught between love and duty, freedom and social constraint—a man who witnesses an illicit moment of tenderness, a police officer who must choose whether to follow the laws of God or of man, a woman who takes matters into her own hands in the face of an unexpected pregnancy—July Sun more than sustains the promise of Ahmad’s sure-footed debut.

A young girl learns how to make a difference both in the real world and in the world of Minecraft in this exciting original novel!

Ever since her family moved to the suburbs and Nzinga started middle school, she’s been really lonely. Her only consolation has been working on Phantasy Philly, a special build she and her team will present at a huge Minecraft convention in just a few weeks. Nzinga, her brother Samir, and her cousin Jannah have decided to recreate and reimagine a blocky version of their old Philadelphia street. Now that summer is here, Nzinga can’t wait to return to the old neighborhood and finish their build.

But when Nzinga and Samir arrive at their grandmom’s house, things aren’t how she pictured. Jannah, usually a design whiz, seems distracted and unwilling to work on their project. Incessant drilling can be heard all hours of the day as new apartments are constructed, replacing beloved parts of their street. The constant noise makes it hard to think straight, let alone get anything done.

Nzinga sees how noise pollution and redevelopment are hurting the street, but what can she do about it? And how is she supposed to fight that battle while also inspiring her team to build their ideal Minecraft neighborhood? As Nzinga struggles to answer these questions, she may just learn how even the quietest voices can have the biggest impact.

A dark, emotionally charged thriller where three sisters, bound by blood and divided by secrets, are forced to confront the violent past that made them.

Stormi Feathers learned early that monsters can live inside the people meant to protect you. The night she stopped her mother's abuser, she also silenced her fear and awakened something darker within herself. Years later, she and her sisters, Rayne and Skye, have built a shadow empire that delivers justice to those the system forgets. Each woman has a role- Rayne handles logistics, Skye covers digital traces, and Stormi carries out the sentences. Together, they've turned pain into power.

But when Stormi meets Niles Grey, a former homicide detective with a haunted past, she feels something she's long suppressed. For the first time, she begins to imagine a life untouched by violence, until she discovers Niles is connected to an unlikely suspect.

Now Stormi must choose between protecting her sisters and trusting the one man who makes her believe she deserves more than vengeance.

From bestselling YA authors comes thirteen dazzling contemporary romances inspired by the songs of Taylor Swift!

If you could live inside one Taylor Swift song for a day, which would you pick? In this shimmering anthology, thirteen best-selling and acclaimed authors do just that, reimagining some of Taylor’s most iconic songs as love stories.

Whether you’re in an era of fairy lights and folktales or diss tracks and dance floors, here’s a playlist that features all the hits: The soaring high note of first love. The minor key of heartbreak. And the steady rhythm of true friendship and self-discovery.

As clever and unforgettable as the songs that inspired them, these stories are sure to play on repeat in your head and your heart.

Stories by:
Elise Bryant
Jennifer Dugan
J. Elle
Jessica Goodman
Sloan Harlow
Crystal Maldonado
Krystal Marquis
Katharine McGee
Julie Murphy
Lynn Painter
Laura Sebastian
Sara Shepard
Jesse Q. Sutanto

An addictive, enemies-to-lovers romance about fame, power, and two people fighting to stay in control, even as they fall madly, recklessly in love.

Kensie Garrett turned her worst heartbreak into a bestselling brand. As a social-media influencer and author of a hit self-help book teaching women how to find love without losing themselves, she’s built a career on staying in command. But one reckless night threatens everything she’s created when she gives in to the magnetic pull of Canaan Jackson, the infuriating race car driver she’s despised since college.

When a private video from that night leaks, Kensie’s credibility and Canaan’s shot at racing glory are suddenly on the line. To save them both, he does the unthinkable: announces their engagement during a live press conference. What begins as damage control quickly spirals into a dangerous chemistry neither can contain.

Thrown together under the scorching Miami sun in the months leading up to his first Formula One race, Kensie and Canaan must outmaneuver paparazzi, past betrayals, and a passion that refuses to stay off camera. But as lies blur into truth and old wounds resurface, Kensie has to decide whether protecting her image is worth losing her heart to the one man who may know her better than she knows herself.

rAs Prohibition era speakeasies and Jazz Age excitement reign supreme throughout a deeply divided country at the height of the Roaring 20s, a young psychic in small town Illinois helps the Black community fight crime and corruption in this thrilling historical mystery written by a real-life psychic medium and jazz pianist.

After the death of her brave Harlem Hellfighter husband during the First World War, young widow Nola Ann Jackson returned to her hometown of Agate, Illinois, to live with her Aunt Sarah, a known local psychic. Under her aunt’s care and tutelage, Nola has been learning how to tap into her own intuitive gifts and communicate with the spirits. And she will rely on their insightful guidance when she’s asked to help investigate a woman’s disappearance.

Lilly Davidson, the missing woman, was living at the Phyllis Wheatley Institute for Colored Girls where young ladies are educated and prepared to follow bright futures. But she vanished after a night at the Wham Bam Club where jazz music swings, prohibition is defied, and other vices are encouraged. Lilly was seen fraternizing with Eddie Smooth, trumpeter and leader of the St. Louis Stompers—and a notorious pimp. Nola finds Lilly at the club alive and well, supposedly engaged to Eddie. That same night, the Wham Bam is set afire and Eddie is killed by gunfire, leaving Lilly on the run, a suspected murderer.

Eddie Smooth had shady dealings with Agate’s wealthy elite, Black and white, making plenty of enemies with motives for wanting him dead. He was also a notorious womanizer who left several broken hearts in his wake. To prove Lilly’s innocence, Nola must listen to her spiritual instincts to unravel political schemes and personal vendettas to find a killer desperate to cover up a scandalous conspiracy . . .

Get grooving, moving, and learning with Gracie’s Corner! Gracie wants to move like an elephant while on safari with her family. But when her little sister, Cece, suggests looking at other animals, will that ruin Gracie’s fun Find out in this Level 1 I Can Read book featuring fan-favorite Gracie’s Corner characters. The Safari Shuffle is perfect for children learning to sound out words and sentences. Whether shared at home or in a classroom, the short sentences, familiar words, and simple concepts of Level One books support success for children eager to start reading on their own.
* Features some of the lyrics of an easy, catchy, and educational song!
* Using familiar themes from the smash hit the "Elephant Song,” this early reader adaptation teaches kids important lessons about moving your body, compromising, and enjoying the day with the ones you love.
* Perfect for young elephant and safari animal enthusiasts.
* Created by family team Graceyn, Javoris, and Arlene Hollingsworth, Gracie’s Corner focuses on centering children of color in the edutainment industry and making learning a fun, positive experience.

A gorgeous new edition of Book 1 of the Patternist series, in which two immortals chase each other across continents and centuries, binding their fates together -- and changing the destiny of the human race.

This deluxe edition includes: 
* A new cover and package
* Premium French flaps and newly designed, full-color interior covers
* High-quality paper with elegant deckled-edges  

Doro knows no higher authority than himself. An ancient spirit with boundless powers, he possesses humans, killing without remorse as he jumps from body to body to sustain his own life. With a lonely eternity ahead of him, Doro breeds supernaturally gifted humans into empires that obey his every desire. He fears no one—until he meets Anyanwu. 

Anyanwu is an entity like Doro and yet different. She can heal with a bite and transform her own body, mending injuries and reversing aging. She uses her powers to cure her neighbors and birth entire tribes, surrounding herself with kindred who both fear and respect her. No one poses a true threat to Anyanwu—until she meets Doro. 

The moment Doro meets Anyanwu, he covets her; and from the villages of 17th-century Nigeria to 19th-century United States, their courtship becomes a power struggle that echoes through generations, irrevocably changing what it means to be human.

The pioneering book that exposed the intergenerational health impacts of systemic racism is back—with 50 percent new content to meet the demands of our post-2020 reality.

This updated edition delivers urgent tools for survival, including four new chapters, updated research, case studies, and real-world examples.

Black people are exhausted. The toll of living within systems designed to exclude them devastates minds, bodies, and spirits. Award-winning diversity, equity, and inclusion leader Mary-Frances Winters—now joined by Mareisha Winters Reese—addresses this ongoing crisis with an urgent update to her bestselling book.

Winters and Reese incorporate new data, fresh case studies, and expanded tools to reflect today’s realities. This edition, with 50 percent new content, includes the following:

* Four new chapters on current challenges facing Black communities
* Updated research on racism’s health impacts in a post-COVID world
* New stories and case studies that illuminate lived experience
* Updated models reflecting today’s most relevant findings

With unflinching honesty and a practical lens, Winters and Reese document the enduring toll of “living while Black” while also equipping readers with strategies for personal healing and organizational transformation. The research is current, the case studies are real, and the tools are designed to create lasting systemic change.

Discover your most elevated self with this transformative guide to greater physical health, deeper emotional connections, and a more fulfilling spiritual life—from the second-generation wellness warrior whose mission is to help men unleash their untapped potential

“It is time for every man to pick up this amazing book and begin moving from wounded man to supreme man.”—Lloyd Strayhorn, world-renowned astro-numerologist and bestselling author

Born from hip-hop workshops where young men sought guidance beyond music, SupaNova decided to create a wellness manifesto to help other men seeking change. The son of celebrated holistic healer Queen Afua, SupaNova saw firsthand the incredible power of ritual and discipline among his mother's followers and worked with her to synthesize essential teachings geared specifically toward men.

SupaNova draws upon his learnings as an army vet, musician, and vegan, and roots us in traditional African wellness and contemporary self-care to share protocols for personal development through daily disciplines. He shares stories of his own struggles and how he moved past them by discovering the power within. Blending ancient spirituality with modern-day practices, SupaNova offers immediately actionable steps for transforming your life right here, right now. From daily affirmations to dietary recommendations, from the inner work of recognizing your emotional center to the outer work of reshaping and anointing your body, this book leaves no stone unturned in its pursuit of leading readers to their most elevated selves and the fulfillment of their greatest potential.

Through detox, holistic practices, and prompted tasks designed to strengthen social, emotional, and spiritual well-being, Man, Heal Thyself is a transformative narrative and global call to wellness for men. No matter your age, background, past mistakes, or present hurt, it is never too late to heal.

A gorgeous new edition of Book 2 of the Patternist series, in which two immortals chase each other across continents and centuries, binding their fates together -- and changing the destiny of the human race.

This deluxe edition includes: 

* A new cover and package
* Premium French flaps and newly designed, full-color interior covers
* High-quality paper with elegant deckled-edges 

 
“Vivid ... explosive.” —Publishers Weekly

Mary is a treacherous experiment. Her creator, an immortal named Doro, has molded the human race for generations, seeking out those with unusual talents like telepathy and breeding them into a new subrace of humans who obey his every command. Mary is the result: a young Black woman living on the rough outskirts of Los Angeles in the 1970s, who has no idea how much power she will soon wield. 

Doro knows he must handle Mary carefully or risk her ending like his previous experiments: dead, either by her own hand or Doro's. What he doesn't suspect is that Mary's maturing telepathic abilities may soon rival his own power. 

By linking telepaths with a viral pattern, she will create the potential to break free of his grip once and for all—and shift the course of humanity.

A prize-winning sociologist’s radical vision of the social power of erotic life. 

“Fearless, candid, and bold, Sex in Public is necessary reading for anyone interested in imagining a different kind of world, one that approaches eroticism and freedom as fundamentally linked.” —Jennifer C. Nash, author of Black Feminism Reimagined

Whether we are contending with shame, healing from trauma, or experimenting in the bedroom, there is a common tendency to cast anything sexual as a problem best solved in private. Fears of judgment fuel an air of oppression around something that should be liberating. According to feminist sociologist Angela Jones, we must reject this solitary vision of desire to claim the pleasure fundamental to our freedom.

Sex in Public offers a revolutionary new paradigm for understanding sexuality. Sex is never strictly personal, but relentlessly social, shaped by power relations, and possessing outsized power of its own. To make this case, Jones charts the inner and interrelated workings of our desires, behaviors, identities, relationships, and communities. 

Guiding readers through field-leading sociology, sexual science, and the voices of sexual rule-breakers worldwide, Jones pinpoints the repressive forces that distort eroticism’s power, but also reveals our means of breaking free. Championing a rebellious spirit that uplifts bodily autonomy, justice, and care, Sex in Public makes a tantalizing promise: better sex lives and empowerment await, if only we dare to know our sexualities fully, reimagining society as we do.

An ode to Black joy and creativity with 100 wildly inventive ice cream, sorbet, and nondairy recipes.

Back in the 1840s, a free Black woman ran a successful ice cream saloon in Nashville. Her name was Sarah Estell, and she became known as “the Ice Cream Queen.” Now taking up her crown is Lokelani Alabanza, a trained pastry chef and avid collector of all things Black Americana. Her love of ice cream and appreciation for those who preceded her come together in this joyful cookbook.

Ice Cream Queen features Alabanza’s original creations and revamped classics such as Malted Vanilla, Roasted Strawberry, and Mint Chip. Building on simple bases, standout flavors range from boozy and fruity to adventurous and decadent. Recipes include Nashville Hot Chicken, an ode to her adoptive city’s iconic dish; Juneteenth Sorbet, with summer-ripe raspberries and hibiscus flowers; PB&J, a vanilla swirled with peanut butter, strawberry jam, and slices of white bread; Chocolate-Covered Kettle Chip, a crunchy mix of sweet and salty . . . and many more.

A love letter to generations of Black ice cream makers, this cookbook offers something entirely new: ice cream as an act of memory, identity, and Black excellence.

65 color photographs

A sweeping family saga about inheritance and the enduring legacy of Southern Black cowboy culture, from the acclaimed author of Redwood Court, a Reese’s Book Club Pick

A sprawling landscape of sand, red clay, and pine trees, South Carolina’s Fairfield County is the only place the Bolton family has ever called home. For over a century, they have cultivated this land, expertly raising horses to compete in derbies and rodeos and passing this knowledge on from generation to generation.

But after a devastating tragedy, Dwayne, the next inheritor of the Bolton legacy, buries his family history—particularly from his daughter. Nikki, unlike her father, is a proud, burgeoning horsewoman with no knowledge of her family’s connection to the part of her life she’s most passionate about. But through a series of events that threaten to sever father and daughter from the only land they’ve ever known, Dwayne is forced to confront his past so that Nikki can step into her future.

With nuance and care, Dameron deftly examines her most beloved subjects: the intricacies of family, and the powerful forces that shape who we are. Fairfield County is at once a moving exploration of the ties that bind us, and a bold reclamation of the American Cowboy—taking this iconic image out of the white-washed Old West and deep into the heart of the Black South, where it has always resided.

A stand-in girlfriend and a handsome business heir find that their fake summer fling is feeling way too real in this new romance by USA Today bestselling author Kristina Forest.

Noelle Lewis doesn’t have time for long walks on the beach, brunch with the girls, or summer vacations. She’s too busy saving up to go back to college. After recently getting laid off from her bookseller job, her main gig is now serving as a “stand-in” bridesmaid, which doesn’t pay enough for the upcoming semester’s tuition. But then the perfect, if not unconventional, opportunity arises…

Jeremiah Smith II, grandson of the founder of Smith’s Sweets—a well-known baked goods company—once lived a life of frivolity. Since his grandfather’s death, Jeremiah’s tried to clean up his act, but it’s hard to focus when his family requests that he join them at their summer house in Heart Beach, New Jersey, where his most painful memory lies. To avoid going there, Jeremiah claims he already has plans with his girlfriend, and of course, his family tells him to bring her. The problem? Jeremiah doesn’t have a girlfriend.

After a chance meeting, Noelle and Jeremiah come to an agreement. He’ll hire her to be his stand-in girlfriend for the weekend, and she’ll use that money toward her tuition. She figures it will be quick, easy money, but as it turns out, Jeremiah’s family is lovely, and Jeremiah is even lovelier. Soon, a weekend agreement turns into an entire summer, and Noelle and Jeremiah will have to keep their hearts in check, or else it’s sink or swim for them both.

Guilt, shame, and suspicion swirl as a small community in upstate New York turns on itself in this moody, propulsive thriller from the award-winning writer of In West Mills.

“Endlessly entertaining . . . Does anyone write about the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality with more honesty and intensity than De’Shawn Charles Winslow?”—Wiley Cash, author of When Ghosts Come Home

The truth is closer than you think—just beyond the fence.

The year is 1982, and the people of the Hudson Valley community of Fervent have begun to move on from a homicide that upended the once quiet town. When the former neighbors who were convicted of the crime, James and Ella White, are proven innocent, released from prison, and return to Fervent, some people have cause for concern.

Sylvia Upshaw and her best friend, Lafayette “Fate” Jolly, are uneasy about the Whites’ return. While the Whites were incarcerated, Sylvia revealed an explosive secret to their adopted son, Morgan, with devastating consequences. During the murder trial, Fate’s testimony helped seal their fate. James and Ella won’t let the betrayals go unpunished. Sylvia and Fate quickly become victims of harassment from the Whites, and when another murder is committed in Fervent, the town is left to fend for itself.

Intimate and chilling, The Fervent Whites examines how small communities with long-simmering tensions behave when pushed to the limits of civility.

The enduring legacy of the nineteenth-century struggle for Black literacy in the American South
 
Few have ever valued literacy as much as the enslaved Black people of the American South. For them, it was more than a means to a better life; it was a gateway to freedom and, in some instances, a tool for inspiring revolt. And few governments tried harder to suppress literacy than did those in the South. Everyone understood that knowledge was power: power to keep a person enslaved in mind and body, power to resist oppression. In the decades before the Civil War, Southern governments drove Black literacy underground, but it was too precious to be entirely stamped out.
 
This book describes the violent lengths to which southern leaders went to repress Black literacy and the extraordinary courage it took Black people to resist. Derek W. Black shows how, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of Reconstruction, literacy evolved from a subversive gateway to freedom to a public program to extend citizenship and build democratic institutions—and how, once Reconstruction was abandoned, opposition to educating Black children depressed education throughout the South for Black and white students alike. He also reveals the deep imprint those events had on education and how this legacy is resurfacing today.

A radically vulnerable and virtuosic inquiry into the pursuit of freedom and the interminable nature of struggle, from the award-winning author of What We Lose

Weaving personal reflections with piercing insight and expansive vision across nine brilliant essays, Zinzi Clemmons explores the complexities of the elusive concept of freedom. As the daughter of a South African mother and a Trinidadian America father, she recounts growing up in the largely white, affluent town of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania—and her frequent travels to Johannesburg, where the lofty promise of freedom was all around her. Coming of age amidst the euphoria of South Africa's first all-race elections, she grapples with the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the shattered hope in the wake of the Obama era. Clemmons critiques the entrenched inequalities that haunt both countries, from the tragic loss of a childhood friend to the violence that often befalls women who have the audacity to be free.

In a deft mix of memoir, family history, criticism, and reportage, drawing on a vast range of material from Joan Didion to James Baldwin, political analysis and history to Clemmons’s own experiences across the globe, Freedom is an incendiary exploration of race, sex, class, and inheritance. In elegiac prose, Clemmons trains her discerning eye on American institutions and mythologies, probing the bounds of liberation and autonomy to interrogate our most enduring quest—the relentless pursuit of freedom for all.

A Belletrist Book Club Pick.

“A sumptuous treat.” -Bolu Babalola, author of Honey and Spice

Sweetbitter meets The Bear in this "intoxicating look at the world of wine."(TIME)

A TIME, Town & Country, NPR, Marie Claire, and Ms. Magazine Best of the Summer.

Four wine experts arrive at a French vineyard estate for an unforgettable experience-but not the kind they expected. Avery gave up her hard­won but exploitative sommelier job to come. Wine prodigy Cosmo is trying to disguise that his life is in freefall. Millionaire Sonny owns a tacky wine brand, while caustic magazine writer Maëlys hovers with her pen poised. All await the penultimate night of trip, when they will taste a bottle rendered divine by age and scarcity.

Unfolding over several days of indulgence in delicious food and drink, raucous debauchery, and transformative truths that will leave each character changed forever, Lush is a sensuous tour of the wine industry's extreme pleasures and pains, a captivating summer read that, like a fine vintage, will linger long after you've finished turning the pages.

A twisty thriller about a woman who vanishes from a luxury hotel, and the detective who believes the case is tied to the unsolved disappearances of other Black women in the city.

Giovanni Mason worked hard to become the first Black head concierge at Chicago’s exclusive and glamorous Ivory Hotel. It’s a job that requires patience, perfection, and, above all, self-control. But when Giovanni reunites with her former best friend, makeup influencer Natalie Moore, things get heated as a mending of fences morphs into a public argument in the hotel restaurant, and Giovanni loses her cool. Hours later, Natalie is missing. Evidence piles against Giovanni—a ransacked, blood-spattered hotel room, fresh bruises on her body, and a troubling gap in her memory from the last twelve hours.

Detective Redding Stark is the only one unconvinced of Giovanni’s guilt. She sees disturbing parallels to a series of disappearances targeting Black women and believes Natalie’s case is part of something bigger. Together, she and Giovanni are pulled into a dangerous web of privilege, power, and betrayal inside—and far beyond—the walls of the Ivory Hotel.

Will Giovanni and Detective Stark find Natalie or join the missing?

A reissue of Greg Tate's classic, out-of-print collection of essays, with a new introduction by Hanif Abdurraqib and a new foreword by Questlove.

From one of the most original, creative, and provocative culture critics comes an eye-opening collection of essays and tales about American music and culture.

Under the guise of writing about a single subject, Greg Tate’s essays in Flyboy in the Buttermilk branch out from his usual and explore social, pop cultural, political, and economic subjects. Taking on a wide diversity of topics―from the rise of hip-hop; the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat; the music of Miles Davis, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Bad Brains, and many others; to the crisis of the Black intellectual and the irony of the GOP recruiting Black Americans― Tate writes in a brave and distinctive voice that is angry, joyous, anxious, and funny.

In every piece of this collection, Tate offers informed insight into where America is going and why.