The forager, urban farmer, and NatGeo star shares a beautiful, practical field guide and primer to the ethics of caring for the land, meeting you wherever you are in your relationship with the natural world.

With this indispensable resource in the garden, in the field, and in the wild, learn the basics of foraging, as well as the “whys” of foraging and self-reliance. In a country with overflowing grocery store shelves, why should we learn to find, identify, grow, and harvest our own food?

With Indy’s wisdom and guidance, and journal space to record your own observations, learn:

* common foraging and farming identification terms
* how to measure and ID specimens
* recipes featuring the plants, mushrooms, and seaweeds introduced here
* culinary and medicinal applications
* the stories behind the plants; how they came to grow where they are
* sociocultural and economic considerations
* how to make her favorite foraged recipes, from Dandelion Fritters to Yarrow Beer
* plus resources for additional reading and exploration.

Rare Harvest is the field guide for an ethical meal, from forest to farm, from person to plate. Foraging and growing food is more than a hobby, a trend, or a pastime—it is the answer to the preservation of humankind.

Whether you live in a food desert, in the suburbs, on a rural farm, or in a high-rise in the heart of the city, your personal and genetic story is interwoven with the story of the foods you eat. By way of being human, you are already a farmer. To uncover your innate ability to grow and find food is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.

Rare Harvest includes a gorgeous, lush color insert featuring key plant allies.

There are so many things we once believed were true, good, and beautiful that we now no longer believe. Ideas we once defended with confidence now seem naive, misguided, or even harmful.

Every generation looks back at what their parents believed and rolls their eyes. Every generation thinks they stand on the right side of history, but history has a way of humbling our confidence. That only means future generations will look back and judge us to be wrong, false, and bad.

One day, we also will be on the wrong side of history. It's okay to be wrong about things that don't matter, like cultural trends, personal tastes, and leisure activities. But what if we're wrong about things that really matter, like faith, God, and eternal consequences? What if we've been believing all the wrong things? In How to Be on the Right Side of History, Sam Chan reveals how--when it comes to things of ultimate truth, goodness, beauty, and God--we can have confidence that our beliefs aren't just fads but are grounded in eternal reality.

Most bird books weren't made for us. This one is. This is your guide. These are your birds.

The Hood Bird Guide is ornithology for the streets. It's a love letter to the ends and a call to reconnect with nature - right where you are.

Built for city youth, council-estate dreamers and suited professionals who hike on weekends, this is a bold, witty and culturally fluent take on birds as you've never seen them before. It looks at pigeons, magpies and kestrels with the same reverence usually reserved for rare species, proving the magic is already flying above our heads - if you know how to look up.

With sharp writing, serious style and undeniable cultural credibility, The Hood Bird Guide remixes the classic field guide into something fresh and accessible through slang-coded anatomy.

Perfect for:

* Urban explorers, creatives and first-time birdwatchers
* Anyone bored of beige nature books
* Readers who want culture, humour and style alongside real knowledge

Acclaimed author Richard Ho and artist Xuân Lan take readers on a tour of Asian homes around the world—just please remember to leave your shoes at the door! A rich exploration of cultures, families, and traditions for fans of A Big Mooncake for Little Star and Eyes that Kiss in the Corners.

Welcome. You are about to step into an Asian home. But before you do. . . please remove your shoes.

Slippers are allowed. Socks and bare feet, too. You may have always taken off your shoes before stepping into a home, or it may be new to you. But have you ever stopped to wonder why it is a common practice to take off your shoes in Asian households?

Richard Ho explains the custom, which spans across cultures and generations, in his thoughtful, richly layered text that is excellent for reading aloud. Xuân Lan's playful artwork showcases a variety of Asian cultures and introduces a young cat to lead readers on a journey through time and place.

Along with the curious cat, readers will:

* Visit an ancient Chinese village, an historic Korean classroom, a modern Japanese dining room, and many more places.
* Honor the cultures and traditions of the Asian diaspora.
* Celebrate our feet, which work so hard every day.
* Learn more from the author's note and visual glossary providing further details about each culture's customs.

Kyrell Knight believes life is a game to be played and thoroughly enjoyed. He rarely takes anything seriously, lives in the moment, and indulges in as much pleasure with women as possible. But the sarcasm, money, and women are an attempt to erase the memories of his past as he tries to forget what he came from. It works until his past wants to be a part of his present.

Kyrell reconnects with Quinn Halifax at their mutual best friend's engagement party. They spark up a friendship that quickly turns to flames when it becomes a superficial, no strings attached relationship.

Kyrell is struggling with his past while Quinn is trying to secure her future. Neither is looking for more, but fate has other plans.
What happens when two people collide with fate?

Content Advisory: child abuse, death, mentions of suicide

In honor of Bookstore Romance Day, we have gathered some of our favorite Black contemporary Romance authors, traditionally and indie published.

EVENT DEETS

WHEN: August 17 at 6:30PM

WHERE: Virtual Via Zoom

HOW: Be sure to purchase your $5 ticket or choose one of the bundles to gain entry to this virtual event. 

ROMANCE BOOK BUNDLES

Forbidden Love: The Perfect Find, Forbidden Promises - $26

Second Chance Romance: All I've Ever Want All I've Ever Needed , Seven Days in June - $31

Opposite Attract: Mickey Chambers Shakes It Up, The Secret to a Southern Wedding - $36

Meet Queer: D'Vaughn & Kris Plan A Wedding, Can't Let Her Go , A Dash of Salt & Pepper- $45

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Tia Williams had a fifteen-year career as a beauty editor for magazines including Elle, Glamour, Lucky, Teen People, and Essence. In 2004, she pioneered the beauty-blog industry with her award-winning site, Shake Your Beauty. She wrote the bestselling debut novel The Accidental Diva and penned two young adult novels, It Chicks and Sixteen Candles. Her award-winning novel The Perfect Find is a Netflix movie starring Gabrielle Union. Her latest novel is New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, Seven Days in June, published by Grand Central. Tia currently lives with her daughter and her husband in Brooklyn.

Like any good Southern belle, Kianna Alexander wears many hats: doting mama, advice-dispensing sister, fun aunt and gabbing girlfriend. She's a voracious reader, an amateur seamstress and occasional painter in oils.She has a passion for history and an endless curiosity. Kianna is proud to tell stories where Black women are loved, valued, and thriving. A native of the TarHeel state, Kianna still lives there while maintaining her collection of well-loved vintage 80's Barbie dolls.

Chencia Higgins hails from the big city of Houston in the greatest state of Texas. Writing has been her my passion since she was a young girl, when her subject matter were visions of middle school drama with her group of girlfriends. She entered the world of publishing in May 2016 with an erotic novella that set the stage for a career in which she would craft engaging tales of Black women being loved up on. She continues to write for women who love to read but are tired of never seeing themselves in the story. Higgins proud to be a part of an indie and self-published author community. When she's not writing, you can find her reading a book (or two, or three), saving recipes that she'll never make on Pinterest, and traveling as much as possible with her family.

A.E. Valdez published her first book, All I’ve Wanted, All I’ve Needed, in 2021. She has continued to write stories with endearing and relatable characters centered firmly around Black love. Readers have described her work as sweet and spicy, deeply emotional, and healing.

She currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with the love of her life and their two sons. When she’s not typing away on a keyboard, she enjoys spending time with her family, going on hiking trips, gaming, or curling up with a good book.

Kosoko Jackson is a digital-media specialist, who lives in the New York Metro Area and spends too much time listening to Halsey and Taylor Swift.

Charish Reid is a fan of sexy books and disaster films. When she's not grading papers or prepping lessons for college freshmen, she enjoys writing romances that celebrate quirky black women who deserve HEAs. Charish currently lives in Sweden, with her husband, avoiding most forms of exercise.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Through his work across many media, Houston and Los Angeles-based artist Vincent Valdez bears witness to the world around him, chronicling an America at the margins. Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream… features work from over twenty years and writings addressing Valdez's work through the lens of politics, history and humanity. Valdez's approach to imaging his country, its people, politics, pride, and foibles includes boxing, lynchings of Mexican Americans, border walls, politics, greed, the Ku Klux Klan, and the failings and triumphs of American society. Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream… accompanies survey exhibitions of his work by the same name at the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston (CAMH) in 2024-5 and MASS MoCA in 2025-6. The bilingual (English/Spanish) publication features both full-color works and a gatefold for The Strangest Fruit as well as a sewn-in booklet of behind-the-scenes studio images. Texts include a reprint of Joyce Carol Oates' On Boxing, essays by exhibition co-curators Denise Markonish and Patricia Restrepo; and a text by Evan Garza on the artist's relationship to Texas.

DELUXE LIMITED EDITION features stenciled edges, color endpapers, and a unique jacket that reveals an alternate case cover illustration when removed. Available for a limited time while supplies last.

From New York Times bestselling author Akwaeke Emezi comes a steamy paranormal romance set in the Black South--a bold new foray that takes us on a journey of magic and fantasy, from the whispering creeks outside the city of Salvation to the very depths of Hell itself.

Tenderhearted Galilee was raised by the Kincaids, a formidable clan of Black women sequestered deep in the weeping willows and dark rushing creeks of their land. Galilee has always known that she's different--that there is an old and unknowable secret around her very existence. It has been a hollow ache inside her since her childhood, something she assumes she will always have to live with.

Until she meets Lucifer Helel. He's fronting as the head of security for her wealthy friend Oriaku's family, protecting a mysterious, ancient artifact, but from the moment she lays eyes on him, Gali knows he's not human. From her first incendiary touch, Lucifer knows something even Gali herself doesn't--that she isn't human either.

Enter: Leviathan. As Lucifer's most trusted prince of Hell, Levi is ruthless and determined to eliminate the intolerable danger that is Galilee before she brings death and disaster to those he loves. While unseen battles rage between Hell, Heaven, and earth, Lucifer and Galilee's attraction threatens to bring all the structures of their existence crashing down around them.

Soon, loyalties will be shattered and reformed as Kincaid secrets clash with the princes of Hell, driving even the most powerful to their knees. Galilee Kincaid must decide if she will step into herself and embrace the consequences of power in this astonishing, seductive, and wildly original fantasy.

Join us as we celebrate the release of Golden Ax with Rio Cortez and poet author, Ariana Brown. 

EVENT DEETS

When: September 25 @7PM CST

Where: Virtual via Crowdcast

How: Register on this page or head over to register on Crowdcast directly using this link.  If you register using our website (with or without purchasing the book) and not Crowdcast, you will register a Crowdcast watch link at least 24 hours before the start of the event.

About the Book 

“Outstanding . . . the poetry in these pages is intelligent, lyrical, as invested in the past as the present and future with witty nods to pop culture.” —Roxane Gay, author of Hunger
 
“I’ve never read anything like it. Truly a sublime experience.” —Jason Reynolds, author of Ain’t Burned All the Bright

A groundbreaking collection about Afropioneerism past and present from Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and New York Times bestselling author Rio Cortez

From a visionary writer praised for her captivating work on Black history and experience, comes a poetry collection exploring personal, political, and artistic frontiers, journeying from her family's history as "Afropioneers" in the American West to shimmering glimpses of transcendent, liberated futures. 
 
In poems that range from wry, tongue-in-cheek observations about contemporary life to more nuanced meditations on her ancestors—some of the earliest Black pioneers to settle in the western United States after Reconstruction—Golden Ax invites readers to re-imagine the West, Black womanhood, and the legacies that shape and sustain the pursuit of freedom. 

About the Author 

Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Rio Cortez is the New York Times bestselling author of The ABCs of Black History (Workman, 2020) and I Have Learned to Define a Field As a Space Between Mountains, winner of the 2015 Toi Dericotte and Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize. Her honors include a Poets & Writers Amy Award, as well as fellowships from Cave Canem, Canto Mundo, The Jerome Foundation, and Poet’s House. Rio holds an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University.

About the Conversation Partner

Ariana Brown is a queer Black Mexican American poet from San Antonio, TX, currently based in Houston. She is the author of We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). Ariana’s work investigates queer Black personhood in Mexican American spaces, Black relationality and girlhood, loneliness, and care. She holds a B.A. in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies, an M.F.A. in Poetry, and is pursuing an M.L.S. in Library Science. Ariana is a 2014 national collegiate poetry slam champion and owes much of her practice to Black performance communities led by Black women poets from the South. She has been writing, performing, and teaching poetry for over ten years. Follow Ariana online @ArianaThePoet.

Celebrate the release of Ashes at the Altar with LaDarrion Williams!

EVENT DEETS

When: Thursday, September 17 @ 7PM CST

Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St, Houston, TX 77004)

What: 

• Bookclub Discussion for Books 1 & 2 in the series
• Q&A with the author about Ashes at the Altar
• Activities and Games 
• Author Signing
• Giveaways

How:

• RSVP Only – Reserve your spot at the event.
• RSVP with Book – Reserve your spot and a copy of Ashes At The Altar
• RSVP with the Blood At The Root Trilogy Hardcover Bundle – Reserve your spot and receive a hardcover bundle of all three books in the Root Trilogy.

Please Note: Copies of Ashes at the Altar purchased from other retailers are not permitted inside the bookstore and are not eligible for the signing or photo line. To participate in the signing and photo opportunity, you must purchase the event book from Kindred Stories. If you have already purchased your copy from Kindred Stories, you may select the RSVP Only ticket option and bring your Kindred Stories copy to the event. You are also welcome to bring additional books by the author to be signed, but a Kindred Stories event book purchase is required to join the signing line.

If you purchase a ticket and are unable to attend the event, your ticket is non-refundable. If your ticket includes a book, an email will be sent to all attendees before and after the event with instructions on how to receive your book. Books must be claimed within 14 days following the event. If your book is not retrieved it will be returned to the publisher and will not be available for pick up in the future.

ABOUT THE BOOK

At a hidden magical HBCU a teen boy must confront evil spirits, family secrets and tested loyalties. In this haunting finale to the New York Times bestselling Blood at the Root trilogy, bloodlines, betrayal, and legacy collide in a battle that may cost everything.

Malik Baron has learned a lot since he first came to Caiman University: History is power. Family is more than just blood. You can't escape your past. And magic always comes with a price. 

But nothing he's been taught could have prepared him for what this semester will bring. Even after he risked it all to trap the evil spirit Marinette that has been possessing his mother, her power continues to grow. And with her and the Bokors still at large, the cracks in the magical community have reached a breaking point. Just as Malik begins to get to know his father's family, the Bonclairs' power is challenged, leaving him to decide where his loyalties lie. And it's not just the future of Caiman at stake, but the very magic that runs in his veins. 

In the propulsive and emotional conclusion to this powerful trilogy, the future and the family Malik has fought so hard to build and protect is in greater danger than ever. But with the power of ancestors and the strength of his loved ones behind him, can he fight for what the world has always said is impossible for a Black boy like him—a happy ending?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hailing from the small town of Helena, Alabama, LaDarrion Williams is a self-taught playwright, filmmaker, author, and screenwriter committed to shaping a new era of Black fantasy. His theatrical work has garnered attention at notable venues, including the Echo Theatre Playwrights Lab, the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha, TSU’s Black and Latino Playwrights Festival, and the Boise Contemporary Theater BIPOC Playwrights Festival.

Beyond theater, LaDarrion has directed three short films featured on YouTube and made his mark as a debut author with Blood at the Root, a New York Times and USA Today Bestseller. Through storytelling across multiple mediums, he continues to craft narratives that amplify Black voices, history, and imagination.

Join us as we examine the intersection of Black feminist politics and public housing with author Dr. Akira Drake Rodriguez and Josie Pickens!

EVENT DEETS:

When: Wednesday, April 6 at 7:00 PM CST

Where: Virtual via Crowdcast.

How:  Register on this page or head over to register on Crowdcast directly using this link.  If you register using our website (with or without purchasing the book) and not Crowdcast, you will register a Crowdcast watch link at least 24 hours before the start of the event.

We hope you can join us!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

This book explores the often-overlooked positive role of public housing in facilitating social movements and activism. Taking a political, social, and spatial perspective, the author offers Atlanta as a case study. Akira Drake Rodriguez shows that the decline in support for public housing, often touted as a positive (neoliberal) development, has negative consequences for social justice and nascent activism, especially among Black women. Urban revitalization policies target public housing residents by demolishing public housing towers and dispersing poor (Black) residents into new, deconcentrated spaces in the city via housing choice vouchers and other housing-based tools of economic and urban development.

Diverging Space for Deviants establishes alternative functions for public housing developments that would necessitate their existence in any city. In addition to providing affordable housing for low-income residents—a necessity as wealth inequality in cities increases—public housing developments function as a necessary political space in the city, one of the last remaining frontiers for citizens to engage in inclusive political activity and make claims on the changing face of the state.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

AKIRA DRAKE RODRIGUEZ is an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Weitzman School of Design. She received her PhD from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Urban Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.  She has a MPA from the Fels Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.  Her husband Ruben and her son Jack keep her laughing in their home in Philadelphia.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR:

Josie Pickens is a womanist and abolitionist professor, organizer, writer and thought leader. In addition to speaking and writing about topics that focus on the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, Josie is also the program director for upEND Movement, which is an organization committed to abolishing the the child welfare system. Connect with Josie and follow her musings on Twitter and Instagram at @jonubian.