Advice and wisdom from entrepreneur, bestselling author, and business icon Loida Lewis, with useful tips and best practices—from the physical to the mental—to achieve an ageless glow from the inside out, no matter your age

A heartfelt guide for those seeking to age gracefully by embracing self-care practices and positive lifestyle changes. The renowned CEO of the billon-dollar enterprise, TLC Beatrice, Loida Lewis shares her wisdom and actionable advice on maintaining beauty and vitality, detailing the daily practices and rituals that have served her well into her eighties. In this inspiring manual, she beautifully bridges memoir and prescriptive guidance, sharing her age-defying beauty “secrets” so we can also look and feel younger than their chronological age—without expensive cosmetic procedures. Readers will find encouragement to:

* Establish a daily skincare routine focused on hydration and sun protection
* Incorporate physical activities like stretching, walking, and yoga
* Embrace nutritious eating habits and mindful moderation
* Foster emotional and spiritual wellness through meditation, gratitude, and community bonds

Loida's narrative is filled with warmth and authenticity, offering a beacon of joy and resilience. Her personal reflections and practical tips create a valuable resource for anyone looking to enhance their well-being and celebrate life at any age. Rediscover the art of aging gracefully with this empowering and insightful guide, perfect for enhancing both inner and outer beauty.

A truly groundbreaking exploration of the lessons learned from the basketball GOAT, Michael Jordan, from those who competed with and against him

REFLECTIONS ON MICHAEL JORDAN―the true GOAT of men’s basketball―often center around his six championships with the Chicago Bulls. There has been remarkably little in-depth coverage of his two years with the Washington Wizards at the tail end of his NBA career. Lessons from Michael Jordan is a fascinating exploration of this surprisingly fertile, influential, and largely ignored period in MJ’s life.

This volume is a conversation―a collection of personal reflections, raw insights, and lived moments shared by the people who actually played alongside Michael Jordan, learned from him, competed against him, and saw him up close during this time in his career. Lessons from Michael Jordan includes twenty-three interviews (an homage to the #23 on MJ’s jersey) conducted by Etan Thomas, with Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley, Jerry Stackhouse, Phil Chenier, Kwame Brown, Jahidi White, Chamique Holdsclaw, Popeye Jones, Christian Laettner, Tyronn Lue, Wes Unseld Jr., and more. 

Whether a reader is drawn to a specific voice or a theme (leadership, legacy, work ethic, media pressure, etc.), they will find a great deal to hold on to. This is a book you keep close, not just read once and shelve; it is designed so readers can pick it up, drop into any section, and walk away with something powerful.

Lessons from Michael Jordan reads like a locker room conversation turned life lesson. The tone stays raw but reflective. Each contributor brings their truth, and Etan Thomas steps in as a guide. It’s for the student who needs a shot of belief, the athlete grinding in silence, the young person wondering if they’re seen or understood―or anyone interested in learning life and basketball lessons from the greatest player to ever grace the hardwood.

A hidden history of twentieth-century American modernity that re-examines a mere twelve-block area on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with Thelonious Monk as its guiding star. 

The Jungles reclaims the largely forgotten world of San Juan Hill, a predominantly Black neighborhood on Manhattan’s West Side, was one of the most fertile centers of American cultural life in the twentieth century.

At once a biography, an urban history, and a cultural reckoning, Howard W. French’s The Jungles reveals how the neighborhood that would encompass Lincoln Center, previously known as the Jungles, fostered numerous pathbreaking Black artists, among them a young Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917–1982).

The story opens in Cuba in 1898, where we watch as Teddy Roosevelt’s forces triumph on San Juan Hill, with close to one-fifth of the overall invading force consisting of Black soldiers whose valor went largely unrecognized. After returning to the US, these veterans joined a broader wave of Black migrants moving northward, eventually settling in a Manhattan -neighborhood that would take the battle’s name. San Juan Hill became a lively, artistic Black community that preceded the Harlem Renaissance and inspired some of the highest twentieth- century creative triumphs―giving rise to the stride piano style and nurturing the genius of Monk, whose mold-breaking artistry struggled to gain traction in an industry then dominated by white producers.

As Robert Moses began tearing down the neighborhood under the guise of “urban renewal,” Monk became its most famous holdout, staying put in his cramped apartment in the Phipps Houses at 243 West 63rd Street, his upright piano protruding from his bedroom into the kitchen as he continued to make his iconic music.

By the late 1950s, Monk’s genius had finally been recognized, but the erasure already felt irreversible, extending even to the musical West Side Story, which reimagined the neighborhood’s streets as Latino gang territory, whitewashing the predominantly Black and Caribbean community that had actually lived there.

A compelling history from one of our finest American historians, The Jungles ultimately emerges as a new way of telling the history of music, of New York, and of America. The cradle of jazz was not only in New Orleans but also in San Juan Hill, and French’s magnificent recreation of that vanished world, and of the miraculous life of Thelonious Monk, restores to American cultural memory what erasure nearly stole for good.

12 illustrations

Silver loves to swim and dreams of one day becoming a mermaid. There's only one problem: Her dad can't swim! 

From the bath to the pool and the beach, Silver's always been a water baby. 

She looks like a mermaid, swims like a fish, and even sleeps under the sea. 

Silver and her dad bake mermaid-tail cupcakes, build mermaid caves, and read underwater stories, but he can't join her in the pool like other dads. Silver would rather give up on her mer-mazing dreams than swim away without her dad. But what if she doesn't have to? 

This joyful story celebrates swimming and empowers little dreamers to pursue their passions.

We're meeting to discuss The Gift of Us by Lula White! For this special bookclub the author Lula White will be joining us for the discussion. 

BOOK CLUB MEETING DEETS

When: Tuesday, December 8 @ 7PM CST

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

How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you plan to attend! Support the Romance Book Club by purchasing a copy of the book from Kindred Stories here!

ABOUT THE GIFT OF US

Welcome to so-tiny-you'll-blink-and-miss-it town of Elaine for Christmas.

SUNDAY

Just days before Christmas, Sunday Conklin is on the brink of losing everything-her family's scenic farm-in the heart of her small Arkansas town. It's the legacy she's given up her life to protect. With the bank out of mercy and her options gone, her family's oldest enemy, the Adlers, will finally take the Conklin Fields for themselves. But a miracle arrives-one that could save Sunday, her neighbors, and the historic town of Elaine itself. There's just one problem: that miracle comes tangled up with the most infuriating man she's ever met... who belongs right back in Texas where he came from.

SEVEN

Seven Hardcastle can't believe his luck this Christmas, when he's assigned to a middle-of-nowhere Arkansas town. He's ready to return to his perfectly manicured life in Dallas with his wife and kids. All he needs is one signature-Sunday Conklin's. But when the town of Elaine strikes it big, Seven's fate is tied up with that of its most stubborn, maddening, and undeniably magnetic farm-owner. As the town's secrets unravel, and Sunday's fight becomes his own, Seven is handed a Christmas gift he never expected... one that forces him to question his past, his future, and where home truly is.

Note: This novel has been released in both a steamy edition that includes graphic intimacy and a clean edition that fades to black and is appropriate for ages 16+. This book is the CLEAN edition.

From the Washington Post’s first race and ethnicity reporter, a poignant investigation into the aftermath of the Great Migration, the promise of a Second Great Migration, and what future Black communities could look like across America in this eye-opening and thoughtful study, a mix of The Warmth of Other Suns and How the Word Is Passed.

Since the 1990s, demographers have been documenting a new Great Migration: millions of Black Americans leaving Northern and Western cities for the South their parents and grandparents fled during Jim Crow. Huge numbers of Black people have been moving to Memphis, Houston, Charlotte, and other booming metropolises in the hopes of recreating the vibrant communities their grandparents once left. Have they found what they were looking for? Is it possible for Black Americans to have community, economic prosperity, and safety all in one place? And if so, where?

In the Search for Black Mecca, Emmanuel Felton examines how these questions are playing out in real lives today, going into the homes of Black Americans who are weighing what they want and where they hope to find it. He identifies three archetypes—“Those Who Stay,” “Those Who Leave,” and “Those Who Build Something New”—and reveals the costs and benefits of each decision, while seeking answers to deeper questions regarding communal responsibility, what’s needed to make Black neighborhoods thrive, and how to manage the fact that white people are often threatened by Black success. He also unravels his own family’s migration story through the lives of his two grandfathers—a prominent New Orleans dentist and a troubled musician who migrated to Oakland, California.

Through these stories, Felton crystalizes our understanding of what it means to find—or to create —our own meccas: radical spaces for Black joy, freedom, and imagination, even when the external world tries to take those places away.

CORETTA SCOTT KING HONOR ARTIST, SEAN QUALLS

From Coretta Scott King Honor artist and illustrator of Questlove's The Idea in You, Sean Qualls comes a captivating introduction on how Black people have influenced music throughout history and what music means to Black culture.

The people sing; the people dance. The people have the music, and the music is the people.

Music has been embedded into the fabric of Black life since the first notes rang out and found their way into the souls of the first African inhabitants. From the melancholic blues to the funkifyingly upbeat disco, from earth-shattering rock ’n’ roll to groundbreaking jazz and hip-hop, music has been the bedrock of Black hope and culture. From its earliest arrival in the Americas, Black music has shaped American music and the world has never been the same because of it.

Coretta Scott King Honor illustrator Sean Qualls brings us the electrifying history of Black music and moves from one ground-breaking era to another, giving his own vibrant and hip spin on the rhythm and blues that will always have the power to comfort, guide, inspire, and remind us all.

The Music, The People will make for the most fun Black music history guide as it’s:

* A Picture Book That Makes History Fun: The fun, funky, and lively voice present in The Music, The People is unlike any other and delivers the history of music genres created, influenced, and loved by Black individuals in a way that is sure to readily engage and enlighten readers as they move through music history.
* Filled with Important Messages About Music: The Music, The People infuses its pages with important messages regarding music’s ability to uplift, transcend, break barriers, and lead revolutions. Music feeds the soul, and Qualls gratifyingly depicts that.
* Features Art Like No Other: Each page of The Music, The People features Qualls’ signature breathtaking art as he moves through each musical era, making for a reading experience that’s as gratifying as it is captivating.

Jabari Jumps meets The Magical Yet in this infectiously optimistic and rhythmic picture book that will inspire children to give it a whirl and try again (and again).
A little girl loves to watch the big kids play hula hoop. She wants nothing more than to sway and swirl like them one day.
So, she picks one up, gives it a whirl… and the hoop falls to the ground before she knows it.
Thwump! Clatter clatter!
And even though she picks it up repeatedly, she can’t seem to get the hoop to whirl. Then something magical happens on the last try that changes her forever.
This sweet picture book is perfect for anyone with a dream who is determined to never give up.

* Heartwarming Message: Detailing the importance of persistence and resilience, this story encourages children not to give up on a goal only because it’s difficult at first.
* Classic and Colorful Illustrations bring its readers in and capture the charm of childhood.
* Perfect for Read-Aloud: Complete with sounds of the hoola hoop, optimistic tone, and rhythmic text!

In this meticulously researched and vividly written account, a prominent historian reclaims a forgotten incident of racial violence in the Jim Crow South.

The Rifle and the Plough reconstructs a little-known episode from the summer of 1910, when the Black farming settlement of Sandy Beulah in East-Central Texas came under attack. White mobs waged war on prosperous Black landowners; rumors became weapons; celebration became provocation. Historian Steven A. Reich shows how the massacre unfolded and why it happened: the growing accumulation of land by Black residents, heightened racial tensions following boxer Jack Johnson’s heavyweight title victory, and white resistance to Black autonomy and public festivity, including Juneteenth. The Rifle and the Plough recovers the rise and destruction of a thriving Black community and asks why this history still matters. By linking racial violence to struggles over historical memory, land theft, and accountability, Reich speaks directly to contemporary debates about how the nation confronts its past, what justice demands of the present, and what reparative futures might yet be imagined.

59 illustrations

The story that captivated readers―now complete for the first time.

Passion for the Heist introduced readers to the love story of Passion Adams and Percy “Pain” Wells―a tale of survival, betrayal, and love. Now, experience The Wild Hearts Duology in one volume, including Passion for the Heist and the never-before-published sequel, Murder of Crows.

A crime brought them together. Grief bound them. Love made them infamous.

Percy “Pain” Wells returned from prison with two things: a ruined reputation and his grandmother’s medical bills. Debts don’t care if he’s trying to go straight, and the streets he once ruled now whisper his name like a warning.

Passion Adams has nothing left but the locket holding her parents’ ashes, a monster for an uncle, and habits that numb the pain. When the locket is stolen in a robbery, she thinks it’s gone forever. Then it turns up in the hands of a stranger with hardened eyes and a calm that screams danger.

Pain should walk away, but something about Passion―her fire, her pain―won’t let him go. Their lives collide, and what starts as a mission to make things right becomes a fight to stay alive. Their explosive love turns two broken souls into the most wanted names in the city, hunted by cops and the underworld alike.

For Passion and Pain, there are only two ways out: disappear into the shadows or become the story everyone tells.

The Talented Mr. Ripley meets the Wu-Tang Clan: An American Saga in this dark psychological thriller.

Thomas “Maz” Kincaid lives a lavish life as a rising rap star: money, influence, and fame. But Maz’s success rests on a lie—his lyrics to his chart-topping album belong to someone else, his foster brother, Adonis.

Adonis, fresh out of prison is done watching his brother live off his talent and launches a calculated campaign of vengeance. But Maz won’t let all he’s worked for be taken away. He’s willing to lie, manipulate, and even kill to protect the fraudulent life he’s built.

As the rivalry escalates, the line between victim and villain blurs. With both men—damaged, cunning, and ruthless, locked in a psychological war where only one can survive the spotlight. Who will rule the stage, and who will end up in a grave?

Dark, complex, and suspenseful, All the Smoke is a cautionary tale, exploring identity, trauma, and the psychopathy behind stardom in the music industry.