In her first book for young readers, National Book Award winner Imani Perry chronicles the history of schools and education in Black America.

After emancipation, freed people of all ages wanted to go to school. From the story of John McCline, who learned to read as a boy serving in the Union Army, through the teachers who built one-room schoolhouses across the rural South during Reconstruction to the student-led movement to desegregate schools during the Civil Rights movement, Imani Perry’s intimate and sweeping social history narrates this powerful desire for education and literacy―and how African Americans built and maintained an education system even while segregated and unequal public education failed them. These schools taught Black children to believe in themselves and their future despite Jim Crow and the institutionally racist society they lived in.

Informed by a rich trove of letters, diaries, and other archival materials, Hope in a Classroom is a necessary, expansive new narrative of the Black American experience for young readers, delivered in a propulsive and soaring voice.

illustrations throughout

For readers of Nightcrawling, My Absolute Darling, and My Dark Vanessa, this captivating debut centers on nineteen-year-old Keke as she sets out on a desperate quest for freedom and a stable life for herself and her young daughter.

Keke is a young mother living in the basement of a house in Newark, New Jersey under the watchful eye of a man called Daddy. For five years, she has been told that she’ll be able to move upstairs once she and the other “girls” being trafficked hit the magic number. When that happens, she will no longer have to work the motels along the interstate. Her daughter, Angel, will be able to go to school, and Keke will live with Daddy in a real home, like a real family.

But then Keke gets picked up by vice cops and diverted to a women’s shelter, upending the delicate balance of her life. Hope for a new beginning starts shining through the cracks―but she doesn’t trust the system to save her. Unwilling to surrender Angel to foster care, Keke needs to figure out how to get both herself and her daughter to freedom.

Sakinah Hofler’s debut is a taut, incendiary testament to a mother’s love, and an uncompromising evocation of how desperation can drive you through to the light.

A chart-topping picture book biography about how Bad Bunny went from a small-town dreamer in Puerto Rico to one of the greatest global music icons of all time.

* A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Right now, in any city in the world, you’ll hear the unmistakable beats of Bad Bunny’s music blasting from speakers.

A global superstar who has sold out stadiums around the world, Bad Bunny is redefining what it means to be an artist. But how did he get here? Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio grew up surrounded by the rhythms and culture of reggaeton. He has not only become an icon of the genre but has transformed it by innovating its sound and challenging the machismo culture of the genre by embracing fluidity in fashion, masculinity, and the LGBTQ+ community. Could young Benito have imagined performing at the Super Bowl, making history by becoming the first artist to win Album of the Year for a project entirely in Spanish, and becoming a voice of hope for millions across the globe?

Inspiring and groundbreaking, Bad Bunny’s story is a must-have for every fan who sings along to his hits—and a reminder that breaking the rules can lead to building a legacy.

The action guide to building serious financial power.

For too long, women have worked twice as hard to earn less than men, and women have felt emotionally broke and financially stressed. It's time for a change and time for women—especially women of color—to make bank.

In her first book, We Should All Be Millionaires, Rachel Rodgers—Black woman, mother of four kids, and self-made millionaire—shared her personal story. How she climbed from crushing debt and financial stress to wealth and abundance, running a multi-million-dollar company, and owning a blissful 57-acre horse ranch.

Her book inspired thousands of readers and listeners to construct a new attitude about money, claim their power, and build the financial security that we all need and deserve. Now, with Hello Seven, Rachel provides a practical framework to achieving seven-figure wealth.

This is the book that makes it happen. Rachel lays out the Hello Seven Growth Scale so you can identify where you fall on one of seven levels — from $0 to 7 figures — and map out the specific action steps you need to take to grow from one level to the next.

“Engrossing and informative.” ―Zaakir Tameez, New York Times Book Review

From one of the most acclaimed and influential historians of the United States, an insightful guide to our history and why it matters.

Eric Foner has done more to shape the public and professional understanding of American history than any other scholar. The preeminent historian of the Civil War era, Foner’s keynote has been American freedom and the recurring battles over its meanings and boundaries. His award-winning works show that freedom has been a birthright for some and a struggle for others, that rights gained can also be lost, and that they must always be tended with knowledge and vigilance. The present political moment makes the importance of these themes abundantly clear.

This collection of Foner’s recent reviews and commentaries demonstrates the range of his interests and expertise, running from slavery and antislavery, through the disunion and remaking of the United States in the nineteenth century, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement, and into our current politics. Each piece shows a master at work, melding historical knowledge and balanced judgment with crystalline prose. Foner takes up towering figures from Washington to Lincoln, Douglass, and Rosa Parks, pivotal events such as the Fugitive Slave Act and the Tulsa Race Massacre, and the fragility of constitutional guarantees to civil liberties, due process, and birthright citizenship, whether in times of war or peace. He also explores recent controversies over how to commemorate, and how to teach, our history.

From high fashion to everyday clothes, this book looks at the personal and political importance of Black style from the 1880s to the present.

Both during and after slavery in North America, “Sunday best” referred to clothes reserved for church or special occasions. Dressing in one’s Sunday best conveyed a sense of dignity and self-worth. Sunday best styling evolved after emancipation into the twentieth century, reflecting subsequent periods of Black cultural liberation, empowerment, and upward mobility. It is emblematic of the ways that self-fashioning in African-diasporic communities affirms humanity and communicates identity.

With examples from Canada, the Caribbean, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Sunday Best features archival and contemporary fashion alongside photography, painting, sculpture, and time-based media, looking at the significance of Black style. Essays by an interdisciplinary group of curators, designers, and scholars consider how communities throughout the African diaspora have used style as a reminder of one’s value, visibility, and agency, and the enduring influence of Sunday best dressing on artistic expression.

This richly illustrated volume is organized around the following themes:

• Origins, featuring fashion design by Christopher John Rogers and photography by James Van Der Zee
• Black church, with art by Coreen Simpson, Gordon Parks, and Laura Wheeler Waring
• Migration, through designers such as Foday Dumbuya
• Liberation, with fashion design by Spencer Badu and photography by Chantal Regnault
• Call and response, including fashion design by Patrick Kelly and photography by Melodie McDaniel

Published in association with the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Exhibition Schedule

Art Gallery of Ontario
(October 6, 2026–February 28, 2027)

Philadelphia Museum of Art
(May 1, 2027–August 8, 2027)

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 computer scientist, astrophysicist, and dreamer, Terysa Ridgeway, comes a story of two starry-eyed sisters who shine in STEM together!

Eight-year-old Terysa is a born problem-solver with a galaxy of ideas―and she's determined to win the school science fair. There's just one tiny problem… she has too many brilliant ideas to choose from!

Luckily, her big sister, Shana, is an astronomy whiz. When Shana shares the inspiring story of Dorothy Vaughan―NASA's first Black supervisor and a trailblazing computer programming pioneer―Terysa is inspired. Together, the sisters dive into coding, teamwork, and a little trial-and-error to design a project that moves all on its own. It's creative. It's unique. It's out of this world. But will it be enough to win first place?

Perfect for readers who love:

* STEM-inspired stories for kids.
* Strong, curious girls in science.
* Coding and beginner programming concepts.
* Inspiring real-life role models like Dorothy Vaughan.
* Sister relationships and teamwork.

A bold and singularly funny novel about a young Ethiopian American woman whose twenty-first-century life collides spectacularly with Ethiopian legends that she knows can’t possibly be real, and yet...

“Remember when we were children The storyteller would shout, Teret teret, meaning a tale, a tale, and we would yell back Yelam beret! We didn’t know this meant a cow’s house, just that it rhymed. And then the story would begin.”

Belaynesh Tessema, an Ethiopian American journalist working at the independent travel magazine aptly named Trivial Pursuits, isn’t exactly pleased when her overbearing boss insists she travel to Washington, DC, to cover a story about a newly incorporated, all-Ethiopian town. When she starts packing to leave, things start to get…strange. First, there are the huge lapses in Belaynesh’s memory and sense of place and time. Perhaps more alarming, she realizes that every morning when she wakes up, she begins the same day again: September 10, 2007, which also happens to be the last day of the Ethiopian calendar year. Or, more to the point, the day before the world is set to end.

Enter Teret, a talking parrot who reveals an ambitious plan to un-stick time, sending him and Belaynesh deep into the world of Ethiopian mythology. At its center is the star of the apocryphal Book of Enoch, the mysterious Henok, who’s none too happy at the many ways Belaynesh’s arrival on this strange, surreal scene has disrupted the book he’s dedicated his life to composing. As Belaynesh and Teret dodge contemporary reinventions of the book’s grandest flourishes, from fallen angels to time traveling giants, and even Henok himself, Belaynesh learns that sometimes moving forward requires looking back.

Irreverently funny and wildly inventive, Teret Teret is modern magical realism at its best. It blends some of Ethiopia’s oldest stories with a heroine for our current moment, for a mold-breaking, epic tale about identity, love, and writing new stories when the old ones don’t serve us anymore.

Discover how to overcome challenges, regain your footing, and rise stronger.

In The Art of Rising Again, join artist, writer, speaker LaNia Roberts (LaNia the Artist) for a bold and transformative journey that will guide you to live with greater self-worth, resilience, and unapologetic joy.

Life knocks us down. Over and over again. And getting back up can feel impossible. Whether you've been navigating illness, divorce, failure, or other life-altering events, it is time to break free from shame, embrace self-compassion, and rediscover your purpose.

LaNia has been there too, and in The Art of Rising Again she comes alongside you and shares her story of overcoming some of life’s biggest challenges so you can find the permission and strength to do it too. Combining her stunning artwork with practical tools that will empower you during the journey ahead, she offers you inspiration to regain your footing and rise stronger. Organized into 10 impactful sections, this book offers:

* Raw, personal stories from LaNia’s life, revealing how she overcame challenges and silenced her inner critic
* Devotions, affirmations, and actionable steps to empower you on your journey of healing and growth
* Stunning fine art paintings by LaNia, celebrating memory, identity, and liberation through vibrant colors and layered storytelling

The Art of Rising Again is an ideal gift for loved ones and friends who need encouragement, those who may not yet recognize their own worth, or anyone recovering from life’s toughest challenges.

If you are ready to walk the path of transformation, this no-nonsense, straight-to-the-heart guide will help you get started. This book will empower you to reclaim your confidence, pursue your dreams, and rise again.

An inventive haunted house story with an uncanny twist, in which a woman mourning the recent death of her abusive mother takes a housekeeping job with increasingly strange and dangerous tasks, for fans of Carissa Orlando and Monika Kim.

Loretta is numb with grief. Reeling after the death of her abusive—although she would never use that word—mother and estranged from her younger sister, Loretta finds herself unemployed and alone.

Resolutely out of options, she hears of an unusual job opportunity. The owner of a huge home on the outskirts of town is looking for a live-in housekeeper—and offering thousands of dollars every week, in cash. There are only two simple rules: complete the daily chores left in the mailbox and no overnight guests. It seems like the perfect escape.

The idyllic solitude quickly sours into a waking nightmare. The daily chores escalate from simple cleaning to grotesque demands for Loretta’s flesh and blood. Any resistance is met with painful and increasingly life-threatening punishments. Loretta is familiar with this situation—well trained by her mother and miserable childhood— and isolates herself inside the carnivorous mansion. As her sense of reality warps and she falls deeper into the house’s clutches, her friends and sister try to intervene before it’s too late. But to survive, Loretta must decide whether to accept the comfort of familiar cycles or find out how hard she’s willing to fight for herself.

Both a terrifying thriller and an emotional portrait of resilience in the face of abuse, This House Is Not a Home is an ambitious debut from an exciting new voice in adult horror.

The iconic NAACP magazine’s most dynamic and daring African American voices gathered together for the first time in a groundbreaking literary collection, from founding editor W. E. B. DuBois and Jessie Fauset to today's modern day cultural critics, including June Shagaloff and Michael A. Lawrence.

The Crisis magazine is the official publication of NAACP. It was created in 1910 by renowned historian, civil rights activist, and NAACP co-founder W. E. B. DuBois. The magazine appeared three years before Conde Nast launched an American version of Vanity Fair and fifteen years before Harold W. Ross introduced The New Yorker to readers.

Du Bois started The Crisis in one room of the New York Evening Post building in New York City and edited the publication until 1934. A group of NAACP leaders adapted the name from James Russell Lowell's poem The Present Crisis, written at the height of the Civil War.

In the premier issue Du Bois made clear of the publication’s goals: "The Crisis will record important happenings and movements in the world which bear on the great problem of inter-racial relations, and especially those which affect the Negro-American. Secondly, it will be a review of opinion and literature, recording briefly books, articles, and important expressions of opinion in the white and colored press on the race problem. Thirdly, it will publish a few short articles. Finally, its editorial page will stand for the rights of men, irrespective of color or race, for the highest ideals of American democracy."

At the time, Du Bois noted, "it was the rule of most white papers never to publish a picture of a colored person except as a criminal and the colored papers published mostly pictures of celebrities who sometimes paid for the honor. In general, the Negro race was just a little afraid to see itself in plain ink." Everything changed with the advent of The Crisis.

Now, for the first time ever The Best of the Crisis will bring together the magazine’s previously published most dynamic and daring voices and stories from its founding until today in one extraordinary collection, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Bayard Rustin, Francis Grimke, J.A. Rogers, Stetson Kennedy, E. Franklin Frazier, Oswald Garrison Villard, Jessie Fauset and Arna Bontemps.

This edition will spotlight the first section devoted to Negro children, the first presentation of Negro artwork, the first feature stories about successful Negroes, the first full-fledged drive for Pan-Africanism, the first special numbers devoted to Negro educational advancement, the first articles on consumers cooperation all tied together with contemporary voices on where we stand on these issues today.