We're meeting to discuss They Call Her Regret by Channelle Desamours!

BOOK CLUB MEETING DEETS

When: Tuesday, October 27 @ 7PM CST 

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

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

ABOUT THEY CALL HER REGRET

Luke Cage plays detective and super hero when he uncovers a conspiracy turning vulnerable Americans into unwitting pawns of a madman.

New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby (King of Ashes) writes an original crime novel starring Harlem’s unbreakable hero for the Marvel Crime thriller series for adult readers.

With advanced cybernetics showing up in the possession of low-level criminals, Luke Cage is hired to investigate a factory manufacturing medical devices in rural Virginia. Leaving Jessica Jones during a delicate moment in their relationship, he makes plans to travel south but is devastated to learn that a cousin who scoped out the plant for him has been found dead. The police report states it was an accident. But Luke has long known that official words are just that: words.

Fueled by guilt and vengeance, Luke arrives in Virginia and promises his aunt he’ll get to the bottom of things. But danger lurks in every living room, barroom, and country road of Majestic, and the local sheriff’s barely concealed prejudices are ready to boil to the surface. Even ordinary people seem to have no qualms about testing their might against the hero from New York City.

As Luke uncovers a conspiracy reaching to the county line and beyond, an persistent evil begins to take hold of the town, leaving Luke to hope that his unbreakable skin will protect him long enough to protect others and bring an end to the hate threatening to engulf the nation.

Truth to Power continues the Marvel Crime series that began with Lisa Jewell’s Breaking the Dark and Alex Segura’s Enemy of My Enemy. Bringing fans into a grittier, street-level side of the Marvel Universe, Marvel Crime novels build on one another but can be enjoyed as stand-alone reads and will thrill even those new to the Marvel Universe.

Story Locale:The American South, New York City

Series Overview: Marvel Crime brings all-new stories to new audiences hungry for
hard-edged, propulsive crime fiction featuring their favorite Marvel characters.

Named one of the Most Anticipated Books of 2025 by Foreign Policy

“Howard French’s The Second Emancipation stands the second half of the last century on its geopolitical head.” ―David Levering Lewis, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

From the acclaimed author of Born in Blackness comes an extraordinary account of Africa’s liberation from colonial oppression, a work that fundamentally reshapes our understanding of modern history.

A work of epic dimension that recasts the liberation of twentieth-century Africa through the lens of revolutionary leader Kwame Nkrumah.

The Second Emancipation, the second work in a trilogy from best-selling author Howard W. French about Africa’s pivotal role in shaping world history, underscores Adam Hochschild’s contention that French is a “modern-day Copernicus.” The title―referring to a brief period beginning in 1957 when dozens of African colonies gained their freedom―positions this liberation at the center of a “movement of global Blackness,” with one charismatic leader, Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972), at its head.

That so few people today know about Nkrumah is an omission that French demonstrates is “typical of our deliberate neglect of Africa’s enormous role in the birth of the modern world.” Determined to re-create Nkrumah’s life as “an epic twentieth-century story,” The Second Emancipation begins with his impoverished, unheralded birth in the far-western region of Ghana’s Gold Coast. But blessed with a deep curiosity, a young Nkrumah pursued an overseas education in the United States. Nowhere is French’s consummate style more vivid than in Nkrumah’s early years in Depression-era America, especially in his mesmerizing portrait of a culturally effervescent Harlem that Nkrumah encountered in 1935 before heading to college. During his student years in Pennsylvania and later as an activist in London, Nkrumah became steeped in a renowned international Black intellectual milieu―including Du Bois, Garvey, Fanon, Padmore, and C.L.R. James, who called him “one of the greatest political leaders of our century”―and formed an ideology that readied him for an extraordinarily swift and peaceful rise to power upon his return to Ghana in 1947.

Four years later, in a political landslide he engineered while imprisoned, Nkrumah stunned Britain by winning the first general election under universal franchise in Africa, becoming Ghana’s first independent prime minister in 1957. As leader of a sovereign nation, Nkrumah wielded his influence to promote the liberation of the entire continent, pushing unity as the only pathway to recover from the damages of enslavement and subjugation. By the time national military and police forces, aided by the CIA, overthrew him in 1966, Nkrumah’s radical belief in pan-African liberation had both galvanized dozens of nascent African states and fired a global agenda of Black power.

In its dramatic recasting of the American civil rights story and in its tragic depiction of a continent that once exuded all the promise of a newly won freedom, The Second Emancipation becomes a generational work that positions Africa at the forefront of modern-day history.

16 pages of illustrations; 3 maps

The first book in a brand-new series, Hunt the Red Hood, from TikTok sensation B.B. Reid, a dark romantic retelling of Red Riding Hood.

"Guard your heart, foolish girl. The wolves will come to steal it."

In a quiet French town steeped in old folklore, Nyx has always believed in logic―not legends. So discovering she's descended from a line of Red Hood witches feels more like a mistake than destiny. But some stories refuse to stay buried.

The Volkovs have been cursed for generations, and time is running out. The only way to break it? A Red Hood witch must fall in love with one of them. Mikhail Volkov is desperate to save someone he loves―and ending the curse is his last hope. Getting close to Nyx was supposed to be a means to an end… until it becomes something far more dangerous.

Gray, the watchful hunter who seems to linger on the edges of every secret, is thrust into Nyx's life next. Protective, intense, and impossible to ignore, he draws Nyx deeper into a world she doesn't understand―and can't escape.

Caught between wolf and hunter, instinct and reason, Nyx must decide who to trust―and what she's willing to risk.

The veteran White House correspondent follows up Black Women Will Save the World with a gripping, soul-baring, and deeply personal examination of online misogynoir—specific and relentless online bullying attacks based solely on race and gender.

Notes on a Blacklash is veteran White House reporter April Ryan’s gripping, soul-baring look at what happens when the world suddenly turns its full attention on you. This isn’t just the story of one viral moment with President Trump. It’s about the avalanche that follows: the scrutiny, the emotional and physical toll, and the way your identity can become fuel for headlines and hashtags.

April pulls back the curtain on what it truly costs to be seen and what it takes to survive it. With vulnerability and power, she recounts the moments that made her go viral, not because she chased attention, but because she showed up authentically. Her presence, her truth, and her refusal to shrink under pressure struck a chord and sparked cultural firestorms.

From a high-stakes press room showdown to the history-making decision by Vice President Kamala Harris, from the public disrespect of Stevie Wonder to the slap heard around the world, April explores how race, gender, and power collide in a world addicted to outrage and instant opinions.

At its core, this book explores visibility—its price, its power, and the fight to reclaim your story when millions are watching. What does it mean to go viral when your hair is politicized, your voice is policed, and your very existence is treated as a threat? Sometimes, this is what it feels like when the spotlight finds you: uninvited, unrelenting, and impossible to ignore.

The next book in the New Haven series, interconnected standalones featuring second chances, fiery passion, and Black heroines who get their happily ever afters.

Nadia

I expect nothing.

From life, from God, from men.

I don't hope or want or pray. Those are luxuries I can't afford when I'm doing the desperate math of survival while walking the tight rope of life on the run in a strange city.

New Haven wasn't supposed to be a fresh start. That would be asking too much from a life that took my parents from me and left me vulnerable to monsters. To be used but not loved. To be kept but not cherished.

I'd accepted my fate, settled in it like sore feet in a pair of ill fitted heels, but then he walked into my life and released me from the prison of my past, leaving me free to hope, to want, to love.

Sebastian

I didn't know I was looking for anything until I was looking at her.

And since the moment she came into my view, I haven't been able to look away. There's something sad behind her eyes. Something desperate in the way she moves through the world. Like the devil is on her heels and she doesn't know whether to run or stay and fight.

Other people's problems aren't usually something I have time for, but for her I'll make time. For her, I'll stand and fight. I'll make her battles my battles, her dreams my dreams, and her safety my top priority.

We're meeting to discuss The Secret World of Maggie Grey by Granger!

BOOK CLUB MEETING DEETS

When: Tuesday, September 14 @ 7PM CST

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

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

ABOUT THE SECRET WORLD OF MAGGIE GREY

This is the Underground. We go by a different set of rules here―ones steeped in magic, history, and well . . . blood.

Maggie Grey always dismissed her grandmother’s tales as superstition. Bedtime stories of vampiric priests, midnight covens, and secret conjurers from her youth during the Civil Rights Era. Even Maggie’s stark white hair felt like nothing more than an inherited quirk. But when her grad school presentation retelling those stories catches the interest of her professor, she discovers the truth buried within them. He directs Maggie to Drew Collins University, a hidden HBCU beneath the streets of Atlanta where the legends come to life.

At DCU, necromancy is a major, students with claws and fangs roam the campus, and Maggie leans on a new circle of unlikely allies: Souxie, a mysterious priestess; Asha, a scarred siren; Isis, a water-bending nymph; and Quan, a snarky talking cat. Soon, Maggie learns she comes from the most feared bloodline in the Underground: the First Family, a lineage of vampires whose power has haunted the community for generations. That makes her not only dangerous but a target, especially to Namir, the sharp-eyed werewolf whose family has long despised hers. Distrust simmers between them, even as an undeniable pull grows harder to ignore.

When a murder shatters the campus, suspicion lands on Maggie. Not just because of what she is but because of the family she comes from. In a world where legacy is everything, hers might be the deadliest of all.

A career retrospective of a singular voice in contemporary American art, featuring six decades of artwork that chronicles his vision of the Black American experience
 
New Orleans–based artist, community organizer, and cultural provocateur Willie Birch (b. 1942) has dedicated his career to storytelling. His incisive work across a wide variety of media―including paintings, large-scale drawings, wood and papier-mâché sculpture, and public works―explores his unique vision of Black America and draws on sources as diverse as Egyptian numerology, American folk art, and jazz music.
 
This book showcases more than one hundred of Birch’s artworks alongside essays by eminent scholars and curators. Russell Lord provides an introduction to the artist’s life and work; Lowery Stokes Sims writes about Birch’s use of papier-mâché, for which he garnered acclaim during his time in New York City, and situates Birch within the New York art scene of the 1980s and ’90s; Grace Deveney considers the ways Birch gives visual form to the complex relationship between Black Americans and mass media; and Leslie King Hammond discusses how the city of New Orleans―its history and its communities―has shaped Birch’s work.
 
Published in association with the American Federation of Arts
 
Exhibition Schedule:
 
California African American Museum, Los Angeles
May 5–October 4, 2026
 
New Orleans Museum of Art
March 20–September 5, 2027
 
Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, University of North Florida
October 28, 2027–May 14, 2028
 
Hudson River Museum
September 22, 2028–January 14, 2029

A heart-wrenching yet vividly hopeful novel about a Black girl's struggle to find the quiet beauty in life and friendship amid the chaos of grief and mental illness by New York Times, USA Today, and Indie bestselling author Frederick Joseph.

"Frederick is such a grounded and beautiful voice of not just this moment but all the moments. Everything's Not Lost cements him firmly as a much needed and stunning voice inside the world of YA literature." —Jacqueline Woodson, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award

As a sixteen-year-old Black girl with bipolar disorder, Ella Washington has plenty stacked against her. But following her beloved sister’s unexpected death and its turbulent aftermath, Ella is desperate to find any sense of normalcy. Worse still, someone at her school is determined to drive her deeper into despair.

It feels nearly impossible to find her way out of the fog of grief and loneliness, but through her love of art, some unlikely new friends, and the memory of her sister, Ella slowly learns that the pursuit of happiness and forgiveness is an endeavor that is more than worthwhile.

Told in Frederick Joseph’s perceptive and lyrical voice, Everything’s Not Lost is an achingly relatable story about finding points of light even in the darkest of times.

Prioritize your mental, physical, and spiritual wellness with this empowering collection of 50 self-care activities curated specifically for Black women to promote self-love.

It’s time for Black women to put themselves first. In a world that systemically devalues both Black people and women, existing at the intersection of these two identities can be a constant struggle. Oludara Adeeyo’s Self-Care for Black Women Deck is here to help you prioritize you—and your mental, physical, and spiritual wellness. These 50 activity cards allow you to kickstart and maintain your self-care journey. You’ll find the self-confidence to celebrate what it means to be a Black woman, so you can live your most authentic life.

From New York Times-bestselling author Janae Marks comes a heartfelt middle-grade novel about a tween who uncovers a deep family secret after she moves into her estranged half-brother’s guardianship following their mother’s accident.

Addy Thompson’s life is untangling: Her mom is in a coma following a car accident, and now she’s in the custody of her estranged half-brother—although Julian feels more connected by DNA than real family. On top of that, her two best friends, Thea and Luz, are fighting, and she’s not sure she’s ready for her first ever swim meet. Addy feels helpless in the middle of everything.

As Addy gets to know Julian better, more questions arise. Why haven’t they spent time together before now? And why won’t he visit their mom in the hospital? When Addy discovers an old journal in her mom’s closet, it sends her on a journey to uncover the truth.

But revealing the past comes with big feelings and bigger secrets, and when Addy gets Thea and Luz involved in her scheme, the ties of their friendship stretch to their limit. Even worse, Julian refuses to talk about their mom, and Addy’s search for the truth threatens their growing relationship.

All Addy wants is to knit the people she loves back together. But what if she’s the one tearing them apart?