Reconnect to the natural world through over 60 delicious recipes and practical tips for cooking outside from the founder of Camp Yoshi.

Nothing motivates, comforts, energizes, and brings people together like a delicious meal. For Rashad Frazier, founder of outdoor adventure company Camp Yoshi, the outdoors is a place for celebration, and a hot meal at the end of a long day is one of the best ways to celebrate.

If you've ever felt intimidated by or excluded from the world of outdoor recreation and don’t know where to begin, Cook Out is your first step to unlocking your next adventure. Frazier shares his wisdom and approach to embarking in the outdoors with step-by-step tips for formulating comprehensive packing lists to properly equip your camp kitchen, cooking both on an open flame and on a camping stove, and setting yourself up for success with recipes you often start at home. As you conquer each meal of the day—whether that's Fish and Grits to begin your morning, Banana Bread with Espresso Butter for a meal on the fly, or Fire-Roasted Curry Cauliflower and Tofu Donuts with Pear Compote to round out an epic day—you'll realize that you can survive in the outdoors and thrive through community building in the natural world.

A must-have guide for campers, explorers, and outdoor enthusiasts, Cook Out is a rallying cry for anyone who wants to diversify the outdoor space, one campfire-cooked meal at a time.

A classic analysis of the Black middle class studies its origin and development, accentuating its behavior, attitudes, and values during the 1940s and 1950s.

When it was first published in 1957, E. Franklin Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie was simultaneously reviled and revered—revered for its skillful dissection of one of America’s most complex communities, reviled for daring to cast a critical eye on a section of black society that had achieved the trappings of the white, bourgeois ideal.

The author traces the evolution of this enigmatic class from the segregated South to the post-war boom in the integrated North, showing how, along the road to what seemed like prosperity and progress, middle-class blacks actually lost their roots to the traditional black world while never achieving acknowledgment from the white sector. The result, concluded Frazier, is an anomalous bourgeois class with no identity, built on self-sustaining myths of black business and society, silently undermined by a collective, debilitating inferiority complex.

A cinematic, razor-sharp novel following a backlot fixer’s daring investigation into the suspicious death of a closeted Black actor within the glamorous world of Hollywood, from the bestselling author of My Government Means to Kill Me

Xavier C. Barlow, one of Hollywood’s young Black stars taking the industry by storm in the late 1950s, is Skyline Studios’s ambitious attempt to rival Sidney Poitier's burgeoning success. His arrival into the industry is calculated, his charm is magnetic, and his seductive screen presence appeals to both audiences and celebrities across generations.

But years later, after Xavier dies at the height of his fame, Aaron Touissant―Skyline’s designated backlot fixer who helps the studio’s stars stay as deep in the closet as humanly possible―is finally ready to expose the powerful culprits responsible for his untimely death.

Written as part-confessional, part-cris de coeur from Aaron's panoramic lens, There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood is a searing portrait of the movie industry as a manicured minefield and a compelling journey into the queer history of Los Angeles.

The bookclub meeting is on March 28, 2024 at 7 PM. We're be hanging out with our friends at The Plant Project (in the Montrose Collective). Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read) but you are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

In the vein of Octavia E. Butler and Margaret Atwood, a harrowing novel set in an alternate United States—a world of injustice and bondage in which a young Black woman becomes the concubine of a powerful white government official and must face the dangerous consequences.

Solenne Bonet lives in Texas where choice no longer exists. An algorithm determines a Black woman’s occupation, spouse, and residence. Solenne finds solace in penning the biography of Henriette, an ancestor who’d been an enslaved concubine to a wealthy planter in 1800s Louisiana. But history repeats itself when Solenne, lonely and naïve, finds herself entangled with Bastien Martin, a high-ranking government official. Solenne finds the psychological bond unbearable, so she considers alternatives. With Henriette as her guide, she must decide whether and how to leave behind all she knows.  

Inspired by the lives of enslaved concubines to U.S. politicians and planters, The Blueprint unfolds over dual timelines to explore bodily autonomy, hypocrisy, and power imbalances through the lens of the nation’s most unprotected: a Black girl.

In the vein of Octavia E. Butler and Margaret Atwood, a harrowing novel set in an alternate United States—a world of injustice and bondage in which a young Black woman becomes the concubine of a powerful white government official and must face the dangerous consequences.

Solenne Bonet lives in Texas where choice no longer exists. An algorithm determines a Black woman’s occupation, spouse, and residence. Solenne finds solace in penning the biography of Henriette, an ancestor who’d been an enslaved concubine to a wealthy planter in 1800s Louisiana. But history repeats itself when Solenne, lonely and naïve, finds herself entangled with Bastien Martin, a high-ranking government official. Solenne finds the psychological bond unbearable, so she considers alternatives. With Henriette as her guide, she must decide whether and how to leave behind all she knows.  

Inspired by the lives of enslaved concubines to U.S. politicians and planters, The Blueprint unfolds over dual timelines to explore bodily autonomy, hypocrisy, and power imbalances through the lens of the nation’s most unprotected: a Black girl.

“Perfectly balancing sweetness and steam.”

—Publishers Weekly, starred review, on Stuck in the Country with You

She's a good girl trying to rebuild her restaurant.

He's a felon trying to rebuild…everything.

Second chances have never been so sweet.

For Jamilah Carver, a by-the-books entrepreneur with refined tastes, running her own restaurant has been a dream come true. Until she’s buried in debt and without a chef, her once-bustling eatery on the brink of collapse. Enter Rashad White, a newly released ex-con who happens to be a culinary genius…and likes to play by his own rules.

With nothing in common but their love for food, the two clash at every turn. But when they’re not bickering over menu items or cooking methods, neither can deny the attraction that simmers between them. After Rashad proposes a daring plan, they’ll have to put their differences aside to work together—that’s when things really start heating up in the kitchen.

Can two completely different people, from two completely opposite worlds, find the perfect recipe for a fresh start…and maybe even love?

From showing up to glowing up, the characters in Afterglow Books are on the path to leading their best lives and finding sizzling romance along the way. Don’t miss any of these other fun titles…

Stuck in the Country with You by Zuri Day

Ms. V's Hot Girl Summer by A.H. Cunningham

The Grump Whisperer by Katy James

For readers of Raina Telgemeier and Jerry Craft comes a fresh, funny kids’ graphic novel series about three problem-solving besties and their humorous money-making schemes.

Electric James, or Lex, as his friends call him, is finally turning ten, and that means one thing: he's getting a phone! And with the hottest phone on the market—the Apollo XL—he’s sure to become the coolest kid at Roberto Clemente Elementary School. But when his parents break the news that the Apollo XL is way out of their price range, Lex is crushed.

Luckily, he has his best friends DJ and Cass. Together, they’re the Brainstormerz—and they’ve never met a problem they couldn’t solve! All they need to do now is figure out how to raise the money for the phone themselves. How hard could it be? 
 
From the talented trio of New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander, Cassidy Dyce, and Eisner winning cartoonist Rashad Doucet, comes a hilarious and electrifying story about friendship, creativity, and the power of teamwork.

The most comprehensive publication to date on widely celebrated artist Rashid Johnson

‘Johnson is a leading voice of his generation.’ – New York Times

The most comprehensive publication to date on widely celebrated artist Rashid Johnson

Working with a variety of media that includes painting, sculpture, photography, video, and performance, Rashid Johnson has created a nuanced and iconographic body of work that connects literature, music, and art. Personal references and pervasive cultural narratives are interweaved with the legacy of modernist abstraction, producing what critics have labelled ‘conceptual post-black art’. A precocious talent (his work was included in the seminal ‘Freestyle’ exhibition in New York in 2001), Johnson received the High Museum of Art’s David C. Driskell Prize, which honours contributions in the field of African-American art.

A radical new treatise on time, quantum physics, and racial justice from world-renowned artist and advocate Rasheedah Phillips of Black Quantum Futurism.

Why do some processes—like aging, birth, and car crashes—occur in only one direction in time, when by the fundamental symmetry of the universe, we should experience time both forward and backward? Our dominant perception of time owes more to Western history and social order than to a fact of nature, argues writer Rasheedah Phillips, delving into Black and Afrodiasporic conceptions of time, where the past, present, and future interact in more numerous constellations.

Phillips unfolds the history of time and its legacy of racial oppression, from colonial exploration and the plantation system to the establishment of Daylight Savings. Yet Black communities have long subverted space-time through such tools of resistance as Juneteenth, tenant organizing, ritual, and time travel. What could Black liberation look like if the past were as changeable as the future?

Drawing on philosophy, archival research, quantum physics, and Phillips’s own art practice and work on housing policy, Dismantling the Master’s Clock expands the horizons of what can be imagined and, ultimately, achieved.

Wish I Was a Baller is part New Kid, part The Tryout, and part Dragon Hoops!

Amar Shah has some story to tell! In 1995, he was a fourteen-year-old aspiring sports journalist (and basketball superfan) angling to get into an Orlando Magic team practice. He did, and it took him on the ride of his life!

Wish I Was a Baller is a graphic memoir chronicling Amar's real-life experiences as a fourteen-year-old sports journalist covering the golden era of the NBA, when he befriended Shaq and hung out with Michael Jordan and the Bulls―all while surviving the high school, dealing with crushes, and friendships being tainted by jealousy.

"An inspiring story of friendship, family, and the swishes and misses of being a kid. Baller soars and scores!" ― Jerry Craft, author of the Newbery Award-winning New Kid

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A revolutionary playbook for building generational wealth, no matter where you grew up—from the founders of the explosively popular podcast and financial literacy platform Earn Your Leisure

You deserve to be rich.

You deserve to make a purchase without fear that your check might bounce. You deserve to go on vacation. You deserve to care for loved ones without worrying about bills. You deserve to live the way you want, without reservations or fear. You deserve freedom—financial freedom. If you agree, you’ve come to the right place.

We grew up in New York playing basketball together. As kids, both of us were fascinated by finance, curious about the stock market and how money moves among systems and pockets. But we began to notice that—for people in our community—hard work wasn’t enough. The system wasn’t set up to help people like us turn our hustle into lasting wealth.

We started Earn Your Leisure to change that. We never could have imagined the response. Soon our little podcast started to feel more like a financial revolution. But a podcast can do only so much. This book is our answer to the thousands upon thousands of people who have asked us for a detailed blueprint. The key to earning your leisure is to see money as a strategic tool for wealth development. In You Deserve to Be Rich, you’ll learn how to:

• Deal with the psychological toll of growing up living paycheck to paycheck.
• Create income-building strategies outside your nine-to-five, from investing to side hustles.
• Use passive income to put you in control of your time and lifestyle.
• Master tax and insurance systems and identify (legal) loopholes to maximize wealth.
• Navigate family financial drama and find ways to support your community.

That’s just the start. This book is full of tips, insights, and stories about real people, just like you, who have used the tools of wealth building to overcome barriers and build the life they want.

You deserve to be rich. This is the playbook to make it happen.