New Items
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Tripping on Utopia
A Los Angeles Times Bestseller
One of The New Yorker's best books of 2024
A bold and brilliant revisionist take on the history of psychedelics in the twentieth century, illuminating how a culture of experimental drugs shaped the Cold War and the birth of Silicon Valley.
"It was not the Baby Boomers who ushered in the first era of widespread drug experimentation. It was their parents."Far from the repressed traditionalists they are often painted as, the generation that survived the second World War emerged with a profoundly ambitious sense of social experimentation. In the '40s and '50s, transformative drugs rapidly entered mainstream culture, where they were not only legal, but openly celebrated. American physician John C. Lilly infamously dosed dolphins (and himself) with LSD in a NASA-funded effort to teach dolphins to talk. A tripping Cary Grant mumbled into a Dictaphone about Hegel as astronaut John Glenn returned to Earth.
At the center of this revolution were the pioneering anthropologists--and star-crossed lovers--Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. Convinced the world was headed toward certain disaster, Mead and Bateson made it their life's mission to reshape humanity through a new science of consciousness expansion, but soon found themselves at odds with the government bodies who funded their work, whose intentions were less than pure. Mead and Bateson's partnership unlocks an untold chapter in the history of the twentieth century, linking drug researchers with CIA agents, outsider sexologists, and the founders of the Information Age.
As we follow Mead and Bateson's fractured love affair from the malarial jungles of New Guinea to the temples of Bali, from the espionage of WWII to the scientific revolutions of the Cold War, a new origin story for psychedelic science emerges. -
The Hidden Globe
"A season of unrest looms ahead, and The Hidden Globe lays out the unvarnished truth in a luminous feat of reportage.”—Hamilton Cain, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Borders draw one map of the world; money draws another. A journalist’s riveting account exposes a parallel universe that has become a haven for the rich and powerful.
A globe shows the world we think we know: neatly delineated sovereign nations that grant or restrict their citizens’ rights. Beneath, above, and tucked inside their borders, however, another universe has been engineered into existence. It consists of thousands of extraterritorial zones that operate largely autonomously, and increasingly for the benefit of the wealthiest individuals and corporations.
Atossa Abrahamian traces the rise of this hidden globe to thirteenth-century Switzerland, where poor cantons marketed their only commodity: bodies, in the form of mercenary fighters. Over time, economists, theorists, statesmen, and consultants evolved ever more sophisticated ways of exporting and exploiting statelessness, in the form of free trade zones, flags of convenience, offshore detention centers, charter cities controlled by foreign corporations, and even into outer space. By mapping this countergeography, which decides who wins and who loses in the new global order—and helping us to see how it might be otherwise—The Hidden Globe fascinates, enrages, and inspires. -
The Air They Breathe
A timely, revelatory first look into the impact climate change has on children—the greatest moral crisis humanity faces today—by a pediatrician in the fastest warming city in America.
Wildfires, hurricanes, and heat waves make headlines. But what is happening in Debra Hendrickson’s clinic tells another story of this strange and unsettling time. Hendrickson is a pediatrician in Reno, Nevada—the fastest warming city in the United States, where ash falls like snow during summer wildfires. In The Air They Breathe, Dr. Hendrickson recounts patients she’s seen who were harmed by worsening smoke, smog, and pollen; two boys in Arizona, stricken by record-setting heat while hiking; children who fled for their lives from Hurricane Harvey and the Tubbs Fire; and a little girl whose life was forever altered by the Zika virus outbreak in 2016.
The climate crisis is a health crisis, and it is a health crisis, first and foremost, for children. Children’s bodies are interwoven with and shaped by their surroundings. As the planet warms and their environment changes, children’s health is at risk. The youngest are especially vulnerable because their brain, lungs, and other organs are forming and growing every day, and because their physiology is so different from that of adults. Childhood has always been a risky period of life; throughout history, babies and children have met peril, from polio to famine, from cyclones to war. Yet they have never quite had to face, in quite this way, the potential loss of the future itself.
The Air They Breathe is not just about the health impacts of global warming, but something more: a soul-stirring reminder of our moral responsibility to our children, and their profound connections to this unique and irreplaceable world. -
The Wanderlust Creamery Presents: the World of Ice Cream
Learn the art of easy artisanal ice-cream making from the flavor experts at the LA-based popular ice cream chain Wanderlust Creamery.
Featuring 80 deeply researched and developed ice cream flavors, this ultimate ice cream guide is full of recipes that celebrate flavors, ingredients, and cultures from around the world. Making mouthwatering, one-of-a-kind global flavors from the comfort of your own home--no matter your skill level--has never been easier.
From ice cream basics--such as creating a balanced, mascarpone, or vegan base--to custards, including favorites such as Pasteis de Nota--to all the delicious options you could wish for, the world of ice cream awaits. Some sample recipes: * Vietnamese Rocky Road
* Orange Flower Baklava
* Basil Lime with Strawberry
* Sicilian Negroni
* Earl Grey Milk Chocolate
With a family background in ice-cream making and a degree in food science, the flavor chemist behind LA-based Wanderlust Creamery, Adrienne Borlongan, turned her interest in recipe development and travel into a successful ice cream business. She and her husband, JP Lopez, started Wanderlust in 2015, and they now have eight stores that feature a rotating selection of around 400 different seasonal/regional flavors throughout the year.Regarded as an industry trailblazer in creatively crafted, globally inspired ice cream flavors, Wanderlust is known for first-of-its-kind, viral, & trendsetting ice cream creations. From reinvented classics with Asian flair like Japanese Neapolitan to bestselling Wanderlust flavors like Ube Malted Crunch to "rice creams" like sticky rice mango and more, fans just can't seem to get enough of their unique concoctions.
Includes Color Photographs
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Answers to Dog
National Book Award winner Pete Hautman explores a friendship like no other--and the universal truth that dogs make life better, especially for underdogs.
Evan doesn't seem to fit in at school or at home. He goes out of his way to avoid attention. He sits at the back of the bus, keeps his head down in class, and keeps to himself. But when a burr-covered border collie--a survivor with a gut instinct about the Boy--starts following him around and joining him on his runs, Evan's simple duck-and-dodge existence becomes a lot more complicated . . . a lot more like life. Evolving from wary companions to steadfast friends, Evan and the dog run fast and far together, thwart an abusive dog breeder and the school bully, and find the courage to stand up for themselves and to open up to those who matter most. Narrated in alternating viewpoints, this relatable contemporary novel with classic coming-of-age themes has all the hope, pathos, and emotional complexity that mark Pete Hautman's books for middle-grade readers--and is a deeply satisfying read for animal lovers.
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Sketty and Meatball
"A pair we would happily hang out with again." --Kirkus Reviews
From Sarah Weeks, creator of the beloved series Mac and Cheese, comes Sketty and Meatball, a Level One I Can Read about two irrepressible dog best friends.
Best friends Sketty and Meatball do everything together. They play together. They bark together. If Sketty sniffs a flower, Meatball sniffs a flower too. If Meatball wags his tail, Sketty's tail is wagging too.
Young readers will be delighted by two pals called Sketty and Meatball, who happen to look quite a bit like their names.
Sketty and Meatball is a Level One I Can Read book, which means it's perfect for children learning to sound out words and sentences. Whether shared at home or in a classroom, the short sentences, familiar words, and simple concepts of Level One books support success for children eager to start reading on their own.
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The Children of the Dead
The magnum opus of 2004 Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek--a spectral journey through the catastrophic history embedded in the landscape of Austria
"The surface of [Jelinek's] prose cracks and bursts . . . fissured by phantasmagorical description, gallows humor, multilingual puns, and scouring sarcasm. . . . Jelinek's novel is finally . . . a furious accumulation of lost moments and possible outcomes, an enormous, spectral kaleidoscope erected before the unfathomable."--Dustin Illingworth, Washington Post
The Alpenrose is a mountain resort nestled in Austria's scenic landscape among historic churches and castles. It is a vacation idyll that attracts tourists from all over Europe. It is also a mass burial site.
Amid the snow-topped peaks and panoramic vistas, ghosts haunt the forest: Edgar Gstranz, a young skier who died in a car crash; Gudrun Bichler, a philosophy student who committed suicide in her bathtub; and Karin Frenzel, a widow who (perhaps) died in a bus accident. As the three slip in and out of the hotel, engaging unsuspecting tourists and seeking a way to return to life, the soil begins to crack under their feet as the dead of the Holocaust awaken: zombies determined to exact their revenge.
Scrupulously rendered for the first time in English by Gitta Honegger, The Children of the Dead takes readers on a mind-bending ride through time, space, and memory. Concocted from experimental theater, splatter film, Gothic literature, philosophy, religion, and more, Jelinek's phantasmagorical masterwork is a fierce confrontation with our fraught legacies in the name of the innocent dead. -
The Accomplice
The New York Times bestselling multitalented artist delivers an electrifying novel--The Accomplice--that combines the imaginative page-turning suspense of S. A. Cosby's books with the high-tension thrills of the Netflix blockbuster series Money Heist.
In The Accomplice, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and award-winning mystery writer Aaron Philip Clark introduce readers to New York-born and Texas-bred Nia Adams, who always dreamt of becoming a Texas Ranger. She knows the dangers of the job, and as the first Black female ranger, she knows the politics, but she's never encountered a criminal like Desmond Bell. A Vietnam vet turned thief, Desmond steals more than money; he steals the secrets of the rich and powerful and blackmails them for millions. When Desmond steals from the Duchamps, the wealthiest family in the country, Nia's investigation into the robbery threatens to expose him and the criminal enterprise he works for. As the bodies pile up, Nia digs deeper for the truth, putting her life and career in danger. It's a deadly cat-and-mouse game between ranger and thief, but to protect their family's secrets, the Duchamps won't hesitate to kill them both.
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Queen Macbeth
Shakespeare created the myth of the Macbeths as indefensible murderous conspirators. But now internationally bestselling author Val McDermid drags the truth out of the shadows, exposing the patriarchal prejudices of history
Britain's reigning "Queen of Crime" (The Scotsman), Val McDermid has ensnared audiences worldwide for over thirty years with her thrilling and masterfully plotted crime oeuvre. A radical, rip-roaring counternarrative drawing on the historical record, Queen Macbeth delivers an illuminating portrait of Shakespeare's most famous villain, and the treacherous pursuit of ambition that made her legendary.
A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions - a healer, a weaver, and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her - because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. As the net closes in, what unfurls is a tale of passion, forced marriage, bloody massacre, and the harsh realities of medieval Scotland. At the heart of it is one strong, charismatic woman, who survived loss and jeopardy to outwit the endless plotting of a string of ruthless and power-hungry men. Her struggle won her a country. But now it could cost her life.
Immersive and utterly riveting, Queen Macbeth is an electric reimagining of one of Shakespeare's most celebrated tragedies and reaffirms McDermid as one of the preeminent writers of our day.
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Mystery Lights
An influencer attempts to derail a viral TV marketing campaign with her violent cult following. A marriage between two ghost hunters is threatened when one of them loses her ability to see spirits. The lives of a famous painter in the twilight of her career and a teenage ufo enthusiast converge when a mysterious glowing orb appears in their small desert town. And a slasher-flick screenwriter looking for inspiration escapes a pack of wild dogs only to find herself locked in an suv with a strange man beside her.
From the all-too-real horror of a sexual predator on a college campus to a lost sister transformed by cave-dwelling creatures, Lena Valencia's debut story collection, Mystery Lights, grapples with terrors both familiar and fantastic. -
I'll Love You Till the Crocodiles Smile
From the team that brought you I'll Love You Till the Cows Come Home comes another funny and sweet lyrical lullaby, celebrating boundless family love. I'll Love You Till the Crocodiles Smile is a cozy bedtime read-aloud guaranteed to have both you and your little one smiling.
Tender and gently humorous, this story of unconditional love will become a household favorite to be read over and over.
I will love you till forever and forever and more, till my love shakes the jungle with a lion-size ROAR, as night blankets the forest near a soothing waterfall and the chimpanzees sleep in trees, two hundred feet tall....
I'll Love You Till the Crocodiles Smile is perfect for giving, whether it be for a baby shower, birthday, or Valentine's Day. The story stands beautifully on its own or can be paired with its companion story, I'll Love You Till the Cows Come Home, which ALA Booklist described as a bedtime read-aloud that is "both hilarious and comforting."
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Faker
From the #1 bestselling author of RESTART, the story of a family of liars... and the son who wants to break the family tradition.
Trey knows the drill: His dad gets him into a school full of kids with rich parents. Trey makes friends, and his dad makes connections. Soon, there's the con, where Trey's dad suckers the other parents into investing in one of his schemes. Once the money's in the bank, Trey, his sister, and their dad are on the run... until they set up somewhere else and start again.
Trey believes his father when he says no one's getting hurt. After all, these parents have money to spare.
But Trey's starting to get tired of running... and lying... and never having a friend for longer than a few months. But how do you get your family to stop lying when your lives depend on it?
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Shame on You
In the spirit of Rebecca Traister's Good and Mad and Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist comes a courageous, in-depth investigation into the modern epidemic of shame in our society—what it is, why women are uniquely susceptible, and how we can shift the shame off our plates and live our best lives in an over-exposed, image-obsessed world.
For millions of women, shame is a vicious predator. It tells us we are less than, that we are unworthy. We try everything to escape shame—ignoring it, intellectualizing it, and even, ironically, shaming ourselves for feeling it. The reality is that women experience shame more frequently and more intensely than men—a direct result, as acclaimed journalist Melissa Petro explains, of a patriarchal culture that “urges women to feel bad about themselves, and then punishes them when they do.” Why can’t we figure out how to break the shame cycle once and for all?
In Shame on You, Petro takes on the issue of women’s shame directly with an unflinching look at the social systems that encourage women to believe we are deeply inadequate. From shame’s beginnings ( Maybe she’s born with it? Nope, it’s misogyny.) to its effect on our lives as adults (How the humiliation of “bad women” affects us all.), shame poisons our friendships, romantic relationships, and work lives. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Blending investigative reporting, science, literature, and hundreds of women’s personal stories—including her own shameful account of winding up as an unwitting New York Post cover girl—Petro offers us a new way forward. No matter what you do, she explains, there is no escaping being judged. And yet, the women we can become—sometimes as a consequence of shame, rather than in spite of it—are powerful indeed. And maybe that’s what others are afraid of. -
Stolen Pride
In her first book since the widely acclaimed Strangers in Their Own Land, National Book Award finalist and bestselling author Arlie Russell Hochschild now ventures to Appalachia, uncovering the "pride paradox" that has given the right's appeals such resonance.
For all the attempts to understand the state of American politics and the blue/red divide, we've ignored what economic and cultural loss can do to pride. What happens, Arlie Russell Hochschild asks, when a proud people in a hard-hit region suffer the deep loss of pride and are confronted with a powerful political appeal that makes it feel "stolen"?
Hochschild's research drew her to Pikeville, Kentucky, in the heart of Appalachia, within the whitest and second-poorest congressional district in the nation, where the city was reeling: coal jobs had left, crushing poverty persisted, and a deadly drug crisis struck the region. Although Pikeville was in the political center thirty years ago, by 2016, 80 percent of the district's population voted for Donald Trump. Her brilliant exploration of the town's response to a white nationalist march in 2017 -- a rehearsal for the deadly Unite the Right march that would soon take place in Charlottesville, Virginia -- takes us deep inside a torn and suffering community.
Hochschild focuses on a group swept up in the shifting political landscape: blue-collar men. In small churches, hillside hollers, roadside diners, trailer parks, and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, Hochschild introduces us to unforgettable people, and offers an original lens through which to see them and the wider world. In Stolen Pride, Hochschild incisively explores our dangerous times, even as she also points a way forward.
"A piercing . . . impressive and nuanced assessment of a critical factor in American politics." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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Scotland Yard
A riveting true-crime history of London's first modern police force as told through its most notorious murder cases.
The idea of "Scotland Yard" is steeped in atmospheric stories of foggy London streets, murder by lamplight, and fiendish killers pursued by gentleman detectives. From its establishment in 1829 through the eve of World War II, Scotland Yard—the world’s first modern, professional, and centrally organized police force—set new standards for policing and investigating.
Scotland Yard advanced ground-breaking use of forensics—from fingerprints to ballistics to evidence collection—made the first attempt at criminal profiling, and captivated the public on both sides of the Atlantic with feats of detective work that rivaled any fictional interpretation.
Based on official case files, contemporary newspaper reporting, trial transcripts, and the first-hand accounts of the detectives on the beat, Scotland Yard tells the tales of some of history’s most notorious murders—with cases that proved to be landmarks in the field of criminal inquiry. -
Four Shots in the Night
Four Shots in the Night is the story of a political murder: the killing of an IRA member turned British informant.
The search for justice for this one man's death--his body found in broad daylight, with tape over his eyes, an undisguised hit--would deliver more than the truth. It exposed his status as an informant and led to protests, campaigns, far-reaching changes to British law, a historic ruling from a senior judicial body, a ground-breaking police investigation, and bitter condemnation from a US Congressional commission. And there have been persistent rumors that one of the country's most senior politicians, the Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness, might have been personally involved in this particular murder.
Relying on archival research, interviews, and the findings of a new complete police investigation, Four Shots in the Night tells a riveting story not just of this murder but of his role in the decades-long conflict that defined him--the Troubles. And the questions it tackles are even larger: how did the Troubles really come to an end? Was it a feat of diplomatic negotiation, as we've been told--or did spies play the decisive role? And how far can, or should, a spy go, for the good of his country? Four Shots in the Night is a page-turner that will make you think. -
The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon
"A new, revolutionary look into the brilliant life of Pat Nixon. In America's collective consciousness, Pat Nixon has long been perceived as enigmatic. She was voted "Most Admired Woman in the World" in 1972 and made Gallup Poll's top ten list of most admired women fourteen times. She survived the turmoil of the Watergate scandal with her popularity and dignity intact. And yet, the media often portrayed Mrs. Nixon as elusive and mysterious. The real Pat Nixon, however, bore little resemblance to the woman so often described in the press. Pat married California lawyer Richard Nixon in June of 1940, becoming a wife, mother, and her husband's trusted political partner in short order. As the couple rose to prominence, Pat became Second Lady from 1953-1961 and then First Lady from 1969-1974, forging her own graceful path between the protocols of the strait-laced mid-century and the bra-burning Sixties and Seventies. Pat was a highly traveled First Lady, visiting eighty-three countries during her tenure. After a devastating earthquake in Peru in 1970, she personally flew in medical supplies and food to hard-hit areas, meeting one-on-one with victims of the tragedy. The First Lady's 1972 trips with her husband to China and to Russia were critical to the detente that resulted. President Nixon frequently sent her to represent him at significant events in South America and Africa solo. Pat greatly expanded upon previous preservation efforts in the White House, obtaining more art and antique objects than any other First Lady. She was progressive on women's issues, favoring the Equal Rights Amendment and backing a targeted effort to get more women into high level government jobs. Pat strongly supported nominating a woman for the Supreme Court. She was pro-choice, supporting women's reproductive rights publicly even before the landmark Roe v. Wade case in 1973. When asked to define her 'signature' First Lady agenda, she defied being put into a box, often saying: 'People are my project.' There was nothing Pat Nixon enjoyed more than working one-on-one directly with ordinary human beings, especially with women, children, and those in need. In The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon, Heath Hardage Lee presents readers with the essential nature of this First Lady, an empathetic, adventurous, self-made woman who wanted no power or influence, but who connected warmly with both ordinary Americans and people from different cultures she encountered world-wide"--
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Ashes Never Lie
The secrets hidden in smoldering ashes hold the fate of a city in an explosive thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg.
Vacant homes in a new housing development are erupting into flames in broad daylight with no apparent cause. It's a perplexing mystery for dogged arson investigator Walter Sharpe and his restless new partner, Andrew Walker, an ex-US marshal who craves action.
But as they puzzle over the blazes, another home miles away burns to the ground, leaving a man's corpse in the ashes and homicide detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone demanding answers. The burn patterns and charred body tell Sharpe a bizarre story that only creates more questions for Eve. So the four detectives team up to find the answers. Their investigation into the two unrelated cases leads to one shocking discovery after another.
Now they must gamble their lives to unmask a brilliant arsonist, crack open a massive swindle, track down a desperate fugitive with a terrifying secret, and race against time to save thousands of people from an agonizing death.
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The Last Dream
"Instantly fascinating, brimming with twisting narratives and unforgettable endings... The Last Dream stands alone as a major literary talent's virtuosic debut." --Kaveh Akbar, New York Times bestselling author of Martyr!
Making his English language debut, the iconoclastic, two-time Academy award-winning writer and director reveals his singular mind as never before in this collection of twelve remarkable stories spanning memoir, comedy, autofiction, parody, pastiche, and gothic fiction.
With this debut collection, film legend Pedro Almodóvar delivers a tantalizing glimpse into his world, formed by twelve stories carefully selected from his personal writings dating from the late '60s to the present. Almodóvar writes: "I've been asked to write my autobiography more than once, and I've always refused. . . . I've never kept a diary, and whenever I've tried, I've never made it to page two; in a sense, then, this book represents something of a paradox. It might be best described as a fragmentary autobiography, incomplete and a little enigmatic."
Each entry reflects Almodóvar's most intimate obsessions, as well as his evolution as an artist. In the title story, "The Last Dream," Almodóvar reflects on the death of his mother. Other entries in the collection include a love story between Jesus and Barabbas, a story of retribution that formed the basis for the film Bad Education, a manic adventure about a film director searching for painkillers on a bank holiday weekend, and a gothic tale centered around a repentant vampire.
Translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne
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I'll Give You a Reason
The vibrant stories in I'll Give You a Reason explore race, identity, connection, and belonging in the Ironbound, an immigrant neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. A young widow goes on her first date since her husband's death and finds herself hunting a bear in the woods with a near stranger. An unhappy wife compares her mother's love spells and rituals to her own efforts to repair her strained marriage. A self-conscious college student discovers a porn star who shares her name and becomes obsessed with her doppelgänger's freedom and comfort with her own body.
Annell López's indelible characters tread the waters of political unrest, sexuality, religion, body image, Blackness, colorism, and gentrification--searching for their identities and a sliver of joy and intimacy. Through each story, a nuanced portrait of the "American Dream" emerges, uplifting the voices of those on its margins.
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This Book Kills
I'll make it clear from the start: I did not kill Hugh Henry Van Boren. I didn't even help...Well, not intentionally.
All Jess Choudhary wants is to keep her head down, do her work, and make it through high school without any problems. As a scholarship student--and one of only two students of Indian heritage--her future at the elite school depends on her ability to keep a low profile and spotless record. But when one of the most popular and richest kids in the school ends up dead in the exact same way as a character in a short story she wrote, Jess unintentionally finds herself at the center of the investigation.
And then Jess receives an anonymous text thanking her for the inspiration.
As rumors run rampant about who the murderer could be, Jess knows if she doesn't solve this mystery herself, she'll finally have something in common with Hugh: she'll be dead too.
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What We Wish for
From award-winning author Melody Maysonet, What We Wish For is a poignant YA novel that explores one teenager's coming-of-age as she struggles through homelessness, family feuds, and her mother's addiction.
Be careful what you wish for ...
Fifteen-year-old Layla Freeman likes to pretend her life is fine. After all, her mother is about to celebrate thirty days sober, and yeah, they've moved into a homeless shelter, but it's only temporary, right? Her mom will get better, and in the meantime, it's important that no one at school finds out where she's been living for the past month. Layla has worked hard to build her reputation as a girl who doesn't care what others think of her, but the truth is she does care--deeply--and she's tripping over her own lies, especially to her best friend, as she tries to pretend nothing's wrong.
With their time at the shelter running out, Layla hatches a plan to get help from her rich aunt and uncle, despite the long-standing feud between their families. When the plan backfires and her mom ends up in the hospital after an overdose, the silver lining is that she's sent to fancy rehab--paid for by Uncle Scott and Aunt Tanya. Layla gets to move into her aunt and uncle's mansion while her mom is gone and begins building a tentative friendship with her snobby cousin--even as her relationship with her best friend deteriorates.
Armed with new wealth, new relationships, and even a new mother figure, Layla thinks all her dreams have come true ... But secrets have a way of coming out, and one secret above all threatens to turn her world upside down--and destroy her entire family.
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When the World Tips Over
"Jandy Nelson is a true virtuoso . . . I am fervently in love with this brave, funny, tender, exuberant beating heart of a book." —Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Imogen, Obviously
An explosive new novel brimming with love, secrets, and enchantment by Jandy Nelson, Printz Award–winning and New York Times bestselling author of I’ll Give You the Sun
The Fall siblings live in hot Northern California wine country, where the sun pours out of the sky, and the devil winds blow so hard they whip the sense right out of your head.
Years ago, the Fall kids’ father mysteriously disappeared, cracking the family into pieces. Now Dizzy Fall, age twelve, bakes cakes, sees spirits, and wishes she were a heroine of a romance novel. Miles Fall, seventeen, brainiac, athlete, and dog-whisperer, is a raving beauty, but also lost, and desperate to meet the kind of guy he dreams of. And Wynton Fall, nineteen, who raises the temperature of a room just by entering it, is a virtuoso violinist set on a crash course for fame . . . or self-destruction.
Then an enigmatic rainbow-haired girl shows up, tipping the Falls’ world over. She might be an angel. Or a saint. Or an ordinary girl. Somehow, she is vital to each of them. But before anyone can figure out who she is, catastrophe strikes, leaving the Falls more broken than ever. And more desperate to be whole.
With road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories within love stories within love stories, and sorrows and joys passed from generation to generation, this is the intricate, luminous tale of a family’s complicated past and present. And only in telling their stories can they hope to rewrite their futures.
"Transcendently beautiful.” —Nina LaCour, author of We Are Okay
“Sublime, intricate, and dazzling . . . I adored it.” —Helena Fox, author of How It Feels to Float
“Jandy Nelson is a rare, explosive talent.” —Tahereh Mafi, author of the Shatter Me series
"Intricately rendered . . . Profound and satisfying." —PW (starred review)
“A technicolor fever dream offering readers a sensory feast.” —Kirkus
"Splendid and complex . . . Satisfying and soul-thrilling . . . Well worth the wait." —SLJ (starred review)
"A complex, seductive YA heartbreaker.” —The Guardian
"Beautiful.” —Booklist -
Uprooted
Perfect for fans of New Kid and A First Time for Everything, a joyful and tearful debut middle grade graphic memoir about one girl being uprooted when she moves to Hong Kong, a place where her family fits in but, for her, it's nothing like home.
Ruth Chan loves her hometown in Toronto, hanging out with her best friends for life, and snacking on ketchup flavored potato chips, which are the best. What Ruth doesn’t love is having to move to Hong Kong after her dad gets a new job there.
Her mom is excited to reunite with her family, but it’s not the same for Ruth. In Hong Kong, her classes are harder, her Cantonese isn’t good enough, and her parents are never around. Ruth feels lonely and completely uprooted.
But as Ruth’s dad tells stories about her family, about how they relied on their strength, courage, and each other to survive the most difficult times, Ruth realizes that she too can be strong. Gradually, she puts down roots, knowing that home will always be where her heart is. -
Ruin Road
"My twin, Lamar, is a phenomenal innovative storyteller... A true king!" -- Tiffany D. Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Grown and The Weight of Blood
Sometimes a little fear is a good thing...
Cade Webster lives between worlds. He's a standout football star at the right school but lives in the wrong neighborhood--if you let his classmates tell it. Everywhere but home, people are afraid of him for one reason or another. Afraid he's too big, too fast, too ambitious, too Black.
Then one fateful night, to avoid a dangerous encounter with the police, he ducks into a pawn shop. An impulse purchase and misspoken desire change everything when Cade tells the shopkeeper he wishes people would stop acting so scared around him, and the wish is granted...
At first, it feels like things have taken a turn for the better. But it's not just Cade that people no longer fear--it's everything. With Cade spreading this newfound "courage" wherever he goes, anything can happen. Fearless acts of violence begin to escalate in both his neighborhood and at school. With the right moves, and brave friends, Cade might have one -- and only one -- chance to save all he loves. But at what cost? After all, the devil's in the details.
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Taco Falls Apart
Taco Falls Apart gets kids thinking about how their thoughts shape feelings and behavior. Friendly and funny, this evidence-based science-informed book skillfully presents a fundamental concept of cognitive-behavior psychology in a way kids can understand -- how the interplay between thoughts, feelings, and behavior shape who we are and how we experience everything.
Meet Taco. The world expects so much from him... tacos must stay strong without much support, tacos must stay open without much room, and tacos must keep it all together, all the time! With all these expectations piling on, Taco starts wonder if he has what it takes to be a terrific taco. Can he even do this? Should he even try? As his thoughts start to pester him, Taco's shell starts to crack and his toppings begin to tumble, and Taco falls apart!
Fantastically foodie and pun-fully delicious, this book is bound to help little ones understand common thinking mistakes and how unhelpful self-talk can get in the way of feeling strong and confident and able to get through rough spots in their day. -
Lego Marvel Visual Dictionary (Library Edition)
This edition does not include a minifigure.
Jump into the action-packed LEGO Marvel multiverse with DK's latest Visual Dictionary.
Discover everything you need to know about the latest sets, vehicles, and minifigures. See every detail of the Guardians of the Galaxy's spaceship, explore Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, examine the advanced vehicles of Wakanda, discover Spider-Man's most dastardly villains, and find out about your favorite LEGO Marvel minifigures-- from Black Panther to The Scarlet Witch.
Meet all the iconic LEGO Marvel characters and learn about their allies, villains, skills, vehicles, and locations.
©2023 The LEGO Group. © 2023 MARVEL -
William
Psychological horror meets cyber noir in this delicious one-sitting read—a haunted house story in which the haunting is by AI.
Henry is a brilliant engineer who, after untold hours spent in his home lab, has achieved the breakthrough of his career—he’s created an artificially intelligent consciousness. He calls the half-formed robot William.
No one knows about William. Henry’s agoraphobia keeps him inside the house, and his fixation on his project keeps him up in the attic, away from everyone, including his pregnant wife, Lily.
When Lily’s coworkers show up, wanting to finally meet Henry and see the new house—the smartest of smart homes—Henry decides to introduce them to William, and things go from strange to much worse. Soon Henry and Lily discover the security upgrades intended to keep danger out of the house are even better at locking it in. -
Confounding Oaths
A nobleman must work with a dashing soldier to save his sister from a mystical bargain gone awry in this swoon-worthy romance from the bestselling author of Boyfriend Material.
“The utterly enchanting second installment of Alexis Hall’s Mortal Follies series brings back all the magic, both literal and figurative, that readers expect. . . . It’s another rousing success from Hall.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
It is the year 1815, and Mr. John Caesar is determined to help his sister, Mary, successfully navigate the marriage mart. A high-stakes endeavor at the best of times, this task is made slightly more difficult by his family’s nontraditional background, the pernicious whims of the ton, and the ever-present complication of living in a world full of scheming fairies and capricious gods.
Despite all that, John knows that his parents wish to see his sister comfortably settled. He also knows that the sooner he sees Mary’s future secured, the sooner he can get his own wish—returning to an aristocratic life of leisure. And as for Mary? Sweet, sensitive Mary just wishes gentlemen would pay as much attention to her as they do to her younger sister.
When Mary’s all-too-literal wish puts her squarely in the sights of a malicious fairy godmother, John sets out to save her. This choice throws him into the path of Captain Orestes James—the handsome up-from-the-ranks hero of Wellington’s armies—and his ragtag band of misfits. Together, John and the captain will venture into a vicious world of fey bargains and sacrificial magic as they draw ever closer to rescuing Mary—and to each other.
While John is no stranger to casual dalliances with soldiers, until now he’s never expected one to last—or wanted one to. He and the captain come from different worlds, and even if Orestes feels the same, John knows there’s no point in wishing for something more between them.
After all, John has learned firsthand that getting what you wish for can be a dangerous thing. . . . -
Anyone's Ghost
Longlisted for The Center For Fiction's 2024 First Novel Prize • Elle's Best Literary Fiction Books of 2024 list
“This new novel is a real heart-squeezer. Beautiful, one of a kind and perfectly titled.” —Matt Berninger, The National
“Anyone’s Ghost is about so very many things: the pains of growing up, friendship and pining, drugs, sex, the frustrations of masculinity and the thrill of testing death itself. But more than any of that, it is an overwhelmingly beautiful love story. This book will make you cry.” —Jonathan Safran Foer
An extraordinary debut novel in which the transforming love and friendship between two young men during one unforgettable teenage summer in rural New England haunts them into adulthood
It took three car crashes to kill Jake.
Theron David Alden is there for the first two: the summer they meet in rural New Hampshire, when he’s fifteen and anxious, and Jake’s seventeen and a natural; then six years later in New York City, those too-short, ecstatic, painful nights that change both their lives forever—the end of the dream and the longing for the dream and the dream itself, all at once.
Theron is not there for the third crash.
And yet, their story contains so much joy and self-discovery: the glorious, stupid simplicity of a boyhood joke; the devastation of insecurity; the way a great song can distill a universe; the limits of what we can know about each other; the mysterious, porous, ungraspable fault line between yourself and the person you love better than yourself; the beautiful, toxic elixir of need and hope and want.
Brimming with rare, radioactive talent, August Thompson has written a love story that is electrically alive and exquisitely tuned.
In the words of Jonathan Safran Foer, “This book will make you cry.” -
Hotel Laguna
In 1942, Hazel Francis left Wichita, Kansas for California, determined to do her part for the war effort. At Douglas Aircraft, she became one of many “Rosie the Riveters,” helping construct bombers for the U. S. military. But now the war is over, men have returned to their factory jobs, and women like Hazel have been dismissed, expected to return home to become wives and mothers.
Unwilling to be forced into a traditional woman’s role in the Midwest, Hazel remains on the west coast, and finds herself in the bohemian town of Laguna Beach. Desperate for work, she accepts a job as an assistant to famous artist Hanson Radcliff. Beloved by the locals for his contributions to the art scene and respected by the critics, Radcliff lives under the shadow of a decades old scandal that haunts him.
Working hard to stay on her cantankerous employer’s good side, Hazel becomes a valued member of the community. She never expected to fall in love with the rhythms of life in Laguna, nor did she expect to find a kindred spirit in Jimmy, the hotel bartender whose friendship promises something more. But Hazel still wants to work with airplanes—maybe even learn to fly one someday. Torn between pursuing her dream and the dream life she has been granted, she is unsure if giving herself over to Laguna is what her heart truly wants. -
Absolution
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Named a Best Book of the Year by Time, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Kirkus Reviews, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Oprah Daily, Real Simple, and Vogue
A riveting account of women’s lives on the margins of the Vietnam War, from the renowned winner of the National Book Award.
American women—American wives—have been mostly minor characters in the literature of the Vietnam War, but in Absolution they take center stage. Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney on loan to navy intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a beauty and a bully. In Saigon in 1963, the two women form a wary alliance as they balance the era’s mandate to be “helpmeets” to their ambitious husbands with their own inchoate impulse to “do good” for the people of Vietnam.
Sixty years later, Charlene’s daughter, spurred by an encounter with an aging Vietnam vet, reaches out to Tricia. Together, they look back at their time in Saigon, taking wry account of that pivotal year and of Charlene’s altruistic machinations, and discovering how their own lives as women on the periphery—of politics, of history, of war, of their husbands’ convictions—have been shaped and burdened by the same sort of unintended consequences that followed America’s tragic interference in Southeast Asia.
A virtuosic new novel from Alice McDermott, one of our most observant, most affecting writers, about folly and grace, obligation, sacrifice, and, finally, the quest for absolution in a broken world. -
Mermaid Kenzie
Kenzie turns her fierce love for the ocean into action, resourcefully cleaning up the beach after her mermaid-tail swimsuit tangles in floating plastic bags.
When Kenzie slips on her mermaid tail, she becomes Mermaid Kenzie, protector of the deeps. One day as Kenzie snorkels around a shipwreck, she discovers more plastic bags than fish. Grabbing her spear and mermaid net, she begins to clean up the water and the shore--inspiring other kids to help.
Beautifully written in African American Vernacular English, this poetic picture book includes back matter with information about how plastic winds up in our oceans and examples of people—some of them kids, like Kenzie—who have worked to protect the sea. Mermaid Kenzie celebrates the ways that all of us, no matter how small, can make a difference. -
The Smart Cookie
An Instant New York Times Bestseller!
Be a smart cookie--and don't miss the fifth picture book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Food Group series from creators Jory John and Pete Oswald!
This cookie has never felt like a smart cookie no matter how hard she tries, especially in comparison to all the clever cupcakes and brilliant rolls in the bakery. Will a dash of creativity and a sprinkle of confidence be enough to help her learn that perfect scores and having all the answers aren't the only ingredients for intelligence?
Jory John and Pete Oswald serve up another heaping plate of laughs and lessons with this empowering, witty, and charming addition to their #1 New York Times bestselling series!
Check out Jory John and Pete Oswald's funny, bestselling books for kids 4-8 and anyone who wants a laugh:
- The Bad SeedThe Good EggThe Cool BeanThe Couch PotatoThe Good Egg Presents: The Great Eggscape!The Bad Seed Presents: The Good, the Bad, the Spooky!The Cool Bean Presents: As Cool as It GetsThat's What Dinosaurs Do
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Homemade-ish
“A must-purchase cookbook with a variety of quick and flavorful recipes.”—Library Journal
Homemade-ish is a sassy, no-guilt cookbook, with more than 100 quick-and-easy recipes, that support busy folks wanting to provide healthy home-cooked meals to their family.
Creating and enjoying home-cooked food is time well spent, but sometimes we’re busy—almost too busy—to be bothered with the task of cooking, with the work of it all. How do we reconcile the impact and importance of providing home-cooked meals with the ever-lurking busyness that threatens to send us dashing to our doors to answer the call of our latest food deliveries? What do we do about this?
Meant to be a beacon of comfort, Lauren McDuffie’s Homemade-ish is an invitation to let your hair down and relax a little. No judging. No pretenses. Just simple, unfussy food that you really can throw together in minutes. Offering encouragement from one page to the next, Homemade-ish is here to be a supportive guide, a delicious devotional of sorts, with every recipe a reminder to take it easy on yourself, to keep it real.
With this cookbook, McDuffie shares more than 100 recipes that make use of store-bought shortcuts and quick-fix tricks for breakfasts; appetizers and snacks; soups; salads; pastas, grains, and meatless mains; meats and fish, and desserts. From jazzed-up bagged salads to improved-upon casseroles to faked and fabulous sweets, you can feed your family well, and actually have time to sit down and enjoy the meal together.
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By the Fire We Carry
A powerful work of reportage and American history that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation's earliest days, and a small-town murder in the 1990s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land more than a century later
Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests--in the emergence of this great nation, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples.
In the 1830s Muscogee people were rounded up by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was created on top of Muscogee land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen on tribal land. His defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn't have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma asserted that the reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court settled the dispute. Its ruling that would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering almost half the land in Oklahoma, including Nagle's own Cherokee Nation.
Here Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed and the Native-led battle for justice that has shaped our country.
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The 3 AM Guide to Your Aging Parents
The answers to all the elder care questions that keep you up at night—from an expert who understands exactly what you’re going through
Author Laura Tamblyn Watts understands these late-night worries. Not only are her own parents in their eighties—she’s also spent her career informing others about aging people’s needs as the CEO of CanAge, a seniors’ advocacy organization. Here, she transforms her experience into a handbook of practical advice on doing the right thing while caring for an older loved one.
Watts addresses every aspect of elder care, covering living situations (at home or in a retirement or nursing facility), mental changes like dementia, money management, complicated family relationships, and changes in physical ability. She has advice for everyone: whether they live far across the country from their parents or right nearby, whether they’re involved in their parents’ lives or haven’t been in contact for years, whether they’re an only child or one of twelve kids. Tough issues like mental health, addiction, abuse or neglect, estrangement, an “unsuccessful son in the basement,” second or third marriages, divorces—these are all covered with grace and humor that make this tough stage of life seem a little easier. With Watts’s help, getting informed and making a plan will stop 3 AM worry sessions for good. -
The 2025 Old Farmer's Almanac
The Old Farmer's Almanac has been making every day special since 1792, and, with the 2025 edition, it continues this tradition in its inimitable fashion. Trusted by generations from all walks of life for its honesty and accuracy, the Almanac delivers fun facts, predictions, feature articles, and advice across many interest areas to readers who actually live--or aspire to live--the country lifestyle, with the intent of helping them to make better decisions. As a calendar of the heavens, it provides detailed daily astronomical data (Sun/Moon rise/set times, length of day), tide times, and planet/star sightings for every sky watcher, from novice to expert. As a calendar of the year, it presents annual and seasonal events, holidays, anniversaries, and timely trivia; astrological "Best Days" and cycles; and much more for the curious and the conscientious. As a time capsule of the year, it contains cultural trends; weather forecasts and conditions; articles on interesting topics such as gardening, home arts and remedies, amusements and contests, history, husbandry, nature, cooking and recipes, folklore, pets, and sports; and more--all in a way that is "useful, with a pleasant degree of humor."
Long recognized as North America's most beloved and best-selling annual, this handy "little yellow book" is often imitated but never equaled. It is an American icon that instills in readers a feeling of being connected to the history of North America and its people.
This paperback classic edition of the 2025 Almanac is distinguished by the hole in the upper left corner so that it can be conveniently hung on a hook or nail in the kitchen, greenhouse, barn--or wherever this indispensable guide will be needed!
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Taxi Ghost
In this hilarious and heartwarming graphic novel, a young girl's first period brings an unexpected gift: the ability to see ghosts! As she meets these spectral visitors, she uncovers her family's secret lineage of mediums, while learning about the power of compassion and community.
Adèle just wants to spend her winter break at the library, cozied up with her favorite books, and completely forgetting abut her friends who are all traveling to warmer climates. Unfortunately, life has other plans...not only does Adèle get her first period...but she learns she comes from a long line of mediums!
And if seeing ghosts wasn't enough of a surprise, Adèle learns that not only can she interact with them, but apparently, they've been using her sister's car to get around the city for years! When the ghosts won't leave her alone Adèle starts to get to know about them and their problems. Maybe helping them out will be just what she needs for an exciting winter break!
From Sophie Escabasse, the author of the beloved Witches of Brooklyn, comes a brilliant graphic novel that explores growing up and the importance of standing up for what you believe in. -
Puppet
Writing in the tradition of Pinocchio, Hans Christian Anderson Award winner David Almond brings his ineffable touch to a warm and wistful story that shows anything is possible with imagination and trust.
"You're a mystery, aren't you, Puppet? But isn't everything a mystery? Not just you, but every single thing that exists."
What should a puppet master do when he's old and alone and all his puppets are gone? Silvester decides to make one last puppet. But this one is different. When the old man speaks to him, Puppet speaks back. And then he starts to walk . . . While Silvester shows Puppet the town, the playground, and other wonders the world holds, Puppet in turn helps Silvester to make a new friend and share his puppet-making skills with the next generation. With themes of compassion and creativity, threaded with David Almond's inimitable humor, this wonder-filled story of creation and the circle of life, illustrated with wordless black-and-white spreads by award-winning artist Lizzy Stewart, is destined to become a modern-day classic. -
Life and Death of the American Worker
Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, an explosive exposé of the toxic labor practices at the largest meatpacking company in America and the immigrant workers who had the courage to fight back.
On June 27, 2011, a deadly chemical accident took place inside the Tyson Foods chicken processing plant in Springdale, Arkansas, where the company is headquartered. The company quickly covered it up although the spill left their employees injured, sick, and terrified. Over the years, Arkansas-based reporter Alice Driver was able to gain the trust of the immigrant workers who survived the accident. They rewarded her persistence by giving her total access to their lives.
Having spent hours in their kitchens and accompanying them to doctor’s appointments, Driver has memorialized in these pages the dramatic lives of husband and wife Plácido and Angelina, who liked to spend weekends planting seeds from their native El Salvador in their garden; father and son Martín and Gabriel, who migrated from Mexico at different times and were trying to patch up their relationship; and many other immigrants who survived the chemical accident in Springdale that day.
During the course of Alice’s reporting, the COVID-19 pandemic struck the community, and the workers were forced to continue production in unsafe conditions, watching their colleagues get sick and die one by one. These essential workers, many of whom only speak Spanish and some of whom are illiterate—all of whom suffer the health consequences of Tyson’s negligence—somehow found the strength and courage to organize and fight back, culminating in a lawsuit against Tyson Foods, the largest meatpacking company in America.
Richly detailed, fiercely honest, and deeply reported, Life and Death of the American Worker will forever change the way we think about the people who prepare our food. -
Pixel Flesh
One of Book Riot's 10 Best New Nonfiction Book Releases of August 2024
A generation-defining exposé of toxic beauty culture—from Botox and Instagram filters to lip flips and editing apps—and the realities of coming of age online
We live in a new age of beauty. With advancements in cosmetic surgery, walk-in treatments, augmented reality face filters, photo editing apps, and exposure to more images than ever, we have the ability to craft the image we want everyone to see. We pinch, pull, squeeze, tweeze, smooth and slice ourselves beyond recognition. But is our beauty culture truly empowering? Are we really in control?
In Pixel Flesh, Ellen Atlanta holds a mirror up to our modern beauty ideal, as well as the pressure to present a perfect image, to live in an age of constant comparison and curated feeds. She weaves in her personal story with others’ to reconfigure our obsession with the cult of beauty and explore the reality of living in a world of paradoxes: we know our standards are unhealthy, but understand it’s a way to succeed. We resent social media but continue to scroll. We know digital beauty is artificial, but we still strive for it.
From Love Island to lip filler, blackfishing to the beauty tax, Pixel Flesh is a fascinating account of what young women face under a dominant industry. Nuanced, unflinching, and razor sharp, this book unmasks the absurdities of the standards we suddenly find ourselves upholding, and acts as a rallying cry and a refusal to suffer in silence, forming the definitive book about what it truly feels like to exist as a woman today. -
The Struggle for Taiwan
A concise, definitive history of the precarious relationship among the US, China, and Taiwan
As tensions over Taiwan escalate, the United States and China stand on the brink of a catastrophic war. Resolving the impasse demands we understand how it began. In 1943, the Allies declared that Japanese-held Taiwan would return to China at the conclusion of World War II. The Chinese civil war led to a change of plans. The Communist Party came to power in China and the defeated Nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan, where he was afforded US protection. The specter of conflict has loomed ever since.
In The Struggle for Taiwan, Sulmaan Wasif Khan offers the first comprehensive history of the triangular relationship between the United States, China, and Taiwan, exploring America's ambivalent commitment to Taiwan's defense, China's bitterness about the separation, and Taiwan's impressive transformation into a flourishing democracy. War is not inevitable, Khan shows, but to avoid it, decision-makers must heed the lessons of the past.
From the White Terror to the Taiwan Straits Crises, from the normalization of Sino-American relations to Trump-era rising tensions, The Struggle for Taiwan charts the paths to our present predicament to show what futures might be possible. -
Homeland
A groundbreaking history of how the decades-long war on terror changed virtually every aspect of American life, from the erosion of citizenship down to the cars we bought and TV we watched—by an acclaimed n+1 writer
“Richard Beck, like many people alive today, has spent his adult life living in the shadow of 9/11, and Homeland is a devastating inquiry into the new world that day created.”—Greg Grandin, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
For twenty years after September 11, the war on terror was simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. With all of the military violence occurring overseas even as the threat of sudden mass death permeated life at home, Americans found themselves living in two worlds at the same time. In one of them, soldiers fought overseas so that nothing at home would have to change at all. In the other, life in the United States took on all kinds of unfamiliar shapes, changing people’s sense of themselves, their neighbors, and the strangers they sat next to on airplanes. In Homeland, Richard Beck delivers a gripping exploration of how much the war changed life in the United States and explains why there is no going back.
Though much has been made of the damage that Donald Trump did to the American political system, Beck argues that it was the war on terror that made Trump’s presidency possible, fueling and exacerbating a series of crises that all came to a head with his rise to power. Homeland brilliantly isolates and explores four key issues: the militarism that swept through American politics and culture; the racism and xenophobia that boiled over in much of the country; an economic crisis that, Beck convincingly argues, connects the endurance of the war on terror to at least the end of the Second World War; and a lack of accountability that produced our “impunity culture”—the government-wide inability or refusal to face consequences that has transformed how the U.S. government relates to the people it governs.
To see American life through the lens of Homeland’s sweeping argument is to understand the roots of our current condition. In its startling analysis of how the war on terror hollowed out the very idea of citizenship in the United States, Beck gives the most compelling explanation yet offered for the ongoing disintegration of America’s social, political, and cultural fabric. -
Between a Flock and a Hard Place
Readers will flock to New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews's next installment in the award-winning Meg Langslow series.
Meg's neighbors, the Smetkamps', have won a makeover for their old home from Marvelous Mansions, a flashy, yet dubious company, focused on making historic homes more "modern." The company already several days into its makeover of the Smetkamps' house, and tensions are running high--not only between the officious, demanding Mrs. Smetkamp and her neighbors, but also between her and the renovation crew. Meg, who is trying to keep the peace and prevent the makeover crew from trampling on every clause of the county's building code, arrives at the Smetkamps to find that Caerphilly's resident flock of feral turkeys has moved into their yard--or been relocated there by someone who wanted to cause them trouble.
The turkeys are huge, territorial, cranky and aggressive - and impossible to move! Meg does what she can to calm down the irate neighbors and help the makeover crew make progress in spite of the turkeys. She comes up with a plan to gather a group of turkey wranglers to snatch them early in the morning. But when they arrive, they find the body of Mrs. Smetkamp in her backyard. Someone stabbed her, and then tried to make it look as if she was attacked by one of the turkeys, but Meg, the Chief, and the Sheriff are not fooled. Together, they must figure out what really happened to Mrs. Smetkamp...and what to do with all these turkeys! -
The Girl in the Bog
Ancient heroes from Irish mythology and folklore come to life in the modern world in this dark, atmospheric story. At once a thrilling chase novel and a wry reimagining of Ireland’s oldest epic, it is sure to enthrall readers of Neil Gaiman and Cassandra Khaw.
Everybody is after the girl in the bog.
One morning in a field in Connemara, a farmer unearths the body of a young woman, two thousand years old, preserved under layers of peat. Later that evening, she awakens in unfamiliar modern Ireland, ripping a hole through space and time and setting awhirl old animosities and long-held grudges.
Shadowy figures follow her from the pagan past, and each emerges with a claim on the girl from the bog. With help from a trio of wannabe teenage witches, she goes on the run. Joining in the chase is an American archaeologist who wants to keep the discovery for herself and two befuddled farmers trapped in the plot. Hosts of fairies out for the night work their magic and mischief, and in the blue hour before sunrise, the saga unfolds in a battle for the ages.
Part fantasy, part mystery, part thriller, part send-up, this comic and poignant love song to Irish literature and the gift of gab does not merely bend genres; it braids them into Celtic knots. -
The Truth According to Ember
A Chickasaw woman who can’t catch a break serves up a little white lie that snowballs into much more in this instant bestselling rom-com by critically acclaimed author Danica Nava.
Ember Lee Cardinal has not always been a liar—well, not for anything that counted at least. But her job search is not going well and when her resumé is rejected for the thirty-seventh time, she takes matters into her own hands. She gets “creative” listing her qualifications and answers the ethnicity question on applications with a lie—a half-lie, technically. No one wanted Native American Ember, but white Ember has just landed her dream accounting job on Park Avenue (Oklahoma City, that is).
Accountant Ember thrives in corporate life—and her love life seems to be looking up as well: Danuwoa Colson, the IT guy and fellow Native who caught her eye on her first day, seems to actually be interested in her too. Despite her unease over the no-dating policy at work, they start to see each other secretly, which somehow makes it even hotter? But when they're caught in a compromising position on a work trip, a scheming colleague blackmails Ember, threatening to expose their relationship. As the manipulation continues to grow, so do Ember’s lies. She must make the hard decision to either stay silent or finally tell the truth, which could cost her everything. -
The Hidden Book
From bestselling author Kirsty Manning comes a stunning novel based on a true story of clandestine courage in World War II as prisoners of war risk their lives to secure evidence of Nazi atrocities--and how one man concealed it for decades before passing it on to his family who struggle to understand their inherited legacy of trauma.
Austria, 1940s: Yugoslavian Nico Antonov is just one of more than 200,000 people imprisoned in the Mauthausen concentration camp near the Danube River. Malnourished and forced into hard labor in a quarry, he still defies his captors any way he can. When fate brings him into contact with Lena Lang, a young woman living with her family in fear of their Nazi occupiers, he finds an ally.
SS officers have charged Spanish POW and photographer Mateo Baca with recording the events and prisoners of Mauthausen and to make five copies of the collected photo book for the Third Reich's leaders. But Mateo also creates a sixth book to be smuggled out of the camp--where Nico entrusts Lena to hide it and protect their secret.
Australia, 1980s to present day: When teenager Hannah Campbell discovers her grandfather Nico's mysterious photo album, filled with horrific visions of suffering and cruelty, the barbarities of World War II no longer feel like ancient history. Haunted by the images for years, as a university student and a married young mother, she pursues the truth behind her grandfather's incarceration. As Hannah experiences love and loss in her own life, she comes to understand how the photos not only capture history but reflect a shared humanity that must never be forgotten.
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The Naturalist's Daughter
Two fearless women--living a century apart--find themselves entangled in the mystery surrounding the biggest scientific controversy of the nineteenth century: the classification of the platypus.
1808 Agnes Banks, NSW
Rose Winton wants nothing more than to work with her father, eminent naturalist Charles Winton, on his groundbreaking study of the platypus. Not only does she love him with all her heart but the discoveries they have made could turn the scientific world on its head. When Charles is unable to make the long sea journey to present his findings to the prestigious Royal Society in England, Rose must venture forth in his stead. What she discovers will forever alter the course of scientific history.
1908 Sydney, NSW
Tamsin Alleyn has been given a mission: travel to the Hunter Valley and retrieve an old sketchbook of debatable value, gifted to the Public Library by a recluse. But when she gets there, she finds there is more to the book than meets the eye, and more than one interested party. Shaw Everdene, a young antiquarian bookseller and lawyer, seems to have his own agenda when it comes to the book. Determined to uncover the book's true origin, Tamsin agrees to join forces with him.
The deeper they delve, the more intricate the mystery of the book's authorship becomes. As the lives of two women a century apart converge, discoveries emerge from the past with far-reaching consequences in this riveting tale of courage and discovery.
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You Will Never Be Me
When cracks start forming in an influencer’s curated life, she finds out that jealousy is just as viral as a video in this riveting suspense novel by bestselling author Jesse Q. Sutanto.
Influencer Meredith Lee didn’t teach Aspen Palmer how to blossom on social media just to be ditched as soon as Aspen became big. So can anyone really blame Mer for doing a little stalking? Nothing serious, more like Stalking Lite. Then, Mer gets lucky; she finds one of Aspen’s kids’ iPads and swipes it. Now, she has access to everything: the family calendar and Aspen’s social media accounts. Would anyone else be able to resist tweaking things a little here and there, showing up in Aspen’s place for meetings with potential sponsors? Mer’s only taking back what she deserves—what should have been hers.
Meanwhile, Aspen doesn’t understand why her perfectly filtered life is falling apart. Sponsors are dropping her, fellow influencers are ghosting her, and even her own husband seems to find her repulsive. If she doesn’t find out who’s behind everything, she might just lose it all. What everyone seems to forget is that Aspen didn’t become one of TikTok’s biggest momfluencers by being naive. When Meredith suddenly goes missing, Aspen’s world is upended and mysterious threats begin to arrive—but she won’t let anything get in the way of her perfect life again.