Judy Blume

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Illinois

Special Edition

Soon to be a major motion picture!
A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)

Celebrate the legacy of the bestselling and iconic Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret with this special edition, featuring a deluxe faux-leather embossed cover that looks and feels as vibrant as the story within.

Margaret Simon, almost twelve, likes long hair, tuna fish, the smell of rain, and things that are pink. She's just moved from New York City to Farbook, New Jersey, and is anxious to fit in with her new friends--Nancy, Gretchen, and Janie. When they form a secret club to talk about private subjects like boys, bras, and getting their first periods, Margaret is happy to belong.

But none of them can believe Margaret doesn't have religion, and that she isn't going to the Y or the Jewish Community Center. What they don't know is Margaret has her own very special relationship with God. She can talk to God about everything--family, friends, even Moose Freed, her secret crush.

Margaret is funny and real. As you read her story, you'll know why this book has been the favorite of millions of readers. It's as if Margaret is talking right to you, sharing her secrets with a friend.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

411f96e3-1566-491b-aa46-fc6053a44233-1

Ian Buruma

An extraordinary story told wonderfully well.

A story of one woman's struggle to survive in the face of war and occupation in the Far East during the Second World War.

The China Lover

5a8fa0d2-29b2-4ad3-aaa6-b5d1d22441ec-1

Terry Golway

The Tumultuous Years of Harry Truman's Presidency, in His Own Words and Voice

Accompanying CD contains recordings of Truman's speeches.

Give 'Em Hell

39bb4e18-342a-4a6c-9f6b-fc6757b1f2a3-0

Gioacchino. Rossini

This book includes the complete opera on two cds

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Contains the complete text of the libretto with annotations in both English and Italian and a critical historical commentary. The text also includes the background of the composer, biographies of the principal singers and conductor. The two accompanying CDs contain the complete opera sung in Italian.

Barber of Seville

ea386355-8520-4dfb-9c3b-805de2ab43a5-1

Jamie Ford

When artifacts from Japanese families sent to internment camps during World War II are uncovered in Seattle, Henry Lee embarks on a quest that leads to memories of growing up Chinese in a city rife with anti-Japanese sentiment.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

a2a3ba71-b3e2-443f-8dc9-b365c0350c29-1

Thorne Smith

Carolyn See

"[Thorne Smith] created the modern American ghost.   A ghost with style and wit. A ghost that haunts us still."
--The New York Times

Thorne Smith is a master of urbane wit and sophisticated repartee. Topper, his best-known work, is the hilarious, ribald comedy on which the hit television show and movie (starring Cary Grant) were based.

It all begins when Cosmo Topper, a law-abiding, mild-mannered bank manager, decides to buy a secondhand car, only to find it haunted by the ghosts of its previous owners--the reckless, feckless, frivolous couple who met their untimely demise when the car careened into an oak tree. The ghosts, George and Marion Kerby, make it their mission to rescue Topper from the drab "summer of suburban Sundays" that is his life--and they commence a series of madcap adventures that leave Topper, and anyone else who crosses their path, in a whirlwind of discomfiture and delight.

As enchanting today as it was when first published in 1926, Topper has set the standard in American pop culture for such mischievous apparitions as those seen in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Heaven Can Wait, Beetlejuice, and Bewitched.

Topper

f401a4e9-ada9-4ebd-baf9-c51466036ca7-1

Jessica B. Harris

Delicious recipes
History of African American cuisine 

A Culinary Journey from Africa to America

The author of The Africa Cookbook presents a history of the African Diaspora on two continents, tracing the evolution of culturally representative foods ranging from chitlins and ham hocks to fried chicken and vegan soul.

High on the Hog

ff289912-d6e7-42ee-8523-8119b7d722fa-1

John Sandford

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Lucas Davenport investigates the discovery of several bodies in an abandoned Minnesota farmyard, discovering the work of a local serial killer who has been murdering one victim every summer for years. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the Virgil Flowers series.

Field of Prey

0143193c-69fd-446a-88cf-ecfde267ef47-1

David Grann

The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

From "New Yorker" staff writer David Grann, #1 "New York Times" best-selling author of "The Lost City of Z, " a twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances. In this last remnant of the Wild West where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes such as Al Spencer, the Phantom Terror, roamed virtually anyone who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization s first major homicide investigations. But the bureau was then notoriously corrupt and initially bungled the case. Eventually the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau. They infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history. In "Killers of the Flower Moon, "David Grann revisits a shocking series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. The book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals. But more than that, it is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward Native Americans that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for so long. "Killers of the Flower Moon" is utterly riveting, but also emotionally devastating."

Killers of the Flower Moon

336a23d3-9c09-48d9-83ec-461b42ef41f5-1

Warren Bobrow

Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today

Apothecary Cocktails features 75 traditional and newly created recipes for medicinally-themed cocktails. Learn the history of the top ten apothecary liqueurs, bitters, and tonics that are enjoying resurgence at trendy bars and restaurants.

Apothecary Cocktails

d0bb0857-a463-4236-89a5-438a8b919ed1-1

Mike Beno

Offers stories of everyday American women throughout the 20th century

Tough Times, Strong Women

1251c20d-ed33-489f-b3db-213109a1278d-1

Amy Poeppel

A Novel

Amy Poeppel brings her signature "big-hearted, charming" (The Washington Post) style to this wise and joyful novel that celebrates love, hate, and all of the glorious absurdity in between.

In the heart of Greenwich Village, three women form an accidental sorority when a baby--belonging to exactly none of them--lands on their collective doorstep.

Lauren and her family--lucky bastards--have been granted the use of a spectacular brownstone, teeming with history and dizzyingly unattractive 70s wallpaper. Adding to the home's bohemian, grungy splendor is the bar occupying the basement, a (mostly) beloved dive called The Sweet Spot. Within days of moving in, Lauren discovers that she has already made an enemy in the neighborhood by inadvertently sparking the divorce of a couple she has never actually met.

Melinda's husband of thirty years has dumped her for a young celebrity entrepreneur named Felicity, and, to Melinda's horror, the lovebirds are soon to become parents. In her incandescent rage, Melinda wreaks havoc wherever she can, including in Felicity's Soho boutique, where she has a fit of epic proportions, which happens to be caught on film.

Olivia--the industrious twenty-something behind the counter, who has big dreams and bigger debt--gets caught in the crossfire. In an effort to diffuse Melinda's temper, Olivia has a tantrum of her own and gets unceremoniously canned, thanks to TikTok.

When Melinda's ex follows his lover across the country, leaving their squalling baby behind, the three women rise to the occasion in order to forgive, to forget, to Ferberize, and to track down the wayward parents. But can their little village find a way toward the happily ever afters they all desire? Welcome to The Sweet Spot.

The Sweet Spot

6979de70-eaf4-4ab6-b921-b6dff96d79bd-1

Al Robertson

Lisa Robertson

How Mercy Sets You Free

Learn how to recognize the freedom found in letting go of bitterness; realize the necessity and power of humility; receive forgiveness as well as offer it; and genuinely embrace forgiveness and live it out each day.

Desperate Forgiveness

7bc4c393-1e57-460d-bdd6-f6a367bbd89a-0

John Crutcher

Paul Crutcher

This is a story of the adventures of two young brothers in Chicago and downstate Illinois in the 1930's. John Crutcher (Jack) and his brother Robert (Duane) are the main characters in a series of adventures that show how great America can be and the innocence of our youth. Both boys live their little lives to the fullest without regard to their own safety.

No New Thing

f18c5f27-2dc4-47f5-8044-95070c99938c-0

Jessi Redmon Fauset

A Novel Without a Moral

Written in 1929 at the height of the Harlem Renaissance by one of the movement's most important and prolific authors, Plum Bun is the story of Angela Murray, a young black girl who discovers she can pass for white. After the death of her parents, Angela moves to New York to escape the racism she believes is her only obstacle to opportunity. What she soon discovers is that being a woman has its own burdens that don't fade with the color of one's skin, and that love and marriage might not offer her salvation.

Plum Bun

1f3ac3a2-6266-423c-ba3d-8181497f8445-1

Mimi Alford

My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath

In the summer of 1962, nineteen-year-old Mimi Beardsley arrived by train in Washington, D.C., to begin an internship in the White House press office. The Kennedy Administration had reinvigorated the capital and the country--and Mimi was eager to contribute. For a young woman from a privileged but sheltered upbringing, the job was the chance of a lifetime. Although she started as a lowly intern, Mimi made an impression on Kennedy's inner circle and, after just three days at the White House, she was presented to the President himself.
 
Almost immediately, the two began an affair that would continue for the next eighteen months.
 
In an era when women in the workplace were still considered "girls," Mimi was literally a girl herself--naïve, innocent, emotionally unprepared for the thrill that came when the President's charisma and power were turned on her full-force. She was also unprepared for the feelings of isolation that would follow as she fell into the double life of a college student who was also the secret lover of the most powerful man in the world. Then, after the President's tragic death in Dallas, she grieved in private, locked her secret away, and tried to start her life anew, only to find that her past would cast a long shadow--and ultimately destroy her relationship with the man she married.
 
In 2003, a Kennedy biographer mentioned "a tall, slender, beautiful nineteen-year-old college sophomore and White House intern, who worked in the press office" in reference to one of the President's affairs. The disclosure set off a tabloid frenzy and soon exposed Mimi and the secret that she had kept for forty-one years. Because her past had been revealed in such a shocking, public way, she was forced, for the first time, to examine the choices she'd made. She came to understand that shutting down one part of her life so completely had closed her off from so much more.
 
No longer defined by silence or shame, Mimi Alford has finally unburdened herself with this searingly honest account of her life and her extremely private moments with a very public man. Once Upon a Secret offers a new and personal depiction of one of our most iconic leaders and a powerful, moving story of a woman coming to terms with her past and moving out of the shadows to reclaim the truth.

Once upon a Secret

efe37cd2-d013-4387-bf06-53be904c408b-1

Edward P. Jones

Set in the nation's capital, a collection of stories about African Americans living in Washington, D.C., introduces characters who struggle daily with loss--of family, of friends, of memories, and of themselves. Repritn. 15,000 first printing.

Lost in the City

958dfd0d-6f03-45e9-83f4-25a231360132-1

Barbara Neely

Blanche White is a very black, middle-aged woman who cleans white people's houses for a living. Tart-tongued and shrewd, with a keen nose for trouble, she's also a queen-sized snoop - who sees at a glance what people are really up to - especially if it's criminal. It's been three years since she had to grab the kids and scurry out of Farleigh, North Carolina. Now they've all settled into life in the Roxbury section of Boston, and Blanche herself is feeling like she may finally be free to enjoy life - at least a little. But before Blanche can say, Breakfast is ready, she gets suckered into standing in as cook-housekeeper to one Allister Brindle, a Boston Brahmin politician, and his do-gooder wife. Blanche is quickly enmeshed in a festering canker of a scandal that moves from the Brindles' house (a.k.a. Prozac House) to her own black community as she tries to figure out the truth behind the swimming-pool death of a young black man who knew a little too much...

Blanche Cleans Up

fea0bdb6-e0df-4b09-b2fb-03db30eb8431-1

Patricia Haley

The riveting and inspirational third novel in Essence bestselling author Patricia Haley's series based on the popular biblical kings David and Solomon. Tamara, the oldest daughter of Dave Mitchell, wants to claim her rightful place at the multi-million dollar family-run ministry. Meanwhile her brother Don finds himself neck-deep in salvaging the corporate mess Joel has left behind.

Broken

041e2673-00c5-4064-a3db-876bfdd4bc8f-0

Mary Monroe

In the long-awaited, spectacular sequel to "The Upper Room," Maureen Montgomery still can't believe she was able to break away from her dominating Mama Ruby. But she will need to draw on more strength than she ever thought she had to make a future that is truly hers.

Lost Daughters

770b2f10-d373-48f5-a5f0-553079c733b5-1

Michael Baskette

Eleanor M. Mainella

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

This unique text combines the experience of a professional chef with the expertise of a registered dietitian, offering readers a valuable guidebook/resource tool for preparing healthy food. The science of nutrition and the art of cooking are fully integrated to illustrate the infinite possibilities of healthy cooking that achieves quality in all areas of taste and customer satisfaction. A refreshing emphasis is placed on the taste, and composition of nutritionally prepared foods.

The Art of Nutritional Cooking

cbaeed9a-4689-47cb-8132-57ba10561bfe-0

Ernie J. Zelinski

Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free offers inspirational advice on how to enjoy life to its fullest. The key to achieving an active and satisfying retirement involves a great deal more than having adequate financial resources; it also encompasses all other aspects of life interesting leisure activities, creative pursuits, physical well-being, mental well-being, and solid social support. World-class author and innovator Ernie J. Zelinski guides you to: Gain courage to take early retirement; in fact, the earlier the better. Put money in proper perspective so that you don't need a million dollars to retire. Generate purpose in your retirement life with meaningful creative pursuits. Follow your dreams instead of someone else's. Take charge of your mental, physical, and spiritual health. Better envision you retirement goals including where you want to live. Above all, make your retirement years the best time of your life. What sets this retirement book apart from all the others is its holistic approach to the fears, hopes, and dreams that people have about retirement. This international bestseller (over 110,000 copies sold in its first edition) goes way beyond the numbers that is often the main focus of retirement planning in most retirement books. There are many ingredients of a happy retirement and several retirement planning tools that help retirees plan for their retirement in new and more meaningful ways. One of the most powerful tools is The Get-a-Life Tree that you won't find in any other retirement books. In short, the retirement wisdom in this book will prove to be much more important than how much money you have saved. How to Retire Happy Wild, and Free helps readers create an active, satisfying, and happy retirement in a way such that they don't need a million dollars to retire."

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

d7ac085c-7839-4b20-b1d3-c5e691de99ed-1

L. Whitaker

A Tale of Growing up Black and Female in Mid-Twentieth Century Chicago

In the eyes of 1950s Chicago society, Kim Washington has multiple strikes against her. She's poor. She's a girl. She's growing up in a broken home. Most significantly, she's black. Kim, however, realizes her own potential from a young age, and she's not about to let hardships and prejudice keep her from achieving her dreams. She never gives up, even as her impoverished single mother moves Kim and her brothers from one seedy apartment to the next. She survives a miserable stint with her grandparents in rural Michigan, integrates an all-white parochial school, and lives through the drama of Martin Luther King's assassination. Through it all, Kim is buoyed by her mother's love, her faith, and her deep belief that if she keeps working, she'll succeed. Kim's journey will take her from the racially segregated South Side of Chicago, to a one-room Michigan schoolhouse, to a college career shaped by the civil rights movement. The Chit'lin Coast is a gritty portrait of African American life during the reign of Mayor Richard J. Daley. Written in the spirit of Richard Wright's Black Boy and Rick Bragg's All Over but the Shoutin', it is a must-read for anyone interested in gaining insight into the African American experience.

Browse by categories