Derecka Purnell

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Florida

Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom

"An informed, provocative, astute consideration of salvific alternatives to contemporary policing and imprisonment." — Starred Review, Kirkus "[Purnell] draws convincing parallels between the past and the present to demonstrate that today’s policing systems are vestiges of this oppressive framework ... She is in such command of her material [that] even if you disagree with her, you are compelled to listen." — The Guardian (UK) "Part memoir, part political and social commentary, the St. Louis native’s genre-bending book demonstrates her road to adopting abolitionist politics and makes the argument for why the new abolitionism — the push to end prisons and policing in the United States — ought to be the future of the country." — Kovie Biakolo, Essence For more than a century, activists in the United States have tried to reform the police. From community policing initiatives to increasing diversity, none of it has stopped the police from killing about three people a day. Millions of people continue to protest police violence because these "solutions" do not match the problem: the police cannot be reformed. In Becoming Abolitionists, Purnell draws from her experiences as a lawyer, writer, and organizer initially skeptical about police abolition. She saw too much sexual violence and buried too many friends to consider getting rid of police in her hometown of St. Louis, let alone the nation. But the police were a placebo. Calling them felt like something, and something feels like everything when the other option seems like nothing. Purnell details how multi-racial social movements rooted in rebellion, risk-taking, and revolutionary love pushed her and a generation of activists toward abolition. The book travels across geography and time, and offers lessons that activists have learned from Ferguson to South Africa, from Reconstruction to contemporary protests against police shootings. Here, Purnell argues that police can not be reformed and invites readers to envision new systems that work to address the root causes of violence. Becoming Abolitionists shows that abolition is not solely about getting rid of police, but a commitment to create and support different answers to the problem of harm in society, and, most excitingly, an opportunity to reduce and eliminate harm in the first place.

Becoming Abolitionists

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Joe Fassler

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

A Novel

“An immersive fever dream of a novel, beautifully written and boldly imagined.” —Leslie Jamison, New York Times bestselling author of The Empathy Exams From prizewinning writer Joe Fassler comes a brilliant modern reimagining of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus as a story of obsession, longing, and the radical pursuit of utopia It’s 2005, and 24-year-old Jane is miserable. Overworked, buried in debt, she senses the life she wanted slipping away—while the world around her veers badly off course, hurtling toward economic and ecological collapse. She wants to find something better. But she has no idea where to start. In a sudden and unprecedented burst of rebellion, Jane decides to abandon everything she knows, leaving behind her relationships and responsibilities to go on the road. That’s how she meets Barry, a brilliant and charismatic recluse living on an isolated homestead near New York’s Canadian border. For years, in secret, Barry’s chased an unlikely obsession: to build a pair of wings humans can fly in, with designs inspired by an obscure precursor to the Wright Brothers. It’s no mere hobby. He’s convinced his dream of flight will spark a revolution, delivering us from the degradation of modern capitalism and the climate chaos that awaits us. Jane is captivated by Barry’s radical vision, even as his experiments become more dangerous. But she’s equally drawn to the enigmatic Ike, Barry’s gentle, thoughtful son, who’s known no other reality—and who only wants to keep his father alive, tethered to ground and to reason. So begins an inventive, dazzlingly beautiful story about the human desire for transcendence—our longing to escape the mundane and glide into a euphoric future. Inspired by the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, The Sky Was Ours is a powerful and imaginative debut that explores the question: If you had access to technology that allowed you to escape the confines of your life, would you use it? And if Barry’s wings really could change the world, would that be freedom?

The Sky Was Ours

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Jordan Ritter Conn

A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging

The Road from Raqqa

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Nella Larsen

A NETFLIX BOOK CLUB PICK Now a major motion picture starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, Nella Larsen's powerful, thrilling, and tragic tale about the fluidity of racial identity that continues to resonate today. Clare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a racist white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past after deciding to "pass" as a white woman. Clare's childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, and is simultaneously allured and repelled by Clare's risky decision to engage in racial masquerade for personal and societal gain. After frequenting African American-centric gatherings together in Harlem, Clare's interest in Irene turns into a homoerotic longing for Irene's black identity that she abandoned and can never embrace again, and she is forced to grapple with her decision to pass for white in a way that is both tragic and telling. First published in 1929, Passing feels just as timely as ever today.

Passing (Movie Tie-In)

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Chloe Benjamin

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Washington Post • NPR • Entertainment Weekly • Real Simple • Marie Claire • New York Public Library • LibraryReads • The Skimm • Lit Hub • Lit Reactor AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A captivating family saga.”—The New York Times Book Review “This literary family saga is perfect for fans of Celeste Ng and Donna Tartt.”—People Magazine (Book of the Week) If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life? It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children—four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to hear their fortunes. The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality. A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.

The Immortalists

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Jasmine Marie

Heal from Trauma, Combat Chronic Stress, and Find Your Freedom

From breathwork practitioner and the founder of black girls breathing(R), a practical path for Black women to heal trauma, combat chronic stress, and find freedom in their own bodies and minds--think What Happened to You? meets Breath for readers of Rest is Resistance. It's no secret that Black women have been oppressed for centuries and, as a Black woman herself, Jasmine Marie knows the impact that intergenerational trauma and systemic racism have had--and continue to have--on her community. Those experiences are why she founded a breathwork company dedicated to helping Black women access somatic practices and understand the power of the mind-body connection to undo the trauma the carry. In Black Girls Breathing, Jasmine Marie shares the science-backed tools and wisdom of her program to help readers: Connect more fully to their bodies. Give themselves permission to rest. Heal the chronic stress they carry in their bodies and nervous systems. Address their emotional pain. Rebuild themselves and their communities. Ultimately, this book is a long-overdue resource for every Strong Black Woman: The woman ready to break cycles of trauma, heal the internalized beliefs of perfectionism and conditional self-worth, and listen to the wisdom of her inner voice.

Black Girls Breathing

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Jamie Ford

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

The New York Times bestselling author of the “mesmerizing and evocative” (Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants) Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet returns with a powerful exploration of the love that binds one family across the generations. Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living. As Washington’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help. Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family: Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers; Zoe Moy, a student in England at a famous school with no rules; Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic; Greta Moy, a tech executive with a unique dating app; and Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America. As painful recollections affect her present life, Dorothy discovers that trauma isn’t the only thing she’s inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period. A stranger who’s loved her through all of her genetic memories. Dorothy endeavors to break the cycle of pain and abandonment, to finally find peace for her daughter, and gain the love that has long been waiting, knowing she may pay the ultimate price.

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

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Emily Lloyd-Jones

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

"Mer, the last living water diviner in the isles of Wales, seeks revenge against the prince who used her powers for his own evil ends"--

The Drowned Woods

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Courtney B. Vance

Robin L. Smith

Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power

"A thoughtful, wise, empathetic book that has the capacity to save lives. " (Kirkus) "...an inspiring story of what [Black men] can achieve personally and professionally when they have the tools and support necessary to examine their pain and find their joy." (New York Journal of Books) A moving combination of memoir, psychology, and practical tools, this book offers Black men guidance and support for reclaiming mental well-being and finding whole, full-hearted living. Now available in paperback! Early in his career, actor Courtney B. Vance lost his father to suicide. Recently, he lost his godson to the same fate. Still, as mental health discourse hits the mainstream, it leaves the most vulnerable out of the conversation: Black men. In America, we teach that strength means holding back tears and shaming your own feelings. In the Black community, these pressures are especially poignant. Poor mental health outcomes-- including diagnoses of depression and anxiety, reliance on prescription drugs, and suicide-- have skyrocketed in the past decade. Institutionalized racism, microagressions, and stress caused by socioeconomic factors have led Black individuals to face worse mental health outcomes than any other demographic. In this book, Courtney B. Vance seeks to change this trajectory. Along with professional expertise from famed psychologist Dr. Robin L. Smith (popularly known as "Dr. Robin"), Courtney B. Vance explores issues of grief, relationships, identity, and race through the telling of his own most formative experiences. Together, Courtney and Dr. Robin provide a guide for Black men navigating life's ups and downs, reclaiming mental well-being, and examining broken pieces to find whole, full-hearted living. Self-care is an act of revolution. It's time to revolutionize mental health in the Black community.

The Invisible Ache

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Eliza Clark

Stories

She's Always Hungry

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BeKa

In this second book in the addictive graphic novel series for tweens, Grace and Lola uncover more truths about romance and friendship at home, at school, and on an island holiday. BFFs Grace and Lola are back in volume two of The Love Report. Grace tries to adjust to her parents' split, but dividing her time between two homes is no fun; Lola and Grace help Adele find a place to stay–an old factory–to escape her evil stepmother; and Lola wants to help Felicity after one of the boys begins harassing her, but it’s not easy. Summer comes just in time, and the change of season brings the girls and Adele to the island of Sardinia, where they continue to discover the ins and outs of love and romance far from home and school.

The Love Report Volume 2

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Debbie Urbanski

One of Booklist's Top 10 SF/Fantasy and Horror Debuts: 2024 One of Los Angeles Times’s Best Tech Books of 2023 One of San Francisco Chronicle’s Favorite Books of 2023 An “intelligent, defiant” (San Francisco Chronicle) debut that follows an Artificial Intelligence tasked with writing a novel—only for it to fall in love with the novel’s subject, Sen, the last human on Earth. Faced with the uncontrolled and accelerating environmental collapse, humanity asks an artificial intelligence to find a solution. Its answer is simple: remove humans from the ecosystem. Sen Anon is assigned to be a witness for the Department of Transition, recording the changes in the environment as the world begins to rewild. Abandoned by her mother in a cabin somewhere in upstate New York, Sen will observe the monumental ecological shift known as the Great Transition, the final step in Project Afterworld. Around her drones buzz, cameras watch, microphones listen, digitizing her every move. Privately she keeps a journal of her observations, which are then uploaded and saved, joining the rest of humanity on Maia, a new virtual home. Sen was seventeen years old when the Digital Human Archive Project (DHAP) was initiated. 12,000,203,891 humans have been archived so far. Only Sen remains. [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc’s assignment is to capture Sen’s life, and they set about doing this using the novels of the 21st century as a roadmap. As Sen struggles to persist in the face of impending death, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc works to unfurl the tale of Sen’s whole life, offering up an increasingly intimate narrative until they are confronted with a very human problem of their own. After World is a “riveting, creepy…dazzling,” (Kimberly King Parsons, award-winning author of Black Light) novel about what it means to be human in a world upended by AI and the bonds we forge with technology.

After World

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Nora Dåsnes

Lise Laerdal Bryn

This bold graphic novel sequel to Cross My Heart and Never Lie, which Alice Oseman called “a warm hug,” follows Bao, who bands together with her friends to save their beloved forest from being turned into a parking lot. After being leader of “girls-who-never-fall-in-love” in Cross My Heart and Never Lie, Tuva’s best friend, Bao, faces a challenge unlike any she’s faced before: the PTA wants to raze down the students’ beloved forest, removing the space where Bao and other student have always played and integral to both Bao and other students’ lives and the environment they call home. When the adults are too apathetic, too cynical, or too preoccupied to see the importance of the forest, Bao and the others will have to stop playing nice and take matters into their own hands. But Bao and her classmates are only twelve years old—how can they get the adults in power to see this crisis for what it is? This timely story follows Cross My Heart and Never Lie and continues the popular graphic novel format with gorgeous hand-lettering and a unique, charming art style.

Save Our Forest!

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Dawnie Walton

"Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Coming of age in Detroit, she can't imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job--despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar's amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records. In early seventies New York City, just as she's finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Opal's bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a chain of events that will not only change the lives of those she loves, but also be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women, especially black women, who dare to speak their truth. Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. Sunny thought she knew most of the stories leading up to the cult duo's most politicized chapter. But as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens to blow up everything."--

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev

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Alison Stine

When her reclusive family relocates to climate-ravaged Colorado, sixteen-year-old Thea, who is hard of hearing, finds community and potential love with Ray, a Deaf boy.

Dust

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Hillary Chute

A Graphic Anthology of COVID Lockdown

More than 140 single-page comics from artists the world over, documenting humanity’s retreat into COVID-19 lockdown and imagining our eventual, boisterous reemergence, gathered by the founder of the annual Comic Arts Brooklyn festival and owner of the beloved indie comics shop Desert Island On April 1, 2020, the Instagram account of Desert Island, Brooklyn’s celebrated alternative comics shop, put out a call. By then Desert Island had been shuttered indefinitely, and cities all over the world had been locked down as the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. “We all need something positive to think about, and a lot of us have time on our hands,” the post read. “Who wants to make something?” What happened next was nothing short of remarkable, as hundreds of short comics from more than fifty countries poured into Desert Island’s inbox. Some came from notable cartoonists. Most, astonishingly, came from amateur artists just looking for an outlet to create in the midst of tragedy—for a chance to join the rescue party that leads us out of isolation. Collected in this book are more than 140 notable entries from the Rescue Party project, capturing the loneliness and the surprising comforts of early lockdown; the mania of its middle days as the mind begins to fray; and the many paths forward toward humanity’s future, as we re-enter a world wracked with injustice. Bracing, beautiful, and conspicuously optimistic, Rescue Party is part graphic diary, part time capsule, and part field guide: a grassroots project that tells the collective story of lockdown from a chorus of global voices and charts a course toward a more just future.

Rescue Party

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Lucy Grealy

Suleika Francey Jaouad

"So many memoirs make you feel that you've been sealed up inside a wall with a monomaniac. A really good one, like Autobiography of a Face, makes you feel there is more to ask and learn. You are not just seeing the writer; you are not trying to see yourself. You are seeing the world in a different way."--Margo Jefferson Foreword by Suleika Jaouad, author of the New York Times bestseller Between Two Kingdoms A thirtieth-anniversary edition of Lucy Grealy's celebrated memoir, a timeless exploration of identity, loneliness, the nature of beauty, and strength. Thirty years ago, Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face launched the young writer into the top echelons of contemporary literature, winning her both acclaim and fame. An incandescent tale of perseverance, humor, and deep introspection in the face of emotional and physical pain, her powerful memoir--as evocative and resonant today as it was in 1994--speaks to us across time. At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a potentially terminal cancer, undergoing years of chemotherapy that destroyed a third of her jawbone. When she eventually returned to school, she faced the cruel taunts of classmates. It took her twenty years of living with a distorted self-image and more than thirty years of reconstructive procedures before she began to come to terms with her appearance. This beautiful and timeless memoir is a tale of great suffering and remarkable strength told without sentimentality and with considerable wit. Grealy reflects on how cancer transformed her face and her life, and captures what it was like as a child and a young adult to be torn between wanting to be loved for who we are and desperately wishing to be perfect.

Autobiography of a Face [Thirtieth Anniversary Edition]

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Katie Tallo

"A fast-paced, exciting, missing persons thriller with a heart pounding twisty final third that I very much enjoyed. Katie Tallo is a big new talent."--New York Times bestselling author Adrian McKinty In this edge-of-your-seat thriller--the follow-up to the international bestselling Dark August and Poison Lilies--Gus Monet and her daughter embark on a perilous road trip to find a missing person. When the love of her life disappeared on a camping trip, Gus Monet was devastated. Her daughter was only nine at the time, but young Bly still remembers the heartbreak vividly. Howard had been like a father to her. He was a journalist working on a story that took a dark and dangerous turn. The last time they saw him, he was going to meet a source he believed could blow the story wide open. Three years later, shocked to see Howard's obituary in the paper, Gus and Bly are drawn back to Prince Edward County where he was last seen and where the camper Howard was driving has been found. Sneaking into the camper, mother and daughter find what investigators missed. Hidden behind a secret panel are Howard's notebook, cell phone, and a video message recorded right before he vanished, evidence that turns the cold case red hot. Searching for answers, Gus and Bly vow to follow the story Howard was pursuing and to expose whoever went to deadly lengths to stop him from revealing the truth. Told in the compelling, thoughtful voice of young Bly, this edge-of-your-seat thriller ratchets up the tension, culminating in a heart-pounding, soul crushing, shocking finale. Infused with vivid summer imagery, set among eerie abandoned places, and steeped with sinister small-town secrets, Buried Road is the story of a young girl and a mother whose reckless resolve leads them ever closer to lethal danger--but ultimately might be what ensures their survival.

Buried Road

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T. J. Klune

Ox Matheson was twelve when his father taught him a lesson: Ox wasn't worth anything and people would never understand him. Then he left.Ox was sixteen when the energetic Bennett family moved in next door, harbouring a secret that would change him forever. For the family are shapeshifters, who can transform into wolves at will. Drawn to their magic, loyalty and enduring friendships, Ox feels a gulf between this extraordinary new world and the quiet life he's known. He also finds an ally in Joe, the youngest Bennett boy. Joe is charming and handsome, but haunted by scars he cannot heal.Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town, and tore a hole in his heart. Violence flared, tragedy split the pack and Joe left town, leaving Ox behind. Three years later, the boy is back. Except now he's a man - and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.Wolfsong is the first book in the Green Creek series by bestselling author TJ Klune. Continue the journey with Ravensong.Praise for TJ Klune:'Like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket' - V. E. Schwab'A whimsical, warm-hearted fantasy'- The Guardian'A radiant treat' - Locus Magazine

Wolfsong

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Mark Haddon

From the "terrifyingly talented" (London Times) author of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG-IN THE NIGHT-TIME and THE PORPOISE, eight mesmerizingly imaginative, deeply-humane stories that use Greek myths and contemporary dystopian narratives to examine mortality, moral choices and the many variants of love. Greek myths have fascinated people for millenia, seeing in them lessons about fate and hubris and the contingency of existence. Mark Haddon digs into the heart of these ancient fables and sees them anew. The dawn goddess Eos asked asks Zeus to give her lover Tithonus eternal life, but forgets to ask for eternal youth. In "The Quiet Limit of the World" Haddon imagines Tithonus' life as he slowly ages over thousands of years, turning the cautionary tale of tempting the gods into a spellbinding meditation on witnessing death from the outside, and ultimately, how carnal love evolves into something richer and more poignant with time. In "The Mother's Story," Haddon takes the myth of the minotaur in his labyrinth, in which the beast is the spawn of the monstrous lust of the king's wife Pasiphae, and turns it into a wrenching parable of maternal love for a damaged child, and the more real monstrosities of patriarchy. In "D.O.G.Z." the story of Actaeon, who was turned into a stag after glimpsing the naked goddess Diana and torn to pieces by his hunting dogs, becomes a visceral metaphor about the continuum of human and animal behavior. Other stories play with contemporary mythic tropes - genetic engineering, trying to escape the future, the viciousness of adolescent ostracism - to showcase how modern humans are subject to the same capriciousness that obsessed the Greeks. Haddon's tales cover a vast range, from the mythic to the domestic, from ancient Greece to the present day, from stories about love to stories about cruelty, from battlefields to bed and breakfasts, from dogs in space to doors between worlds, all of them bound together by a profound sympathy and an understanding of how human beings act and think and feel when pushed to the very edge. Throughout Haddon's supple prose showcases his astonishing powers of observation, of both the physical world and the workings of the psyche. His vision is clear-eyed, but always resolutely empathetic.

Dogs and Monsters

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Jayne Allen

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

The author of the beloved, bestselling Black Girls Must Die Exhausted trilogy returns with an intriguing blend of Such a Fun Age and The Holiday--an irresistible Christmastime novel about heartbreak, hope, love, and the joy that comes from rediscovering oneself. With Christmas around the corner, Ramona Tucker is desperate to get away. She has been lying to her family about her engagement to Malik, her (ex) fiancé. But breakups are fickle, and Ramona is convinced that she can make her pretend wedding real again--but only if she can avoid everyone discovering her secret at her mother's over-the-top Christmas Eve party. Two-thousand miles away in sunny Malibu, Chelsea Flint needs money to hold on to the beloved beachside cottage she shared with her late parents. The taxes are expensive, and her art isn't paying the bills. Once an irresistible star of the Los Angeles art scene, Chelsea seems to have lost that spark that vaulted her to the top. If she doesn't rediscover that magic--and sell a painting--soon, it will be her family's home she's selling instead. The two women swap homes, just in time, thanks to some careful planning by Ramona's best friend and a sturdy nudge from Chelsea's gallerist godmother. Ramona's Malibu dreams of sun and surf are interrupted as her first night brings an unwelcome stranger to her door, making her question who she can trust--the meddling neighbor Joan, or Jay, the handsome beachside fitness instructor with a secret of his own. Chelsea, desperate for Ramona to stay, hides what she knows--even if that means jeopardizing her budding connection with charming Carlos, whose dreams for his future could be the very key to unlock Chelsea from the weight of her past. Combining escapist fun and sizzling romance, a dose of poignant self-reflection, and a little holiday magic, The Most Wonderful Time is a warm and relatable novel that will delight at Christmas and throughout the year.

The Most Wonderful Time

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Chris Nashawaty

Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer Of 1982

From legendary entertainment journalist and author of Caddyshack comes a rollicking history of 1980s cinema—how eight legendary sci-fi films changed Hollywood forever In the summer of 1982, eight science fiction films were released within six weeks of one another. E.T., Tron, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing, and Mad Max: The Road Warrior changed the careers of some of Hollywood's now biggest names—altering the art of movie-making to this day. In The Future Was Now, Chris Nashawaty recounts the riotous genesis of these films, featuring an all-star cast of Hollywood luminaries and gadflies alike: Steven Spielberg, at the height of his powers, conceives E.T. as an unlikely family tale, and quietly takes over the troubled production of Poltergeist, a horror film he had been nurturing for years. Ridley Scott, fresh off the success of Alien, tries his hand at an odd Philip K. Dick story that becomes Blade Runner—a box office failure turned cult classic. Similar stories arise for films like Tron, Conan the Barbarian, and The Thing. Taken as a whole, these films show a precarious turning-point in Hollywood history, when baffled film executives finally began to understand the potential of high-concept films with a rabid fanbase, merchandising potential, and endless possible sequels. Expertly researched, energetically told, and written with an unabashed love for the cinema, The Future Was Now is a chronicle of how the revolution sparked in a galaxy far, far away finally took root and changed Hollywood forever.

The Future Was Now

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Catherynne M. Valente

"The Metagalactic Grand Prix--part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past returns and the fate of the Earth is once again threatened. The civilizations opposed to humanity have been plotting and want to take down the upstarts. Can humanity rise again in this sequel to the beloved Hugo Award-nominated national bestselling Space Opera?"--

Space Oddity

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James McBride

A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother

From the New York Times bestselling author of Deacon King Kong and The Good Lord Bird, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction: The modern classic that Oprah.com calls one of the best memoirs of a generation and that launched James McBride’s literary career. More than two years on The New York Times bestseller list. Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion—and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain. In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned. At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all- black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. "God is the color of water," Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life's blessings and life's values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth's determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college—and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University. Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son. This book was recently reprinted with a new cover. You may receive one of the two covers shown.

The Color of Water

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Bianca Rogers

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