Tania James

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Indiana

A Novel

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION • A spellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century: a hero’s quest, a love story, the story of a young artist coming of age, and an exuberant heist adventure that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents and fifty years. A Best Book of the Year: The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Kirkus Reviews “Addictively absorbing.” —The New York Times Book Review This wildly inventive, irresistible feat of storytelling from a writer at the height of her powers is "an expertly-plotted, deeply affecting novel about war, displacement, emigration, and an elusive mechanical tiger" (Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait). Abbas is just seventeen years old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tiger automaton for Tipu’s sons, a gift to commemorate their return from British captivity. His fate—and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create—will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe. Working alongside the legendary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas hones his craft, learns French, and meets Jehanne, the daughter of a French expatriate. When Du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Rouen, he invites Abbas to come along as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, Tipu’s palace has been looted by British forces, and the tiger automaton has disappeared. To prove himself, Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered art.

Loot

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Toni Bentley

A Balanchine Story

Toni Bentley, a dancer for George Balanchine, the greatest ballet maker of the 20th century, tells the story of Serenade, his iconic masterpiece, and what it was like to dance—and live—in his world at New York City Ballet during its legendary era. At age seventeen, Toni Bentley was chosen by Balanchine, then in his final years, to join the New York City Ballet. From both backstage and onstage, she carries us through the serendipitous history and physical intricacies and demands of Serenade: its dazzling opening, with seventeen women in a double-diamond pattern; its radical, even jazzy, use of the highly refined language that is ballet; its place in the choreographer’s own dramatic story of his immigration to the United States from Soviet Russia; its mystical—and literal—embodiment of the tradition of classical ballet in just thirty-three minutes. Bentley takes us inside the rarefied, intense, and thrilling world Balanchine created through his lifelong devotion to celebrating and expanding female beauty and strength—a world that, inevitably, passed upon his death. An intimate elegy to grace and loss and to the imprint of a towering artist and his transcendent creation on Bentley’s own life, Serenade: A Balanchine Story is a rich narrative by a dynamic artist about the nature of art itself at its most ephemeral and glorious.

Serenade

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Lakiesha Carr

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • This magisterial, intimate look at Black womanhood "follows three women whose various traumas haunt them literally and metaphorically, as it explores what it means to be a Black woman in America today" (The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice). A middle-aged woman feed slots at a secret back-room parlor. A new mother descends into a devastating postpartum depression, wracked with the fear that she is unable to protect her children. A daughter returns home to join the other women in her family waging spiritual combat with the ghosts of their past. An Autobiography of Skin is a dazzling and masterful portrait of interconnected generations in the South from a singular new voice, offering a raw and tender view into the interior lives of Black women. It is at once a powerful look at how experiences are carried inside the body, inside the flesh and skin, and a joyous testament to how healing can be found within—in love, mercy, gratitude, and freedom.

An Autobiography of Skin

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James Patterson

Matt Eversmann

Chris Mooney

Real Cops, True Stories

Instant New York Times Bestseller! Police officers risk their lives every day to protect and serve our homes, families and communities. Here is "a notable collection of heartfelt stories from the front line told with honesty and compassion" (Kirkus). Protect These men and women are our eyes. Our ears. Our protectors. Those who wear a badge, doing their best to help people. Serve These cops serve their communities. They serve their country. They're in the business of saving lives--even at the risk of their own. Defend These patrol officers and K9 handlers, sheriffs and detectives, reveal what it's really like to wear the uniform, to carry the weight of the responsibility they've been given. This is a calling. This is the job. "Walk the Blue Line is the book that the law-enforcement community has been waiting for. These stories showcase the courage, the hurt, the anger and the joy that can be found in every officer's DNA--and above all, their commitment to making difficult situations a little bit better." --Jim Pasco, Executive Director, National Fraternal Order of Police

Walk the Blue Line

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Manjula Martin

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

A Personal and Pyronatural History

H Is for Hawk meets Joan Didion in the Pyrocene in this arresting combination of memoir, natural history, and literary inquiry that chronicles one woman’s experience of life in Northern California during the worst fire season on record. A MOST-ANTICIPATED BOOK: The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Saturday Evening Post, Poets & Writers, The Millions, Alta, Heat Map News Told in luminous, perceptive prose, The Last Fire Season is a deeply incisive inquiry into what it really means—now—to live in relationship to the elements of the natural world. When Manjula Martin moved from the city to the woods of Northern California, she wanted to be closer to the wilderness that she had loved as a child. She was also seeking refuge from a health crisis that left her with chronic pain, and found a sense of healing through tending her garden beneath the redwoods of Sonoma County. But the landscape that Martin treasured was an ecosystem already in crisis. Wildfires fueled by climate change were growing bigger and more frequent: each autumn, her garden filled with smoke and ash, and the local firehouse siren wailed deep into the night. In 2020, when a dry lightning storm ignited hundreds of simultaneous wildfires across the West and kicked off the worst fire season on record, Martin, along with thousands of other Californians, evacuated her home in the midst of a pandemic. Both a love letter to the forests of the West and an interrogation of the colonialist practices that led to their current dilemma, The Last Fire Season, follows her from the oaky hills of Sonoma County to the redwood forests of coastal Santa Cruz, to the pines and peaks of the Sierra Nevada, as she seeks shelter, bears witness to the devastation, and tries to better understand fire’s role in the ecology of the West. As Martin seeks a way to navigate the daily experience of living in a damaged body on a damaged planet, she comes to question her own assumptions about nature and the complicated connections between people and the land on which we live.

The Last Fire Season

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Diana Nyad

The Inspiring Story of One Woman's Pursuit of a Lifelong Dream

Hillary Clinton said that Find a Way would stay with her through the general election:  "When you're facing big challenges in your life, you can think about Diana Nyad getting attacked by the lethal sting of box jellyfishes. And nearly anything else seems doable in comparison."  

When Diana Nyad arrived on the shore of Key West after fifty-three hours of grueling swimming across an epic ocean, she not only set a world record--becoming the first person to swim the shark-infested waters between Cuba and Florida with no cage for protection--she also succeeded in fulfilling a dream she first chased at age twenty-eight and at long last achieved when she was sixty-four.  

Now, in a riveting memoir, Diana shares a spirited account of what it takes to face one's fears, engage one's passions, and never ever give up. For no matter what life may throw at you, or how many times you may have experienced defeat, it is always possible--as long as you commit to living life to the nth degree, no regrets--to "find a way." 

Find a Way

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Blythe Roberson

One Woman in a Borrowed Prius on the Road Most Traveled

The author of How to Date Men When You Hate Men examines Americans' obsession with freedom, travel, and the open road in this funny, entertaining travelogue that blends the humorous observations of Bill Bryson with the piercing cultural commentary of Jia Tolentino.

For writer and comedian Blythe Roberson, there are only so many Mary Oliver poems you can read about being free, and only so many times you can listen to Joni Mitchell's travel album Hejira, before you too, are itching to take off. Canonical American travel writers have long celebrated the road trip as the epitome of freedom. But why does it seem like all those canonical travel narratives are written by white men who have no problems, who only decide to go the desert to see what having problems feels like?

To fill in the literary gaps and quench her own sense of adventure, Roberson quits her day job and sets off on a Great American Road Trip to visit America's national parks.

America the Beautiful? is a hilarious trip into the mind of one of the Millennial generation's funniest writers. Borrowing her Midwestern stepfather's Prius, she heads west to the Loop of mega-popular parks, over to the ocean and down the Pacific Coast Highway, and, in a feat of spectacularly bad timing, through the southwestern desert in the middle of July. Along the way she meets new friends on their own personal quests, learns to cope with abstinence while missing the comforts of home, and comes to understand the limits--and possibilities--of going to nature to prove to yourself and your Instagram followers that you are, in fact, free.

The result is a laugh-out-loud-while-occasionally-raging-inside travelogue, filled with meditations and many, many jokes on ecotourism, conservation, freedom, traffic, climate change, and the structural and financial inequalities that limit so many Americans' movement. Ultimately, Roberson ponders the question: Is quitting society and going on the road about enlightenment and liberty--or is it just selfish escapism?

America the Beautiful?

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Rachelle Unreich

My Mother's Inspiring True Story of Surviving the Holocaust

The powerful, true story of a Holocaust survivor told by her daughter--a tale that reminds us of the resilience of the soul and the ability of the heart to heal. As Mira is nearing the end of her life, her daughter Rachelle wants to find out how her mother had lived through four concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and a Death March. There was a mystery to her survival, it seemed--which perhaps had something to do with the strange things that always happened around her. And, incredibly, when giving testimony later in life, she says that it was during this time--despite witnessing the depths of man's cruelty--that she learned about "the goodness of people." Born in Czechoslovakia, Mira was only 12 years old when World War II broke out. At 88, living in Australia, she is diagnosed with cancer, and her journalist daughter decides to interview her to distract her from her illness. What Rachelle discovers about her mother helps her fit together the jigsaw pieces of her own life. A Brilliant Life portrays not only how remote a prospect it was to live through the Holocaust, but what it is like to be the child of a survivor. A story of love, loss, wonder and the deepest kind of faith, A Brilliant Life questions the role that fate, chance and destiny play in one's life. It is a tribute to family, a story of incredible resilience and a chronicle of the deep connection between mother and child that not even death can destroy.

A Brilliant Life

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Tracy K. Smith

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

A Plea for the American Soul

A stunning personal manifesto on memory, family, and history that explores how we in America might—together—come to a new view of our shared past “A vulnerable, honest look at a life lived in a country still struggling with its evils...Hopeful...Beautiful and haunting.” —Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author of Begin Again In 2020, heartsick from constant assaults on Black life, Tracy K. Smith found herself soul-searching and digging into the historical archive for help navigating the “din of human division and strife.” With lyricism and urgency, Smith draws on several avenues of thinking—personal, documentary, and spiritual—to understand who we are as a nation and what we might hope to mean to one another. In Smith’s own words, “To write a book about Black strength, Black continuance, and the powerful forms of belief and community that have long bolstered the soul of my people, I used the generations of my own patrilineal family to lean backward toward history, to gather a fuller sense of the lives my own ancestors led, the challenges they endured, and the sources of hope and bolstering they counted on. What this process has led me to believe is that all of us, in the here and now, can choose to work alongside the generations that precede us in tending to America’s oldest wounds and meeting the urgencies of our present.” To Free the Captives touches down in Sunflower, Alabama, the red-dirt town where Smith’s father’s family comes from, and where her grandfather returned after World War I with a hero’s record but difficult prospects as a Black man. Smith considers his life and the life of her father through the lens of history. Hoping to connect with their strength and continuance, she assembles a new terminology of American life. Bearing courageous witness to the terms of Freedom afforded her as a Black woman, a mother, and an educator in the twenty-first century, Smith etches a portrait of where we find ourselves four hundred years into the American experiment. Weaving in an account of her growing spiritual practice, she argues that the soul is not merely a private site of respite or transcendence, but a tool for fulfilling our duties to each other, and a sounding board for our most pressing collective questions: Where are we going as a nation? Where have we been?

To Free the Captives

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Andie Burke

A sparkling and steamy opposites-attract romance, Fly with Me by Andie Burke is filled with sharp banter and that sweet, swooping feeling of finding “the one” when and where you least expect it. A one-way ticket to love or a bumpy ride ahead? Flying-phobic ER nurse Olive Murphy is still gripping the armrest from her first-ever take-off when the pilot announces an in-flight medical emergency. Olive leaps into action and saves a life, but ends up getting stuck in the airport hours away from the marathon she's running in honor of her brother. Luckily for her, Stella Soriano, the stunning type A copilot, offers to give her a ride. After the two spend a magical day together, Stella makes a surprising request: Will Olive be her fake girlfriend? A video of Olive saving a life has gone viral and started generating big sales for Stella's airline. Stella sees their union as the perfect opportunity to get to the boys' club executives at her company who keep overlooking her for a long-deserved promotion. Realizing this arrangement could help her too, Olive dives into memorizing Stella’s comically comprehensive three-ring-binder guide to fake dating. As the two grow closer, what’s supposed to be a ruse feels more and more real. Could this be the romantic ride of their lives, or an epic crash and burn?

Fly with Me

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Amy Spalding

An Enchanting and Memorable Love Story

When an aspiring L.A. scriptwriter falls head-over-heels for a bossy and beautiful movie star after a devastating break-up, the two take a risk on love and cast themselves as the leading ladies of their own star-struck romance in this sweet and spirited love story from critically-acclaimed writer Amy Spalding in her adult debut.

"Pure romance magic." --Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Love & Other Words

"I loved how joyful, how thoughtful, and how real For Her Consideration was." --New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory

Since a crushing breakup three years ago, Nina Rice has written romance, friends, her dreams of scriptwriting for TV, and even LA proper out of her life. Instead, she's safely out in the suburbs in her aunt's condo working her talent agency job from home, managing celebrity email accounts, and certain that's plenty of writing--and plot--for her life. But a surprise meeting called by Ari Fox, a young actress on everyone's radar, stirs up all kinds of feelings Nina thought she'd deleted for good . . .

Ari is sexy, out and proud, and a serious control freak, according to Nina's boss. She has her own ideas about how Nina should handle her emails--and about getting to know her ghostwriter. When she tells Nina she should be writing again, Nina suddenly finds it less scary to revisit her abandoned life than seriously consider that Ari is flirting with her. Between reconnecting with her old crew and working on a new script, a relationship with a movie star seems like something she'll definitely mess up--but what could be more worth the risk?

Amy Spalding's For Her Consideration is full of heat and heart as Nina learns that her story just might include the kind of love that lasts.

"A warm celebration of Los Angeles, chosen family, and learning how to love and be loved." --Cameron Esposito, bestselling author of Save Yourself

"An optimistic, empathetic choice for readers, which highlights queer women pursuing creative careers and showcases a strong emotional growth arc." - Library Journal

"A cozy comfort-read." - Publishers Weekly

For Her Consideration-ARC Copy

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#paperback #arc #advancereadercopy #youngadult #atouchofmoonlight #fiction

A Touch of Moonlight ARC

#paperback #fiction #bromanceseries #averymerrybromance #bromanceclub #romance #lyssakayadams #romcom #signed 

'Tis the season for a Bromance Book Club matchmaking mission! This time, they're pulling out the mistletoe for everyone's favorite country music star, Colton, and his second chance at love.

Country music's golden boy Colton Wheeler felt the most perfect harmony when he was with Gretchen Winthrop. But for her, it was a love him and leave him situation. A year later, Colton is struggling to push his music forward in a new direction. If it weren't about to be the most magical time of year and the support of the Bromance Book Club, he'd be wallowing in self-pity. 
 
It's hard for immigration attorney Gretchen not to feel a little Scrooge-ish about the excess of Christmas when her clients are scrambling to afford their rent. So when her estranged, wealthy family reaches out with an offer that will allow her to better serve the community, she's unable to say no. She just needs to convince Colton to be the new face of her family's whiskey brand. No big deal...
 
Colton agrees to consider Gretchen's offer in exchange for three dates before Christmas. With the help of the Bromance Book Club, Colton throws himself into the task of proving to her there's a spark between them. But Gretchen and Colton will both need to overcome the ghosts of Christmas past to build a future together.

Sara Bieneman

@literarylu_

Books Listed

Following

Followers

Tania James

Loot

Toni Bentley

Serenade

Lakiesha Carr

An Autobiography of Skin

James Patterson; Matt Eversmann; Chris Mooney

Walk the Blue Line

Manjula Martin

The Last Fire Season

Diana Nyad

Find a Way

Blythe Roberson

America the Beautiful?

Rachelle Unreich

A Brilliant Life

Tracy K. Smith

To Free the Captives

Andie Burke

Fly with Me

Amy Spalding

For Her Consideration-ARC Copy

Yarda S. Santos

A Touch of Moonlight ARC

Lyssa Kay Adams

A Very Merry Bromance (Signed Copy!)

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Browse by categories

Tania James

Loot

Toni Bentley

Serenade

Lakiesha Carr

An Autobiography of Skin

James Patterson; Matt Eversmann; Chris Mooney

Walk the Blue Line

Manjula Martin

The Last Fire Season

Diana Nyad

Find a Way

Blythe Roberson

America the Beautiful?

Rachelle Unreich

A Brilliant Life

Tracy K. Smith

To Free the Captives

Andie Burke

Fly with Me

Amy Spalding

For Her Consideration-ARC Copy

Yarda S. Santos

A Touch of Moonlight ARC

Lyssa Kay Adams

A Very Merry Bromance (Signed Copy!)

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