William Shakespeare

Huge Hardcover (6 to 8 lbs)

North Carolina

William Shakespeare: Complete Plays collects all thirty-seven of the immortal Bard's comedies, tragedies and historical plays. In this volume all of Shakespeare's memorable characters - star-crossed lovers, majestic monarchs, wise fools, lovable rogues, treacherous villains, conflicted heroes, cagey heroines and creatures magical and mythic - strut and fret their hour upon the stage. These characters and the roles they play, have influenced virtually all literature written since. For readers who appreciate the emotional power of the written word, the heights of humour and the depths of drama that can be encompassed by a single type of literature, William Shakespeare: Complete Plays is an indispensable collection of timeless masterpieces.

William Shakespeare Complete Plays

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Kate Andersen Brower

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Inside the Private World of the White House

America's first families are among the most private public figures on earth. From the mystique of the glamorous Kennedys to the tumult that surrounded Bill and Hillary Clinton during the president's impeachment to the historic yet polarizing residency of Barack and Michelle Obama, each new administration brings a unique set of personalities to the White House—and a new set of challenges to the fiercely loyal and hardworking people who serve them: the White House residence staff. No one understands the president of the United States, and his family, like the men and women who make the White House run every day. Now, for the first time, their stories of fifty years, ten administrations, and countless crises, large and small, are told in The Residence. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with butlers, maids, chefs, florists, doormen, and other staffers—as well as former first ladies and first family members—Kate Andersen Brower, who covered President Obama's first term, offers a group portrait of the dedicated professionals who orchestrate lavish state dinners; stand ready during meetings with foreign dignitaries; care for the president and first lady's young children; and cater to every need the first couple may have, however sublime or, on occasion, ridiculous. In the voices of the residence workers themselves—sometimes wry, often affectionate, always gracious and proud—here are stories of The Kennedys—from intimate glimpses of their marriage to the chaotic days after JFK's assassination The Johnsons—featuring the bizarre saga of LBJ's obsession with the White House plumbing The Nixons—including Richard Nixon's unexpected appearance in the White House kitchen the morning he resigned The Reagans—from a fire that endangered Ronald Reagan late in his second term to Nancy's control of details large and small The Clintons—whose private battles, marked by shouting matches and flying objects, unsettled residence workers The Obamas—who danced to Mary J. Blige on their first night in the White House And just as compelling are the stories of the workers themselves, including Storeroom Manager Bill Hamilton, who served eleven presidents over fifty-five years; Executive Housekeeper Christine Limerick, who married a fellow residence worker; Chief Usher Stephen Rochon, who became the first African American to hold the post; Executive Pastry Chef Roland Mesnier, who feuded fiercely with Executive Chef Walter Scheib; and Butler James Ramsey, who made friends with presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and whose spirit animated the White House through six administrations before his death in 2014. Working tirelessly to provide impeccable service and earning the trust and undying admiration of each new first family, these extraordinary White House workers served every day in the midst of history—and lived to tell the tales.

The Residence

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Louisa Alcott

Madeleine B. Stern

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

From the author of anonymous and pseudonymous tales comes a collection on nine newly discovered stories uncovered by tireless literary detective work.

The Lost Stories of Louisa May Alcott

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Cynthia Rylant

A girl reflects on Christmas at her grandparents home in the country, with its fresh-cut tree, handmade ornaments, gifts from Santa, and special church services.

Christmas in the Country

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Includes:
The Nutcracker 
The Little Engine that Could and the snowy blowy Christmas
The night before the night before Christmas
All about christmas, a merry alphabet story
Courduroy's Christmas surprise
Wee three pigs


Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Storybook Treasury of Christmas

Thomas Kincade

This inspiring collection of paintings by Thomas Kinkade evokes peaceful reflections of Christmas. Accompanied by tender quotations from the most memorable scenes involving the Christmas season, these paintings will transport you to a place of quiet beauty and cherished love.

I'll Be Home for Christmas

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Santa Kid

Stephenie Meyer

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

A Novel

A member of a species that takes over the minds of human bodies, Wanderer is unable to disregard his host's love for a man in hiding, a situation that forces both possessor and host to become unwilling allies. A first adult novel by the author of Eclipse.

The Host

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Outreach Publishing

Devotional insights drawn from the movie Soul Surfer, about Bethany Hamilton, a teenage surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack but returned to the sport.

Soul Surfer Catching God's Wave for Life

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Joseph J. Ellis

The Revolutionary Generation

The introduction, discussion questions, suggestions for further reading, and author biography that follow are intended to enhance your reading group's discussion of Joseph Ellis's Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation . We hope they will enrich your experience of this Pulitzer Prize-winning study of the intertwined lives of the founders of the American republic--John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.

Founding Brothers

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The Swoed in the Stone

George R. R. Martin

Huge Paperback (6 to 8 lbs)

A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One

The kingdom of the royal Stark family faces its ultimate challenge in the onset of a generation-long winter, the poisonous plots of the rival Lannisters, the emergence of the Neverborn demons, and the arrival of barbarian hordes

A Game of Thrones

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A baseball injury precipitates a friendship between two boys from Hasidic and Zionist families

The Chosen

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Biographical information and critical essays accompany Shakespeare's play about a prince's wavering determination to avenge his father's murder

Hamlet

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Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

The #1 New York Times bestseller, and the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton! Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow presents a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation. "Grand-scale biography at its best—thorough, insightful, consistently fair, and superbly written . . . A genuinely great book." —David McCullough “A robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all." —Joseph Ellis Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernow’s biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of today’s America is the result of Hamilton’s countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time. “To repudiate his legacy,” Chernow writes, “is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world.” Chernow here recounts Hamilton’s turbulent life: an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington’s aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States.Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power. His is a Hamilton far more human than we’ve encountered before—from his shame about his birth to his fiery aspirations, from his intimate relationships with childhood friends to his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Monroe, and Burr, and from his highly public affair with Maria Reynolds to his loving marriage to his loyal wife Eliza. And never before has there been a more vivid account of Hamilton’s famous and mysterious death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July of 1804. Chernow’s biography is not just a portrait of Hamilton, but the story of America’s birth seen through its most central figure. At a critical time to look back to our roots, Alexander Hamilton will remind readers of the purpose of our institutions and our heritage as Americans. 9780143034759

Alexander Hamilton

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“The Joy Luck Club is one of my favorite books. From the moment I first started reading it, I knew it was going to be incredible. For me, it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime reading experiences that you cherish forever. It inspired me as a writer and still remains hugely inspirational.” —Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians Amy Tan’s beloved, New York Times bestselling tale of mothers and daughters, now the focus of a new documentary Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir on Netflix Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue. With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.

The Joy Luck Club

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Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States

Growing up Latino in America means speaking two languages, living two lives, learning the rules of two cultures. Cool Salsa celebrates the tones, rhythms, sounds, and experiences of that double life.

Here are poems about families and parties, insults and sad memories, hot dogs and mangos, the sweet syllables of Spanish and the snag-toothed traps of English. Here is the glory--and pain--of being Latino American.

Latino Americans hail from Cuba and California, Mexico and Michigan, Nicaragua and New York, and editor Lori M. Carlson has made sure to capture all of those accents. With poets such as Sandra Cisneros, Martín Espada, Gary Soto, and Ed Vega, and a very personal introduction by Oscar Hijuelos, this collection encompasses the voices of Latino America. By selecting poems about the experiences of teenagers, Carlson has given a focus to that rich diversity; by presenting the poems both in their original language and in translation, she has made them available to us all.

As you move from memories of red wagons to dreams of orange trees to fights with street gangs, you feel Cool Salsa's musical and emotional cross rhythms. Here is a world of exciting poetry for you, y tú también.

Cool Salsa

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Reading & Language Arts

Working with Teenage Writers

Clearing the Way is written for English teachers whose job is to help teenagers become better writers. Tom Romano, a full time high school English teacher when he wrote this book, has worked with hundreds of teenage writers. He knows well the problems and triumphs of teaching writing. In Clearing the Wayteachers will find specific ideas and strategies, a workable philosophy for teaching writing, and, best of all, vivid stories and case histories of real teenagers.

Romano discusses the importance of respecting students' words, the use of writing to learn and discover, the teacher-student conference, writing processes in theory and practice, the evaluation and grading of writing, the place of writing in literature classes, and the powerful creative current that can be transmitted among teenage writers. Whatever the topic, Romano illustrates his ideas with many examples of teenagers' own writing.

Clearing the Way

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During his service in the Civil War a young Union soldier matures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to grips with his conflicting emotions about war.

The Red Badge of Courage

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A True Civil War Christmas Story

In the tradition of the bestselling Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce, this inspiring title is filled with soldiers' letters, Christmas poems, and songs from the period. McIvor presents the true story of unabashed holiday spirit on the eve of the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee.

God Rest Ye Merry Soldiers

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The True Story of a Modern-Day Child Slave

An inspiring and compelling memoir from a young woman who lost her childhood to slavery—and built a new life grounded in determination and justice. When Shyima Hall was eight years old, her impoverished parents sold her to pay a debt. Two years later, the wealthy family she was sold to moved to Orange County, California, and smuggled her with them. Shyima served the family eighteen hours a day, seven days a week until she was twelve. That’s when an anonymous call from a neighbor brought about the end of Shyima’s servitude—but her journey to true freedom was far from over. A volunteer at her local police department since she was a teenager, Shyima is passionate about helping to rescue others who are in bondage. Now a US citizen, she regularly speaks out about human trafficking and intends to one day become an immigration officer. In Hidden Girl, Shyima “commands unfailing interest, sympathy, and respect” (Publishers Weekly), candidly reveals how she overcame her harrowing circumstances, and brings vital awareness to a timely and relevant topic.

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