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The incredible true story of Ana Montes, the most damaging female spy in US history, drawing upon never-before-seen material and to be published upon her release from priso. Just days after the 9-11 attacks, a senior Pentagon analyst eased her red Toyota Echo into traffic and headed to work. She never saw the undercover cars tracking her every turn. As she settled into her cubicle on the 6th floor of the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, FBI Agents and twitchy DIA officers were hiding in nearby offices. For this was the day that Ana Montes—the US Intelligence Community superstar who had just won a prestigious fellowship at the CIA—was to be arrested and publicly exposed as a secret agent for Cuba. Like spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen before her, Ana Montes blindsided her colleagues with brazen acts of treason. For nearly 17 years, Montes succeeded in two high-stress jobs. By day, she was one of the government's top Cuba experts, a buttoned-down GS-14 with shockingly easy access to classified documents. By night, she was on the clock for Fidel Castro, listening to coded messages over shortwave radio, passing US secrets to handlers in local restaurants, and slipping into Havana wearing a wig. Montes didn't just deceive her country. Her betrayal was intensely personal. Her mercurial father was a former US Army Colonel. Her brother and sister-in-law were FBI Special Agents. And her only sister, Lucy, also worked her entire career for the Bureau. The highlight of her distinguished 31 years as a Miami-based language specialist: Helping the FBI flush Cuban spies out of the United States. Little did Lucy or her family know that the greatest Cuban spy of all was sitting right next to them at Thanksgivings, baptisms, and weddings. In Code Name Blue Wren, investigative journalist Jim Popkin weaves the tale of two sisters who chose two very different paths, plus the unsung heroes who had to fight to bring Ana to justice. With exclusive access to a "Secret" CIA behavioral profile of Ana, family memoirs, and Ana's incriminating letters from prison, Popkin reveals the making of a traitor—a woman labelled "one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history" by America's top counter-intelligence official. After more than two decades in federal prison, Montes will be freed in January 2023. Code Name Blue Wren is a thrilling detective tale, an insider's look at the clandestine world of espionage, and an intimate exploration of the dark side of betrayal.

From debut author Hadeer Elsbai comes the first book in an incredibly powerful new duology, set wholly in a new world, but inspired by modern Egyptian history, about two young women—Nehal, a spoiled aristocrat used to getting what she wants and Giorgina, a poor bookshop worker used to having nothing—who find they have far more in common, particularly in their struggle for the rights of women and their ability to fight for it with forbidden elemental magic. As a waterweaver, Nehal can move and shape any water to her will, but she's limited by her lack of formal education. She desires nothing more than to attend the newly opened Weaving Academy, take complete control of her powers, and pursue a glorious future on the battlefield with the first all-female military regiment. But her family cannot afford to let her go—crushed under her father's gambling debt, Nehal is forcibly married into a wealthy merchant family. Her new spouse, Nico, is indifferent and distant and in love with another woman, a bookseller named Giorgina. Giorgina has her own secret, however: she is an earthweaver with dangerously uncontrollable powers. She has no money and no prospects. Her only solace comes from her activities with the Daughters of Izdihar, a radical women's rights group at the forefront of a movement with a simple goal: to attain recognition for women to have a say in their own lives. They live very different lives and come from very different means, yet Nehal and Giorgina have more in common than they think. The cause—and Nico—brings them into each other's orbit, drawn in by the group's enigmatic leader, Malak Mamdouh, and the urge to do what is right. But their problems may seem small in the broader context of their world, as tensions are rising with a neighboring nation that desires an end to weaving and weavers. As Nehal and Giorgina fight for their rights, the threat of war looms in the background, and the two women find themselves struggling to earn—and keep—a lasting freedom.

An Yu's enchanting and contemplative novel of music and mushrooms follows a former concert pianist searching for the truth about a vanished musician. For three years, Song Yan has filled the emptiness of her Beijing apartment with the tentative notes of her young piano students. She gave up on her own career as a concert pianist many years ago, but her husband Bowen, an executive at a car company, has long rebuffed her pleas to have a child. He resists even when his mother arrives from the southwestern Chinese region of Yunnan and begins her own campaign for a grandchild. As tension in the household rises, it becomes harder for Song Yan to keep her usual placid demeanor, especially since she is troubled by dreams of a doorless room she can't escape, populated only by a strange orange mushroom. When a parcel of mushrooms native to her mother-in-law's province is delivered seemingly by mistake, Song Yan sees an opportunity to bond with her, and as the packages continue to arrive every week, the women stir-fry and grill the mushrooms, adding them to soups and noodles. When a letter arrives in the mail from the sender of the mushrooms, Song Yan's world begins to tilt further into the surreal. Summoned to an uncanny, seemingly ageless house hidden in a hutong that sits in the middle of the congested city, she finds Bai Yu, a once world-famous pianist who disappeared ten years ago. A gorgeous and atmospheric novel of art and expression, grief and survival, memory and self-discovery, Ghost Music animates contemporary Beijing through the eyes of a lonely yet hopeful young woman and gives vivid color and texture to the promise of new beginnings.

Discover the craft of writing comics the Marvel way. The Marvel Script To Page series is an official behind-the-scenes look at the craft of writing comic books, featuring exclusive scripts and commentary from top Marvel creators and editors. Explore the world of Wakanda and its mighty champion and protector, the Black Panther. Meet T’challa, Shuri, the Dora Milaje and many, many more iconic characters in selected scripts from a range of contemporary comics creators, with exclusive editorial commentary.

A gripping, radically intimate debut novel about a group of enslaved women staging a covert rebellion against their owners. On a struggling Texas plantation, six enslaved women slip from their sleeping quarters and gather in the woods under the cover of night. The Lucys—as they call the plantation owners, after Lucifer himself—have decided to turn around the farm's bleak financial prospects by making the women bear children. They have hired a "stockman" to impregnate them. But the women are determined to protect themselves. Now each of the six faces a choice. Nan, the doctoring woman, has brought a sack of cotton root clippings that can stave off children when chewed daily. If they all take part, the Lucys may give up and send the stockman away. But a pregnancy for any of them will only encourage the Lucys further. And should their plan be discovered, the consequences will be severe. Visceral and arresting, Night Wherever We Go illuminates each woman's individual trials and desires while painting a subversive portrait of collective defiance. Unflinching in her portrayal of America's gravest injustices, while also deeply attentive to the transcendence, love, and solidarity of women whose interior lives have been underexplored, Tracey Rose Peyton creates a story of unforgettable power.

When you're on top, you can get away with anything... It's the week before her wedding, and all of Eliza's meticulous planning is about to pay off. She's become the exact type of woman who would marry into the prominent, blue-blood Walker family – Ivy League credentials, a high-powered PR job, and a designer label wardrobe. But as the big day approaches, secrets from Eliza's past attending an Evangelical college start to throw her true motives into question. Who exactly is Eliza Bennett and what does she really want? Written in a breakneck pace, capturing the glittering, privileged world of the one-percenters, The Social Climber is a gripping novel of one woman's determination to seek justice at any cost.

In a fallen kingdom, one girl carries the key to discovering the secrets of her nation's past—and unleashing the demons that sleep at its heart. An epic fantasy series inspired by the mythology and folklore of ancient China. Once, Lan had a different name. Now she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and her days scavenging for what she can find of the past. Anything to understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother in her last act before she died. The mark is mysterious—an untranslatable Hin character—and no one but Lan can see it. Until the night a boy appears at her teahouse and saves her life. Zen is a practitioner—one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom. Their magic was rumored to have been drawn from the demons they communed with. Magic believed to be long lost. Now it must be hidden from the Elantians at all costs. When Zen comes across Lan, he recognizes what she is: a practitioner with a powerful ability hidden in the mark on her arm. He’s never seen anything like it—but he knows that if there are answers, they lie deep in the pine forests and misty mountains of the Last Kingdom, with an order of practitioning masters planning to overthrow the Elantian regime. Both Lan and Zen have secrets buried deep within—secrets they must hide from others, and secrets that they themselves have yet to discover. Fate has connected them, but their destiny remains unwritten. Both hold the power to liberate their land. And both hold the power to destroy the world. Now the battle for the Last Kingdom begins.

She's brilliant, beautiful...and tired of being the only Black woman in the room.
Two years ago, Kennedy Mitchell was plucked from the reception desk and placed in the corporate boardroom in the name of diversity. Rather than play along, she and her best friend founded Token, a boutique PR agency that helps "diversity-challenged" companies and celebrities. With corporate America diversifying workplaces and famous people getting into reputation-damaging controversies, Token is in high demand. Kennedy quickly discovers there's a lot of on-the-job learning and some messes are not so easily fixed. When Kennedy's ex shows up needing help repairing his company's reputation, things get even more complicated. She knows his character is being wrongly maligned, but she's reluctant to get involved—professionally and emotionally. But soon, she finds herself drawn into a PR scandal of her own.

Cameron Carson has a secret. A secret with the power to break apart his friend group. Cameron Carson, member of the Geeks and Nerds United (GANU) club, has been secretly hooking up with student council president, cheerleader, theater enthusiast, and all-around queen bee Karla Ortega since the summer. The one problem—what was meant to be a summer fling between coffee shop coworkers has now evolved into a clandestine senior-year entanglement, where Karla isn't intending on blending their friend groups anytime soon, or at all. Enter Mackenzie Briggs, who isn't afraid to be herself or wear her heart on her sleeve. When Cameron finds himself unexpectedly bonding with Mackenzie and repeatedly snubbed in public by Karla, he starts to wonder who he can truly consider a friend and who might have the potential to become more...

The unlikely story of how Americans canonized Adam Smith as the patron saint of free markets. Originally published in 1776, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations was lauded by America's founders as a landmark work of Enlightenment thinking about national wealth, statecraft, and moral virtue. Today, Smith is one of the most influential icons of economic thought in America. Glory Liu traces how generations of Americans have read, reinterpreted, and weaponized Smith's ideas, revealing how his popular image as a champion of American-style capitalism and free markets is a historical invention. Drawing on a trove of illuminating archival materials, Liu tells the story of how an unassuming Scottish philosopher captured the American imagination and played a leading role in shaping American economic and political ideas. She shows how Smith became known as the father of political economy in the nineteenth century and was firmly associated with free trade, and how, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the Chicago School of Economics transformed him into the preeminent theorist of self-interest and the miracle of free markets. Liu explores how a new generation of political theorists and public intellectuals has sought to recover Smith's original intentions and restore his reputation as a moral philosopher. Charting the enduring fascination that this humble philosopher from Scotland has held for American readers over more than two centuries, Adam Smith's America shows how Smith continues to be a vehicle for articulating perennial moral and political anxieties about modern capitalism.

From one of the most important American novelists of the twentieth century—a novel of sexual, racial, political, artistic passions, set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France. Stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, this book depicts men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime.

An empowering, practical guide to overcoming imposter syndrome, getting sassy with negative thoughts and succeeding in all areas of life. 'Understanding that confidence is a practice and becoming intentional about my personal growth has helped me win the battle in my mind and become the confident woman I am today. Discovering my truth has brought so much joy, love and abundance into my life, and I want the same for every single one of you.' Tiwalola Ogunlesi is on a mission to create a world of confident women. An esteemed and highly sought-after motivational speaker and confidence coach, she founded her company with the sole purpose of leading women to love themselves. In Confident and Killing It, Tiwalola guides readers in becoming the most unapologetic and unstoppable version of themselves. No self-aggrandising or posturing, no pseudo-scientific prose or tired 'inspirational' tropes, this is simply a book designed to work. Featuring practical tips and tricks and real-life stories from everyday women, Confident and Killing It will help you master your mind, overcome fear and live life to the fullest.

From one of the most brilliant and provocative literary figures of the past century comes a groundbreaking novel set among the bohemian bars and nightclubs of 1950s Paris, about love and the fear of love. In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni’s curtainless room, which he keeps dark to protect their privacy. But Hella’s return to Paris brings the affair to a crisis, one that rapidly spirals into tragedy. David struggles for self-knowledge during one long, dark night—“the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life.” With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin's now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a deeply moving story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.

From one of America's most beloved contemporary novelists, a delicious and witty story about love under house arrest. Jane Morgan is a valued member of her law firm—or was, until a prudish neighbor, binoculars poised, observes her having sex on the roof of her NYC apartment building. Police are summoned, and a punishing judge sentences her to six months of home confinement. With Jane now jobless and rootless, trapped at home, life looks bleak. Yes, her twin sister provides support and advice, but mostly of the unwelcome kind. When a doorman lets slip that Jane isn't the only resident wearing an ankle monitor, she strikes up a friendship with fellow white-collar felon Perry Salisbury. As she tries to adapt to life within her apartment walls, she discovers she hasn't heard the end of that tattletale neighbor—whose past isn't as decorous as her 9-1-1 snitching would suggest. Why are police knocking on Jane's door again? Can her house arrest have a silver lining? Can two wrongs make a right? In the hands of "an inspired alchemist who converts serious subject into humor"—yes, delightfully.

A major work of American literature from a major American writer that powerfully portrays the anguish of being Black in a society that at times seems poised on the brink of total racial war. At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable. For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make irresistible claims on Leo's loyalty. Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is overpowering in its vitality and extravagant in the intensity of its feeling.

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure's reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum's most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure's converge.

When all of Venice is unmasked, one man's identity remains a mystery. 1807: When a baby is discovered floating in a basket along the quiet canals of Venice, a guild of artisans takes him in and raises him as a son, skilled in each of their trades. Although the boy, Sebastien Trovato, has wrestled with questions of his origins, it isn't until a woman washes ashore on his lagoon island that answers begin to emerge. In hunting down his story, Sebastien must make a choice that could alter not just his own future, but also that of the beloved floating city. 1904: Daniel Goodman is given a fresh start in life as the century turns. Hoping to redeem a past laden with regrets, he is sent on an assignment from California to Venice to procure and translate a rare book. There, he discovers a city of colliding hope and decay, much like his own life, and a mystery wrapped in the pages of that filigree-covered volume. With the help of Vittoria, a bookshop keeper, Daniel finds himself in a web of shadows, secrets, and discoveries carefully kept within the stones and canals of the ancient city and in the mystery of the man whose story the book does not finish: Sebastien Trovato.

The Girl in the Water is the story of a multiethnic group of young friends, coming of age in Estonia and Ukraine in the last days of the Soviet Union. Their lives are shaped by an Afghan war, the Chernobyl disaster, and the collapse and legacy of a suffocating society.

An enchanting, hypnotic trilogy of witchcraft, adventure, and romance from the beloved author of Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat, The Mayfair Witches is a wondrous journey through the centuries, across the globe, and between the human and demonic worlds. On the screened porch of a great New Orleans house, now faded, a mute and fragile woman sits rocking. She belongs to a legendary dynasty of witches—a family that is itself haunted over the ages by a dangerous and seductive being named Lasher. Their story begins in our time, with a rescue at sea. Rowan Mayfair, a brilliant neurosurgeon aware of her abilities but oblivious to her ancient line, finds the drowned body of Michael Curry off the coast of California and brings him to life. In his brief interval of death, he has acquired a sensory power that mystifies and frightens him. Fiercely drawn to each other, Rowan and Michael set out to solve the mystery of her past and his unwelcome gift, and an intricate tale of evil unfolds: an evil unleashed in seventeenth-century Scotland, where the first “witch,” Suzanne of the Mayfair, conjures up the spirit that spells her own destruction and torments each of her descendants in turn.

From International Latino Book Award-winning author Ann Dávila Cardinal comes a gorgeously written family saga about a Puerto Rican woman who finds herself gifted (or cursed?) with a strange ability. There was always an old woman dying in the back room of her family's house when Isla was a child... Isla Larsen Sanchez's life begins to unravel when her father passes away. Instead of being comforted at home in New Jersey, her mother starts leaving her in Puerto Rico with her grandmother and great-aunt each summer like a piece of forgotten luggage. When Isla turns eighteen, her grandmother, a great storyteller, dies. It is then that Isla discovers she has a gift passed down through her family's cuentistas. The tales of dead family storytellers are brought back to life, replaying themselves over and over in front of her. At first, Isla is enchanted by this connection to the Sanchez cuentistas. But when Isla has a vision of an old murder mystery, she realizes that if she can't solve it to make the loop end, these seemingly harmless stories could cost Isla her life.

Cash is Queen breaks down the basics of how young women of today can learn to understand and manage money – an empowering skill that will last them a lifetime. The world's first money book written exclusively for girls, Cash is Queen is designed to deliver the sophistication, practicality and fun guaranteed to appeal to today's young woman. Study after study shows that women are far happier discussing virtually anything else but bank balances, and this lack of confidence in openly discussing money matters is crippling the female population financially. Women negotiate less in salary discussions, are excessively cautious and risk averse when it comes to investing and lack the general awareness around how to optimise retirement savings to guarantee a comfortable retirement. With clear explanations and empowering text by experienced financial expert Davinia Tomlinson, you'll learn that establishing a positive relationship with money as an adult must be cultivated in childhood. Cash Is Queen explains in a tone that's relatable, fresh and fun, everything a young girl needs to know about saving, spending and stashing her cash, helping girls everywhere establish positive financial habits that will last a lifetime. Non-patronising or preachy, this book is essential reading for young girls everywhere as they enter adulthood and begin the journey of discovery in identifying the mark they would like to leave in the world.

In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band—and meeting the man who would become her husband—her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her. Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner's voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.

A revised and updated edition of the bestselling adult book, Schoolhouse Rock! The Official Guide, timed to the 50th anniversary of the premiere. "Conjunction Junction, what's your function?" If you don't recognize those five little words, then you weren't camped out in front of the television set every Saturday morning from 1973 to 1985. Those catchy, jazzy tunes from Schoolhouse Rock! taught millions of us the fundamentals of math, grammar, science, and history. We learned how a bill becomes a law in "I'm Just a Bill," the planets of our solar system in "Interplanet Janet," how to turn an adjective into a perfectly good adverb in "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here." Plus we unknowingly memorized the Preamble to the Constitution! A blast from the past, Schoolhouse Rock! The Updated Official Guide includes the unforgettable lyrics and memorable moments from the original segments and the later inclusions, such as: My Hero, Zero; Three Is a Magic Number; Figure Eight; Conjunction Junction; Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here; Interjections!; Telegraph Line; A Victim of Gravity; Interplanet Janet; Sufferin' Till Suffrage; The Preamble; I'm Just a Bil;l Dollars and Sense; Tyrannosaurus Debt. Sprinkled with facts and behind-the-scenes trivia, Schoolhouse Rock! The Updated Official Guide is the must-have book for every fan who wants to relive this beloved pop-culture sensation.

In Time for Me, author Helene Lerner offers women trying to do it all, four Power Keys so that they can enjoy a more joyful and balanced life. For women who are out in the trenches every day trying to do too much, this book offers simple pleasures to nourish your spirit and simple solutions to find time for yourself. Summon the courage to do things differently. It's your life and it only happens once, why not make it a great one? Women are notorious for taking care of everyone else first, exhausting themselves and losing their spark in the process. Time for Me is for any woman who feels stretched too thin, burnt out, or ready to find a better work-life balance. Helene helps women figure out if they're doing too much, asking readers to reflect and journal on different scenarios in their life.

Two weeks before Christmas and all through Manhattan, shop windows are decorated in red and green satin. Stella's standing alone outside a famous department store, when a charming man asks her opinion on the décor. It's a tragedy in tinsel, she says, unable to lie. Then he asks for a better idea, with a twinkle in his eye. She didn't know he owned the place, when he put her on the spot, And now she's working for that man, trying to ignore that he's hot. But as a down-on-her-luck girl with a difficult past, Stella knows how to make a good opportunity last. So she gives it her all, working without stopping. Trying to resist temptation, because she's just window shopping.

Goodreads Choice Award-winning poet and bestselling author amanda lovelace presents the you are your own fairy tale series collection—a beautiful and empowering trilogy that proves the only thing needed for a happily ever after is yourself. this edition of amanda lovelace's you are your own fairy tale trilogy includes all of the poems from break your glass slippers, shine your icy crown, & unlock your storybook heart that you fell in love with, as well as a new & never-before-seen introduction written by the author. you are your own fairy tale is a must have for every lover of beautiful things & magical words.

A Young People's History of the United States brings to US history the viewpoints of workers, enslaved people, immigrants, women, Black people, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, American Indians, and others whose stories, and their impact, are rarely included in books for young people. Beginning with a look at Christopher Columbus's arrival through the eyes of the Arawak Indians, then leading the reader through the struggles for workers' rights, women's rights, and civil rights during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and ending with the current protests against continued American imperialism, Zinn presents a radical new way of understanding America's history. In so doing, he reminds readers that America's true greatness is shaped by our dissident voices, not our military generals. A Young People's History of the United States is also a companion volume to The People Speak, the film adapted from A People's History of the United States and Voices of a People's History of the United States.

A comprehensive, engaging, and revisionist account of the Court fight that ties it to contemporary policy debates. In the last past few years, liberals concerned about the prospect of long-term conservative dominance of the federal courts have revived an idea that famously crashed and burned in the 1930s: court packing. Not surprisingly, today's court packing advocates have run into a wall of opposition, with most citing the 1930s episode as one FDR's greatest failures. In early 1937, Roosevelt-fresh off a landslide victory-stunned the country when he proposed a plan to expand the size of the court by up to six justices. Today, that scheme is generally seen as an act of hubris-an instance where FDR failed to read Congress and the public properly. In FDR's Gambit, the eminent legal historian Laura Kalman challenges the conventional wisdom by telling the story as it unfolded, without the distortions of hindsight. Indeed, while scholars have portrayed the Court Bill as the ill-fated brainchild of a hubristic President made overbold by victory, Kalman argues to the contrary that acumen, not arrogance, accounted for Roosevelt's actions. Far from erring tragically from the beginning, FDR came very close to getting additional justices, and the Court itself changed course. As Kalman shows, the episode suggests that proposing a change in the Court might give the justices reason to consider whether their present course is endangering the institution and its vital role in a liberal democracy. Based on extensive archival research, FDR's Gambit offers a novel perspective on the long-term effects of court packing's failure, as a legacy that remains with us today. Whether or not it is the right remedy for today's troubles, Kalman argues that court packing does not deserve to be recalled as one fated for failure in 1937.

This is a book about one of the first recorded pilgrims who climbed Mount Sinai; it's about Amelia Earhart, the famous American aviator whose story and disappearance continues to capture the world's imagination. It's the story of a doomed expedition to discover the North West Passage, and the tale of Marco Polo, who remained at the court of the Kublai Khan for an incredible 17 years.The 50 Greatest Explorers in History brings to life the pioneers in aviation flying thousands of miles with the most basic of maps in open cockpits, exposed to the elements and the unrelenting smell of petrol fumes. They travel by steamboat, on horseback, by rickshaw, motorbike, train, swim with piranhas, embark into black nothingness in new spacecraft, explore by Jeep, yachts, tea boats and elephants, disguise themselves as men, take canoes and use innovative, advanced technological scuba equipment.Going where in many cases, no man or woman had ever gone before, some women featured in this books were often denied respect, acknowledgment, or recognition and they determined to break the 'men's club' mentality of global exploration from which they were excluded.

Tokyo Stroll is for travelers who want to wander the streets and discover the city as it unfolds before their eyes. Select neighborhoods are profiled with detailed maps identifying locations and landmarks of interest. There is no "start at point A and go to point B" prescribed route. Instead readers are encouraged to wander as whimsy takes them. Food, shopping, and sights at every turn are provided with descriptions and over 150 maps to aid discovery. Includes detailed notes on etiquette, money, and travel.

The first creator-owned book by Ultimate Spider-Man co-creators Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, Brilliant tells the story of a handful of college-age geniuses who challenge each other to solve the mystery of superpowers. Can the best and brightest change science fiction into science fact? And if so, how will the world at large react? Brilliant is a thriller of the highest order. It is a story of how true power can either destroy or protect the strongest of friendships. It is the story of how the world will react when our true potential is finally unlocked.

Captain America soars again in a new era for truth and liberty! The world is finally ready for two Caps, so Sam Wilson picks up a shield once more – and enters a world of trouble! Following a lead from Misty Knight, Sam intercepts a mysterious group hijacking what appears to be an empty train. But as Sam and his partner, the new Falcon, dig deeper, they discover that this plot may be connected to a crucial piece of Captain America history – and, surprisingly, to the nation of Wakanda! But how is Deadpool involved?! To find answers, Sam Wilson and Wade Wilson must team up in Latveria – and you know what that means! When Doctor Doom learns of the interlopers in his midst, can Cap escape with his life?

Based on a true story, the intelligence community figures out that the traveling band of social misfits who make comic books are an exact match to the profiles of candidates recruited for intelligence and counterintelligence gathering. A well-known comics creator is recruited by the agency to live a double life as a spy. And convention season is upon us.

In Book 2 of the series, Enola is back on the case, deciphering clues and developing leads in each of three new mysteries. What she doesn't know is that she, too, is being pursued—by her own brother! Once again, Sherlock Holmes' brilliant, strong-willed younger sister takes center stage in this delightfully drawn graphic novel based on Nancy Springer's bestselling mystery series. London, 1889. A woman is being held prisoner while she awaits a forced marriage. Another has been kidnapped, and yet another disappears... As Enola seeks to rescue the three women, her brother embarks on a quest of his own. When Sherlock receives a mysterious package, he knows he'll need Enola's help to decipher its meaning. In the end, the three Holmes siblings will have to work together to answer the question that started it all: What happened to their mother?

"Evolution" is a documentary comic book about the theory of evolution. But it is also a sometimes zany work of fiction in which actors put on a play about Darwinian evolution and its political extensions. During the writing and rehearsing of the play, they will be confronted by an evangelical sect that wants to promote creationism and thus stop the play from being performed at all costs. They'll also cross paths with a rich transhumanist industrialist who wants to influence the text... After their previous collaboration on "Extinctions," Alexandre Franc and Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu enlighten and entertain once again!

The wait is over! The Thing, the Human Torch, the Invisible Woman and Mister Fantastic — the first four heroes of the Marvel Age of Comics — are about to be reunited! Experience the grand return of the greatest family in the Marvel Universe! As an event occurs that will radically alter the Fantastic Four, Reed and Sue Richards return home with their children. But things have changed! And while Alicia Masters and the Thing ponder a big change of their own, the next chapter begins in the life of Victor Von Doom! Plus: Who are the Marvel Universe's newest fabulous foursome — the Fantastix?! How did they come into possession of the Baxter Building? And what does that mean for the original FF? The World's Greatest Comic Magazine is back — and better than ever!

It's the wedding that's been years in the making — and you're all invited! Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters say "I do!" No bait. No switch. Not a hoax. Not a dream. And we swear, not a single Skrull! This is really happening! From the book that brought you the first, best and longest running super hero marriage in comics, we give you...the wedding of the Thing and Alicia! And don't forget the bachelor and bachelorette parties! Plus, the happy couple's classic first meeting, as only Stan Lee and Jack Kirby could tell it! When the Puppet Master uses his niece to exact revenge on the Fantastic Four, he unwittingly sets her on a romantic collision course with one of his greatest enemies!

The Fantastic Four faces the Herald of Doom! Galactus has returned to devour Earth, and only one man can save us. No, not Reed Richards — Doctor Doom! But where are the FF in this conflict? Locked in battle against the brave new hero of the Latverian people, Victorious! Thanks to the benevolence and ingenuity of their beloved leader, Victor Von Doom, Latverians will soon know a new age of peace and prosperity, and Latveria will take its rightful place on the world stage — as long as four nefarious foreign invaders are punished for their crimes! Death to the Fantastic Four! But one cruel act will forever change the relationship between the FF and Doom. The fate of Latveria and the world — and the balance of cosmic power in the universe — all rests on one decision!

One of the biggest FF secrets of all time is finally revealed — and the fallout will be huge! First, newlyweds Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters are off on their dream honeymoon at last! It's a remote tropical paradise — until someone decides to crash it. Or should we say - smash it?! It's ever-lovin' against ever-livin' as the Thing battles the Immortal Hulk! Then, one of Reed Richards' biggest regrets leads to a voyage to the one place in the universe the Fantastic Four have never been. But awaiting them there are the heroic Unparalleled — whose destiny is to repel the fearsome FF! Who is the winged warrior named Sky? What is her shocking connection to the Human Torch's origin? And how will she change his life forever? Punches will be thrown and lives will be altered!

The FF embark on a voyage to the one place in the universe they’ve never been! Long ago, the Fantastic Four’s fateful choices forever changed the destiny of a planet 44 light-years from Earth. Everyone knows the story of the brave souls bombarded by cosmic rays and transformed into superhuman beings, how they became their world’s first line of defense against all alien threats. They are…the Unparalleled! Seven super heroes who now must fulfill their destiny by defeating the fearsome, foretold forces of the Fantastic Four! Wait. What?! Johnny Storm’s world will never be the same again — and as if the fate of an entire planet weren’t enough, one of the biggest FF secrets of all time is finally revealed!

Empyre rocks the world of the Fantastic Four! First, the Mole Man and his biggest monsters return to the surface, with all their righteous wrath aimed at one man: Wyatt Wingfoot! Can the Human Torch and Sky possibly save him? Y'know, this really would've been a good time to have brought all of the FF! Elsewhere, a never-before-seen Elder of the Universe steps into the light! Who is it, and how will they change things for Marvel's First Family...forever? As the FF find themselves in deep space, neck-deep in the events of Empyre, who can the Richards kids Powerhouse and Brainstorm call on to help them deal with a looming crisis back on Earth? How about a couple of former members of the New Fantastic Four: Spider-an and Wolverine!

A brand-new era for the Fantastic Four begins here and now! New Artist! New villains! New uniforms! And a new, major, permanent status quo change for Marvel's First Family! But who is the mysterious figure called the Helmsman? Is he here to save our reality or destroy it? Plus, why is Victorious in New York – and what will that mean for the Human Torch? And amid all this upheaval, Doctor Doom makes his reappearance – and one of the most important characters in the entire cosmos returns from the dead! Prepare for a major turning point in the history of the FF!

Marvel's First Family are at each other's throats! As the Earth-ending threat of the King in Black rages on, half of the Fantastic Four have been Knullified -- and are out to destroy their friends and family! And as if that weren't enough, an ancient force has reemerged in the Multiverse. Who -- or what -- is the Reckoning?! Then, Reed and Ben use the Forever Gate to finally explore somewhere new -- a bizarre realm where no one has ever gone before! Can they (or our letterer) survive...the Onomatopeiacolypse?! And Johnny's love life is changed forever when he must choose between his soulmate and his ex-wife...but wait, is that Crystal back in town? And speaking of romance, an old enemy is about to take a momentous step. Who will be...the Bride of Doom? COLLECTING: Fantastic Four (2018) 31-35

After everything they've been through in recent months, life has become extremely unstable for the Fantastic Four! So maybe now is a good time for a visit from a certain friendly neighborhood Spider-Man? Meanwhile, Ben and Alicia take their kids trick-or-treating for the very first time...which might not be such a good idea. Especially when one of the FF's greatest enemies has returned to unleash Halloween horror! And when the Wizard and the Frightful Four menace the FF both in and out of the courtroom, it's time to call in everyone's favorite green lawyer: the sensational She-Hulk! Plus: An old-fashioned first family vacation to the Grand Canyon turns into a nightmare - and ends in a race against time to survive a lethal affliction! And Ben Grimm throws on his hat and overcoat to solve a mystery that's come alive right out of his nightmares. What is Doctor Strange's nemesis D'Spayre doing on Yancy Street?

A cosmic saga years in the making! Before the Kree, Skrull or Shi'ar Empires...before the emergence of Galactus...before the birth of Asgard...there was the First War. The greatest conflict to ever rage across the Multiverse. Today, it is reignited. This...is the Day of Reckoning! And all that stands between all of reality and revenge from the dawn of time are the heroes of Earth - and the mind of Mister Fantastic! Starring the FF, She-Hulk, Jack of Hearts, the Unseen, the Silver Surfer, Thor, Doctor Doom, the Watcher and everyone in the whole dang Marvel Universe, this is the story Dan Slott has been waiting his whole career to tell! And for the Multiverse to survive, the Watchers must all break their most sacred oath!

The Reckoning War reaches its cosmic conclusion! As oblivion approaches, will Victor Von Doom be the hero the universe needs? The last time the mysterious Cormorant struck, he destroyed the Baxter Building and the Latverian Embassy, completely overpowered the Fantastic Four and left without anyone even laying a hand on him. Now, for the sake of the universe, Doctor Doom must face him alone! At the Apex of All Reality, the fate of the Marvel Universe will soon be decided. And no matter who wins, nothing will ever be the same again! This is not hyperbole. This is happening. The Reckoning War will carry grave consequences – for the FF, their extended family...and everybody else! To see where all the pieces fall and what lies ahead, you're going to want to read this one, Marvelite!

An incredible exploration of the fabulous foursome's lives if they aged in real time across the decades! Amid the backdrop of the Space Race, an accident gives the Fantastic Four great powers and entangles them in the history of their planet. But as the years pass, the four heroes struggle to find their role in a rapidly changing world. As Sue continues to fight for social causes, Reed becomes increasingly obsessed with preparing for the prophesied arrival of Galactus! And in the end, after six decades of triumphs and tragedies, love and loss, can the aging heroes make a final stand against the implacable might of Doctor Doom?

Graphic novel adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy, with a comic twist. The debut novel of Kev F Sutherland, writer and artist who's worked for Beano and Marvel comics, and most others inbetween. It's 1977 and, in the small Scottish firm of Alba Industries, Findlay Macbeth is Salesman Of The Year. But when he gets overlooked for promotion, things turn ugly. Abigail's Party meets The Scottish Play in this 125 page graphic novel, which also has the full Shakespeare play at the back, so you can see how much is in the original, and how much is the new version.

Arzhur, a disgraced knight, has taken on a new mission to restore his honor: save Princess Islen from the Black Castle. The only problem is, the mysterious Islen doesn't want to be saved...The reluctant pair must nonetheless cross the kingdom—pursued by a trio of sinister witches—in hopes of finding refuge with Islen's father, the king. But will their secrets catch up with them first?

There's no turning back for Princess Islen and Artzur, her knight in shining armor (or so he wishes). After laying waste to her father's kingdom, the cast-out princess flees to the mysterious North, where Azhur was born and later banished. Even as their foes near, and multiply, an even more formidable enemy threatens from within... Islen's powerful and long-lost mother, Meliren.

When the Benadem, benevolent space gods, return to Kepler, a planet where homo sapiens went extinct and all other hominid species thrived, their arrival threatens to plunge the world into chaos. West, a 16-year-old Neanderthal girl, is thrust into the conflict and is the only hope to prevent extinction. Her efforts, unique because of her mixed hominid heritage, not only change her life, but also reveal the merciless ambition and identity of the gods themselves. In the tradition of Planet of the Apes, Kepler is an allegorical thriller of environmental disaster, colonialism, religion, history, and adolescence told through the eyes of a lonely outsider.

Bible tales like you never saw them before, in a full colour graphic novel collection by Beano and Marvel creator Kev F Sutherland. Originally commissioned by Bible Society in the UK, commissioned by editor Rachel Rounds, these comic strips amusingly retell four great Bible stories: The Book of Esther - now she's a Disney-like Princess, with Larry David as Mordecai • The Book of Ruth - a short story about ancient inheritance law, more fun than it sounds • The Story of Rahab - how she survives the destruction of Jericho, with hilarious consequences • Jael, Wife of Heber - Spoiler alert: tentpeg through the skull • The Story of Joseph - the boy with the easily annoyed brothers who becomes the best administrative accountant in all of Egypt. 90 pages of classic comic tales for you to enjoy, hopefully not too sacreligious.

With less than 24 hours before the last ark leaves a dying Earth, Dr. Ben Caewood’s daughter Sara has gone missing. The critically-acclaimed series about a father and daughter trying to reconcile at the end of the world is collected into a single, unforgettable graphic novel'

Celebrate new stories from The Legend of Korra! Your favorite characters from Team Avatar and beyond are here in this collection of stories, from the heartwarming to the hilarious. Join Korra, Asami, Mako, Bolin, Tenzin, and more familiar faces from The Legend of Korra, featured in stories specially crafted by a bevy of talented comics creators!

14 tells the story of a human who mysteriously discovers a 13th floor in his building and finds himself in the middle of a storytelling session among different mythological creatures of Philippine folklore. Together, with a partying crowd of supernatural beings, he listens to stories narrated by creatures such as the Manananggal, Diwata, Tikbalang, Kapre, Tiyanak, and even by a White Lady and a Doppelganger. 14 is a grand narrative of weird yet wonderful tales, humorous albeit dark and spooky, surreal but unarguably true to the emotions of the heart. Using absolutely no words in this graphic novel, Manix successfully tells the stories through careful planning of each scene and sequence. Frame by frame, panel by panel, Manix effectively renders each scene in detail and maximizes the power of images to completely convey the stories and emotions he wants to evoke in his readers. It is now up to you, the reader, to notice these details, to savor each frame, page by page until the big picture and meaning unfold sans the usual text balloons.

The powerful and ancient blood sorcerer Roman Black has taken a young fire mage under his wing after she has done the impossible—taken her magic house’s totem spirit inside herself. But the totem is powerful, and may be impossible to control, especially when Roman’s children begin to see the young mage as a threat.

Nico isn’t like most children. At night, when he sleeps, Nico’s dreams come to life, and he enters into a fantastic world of adventure, along with his friend, Góreck.
But one night, Nico doesn’t fall asleep, and Góreck is left alone, in the darkness. To find his friend, Góreck must leave the familiar land of dreams, and enter a labyrinth of memories. Traversing a land between dreams and reality, Góreck must find Nico and rescue him, or be lost forever within the Maze.

Graphic novel adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy, but this time reworked as a heist movie. You also get the full Shakespeare play at the back, so you can see what's by The Bard and what's by Kev F. Theo the Greek is marrying Hippolyta at their restaurant Athens, while some star-crossed lovers disobey their parents and a prog rock group performs their concept album Pyramus and Thisbe. And next door in Woods nightclub, Titania, Oberon and Puck are having a ball. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot it seems, when Quince gets the gang together for one last job.

Lunella Lafayette makes new friends across the Marvel Universe! The smartest one of all takes it upon herself to solve the Terrigen crisis threatening the X-Men! And when Venom has a Stegron the Dinosaur Man problem, it only makes sense for Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur to lend a hand (or claw)! But when Big Red exits Lunella's life, she needs a new partner! Who will it be? Ghost Rider? Daredevil? The X-Babies?! Maybe Kid Kaiju would be a better fit – but he needs help understanding his own monster army! Plus, when the vile Swarm has Lunella's school hooked on cigarettes, it's up to her and her faithful dino pal to butt them out!

This intimate manga anthology is about the struggles and triumphs of individuals learning to navigate daily life with a developmental disorder. The comics follow the stories of nine people, including: a junior high dropout finding an alternate path to education; a former "troublesome" child helping kids at a support school; a so-called problem child realizing the beauty of his own unique quirks; and a man falling in love with the world with the help of a new medication. This inspiring volume illustrates their diverse anxieties and finding self-empowerment in a world not quite built with them in mind.

"Something's rotten, look at the state of Denmark Street." In the second graphic novel from Kev F Sutherland, Hamlet is relocated to 1977, on London's Tin Pan Alley at the heart of the music business.
A punk rock opera with a twist, when Prince Hamlet finds what happened to his dad, there's hell to pay. 120 pages of original comic strip drama, plus the full text of Shakespeare's Hamlet in one classic volume.

All Max wants to do with his life is make comics, and all his parents do is discourage him. His life takes a turn for the hopeful when a mysterious recluse, a Parisian comics veteran, buys a ruined chateau in the woods near Max's house. His appearance is echoed by the arrival of a mysterious peddler with a printing press in the medieval village of Max's comic, in which a monk is busily spinning a tale of Max's daughter Suzie, all grown up and an illustrator in her own right. Tales nest in tales in Alexandre Clérisse's dizzyingly intricate musing on creation.

The shape-shifting alien race known as the Skrulls has secretly infiltrated every super-powered organization on Earth with one goal – full-scale invasion! Filled with shocking revelations and powerful action, this adventure will keep you on the edge of your seat as Marvel's greatest heroes and villains ask – Who do you trust?

When famous wildlife photographer Narumi comes to Hokkaido to take photos of the elusive "snow fairies," he ends up stranded in a snow storm. After being rescued, he takes up residence in local farmer Haruki's house for the winter. As polar opposites, sophisticated and outgoing city slicker Narumi and country boy Haruki have a lot to learn from one another. After Haruki shows an interest, Narumi teaches him about photography... and before he realizes it, he finds himself the sole subject of Haruki's new hobby. After a winter spent so close together, what will the spring thaw bring?

Outgoing and popular Kazu and shy and serious Moto grew up together as childhood best friends. But something changes during junior high, and the familiar, easy rhythm of their friendship begins to break apart as Kazu starts nursing deeper feelings for his oblivious friend. When Kazu's troubled home life and Moto's budding romantic forays create a clash of misunderstandings, secrets, and hurt feelings, will their relationship be able to survive these growing pains? Welcome Back, Aureole is a bittersweet yet tender exploration of the maturation of young love. Two boys growing up side by side... their stars drift apart and come together again.

A seasoned cartoonist of epic proportions, Brandon-Croft carves out space for Black women's perspectives in her nationally syndicated strip. Few Black cartoonists have entered national syndication, and before Barbara Brandon-Croft, none of them were women. From 1989 to 2005, she brought Black women's perspectives to an international audience with her trailblazing comic strip Where I'm Coming From. From diets to day care to debt to dreaded encounters with everyday racism, no issue is off-limits. This remarkable and unapologetically funny career retrospective holds a mirror up to the ways society has changed and all the ways it hasn't. The magic in Where I'm Coming From is its ability to present an honest image of Black life without sacrificing Black joy, bolstered by unexpected one-liners eliciting much-needed laughter. As the daughter of the mid-century cartoonist Brumsic Brandon Jr.—the creator of Luther, the second nationally syndicated strip to feature a Black lead—Brandon-Croft learned from the best. With supplementary writing by the author and her peers alongside throwback ephemera, this long-overdue collection situates Brandon-Croft as an inimitable cartoonist, humorist, and social commentator, securing her place in the comics canon and allowing her work to inspire new readers at a time when it is most needed.

Combining the corporate intrigue of Joseph Finder, the satirical cultural critique of Dave Eggers, and the domestic drama of Laura Dave, Bit Flip is a fast-paced contemporary thriller that delivers an authentic insider's view of the corrupting influences of greed, entitlement, and vanity in technology start-ups. Tech executive Sam Hughes came to Silicon Valley to "make the world a better place." He's just not sure he's doing that anymore. And when an onstage meltdown sends him into a professional tailspin, he suddenly sees the culture of the Bay Area's tech bubble in a new light. Just as Sam's wondering if his start-up career and marriage might both be over at fortysomething, an inadvertent discovery pulls him back into his former company, where he begins to unravel the insidious schemes of the founder and venture investors. Driven by his desire for redemption, Sam discovers a conspiracy of fraud, blackmail, and manipulation that leads to tragic outcomes—threatening to destroy not only the company but also his own moral compass. Entangled in a web of complicity, how far will Sam go to achieve his dreams of entrepreneurial success?

A moving and deeply engaging debut novel about a young Native American man finding strength in his familial identity, from a stellar new voice in fiction. Oscar Hokeah’s electric debut takes us into the life of Ever Geimausaddle, whose family—part Mexican, part Native American—is determined to hold onto their community despite obstacles everywhere they turn. Ever’s father is injured at the hands of corrupt police on the border when he goes to visit family in Mexico, while his mother struggles both to keep her job and care for her husband. And young Ever is lost and angry at all that he doesn’t understand, at this world that seems to undermine his sense of safety. Ever’s relatives all have ideas about who he is and who he should be. His Cherokee grandmother, knowing the importance of proximity, urges the family to move across Oklahoma to be near her, while his grandfather, watching their traditions slip away, tries to reunite Ever with his heritage through traditional gourd dances. Through it all, every relative wants the same: to remind Ever of the rich and supportive communities that surround him, there to hold him tight, and for Ever to learn to take the strength given to him to save not only himself but also the next generation. How will this young man visualize a place for himself when the world hasn’t made room for him to start with? Honest, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting, Calling for a Blanket Dance is the story of how Ever Geimausaddle finds his way home.

Newly single lawyer Gwen Baker is hoping that a family Christmas—countryside, a mountain of food and festive films—will salve the sting of her career hanging by a thread and her heart being trampled on. Because everyone else has their life sorted: even Dev, her boy-next-door crush, is now a tall, dark and handsome stranger with a fiancée. She can't help wishing her future was clearer. Then Gwen wakes up to discover it's Christmas day all over again. Like Groundhog Day but with eggnog. And family arguments. On repeat. As she figures out how to escape her own particular Christmas hell, Dev is the one bright spot. He might be all grown-up but underneath he's just as kind and funny as she remembers. Maybe, just maybe, her heart can be mended after all. But how do you fall in love with someone who can't remember you from one day to the next?

The bestselling author and national political commentator pulls no punches on what America needs to do to strengthen its multiracial democracy. Steve Phillips's first book, Brown Is the New White, helped shift the national conversation around race and electoral politics, earning a spot on the New York Times and Washington Post bestseller lists and launching Phillips into the upper ranks of trusted observers of the nation's changing demographics and their implications for our political future. Now, in How We Win the Civil War, Phillips charts the way forward for progressives and people of color after four years of Trump, arguing that Democrats must recognize the nature of the fight we're in, which is a contest between democracy and white supremacy left unresolved after the Civil War. We will not overcome, Phillips writes, until we govern as though we are under attack—until we finally recognize that the time has come to finish the conquest of the Confederacy and all that it represents. With his trademark blend of political analysis and historical argument, Phillips lays out razor-sharp prescriptions for 2022 and beyond, from increasing voter participation and demolishing racist immigration policies to reviving the Great Society programs of the 1960s—all of them geared toward strengthening a new multiracial democracy and ridding our politics of white supremacy, once and for all.

In the latest Harley & Davidson mystery, there's a new meaning to the twelve days of Christmas. Hank and Agatha stumble upon a serial killer who's rewriting Santa Claus's naughty and nice list by knocking off big guys in red suits with beards. Hank isn't sure he believes this is a serial killer. Despite Agatha's insistence, he knows serial killers aren't as common as she'd like them to be for her research. Maybe deadline enthusiasm is making Agatha see this as more than it is. But Agatha knows her way around bodies, and the dead Santa's have too much in common not to be connected. Her real-world training as a forensic anthropologist pays off as she matches wits with law enforcement's best, and a deviant killer's worst.

Feisty senior sleuth Isabel Puddles—Lake Michigan's answer to Miss Marple—strikes out for new territory across the pond in a cozy mystery full of charm, rich storytelling, and mellow humor. Merry old England has a murderous surprise in store ... Isabel has crafted a life she loves in her Lake Michigan hometown, but she's eager to use her golden years to make up for missed opportunities. That's why she's traveling to England for the first time to visit her pen pal, Teddy Mansfield, an acclaimed mystery writer who lives just outside the village of Mousehole, Cornwall. First impressions are charming—Isabel is staying in the guest cottage on the grounds of Teddy's beautiful country manor, and Mousehole is home to an assortment of characters as colorful as any in Teddy's books. Teddy's housekeeper, Tuppence, is a dab hand at baking—her scones are regularly runner-up in the village bake-off, and this year she's determined to scoop top prize. But it appears that other, possibly more dangerous rivalries have been brewing in Mousehole. And when a resident is found pushing up daisies in a flowerbed, Isabel is drawn into an investigation that will require all of her newly honed skills to solve—and to survive ...

For readers of Queenie and Honey Girl, a coming-of-age story about queer Black identity, love, passion, chosen family, and rediscovering life's pleasures after loss. Jade Brown, a twenty-four-year-old first-generation Jamaican woman living in Toronto, must find a way to pick up the pieces and discover who she is following the mysterious death of her twin sister. Grappling with her grief, Jade seeks solace in lovers and friends during an array of hilarious and heartbreaking adventures. As she investigates some of life's most frustrating paradoxes, she holds tight to old friends and her ex-girlfriend, lifelines between past and present. On the journey to turning twenty-five, she finally sees that she belongs to herself, and goes about the business of reclaiming that self. Through a series of whirlwind love affairs, parties, and trips abroad, Jade stumbles toward relinquishing the weight of her trauma as she fully comes into her own as a young Black woman and writer.

A steamy plus-size holiday rom-com about an adult film star who is semi-accidentally cast as a lead in a family-friendly Christmas movie, and the former bad-boy pop star she falls in love with. Bee Hobbes (aka Bianca Von Honey) has a successful career as a plus-size adult film star. With a huge following and two supportive moms, Bee couldn't ask for more. But when Bee's favorite producer casts her to star in a Christmas movie he's making for the squeaky-clean Hope Channel, Bee's career is about to take a more family-friendly direction. Forced to keep her work as Bianca under wraps, Bee quickly learns this is a task a lot easier said than done. Though it all becomes worthwhile when she discovers her co-star is none other than childhood crush Nolan Shaw, an ex-boy band member in desperate need of career rehab. Nolan's promised his bulldog manager to keep it zipped up on set, and he will if it means he'll be able to provide a more stable living situation for his sister and mom. But things heat up quickly in Christmas Notch, Vermont, when Nolan recognizes his new co-star from her ClosedDoors account (oh yeah, he's a member). Now Bee and Nolan are sneaking off for quickies on set, keeping their new relationship a secret from the Hope Channel's execs. Things only get trickier when the reporter who torpedoed Nolan's singing career comes snooping around—and takes an instant interest in mysterious newcomer Bee. And if Bee and Nolan can't keep their off-camera romance behind the scenes, then this merry little meet cute might end up on the cutting room floor.

Dr. Keira Stetson has two passions: ethical artificial intelligence—AI with a conscience—and creating technology that improves children's lives. Trapped in an earthquake-flattened building with a half-dozen panicked five-year-olds, she fears the worst. When billionaire Roy Brandt leverages his mysterious nanite technology to rescue them, she's both grateful and intrigued.Impressed by his prototype technology but alarmed at its potential for exploitation, Keira merges her company with Brandt's. The merger gives Keira access to much-needed funds for the development of her own tech, and access to Brandt's powerful minuscule robots. In turn, she and her AI assistant, Elly, embed Keira's trademark Moral Operating System in Brandt's nanite SmartDust to rein in its power. But Brandt's technology has been kept secret for a reason. Though he's adamant about using the Dust to improve life, not destroy it, corporate raiders and the military have other ideas. They want to weaponize Brandt's nanites. Suddenly, everything Keira has worked for is in jeopardy. Exposed to the worst humanity has to offer, she and Elly must fight to use this newfound tech for good and keep it out of the wrong hands...before it's too late.

Smart and athletic, Amy Kimball should have it all, but her life's in a tailspin. She's working two menial jobs to make ends meet, barely a paycheck away from financial disaster, and women aren't exactly lining up at her door. Enter soccer star Diego Torres, who's keeping a big secret: he's gay. His manager fears that if he's found out, his endorsements and his chance to play for the national team will evaporate into the wind. Amy jumps at the chance to act as Diego's fake fiancee, even though it means signing her life away in a non-disclosure agreement. On the surface, the job couldn't be better: the money's great; the living accommodations are luxurious, and she gets to watch her favorite soccer team from the players' box at the stadium. But she soon realizes that this new life is even harder to navigate than her old one. Diego's manager is as sleazy as they come, and this easy job soon turns complicated, possibly even dangerous. More important, all the lies Amy is forced to tell are starting to eat away at her soul, especially when she finds herself attracted to Casey Palmer, Diego's pretty assistant. Will Amy watch from the sidelines, or will she find the courage to get back into the game?"

An engaging and imaginative tour through the fundamental mathematical concepts—from arithmetic to infinity—that form the building blocks of our universe. Our universe has multiple origin stories, from religious creation myths to the Big Bang of scientists. But if we leave those behind and start from nothing—no matter, no cosmos, not even empty space—could we create a universe using only math? Irreverent, richly illustrated, and boundlessly creative, The Big Bang of Numbers invites us to try. In this new mathematical origin story, mathematician and novelist Manil Suri creates a natural progression of ideas needed to design our world, starting with numbers and continuing through geometry, algebra, and beyond. He reveals the secret lives of real and imaginary numbers, teaches them to play abstract games with real-world applications, discovers unexpected patterns that connect humble lifeforms to enormous galaxies, and explores mathematical underpinnings for randomness and beauty. With evocative examples ranging from multidimensional crochet to the Mona Lisa's asymmetrical smile, as well as ingenious storytelling that helps illuminate complex concepts like infinity and relativity, The Big Bang of Numbers charts a playful, inventive course to existence. Mathematics, Suri shows, might best be understood not as something we invent to explain Nature, but as the source of all creation, whose directives Nature tries to obey as best she can. Offering both striking new perspectives for math aficionados and an accessible introduction for anyone daunted by calculation, The Big Bang of Numbers proves that we can all fall in love with math.

Betrayal casts its shadow on the Black Panther's reign! The reveal of T'Challa's darkest secret has led to the Hatut Zeraze hunting him as a traitor, with orders to kill him on sight. The Panther must escape these tireless warriors before he can clear his name, but are even his skills on par for this challenge? And Wakanda's secret police are far from the only force T'Challa has to reckon with as the fallout from his lies explodes in ways he could never have foreseen! The Black Panther returns to the Avengers - but after the situation in Wakanda, Captain America isn't convinced T'Challa's head is in the game. When a dangerous galactic interloper called the Colonialist arrives to conquer the Earth, can T'Challa overcome his current woes and rise to the occasion?

Woman out of time! A reality where S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Peggy Carter took the Super-Soldier Serum instead of Steve Rogers is turned upside down – when the World War II hero is pulled from the ice where she was lost in action decades before! Now, Peggy struggles to find her footing in a modern world that's gotten a lot more complicated – cities are louder, technology is smarter and enemies wear friendly faces. Everyone with an agenda wants Captain Carter on their side, but what does Peggy want? As she teams with S.T.R.I.K.E. to investigate the sudden resurgence of Hydra, something doesn't feel quite right. Can Peggy trust what she's being told, or is someone trying to use her as a high-profile pawn in a game she doesn't yet understand? This new Sentinel of Liberty is a shield-slinging sensation!

Who's naughty and nice at Riverwood Mall? In this hilarious YA holiday rom-com, two rivals get together to save their families' livelihoods, and Christmas, too! Chloe Kwon can't stand Peter Li. It's always been that way. Their families don't get along either: their parents operate rival restaurants in the Riverwood Mall food court—Korean food for the Kwons and Chinese food for the Lis. Now it's the holiday season and Chloe's the photographer at the mall's Santa's Village, and Peter works at the virtual reality North Pole experience right across the atrium. It's all Chloe can do to avoid Peter's smug, incredibly photogenic face. But it turns out the mall is about to be sold to a developer and demolished for condos. Eviction notices are being handed out right before Christmas. Their parents don't know what to do, and soon Chloe and Peter realize that the two of them need to join efforts to try to save the mall. Just when it seems like they can put aside their differences and work closely (very closely) together, they discover that the Kwon and Li feud goes far deeper than either of them realize...

Arthur C. Clarke winner and Sunday Times bestseller Adrian Tchaikovsky's triumphant return to fantasy with a darkly inventive portrait of a city under occupation and on the verge of revolution. There has always been a darkness to Ilmar, but never more so than now. The city chafes under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation, the choke-hold of its criminal underworld, the boot of its factory owners, the weight of its wretched poor and the burden of its ancient curse. What will be the spark that lights the conflagration? Despite the city's refugees, wanderers, murderers, madmen, fanatics and thieves, the catalyst, as always, will be the Anchorwood – that dark grove of trees, that primeval remnant, that portal, when the moon is full, to strange and distant shores. Ilmar, some say, is the worst place in the world and the gateway to a thousand worse places. Ilmar, City of Long Shadows. City of Bad Decisions. City of Last Chances.

'Full of heart and hope' Heidi Swain. Has she already met The One? What if Mr Right had come along at the wrong time...? Evie Grant is forty-five years old, a widow, and single mum of two children about to leave the nest. Suddenly alone in the family home, Evie realizes she hates her job, hardly goes out and hasn't had a date since who knows when... So it feels like fate when the opportunity arises for a girls trip to New York City. Staying with her sister on the Upper East Side, Evie is enchanted by a snow-covered city consumed by preparing for Christmas. Bobble hat firmly on, Evie is walking through the city one day when she bumps into Daniel Roberts, Hollywood heartthrob and one-time boyfriend of hers. It's now or never for Evie – but she open her heart to the possibility of a new beginnings and true happiness once again...? Funny, real and wonderfully romantic, this is the perfect feel-good read to keep you warm this winter!

Film-maker Hayes Figueiredo is struggling to finish the documentary of his heart when handsome physicist Yusuf Hassan shows up, claiming Hayes is the key to understanding the Envisioner – a mysterious device that can predict the future. Hayes is taken to a top-secret research facility where he discovers his alternate self from an alternate universe created the Envisioner and sent it to his reality. Hayes studies footage of the other him, he discovers a self he doesn’t recognize, angry and obsessive, and footage of Yusuf… as his husband. As Hayes finds himself falling for Yusuf, he studies the parallel universe and imagines the perfect life they will live together. But their lives are inextricably linked to the other reality, and when that couple's story ends in tragedy Hayes realises he must do anything he can to save Yusuf's life. Because there are infinite realities, but only one Yusuf. With the fate of countless realities and his heart in his hands, Hayes leads Yusuf on the run, tumbling through a kaleidoscope of universes trying to save it all. But even escaping into infinity, Hayes is running out of space - soon he will have to decide how much he’s willing to pay to save the love of his life.

One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money. Finding work at a local coffee shop, she's just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop's landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie's financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it's Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.

After a night of champagne-fueled recklessness, Katie Crosby is secretly pregnant with the child of big-time businessman Peter Logan. And when their covert hookup becomes major tabloid fodder, Katie escapes to her family's remote Wyoming ranch, hoping the whole ordeal will blow over and Peter will never find her.
Unfortunately, Peter shows up at the ranch anyway, not accepting Katie's silence...and a blizzard snows them both in, forcing Peter to stay. Learning he'll be a father for the first time, Peter realizes this new family is more important to him than any business transaction, but he'll have to convince Katie his love is forever first.

On Earth-65, Gwen Stacy was bitten by a radioactive spider, gained arachnid-like super-powers and started a crimefighting career as Spider-Woman (or as she's affectionately known to her peers, Ghost-Spider)! But what would have happened if instead she had picked up the enchanted hammer Mjolnir? Or if she received the Super-Soldier Serum? Or built a high-tech suit of armor? Or...you get the idea! Well, you're going to find out! Gwen Stacy is about to face a unique journey of self-discovery across time and space, never quite knowing which reality or time period she's just landed in – or which version of herself she'll be meeting next! Get ready to experience...the Gwenverse!

A positive attitude, the ability to adapt to change, and the willingness to learn from failure . . . these are all good markers of a successful person. But what does it take to become a successful entrepreneur—someone who can create something out of nothing? Someone who can start from the bottom and work their way to the top? In Dr. William Pickard's new book Surviving the Shift, this is exactly what he provides. As one of the country's most successful Black entrepreneurs, Dr. Pickard knows a thing or two about overcoming failure and mistakes to become an extraordinary entrepreneur. In this book, he details the highs and lows of his entrepreneurial evolution and offers seven proven principles for embracing change and building wealth. Surviving the Shift will teach you how to:  · Develop positive vision and attitude.  · Prepare for opportunities.  · Understand that financing is not that difficult.  · Build good relationships.  · Choose a team with the right talent and skill set.  · Learn from failure.  · Cultivate strong faith.  Successful entrepreneurship requires a shift in thinking, planning, and doing. It requires avoiding the many pitfalls people often face in business. Whether you are a new college graduate ready to make your mark on the world, someone who is trying to figure out the next step for their career, an aspiring entrepreneur, or you want to explore new ways to grow your business, you have the power to become the person you were meant to be. This book is your road map, and Dr. Pickard has equipped you with everything you need for your journey.

The third novel in the international bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, following four new customers in a cafe where customers can travel back in time. On the hillside of Mount Hakodate in northern Japan, Cafe Donna Donna is fabled for its dazzling views of Hakodate port. But that's not all. Like the charming Tokyo cafe Funiculi Funicula, Cafe Donna Donna offers its customers the extraordinary experience of travelling through time. From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold ;and Tales from the Cafe comes another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of the cafe's time-travelling offer. Among some familiar faces from Toshikazu Kawaguchi's previous novels, readers will also be introduced to: A daughter who begrudges her deceased parents for leaving her orphaned; A comedian who aches for his beloved and their shared dreams; A younger sister whose grief has become all-consuming; A young man who realizes his love for his childhood friend too late. Translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot and featuring signature heart-warming characters and wistful storytelling, in Before Your Memory Fades, Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?

It's December twenty-second and siblings Henry, Kate, and Martin have converged with their spouses on Henry's house in upstate New York. This is the first Christmas the siblings are without their mother, the first not at their mother's Florida house. Over the course of the next three days, old resentments and instabilities arise as the siblings, with a gaggle of children afoot, attempt to perform familiar rituals, while also trying to decide what to do with their mother's house, their sole inheritance. As tensions rise, the whole group is forced to come together unexpectedly when a local mother and daughter need help. With the urgency and artfulness that cemented her previous novel Want as "a defining novel of our age" (Vulture), Strong once again turns her attention to the structural and systemic failings that are haunting Americans, but also to the ways in which family, friends, and strangers can support each other through the gaps. Flight is a novel of family, ambition, precarity, art, and desire, one that forms a powerful next step from a brilliant chronicler of our time.

My name is Haley Cooper Crowe and I am in lockdown in a remote location I can't tell you about. Children of divorce, Haley and Ben live with their mother. But their dad believes there's a new, much deadlier pandemic coming and is determined to keep them alive. He wants to take them to his prepper hideaway where they will be safe from other people. NOW. But there's no way their mother will go along with his plan. Saving them requires extreme measures. Kidnapped by their father and confined to his compound far off the grid, Haley and Ben have no contact with the outside world. How can they save their mother? Will they make it out alive? Is the threat real—or is this all just a dark fantasy brought on by their conspiracy obsessed father's warped imagination? Propulsive and chilling in its realism, How to Survive Everything is the story of a world imploding; a teenage girl's record for negotiating the collapse of everything she knows—including her family and sanity.

The novel that lit the Japanese publishing world on fire: From a breathtaking up-and-coming writer, a twenty-first century Catcher in the Rye that brilliantly explores toxic fandom, social media, and alienated adolescence. Akari is a high school student obsessed with "oshi" Masaki Ueno, a member of the popular J-Pop group Maza Maza. She writes a blog devoted to him, and spends hours addictively scrolling for information about him and his life. Desperate to analyze and understand him, Akari hopes to eventually see the world through his eyes. It is a devotion that borders on the religious: Masaki is her savior, her backbone, someone she believes she cannot survive without—even though she's never actually met him. When rumors surface that her idol assaulted a female fan, social media explodes. Akari immediately begins sifting through everything she can find about the scandal, and shares every detail to her blog—including Masaki's denials and pleas to his fans—drawing numerous readers eager for her updates. But the organized, knowledgeable persona Akari presents online is totally different from the socially awkward, unfocused teenager she is in real life. As Masaki's situation spirals, his troubles threaten to tear apart her life too. Instead of finding a way to break free to save herself, Akari becomes even more fanatical about Masaki, still believing her idol is the only person who understands her. A blistering novel of fame, disconnection, obsession, and disillusion by a young writer not much older than the novel's heroine, Idol, Burning shines a white-hot spotlight on fandom and "stan" culture, the money-making schemes of the pop idol industry, the seductive power of social media, and the powerful emotional void that opens when an idol falls from grace, only to become a real—and very flawed—person. Translated from the Japanese by Asa Yoneda.

Eve, Snow White, Karaba the Sorceress, Scheherazade, the Little Mermaid, the Queen of Sheba… From the dawn of mythology to medieval fairytales and today’s pop culture, these women characters have filled our childhoods and fueled our imaginations. But do we know their real stories? These ladies of legend have almost always been presented from a male viewpoint. Their stories have been used to fuel negative stereotypes and keep women in their place: in the subordinate, rigid, and caricatured roles of evil temptress, devoted wife, femme fatale, jealous stepmother, or sweet ingenue… But what if the same legends were—finally—told by women?

A cut & paste celebration of Black punk and outsider identity, this is the only complete collection of the fanzine Shotgun Seamstress, a legendary DIY project that centered the scope of Blackness outside of mainstream corporate consumerist identity. In 2006, Osa Atoe was inspired to create an expression out of the experience of being the only Black kid at the punk show—and Shotgun Seamstress was born. Like a great mixtape where radical politics are never sidelined for an easier ride, Shotgun Seamstress was a fanzine by and for Black punks that expressed, represented, and documented the fullest range of being, and collectively and individually explored “all of our possibilities instead of allowing the dominant culture to tell us what it means to be Black.” Laid out by hand, and photocopied and distributed in small batches, each issue featured essays, interviews, historical portraits of important artists and scenes, reviews, and more, all paying tribute to musicians and artists that typify free Black expression and interrupt notions of Black culture as a monolith. Featuring figures such as Vaginal Cream Davis, the seminal Black punk band Death, Poly Styrene, Bay Area rocker Brontez Purnell, British post-punker Rachel Aggs, New York photographer Alvin Baltrop, Detroit garage rocker Mick Collins and so many others, in the pages of this book rock’n’roll is reclaimed as Black music and a wide spectrum of gender and sexuality is represented. Collecting and anthologizing the layouts as they were originally photocopied by hand, this collection comprises all eight issues created between 2006 and 2015.

When former mobster Aldo joins forces with Lou—who has just murdered her husband—in order to oppose the local Mafia, scores are settled and misunderstandings abound. This story could only end in a bloodbath...

A "moving...dramatic", and urgent call to action for immigration justice by a Nigerian asylee and global gay rights and immigration activist Edafe Okporo. On the eve of Edafe Okporo's twenty-sixth birthday, he was awoken by a violent mob outside his window in Abuja, Nigeria. The mob threatened his life after discovering the secret Edafe had been hiding for years—that he is a gay man. Left with no other choice, he purchased a one-way plane ticket to New York City and fled for his life. Though America had always been painted to him as a land of freedom and opportunity, it was anything but when he arrived just days before the tumultuous 2016 Presidential Election. Edafe would go on to spend the next six months at an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. After navigating the confusing, often draconian, US immigration and legal system, he was finally granted asylum. But he would soon realize that America is exceptionally good at keeping people locked up but is seriously lacking in integrating freed refugees into society. Asylum is Edafe's "powerful, eye-opening" memoir and manifesto, which documents his experiences growing up gay in Nigeria, fleeing to America, navigating the immigration system, and making a life for himself as a Black, gay immigrant. Alongside his personal story is a blaring call to action—not only for immigration reform but for a just immigration system for refugees everywhere. This book imagines a future where immigrants and asylees are treated with fairness, transparency, and compassion. It aims to help us understand that home is not just where you feel safe and welcome but also how you can make it feel safe and welcome for others.

A writer navigates shady—and potentially deadly—political campaigns in this vibrant graphic novel about unconscious bias and how the cynical exploit it. April Wells, a celebrated African-American memoirist and essayist, lands a writing assignment unlike any she has had before: covering the presidential campaign of the presumptive Democratic nominee, William Waters, for a high-profile magazine. Waters, a well-spoken progressive with lofty ideals of unity in diversity, faces the polar opposite in his Republican challenger, the anti-intellectual, narcissistic Lee Newsome, who seeks to gain power by sowing division. Ahead of the Democratic National Convention, to be held in April’s hometown, Waters must also contend with a potential Achilles’ heel: persistent rumors that he has cheated on his wife with young male staffers. At first excited about the assignment, April sometimes feels out of her depth and wonders why she was chosen instead of a veteran journalist. When a woman contacts her accusing Waters of sexual assault, April is torn: should she do her job and report this? Or should she sit on it, in case the damage to Waters’s reputation would help Newsome win the presidency? Events soon spiral out of control, and April, feeling that her life may be in danger but mistrusting the police and the FBI, thinks of one person she can count on: the Big Man, a longtime friend from her hometown, now its mayor. Along with his stalwart crew of Little Men, they set out to unravel a gripping mystery that goes all the way to the top.

Toshimitsu Yamamura owns a real estate company and loves baking delicious, healthy snacks in his spare time. When his coworker comes to him one day with the idea of advertising their real estate agency as LGBT-friendly, Toshi realizes this little change could really help people who often face discrimination in his industry. He's terrified, though, because he worries this move will out him as gay. Joined by his boyfriend Gonta who inspired him to bake in the first place, Toshi navigates a changing world that's slowly becoming more accepting, faces his fears and discomfort, and bakes some incredibly lovely treats along the way.

Young Serine is determined to become a lady-in-waiting to help provide for her family. But she soon finds herself at the mercy of a thoughtless queen, scheming lords and ladies, and vicious palace fauna. Luckily, this garrulous and down-on-her-luck countess has always been able to count on her wits—and her words!—to survive, and life at court proves no different.

As Hiroki comes home from school every day with new tales of friend Daigo's feats, Tomoko wonders about the future of her eldest's schoolboy crush. And if young love wasn't confusing enough, Tomoko is also keeping tabs on Hiroki's childhood friend Asumi, who appears to be nursing a crush on Hiroki herself! But nothing can prepare Tomoko for the day Hiroki comes home with a shocker—Daigo's got himself a girlfriend! How will this new development affect Hiroki, who's still figuring things out? Even as the friendship between Hiroki and Daigo undergoes a change and the relationship between Hiroki and kid brother Yuri evolves too, life goes on for the Aoyamas and their loved ones, all under mom Tomoko's caring and supportive eye!

Most spies take a break for the holidays, but not me, Charlotte Locke. As an analyst for Section 47, a secret spy organization, I normally use my magical form of synesthesia to uncover lies and track paramortal bad guys from the comfort of my cubicle. But tonight I'm going out into the field, along with my partner, Desmond Percy, a powerful galvanist. Instead of enjoying Christmastime in the city, I'm in a German castle, dressed like a toy soldier and masquerading as a waitress at a swanky Christmas Eve party. My mission? To gather information that will help Section 47 track down a dangerous enemy. Despite the glitz and glamour, I can't shake the sense that something is wrong—and that Desmond and I might not leave the party alive. My name is Desmond Percy, although I've had many aliases during my years working as a cleaner for Section 47. But I've never had a real partner until Charlotte Locke. My part of the mission is simple: pretend to be a guest and keep an eye on things at the party while Charlotte uses her synesthesia to track down the information we need. But what starts out as a sugar plum dream quickly turns into a holiday nightmare. Forget the mission. All I want for Christmas is to keep Charlotte safe.

In this contemporary debut novel—an intimate portrait of queer, racial, and class identity —Andrés, a gay Latinx professor, returns to his suburban hometown in the wake of his husband’s infidelity. There he finds himself with no excuse not to attend his twenty-year high school reunion, and hesitantly begins to reconnect with people he used to call friends. Over the next few weeks, while caring for his aging parents and navigating the neighborhood where he grew up, Andrés falls into old habits with friends he thought he’d left behind. Before long, he unexpectedly becomes entangled with his first love and is forced to tend to past wounds. Captivating and poignant; a modern coming-of-age story about the essential nature of community, The Town of Babylon is a page-turning novel about young love and a close examination of our social systems and the toll they take when they fail us.