Category: Book

There’s Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib

A poignant, personal reflection on basketball, life, and home—from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America.

“Mesmerizing . . . not only the most original sports book I’ve ever read but one of the most moving books I’ve ever read, period.”—Steve James, director of Hoop Dreams

Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, Hanif Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others weren’t. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with intimate, personal storytelling. “Here is where I would like to tell you about the form on my father’s jump shot,” Abdurraqib writes. “The truth, though, is that I saw my father shoot a basketball only one time.”

There’s Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus—whether it’s basketball, or music, or performance—Hanif Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

“A sweeping triumph in queer romance.” -Booklist

“What if I told you that the feeling we call love is actually the feeling of metaphysical recognition, when your soul remembers someone from a previous life?”

In the year 4 BCE, an ambitious courtier is called upon to seduce the young emperor–but quickly discovers they are both ruled by blood, sex and intrigue.

In 1740, a lonely innkeeper agrees to help a mysterious visitor procure a rare medicine, only to unleash an otherworldly terror instead.

And in present-day Los Angeles, a college student meets a beautiful stranger and cannot shake the feeling they’ve met before.

Across these seemingly unrelated timelines woven together only by the twists and turns of fate, two men are reborn, lifetime after lifetime. Within the treacherous walls of an ancient palace and the boundless forests of the Asian wilderness to the heart-pounding cement floors of underground rave scenes, our lovers are inexplicably drawn to each other, constantly tested by the worlds around them.

As their many lives intertwine, they begin to realize the power of their undying love–a power that transcends time itself…but one that might consume them both.

An unpredictable roller coaster of a debut novel, The Emperor and the Endless Palace is a genre-bending spicy romantasy that challenges everything we think we know about true love.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The Emperor and the Endless Palace is a heart-pounding romantasy, full of shocking twists, morally shifty characters, and erotic thrills. When it comes to the romance within this novel, you can expect equal parts mess and swoon, but its central thread is an epic tale of true love against all the odds.

Nourish by Gisele Bündchen

World-renowned model and wellness advocate Gisele Bündchen presents 100 delicious and approachable recipes based on everyday ingredients. The cookbook focuses on kickstarting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle while finding balance and intention.

Superstar model and philanthropist Gisele Bündchen believes wellness begins with food. At home she chooses lean, healthy proteins and nutrient-rich vegetables; she also believes in eating with flexibility (pizza night with the kids!). This means recipes that are gluten free and rely on body-fueling ingredients like almond flour, avocado oil, and dates.

  • Everyday Fruits: Papaya-Almond Smoothie; Acai Bowls; Banana Ice Cream
  • Breakfast + Breads: Brazilian Cheese Bread (Pão de Queijo); Veggie Frittata; Coconut Milk Two Ways
  • Salads: Steak Salad; Beet and Arugula Salad with Herby Goat Cheese
  • Soups: Sneeze-Be-Gone Soup; Ramen-Style Soup with Vegetables
  • Everyday Vegetables: Summer Rolls with Ginger-Cashew Dipping Sauce; Pizza Night; Pesto Chicken Wrap
  • Favorite Proteins: Grilled Ribeye with Chimichurri; Sheet Pan Squash and Chickpeas; Chicken Meatballs
  • Crunchies + Condiments: Maple-Harissa Cashews; Tamari Dressing 3 Ways
  • Sweets: Pecan Bars; Banana Dream Pie; Carrot Muffins

From breaking cycles to journaling and setting intentions, minimizing waste, meal planning, and preparing healthful meals for your kids, Nourish is as much about living with mindfulness as it is about cooking.

Poor Deer – Claire Oshetsky

“Margaret Murphy is only 4 years old when tragedy sets her life in motion. Living with her mother and aunt has its ups and downs as she tried to navigate the future and understand the past. This book and its unreliable narrator is not for everyone but for us weirdos it is a gem of a read.”
– Emily, Books and Books Staff

A wondrous, tender novel about a young girl grappling with her role in a tragic loss—and attempting to reshape the narrative of her life—from PEN/Faulkner Award nominee Claire Oshetsky

Margaret Murphy is a weaver of fantastic tales, growing up in a world where the truth is too much for one little girl to endure. Her first memory is of the day her friend Agnes died.

No one blames Margaret. Not in so many words. Her mother insists to everyone who will listen that her daughter never even left the house that day. Left alone to make sense of tragedy, Margaret wills herself to forget these unbearable memories, replacing them with imagined stories full of faith and magic—that always end happily.

Enter Poor Deer: a strange and formidable creature who winds her way uninvited into Margaret’s made-up tales. Poor Deer will not rest until Margaret faces the truth about her past and atones for her role in Agnes’s death.

Heartrending, hopeful, and boldly imagined, Poor Deer explores the journey toward understanding the children we once were and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of life’s most difficult moments.

James: A Novel by Percival Everett

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME, NPR, THE SEATTLE TIMES, ELLE, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, AND OPRAH DAILY

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view • From the “literary icon” (Oprah Daily) and Pulitzer Prize Finalist whose novel Erasure is the basis for Cord Jefferson’s critically acclaimed film American Fiction

If you liked Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, read James, by Percival Everett” —The Washington Post

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.

Barbie: The World Tour by Margot Robbie and Andrew Mukamal

For the press tour following the record-breaking release of Greta Gerwig’s award-winning, acclaimed Barbie movie, producer and star Margot Robbie and her stylist Andrew Mukamal immersed themselves in some of Barbie’s most iconic outfits and curated vintage pieces, then approached designers, from Giorgio Armani to Donatella Versace, to create looks inspired by the doll-size originals. Many of these looks were not seen as the official Barbie press tour was cut short—so Margot and Andrew worked with renowned fashion photographer Craig McDean to shoot her in the looks exactly as they were curated: Schiaparelli in Los Angeles, Vivienne Westwood in London, vintage Chanel with matching Steamline luggage at the airport, and beyond.
 
Accompanying McDean’s sumptuous photography are original Barbie dolls from the period, a treasure trove of rare materials from Mattel’s Barbie fashion archives, and the designers’ sketches and Polaroids from fittings, layered into evocative collages by Fabien Baron, who conceived and produced the shoots and art-directed the book. With text by Margot Robbie and Andrew Mukamal, as well as handwritten contributions from the designers behind the looks (from Olivier Rousteing and Michelle Ochs to Manolo Blahnik and Jeremy Scott), this unique book blends the serious chic of high fashion with the serious fun of Barbie world—the dolls, the history, and the style that have captured imaginations for 65 years.

Secrets of the Octopus by Sy Montgomery

Remarkable new discoveries affirm the octopus as one of nature’s most intelligent and complex animals.

This new book—written by the beloved author of the international bestseller The Soul of an Octopus, along with Warren Carlyle, founder of Octonation, and enhanced with vivid National Geographic photography—brings us closer than ever to these elusive creatures.

The companion to the highly-anticipated National Geographic television special—narrated by Paul Rudd and airing for Earth Day—this beautifully illustrated book explores the alluring underwater world of the octopus—a creature that resembles an alien lifeform, but whose behavior has earned it a reputation as one of the most intelligent animals on the planet.  

This magical journey into the world of the octopus will reveal how the large and capable brain of these creatures occupies their whole body–not just their heads—and they can actually adjust their genetic makeup to respond to the demands of the environment. It will allow readers to watch them change shape and color in order to camouflage themselves more effectively than any other species. And it will divulge how octopus mothers give their all in order to bring forth a new generation.  

With this offering, acclaimed author Sy Montgomery—known, thanks to her bestselling book, as the “octopus whisperer”—returns to the species she knows and loves, offering current and compassionate stories about the scientists on the front lines of octopus research and conservation. 

For all animal lovers—and especially those drawn to this magical marine being—this will be a book to relish, for both its fascinating imagery and its charming storytelling.

Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle

From the New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years and One Italian Summer comes a love story that will define a generation.

Being single is like playing the lottery. There’s always the chance that with one piece of paper you could win it all.

Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she’d spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there’s only a name: Jake.

But as Jake and Daphne’s story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper’s prediction, and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things Jake doesn’t, information that—if he found out—would break his heart.

Told with her signature warmth and insight into matters of the heart, Rebecca Serle has finally set her sights on romantic love. The result is a gripping, emotional, passionate, and (yes) heartbreaking novel about what it means to be single, what it means to find love, and ultimately how we define each of them for ourselves. Expiration Dates is the one fans have been waiting for.

The Morningside by Tea Obrecht

From the critically beloved, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger’s Wife and Inland, a sweeping novel of mothers and daughters, displacement and belonging, and wondrous tales of a world both fallen and new.

“A multifaceted gift of a novel that only Téa Obreht could conjure onto paper.”—Karen Russell, author of Orange World and Other Stories

There’s the world you can see. And then there’s the one you can’t. Welcome to the Morningside.

After being expelled from their ancestral home in a not-so-distant future, Silvia and her mother finally settle at the Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower in a place called Island City where Silvia’s aunt Ena serves as the superintendent. Silvia feels unmoored in her new life because her mother has been so diligently secretive about their family’s past, and because the once-vibrant city where she lives is now half-underwater. Silvia knows almost nothing about the place where she was born and spent her early years, nor does she fully understand why she and her mother had to leave. But in Ena there is an opening: a person willing to give the young girl glimpses into the folktales of her demolished homeland, a place of natural beauty and communal spirit that is lacking in Silvia’s lonely and impoverished reality.

Enchanted by Ena’s stories, Silvia begins seeing the world with magical possibilities and becomes obsessed with the mysterious older woman who lives in the penthouse of the Morningside. Bezi Duras is an enigma to everyone in the building: She has her own elevator entrance and leaves only to go out at night and walk her three massive hounds, often not returning until the early morning. Silvia’s mission to unravel the truth about this woman’s life, and her own haunted past, may end up costing her everything.

Startling, inventive, and profoundly moving, The Morningside is a novel about the stories we tell—and the stories we refuse to tell—to make sense of where we came from and who we hope we might become.

One Way Back by Christine Blasey Ford

“A blisteringly personal memoir…a thoughtful exploration of what it feels like to become a main character in a major American reckoning.” —The Washington Post

The compelling true story behind the testimony that awed the nation

On September 27, 2018, Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee which was considering the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. She described an alleged sexual assault by the Supreme Court nominee that took place at a high school party in the 1980s. Her words and courage on that day provided some of the most credible and unforgettable testimony our country has ever witnessed.  

In One Way Back, Ford recounts the months she spent trying to get information into the right hands without exposing herself and her family to dangerous backlash. Drawing parallels to her life as a surfer, she explains the process of paddling out into unknown waters despite the risks and fears, knowing there is only one way back to shore. The book reveals riveting new details about the leadup to her testimony and its overwhelming aftermath and describes how she continues to navigate her way out of the storm.

This is the real story behind the headlines and the soundbites, a complex, page-turning memoir of a scientist, a surfer, a mother, a patriot and an unlikely whistleblower. Ford’s experience shows that when one person steps forward to speak truth to power, she adds to a collective whole, causing “a ripple that might one day become a wave.”