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Rage by Lester Fabian Brathwaite

A debut book from Entertainment Weekly writer and former Out magazine editor Lester Fabian Brathwaite, Rage is a darkly comedic exploration of Blackness, queerness, and the American Dream, at a time when creative anger feels like the best response to inequality.

One romantic hopeful had greeted Lester Fabian Brathwaite on a dating app with this gem: “You into race play?” Being young, queer, gifted, and Black, Lester has found that his best tool for navigating American life is gallows humor. If you don’t laugh, you cry—or, you summon your inner rage. With biting wit, Lester’s book Rage interrogates all the ways that systemic racism and homophobia have shaped our society. All to pose that proverbial question: Can a gurl live?

Rage is one part memoir, one part cultural critique, one part live grenade. He contrasts his tragic-comedic love life with the ideals he had formed from bingeing (straight, white) Hollywood depictions. And he is quick to side-eye the misogyny and internalized homophobia that some people reveal in statements like “masc for masc” on dating profiles. Lester also dives deep into representations of queer life from RuPaul’s Drag Race to The Birdcage (Robin Williams was a snack in Versace), and explores our cultural understanding of Black genius through stories of James Baldwin, Whitney Houston, and Nina Simone.

Lester’s razor-sharp voice, coupled with his searing social commentary on topics such as dating, rejection, racism, sexuality, identity, and more, offer an increasingly divided world an engaging and original read.

Bone Whispers by Rosalind Brackenbury

Nessa, now in her seventies, is back in England from the US to take care of her inherited house on the coast of Dorset. She arrives to hear news of human bones—a woman’s bones—dug up on the beach, after a cliff fall. As she walks the paths of her childhood again, memories begin to return.  Whose bones are these? Why does she have the growing feeling that they are connected with her? How does the present echo the past?  What place do guilt and recrimination take in her present life—and who, apart from her childhood love, Ted, can help her find the truth of what really happened?   

WELCOME BACK ROSI by Jeff Ware

AVAILABLE NOW FOR PRE-ORDER (copies will ship/available for pick up on 2/14/2025)

CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ON THE VALENTINE’S DAY EVENT

This is the story of Rosi’s first two years of rehabilitation after an AVM brain bleed stroke. Its content is based on regular emails that were sent out to around 100 friends who asked to be kept updated on her progress. Many recipients of the emails suggested that their content be shared with the world, especially with others that had or were going through similar experiences. On one level the book is a caregiver and survivors’ guide to what they might expect to experience as the recovery process takes its natural journey forward. On another level it’s just a love story.


Praise for Welcome Back Rosi

“When the tireless humanitarian, Rosi Ware, suffered a stroke in January 2023 the clock stopped for her devoted husband Jeff, their chosen family in Key West and abroad, and a myriad of other people whose lives intersected with Rosi’s. Endeavoring to keep all of them regularly updated, Jeff penned emails delineating the critical and harrowing experience of diagnosis, treatment and recovery. In Welcome Home Rosi, Jeff has revisited those emails, interspersing them with delightful reminiscences of their life together, always pushing forward to tell the story of Rosi, a one-of-a-kind woman whose unassailable spirit of positivity has brought good cheer to all in her orbit. A joyful book for all readers.” 
– Stephen Kitsakos, Librettist

“Bravo, Jeff Ware! This slim book tells a huge story – of how Jeff and his wife Rosi not only survived Rosi’s sudden stroke, but did it with humor, involving friends and creating community with health-care workers and doctors along the way. It’s a story of optimism against the odds, and the refusal to give up, and told in an intimate, chatty tone that brings us with them every step of the way. The author is modest about his part in it all, and only lets us see glimpses of his own feelings – but he was and is, with Rosi’s own indomitable strength at his side, the book’s unsung hero.”
– Rosalind Brackenbury, Author

 “A loving husband takes us along on a journey through his wife’s debilitating stroke and miraculous healing”.
– Peyton Evans, Writer 


About the Author: Jeffrey was born in London in 1955. He graduated with a BA Honours Degree in 1978, the year that he met Rosi. In March of 1997 Jeff and Rosi moved to Chicago for Rosi’s work before a life changing move to Key West, Florida in 2000. Jeff and Rosi now split their time between homes in Key West and Asheville, North Carolina.

PRE-ORDER NOW

CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ON THE VALENTINE’S DAY EVENT

The Vacation by John Marrs

“John Marrs’s creative, high-concept thrillers never fail to keep me furiously turning the pages.”–Sarah Pearse

“John Marrs can do no wrong.” –Jack Jordan

“John Marrs is a master of suspense.” –Jeneva Rose

How far would you run to escape your past?

Venice Beach, Los Angeles. A paradise on earth. Tourists flock to the golden coast and the promise of Hollywood. But for eight strangers at a beach-front hostel, there is far more on their minds than an extended vacation. All of them are running from something. And they all have secrets they’d kill to keep…

The Final Curtain by Keigo Higashino

From the acclaimed author of Malice and Newcomer, a confounding murder in Tokyo is connected to the mystery of the disappearance and death of Detective Kaga’s own mother.

A decade ago, Tokyo Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga went to collect the ashes of his recently deceased mother. Years before, she ran away from her husband and son without explanation or any further contact, only to die alone in an apartment far away, leaving her estranged son with many unanswered questions.

Now in Tokyo, Michiko Oshitani is found dead many miles from home. Strangled to death, left in the bare apartment rented under a false name by a man who has disappeared without a trace. Oshitani lived far away in Sendai, with no known connection to Tokyo – and neither her family nor friends have any idea why she would have gone there.

Hers is the second strangulation death in that approximate area of Tokyo – the other was a homeless man, killed and his body burned in a tent by the river. As the police search through Oshitani’s past for any clue that might shed some light, one of the detectives reaches out to Detective Kaga for advice. As the case unfolds, an unexpected connective emerges between the murder (or murders) now and the long-ago case of Detective Kaga’s missing mother.

The Final Curtain, one of Keigo Higashino’s most acclaimed mysteries, brings the story of Detective Kaga to a surprising conclusion in a series of rich, surprising twists.

The Maniac – Benjamin Labatut

Don’t be fooled by the title, or its listing as fiction. This is a brilliant biography of the greatest genius of the 20th century, John von Neumann, inventor of Game Theory and the modern digital computer (known by the acronym MANIAC, which his wife Clara called the JONNYAC)that was first used to design the hydrogen bomb.

Rather than taking us dryly through von Neumann’s endless accomplishments, many of which are beyond explaining to laymen, the author beguiles us with the voices of the genius’s celebrated scientific colleagues (who either loved or hated him) and his wives (who felt the same). We thus become witness not only to von Neumann’s triumphs but also his peccadillos and (in)humanity. The book is full of vignettes, from private meetings to marital quarrels, which give it a fascinating and compelling life.

He was a consultant to the Manhattan Project, drifting in from time to time and quickly solving problems other mental giants had been struggling with, and went on to a fruitful career with the U.S. Defense Department. But the problem that challenged him most was trying to generalize the process uniting biology, technology, and computer theory to explain all self-replicating phenomena, from life on earth to the possibility of machines doing the same. 

He died at only fifty-six from cancer, in 1959, in a special suite provided for him by the government at Walter Reed Hospital, surrounded by dignitaries and attendants, hoping to catch the last pearls of wisdom from the fruitful mind of this singular polymath. 

When asked what it would take for a machine to think and behave like a human being, he said it would have to “understand language, to read, to write, to speak. And it would have to play like a child.” But his death preceded the development of the truly powerful computers of today (still operating on the fundamental principles of MANIAC) that are doing just that. The very first project of DeepMind, a leading Artificial Intelligence machine, was playing Go, the game universally acknowledged to be the most intellectually difficult, and beating its human master. (The book concludes with a dramatic blow-by-blow description of this five game challenge match.)

When asked how he could bring together his ideas on computers and self-replicating machines with those on the brain and mechanisms of thought, he offered: “Cavemen created gods, I see no reason why we shouldn’t do the same.”

Don’t miss this book if you’re interested in biography, science or even science-fiction, because both were part of von Neumann’s world.” – George, store co-founder

2022 Summer Art Contest Winners

Congratulations to the winners of our 6th Annual Art Contest!

Online Winners –
“I Had a Dalamation Once” by Kevin Assam
“Under the Poinciana” by Katrina Arnhold

In-Person Vote Winner –
“Chill” by Sherry White

And, our Grand Prize Winner with the most combined votes is…
“Beyond the Surface” by Jaelyn Estevez

Jaelyn’s work will stay on display at the store through the end of the year, and you’ll see all four designs on limited-edition store bookmarks in the near future!

Thank you to everyone who submitted art and everyone who voted.

Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Recipes, Letters, and Remembrances by Kwame Alexander

This powerful memoir from a #1 New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Medalist features poetry, letters, recipes, and other personal artifacts that provide an intimate look into his life and the loved ones he shares it with.In an intimate and non-traditional (or “new-fashioned”) memoir, Kwame Alexander shares snapshots of a man learning how to love. He takes us through stories of his parents: from being awkward newlyweds in the sticky Chicago summer of 1967, to the sometimes-confusing ways they showed their love to each other, and for him. He explores his own relationships—his difficulties as a newly wedded, 22-year-old father, and the precariousness of his early marriage working in a jazz club with his second wife. Alexander attempts to deal with the unravelling of his marriage and the grief of his mother’s recent passing while sharing the solace he found in learning how to perfect her famous fried chicken dish. With an open heart, Alexander weaves together memories of his past to try and understand his greatest love: his daughters.

Full of heartfelt reminisces, family recipes, love poems, and personal letters, Why Fathers Cry at Night inspires bravery and vulnerability in every reader who has experienced the reckless passion, heartbreak, failure, and joy that define the whirlwind woes and wonders of love.

Maame by Jessica George

Join award-winning broadcaster Alvin Hall on a journey through America’s haunted racial past, with the legendary Green Book as your guide.

For countless Americans, the open road has long been a place where dangers lurk. In the era of Jim Crow, Black travelers encountered locked doors, hostile police, and potentially violent encounters almost everywhere, in both the South and the North. From 1936 to 1967, millions relied on The Negro Motorist Green Book, the definitive guide to businesses where they could safely rest, eat, or sleep. 

Most Americans only know of the guide from the 2018 Green Book movie or the 2020 Lovecraft Country TV show. Alvin Hall set out to revisit the world of the Green Book to instruct us all on the real history of the guide that saved many lives. With his friend Janée Woods Weber, he drove from New York to Detroit to New Orleans, visiting motels, restaurants, shops, and stores where Black Americans once found a friendly welcome. They explored historical and cultural landmarks, from the theatres and clubs where stars like Duke Ellington and Lena Horne performed to the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Along the way, they gathered memories from some of the last living witnesses for whom the Green Book meant survival—remarkable people who not only endured but rose above the hate, building vibrant Black communities against incredible odds.

Driving the Green Book is a vital work of national history as well as a hopeful chronicle of Black resilience and resistance.

The book contains 25 outstanding black and white photos and ephemera.