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1 | JACKET | AUTHOR NAME | BOOK | DESCRIPTION | GENRE | ||||||||||||
2 |  | Lauren Acampora | The Animal Room: Stories | THE ANIMAL ROOM: STORIES ABOUT THE BOOK From the award-winning author of The Wonder Garden comes a set of linked stories spotlighting human-animal relations--and revealing the tensions that threaten to fracture a suburban New England community Tensions simmer in small-town Connecticut. A city transplant is haunted by the deer carcass hanging in her neighbor's garage. A psychiatric patient believes she's becoming a bird. A disgraced oil executive invites his granddaughter's kindergarten class to tour his home menagerie--what could go wrong? Rumors spread and fires burn in this second short story collection from award-winning author Lauren Acampora. As in Acampora's debut The Wonder Garden, The Animal Room delves deep into the town of Old Cranbury and its eclectic mix of residents. Incisive and moving, these stories chart the interconnected lives of neighbors, relatives, coworkers, enemies, lovers, and the animals around them, turning an unflinching eye to the natural world to shed light on human nature. Through its riveting ensemble, The Animal Room paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of contemporary American life that is strikingly unique. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lauren Acampora is the author of The Animal Room, The Hundred Waters , The Paper Wasp, and The Wonder Garden. Her work has won or been nominated for the GLCA New Writers Award, the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, the Story Prize, and the New England Book Award, and she's been named an Artist Fellow in Fiction by The New York Foundation for the Arts. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Paris Review, One Story, and The New York Times Book Review and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories. | Short Story | ||||||||||||
3 |  | Ayad Akhtar | The Radiance: A Novel | THE RADIANCE: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK A mysterious accident along a country road sparks an awakening and an investigation in Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and acclaimed novelist Ayad Akhtar’s most daring work yet—a visionary novel of spiritual transformation in an age of fracture. When a hit-and-run shatters more than his body, a writer is caught between revelation and madness as an uncanny pull toward a brilliant campus colleague ensnares him in a scandal that threatens to destroy them both. What begins as a provocative portrait of academic and cultural warfare deepens into erotic entanglement, the exposure of a family secret, and the mystery surrounding the narrator’s accident—both the violence and its aftermath. Moving between rural America and Europe, Islam and Christianity, the intimate and the metaphysical, The Radiance is of our American moment and beyond it—asking not only what has broken, but what radiance remains. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ayad Akhtar is a novelist and playwright. His work has been published and performed in over two dozen languages. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction, and an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among other honors. Akhtar is the author of the novels American Dervish , a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, and Homeland Elegies , named one of 10 Best Books of 2020 by The New York Times . He has also authored the plays McNeal , Junk , Disgraced , The Who & The What , and The Invisible Hand. Akhtar was named the New York State Author in 2021. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
4 |  | Lokelani Alabanza | Ice Cream Queen | ICE CREAM QUEEN ABOUT THE BOOK An ode to Black joy and creativity with 100 wildly inventive ice cream, sorbet, and nondairy recipes. Back in the 1840s, a free Black woman ran a successful ice cream saloon in Nashville. Her name was Sarah Estell, and she became known as “the Ice Cream Queen.” Now taking up her crown is Lokelani Alabanza, a trained pastry chef and avid collector of all things Black Americana. Her love of ice cream and appreciation for those who preceded her come together in this joyful cookbook. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lokelani Alabanza is a pastry chef with 20+ years' experience. Over the course of her career, she has invented over 300 ice cream flavors. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, she is the founder of Saturated Ice Cream. | Cookbook | ||||||||||||
5 |  | Lamar Alexander | The Education of a Senator: From JFK to Trump | THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP ABOUT THE BOOK A behind-the-scenes story of the last sixty years of American politics, told with purpose and humor by a political legend who worked with ten presidents, made deals with both Obama and Trump, and believes that serving in public office is the best way to help the largest number of people and to keep our Republic from falling apart. “To read Lamar Alexander’s vivid and surprising memoir is to be in conversation with a man who knows how to tell a great story.” —Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author “What a wonderful and refreshing memoir! Lamar Alexander has been a gift to us—more interested in getting things done and improving the lives of others than in grabbing headlines and bashing an opponent. Bravo!” —Ken Burns, Filmmaker, The American Revolution ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lamar Alexander has long been known as one of America’s most principled and effective statesmen. As US Senator, Alexander shepherded major laws that today govern K–12 education, medical innovation, and maintenance of our national parks. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “For eighteen years, there was Lamar Alexander, and there was the rest of us. He was hands-down one of the most brilliant, most thoughtful, and most effective legislators any of us have ever seen.” As governor, Alexander brought the auto industry to Tennessee and made it the first state to pay teachers more for teaching well. He was chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the nation’s governors, and of President Reagan’s “Commission on Americans Outdoors.” He served as US Education Secretary and as a university president. Alexander was also known for campaigning in a plaid shirt and performing on the piano with twenty-seven symphonies and on the Grand Ol’ Opry. He graduated from Vanderbilt University and New York University Law School. He and his late wife Honey were married for fifty-four years, had four children and nine grandchildren. His parents were teachers. A seventh generation Tennessean, Alexander lives in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains near Maryville where he grew up. This is his tenth book, all written by the author himself. | Autobiography/Memoir | ||||||||||||
6 |  | Leon Alligood | Boss Brooks: A True Story of Fraud, Family, and Forgiveness from Tennessee to Te | BOSS BROOKS: A TRUE STORY OF FRAUD, FAMILY, AND FORGIVENESS FROM TENNESSEE TO TE ABOUT THE BOOK True crime meets family memoir in this gripping story of faked death In 1931, Boss Bingham, the head cashier of Hardin County Bank in Saltillo, Tennessee, faked his death from a fiery auto accident and fled west to escape allegations of fraud and embezzlement. While his three children believed he was dead, Bingham reinvented himself as Marvin Lester Brooks, a rancher in Sherwood, Texas, where he married and raised a second family. Upon his death four decades later, he became a man with two tombstones. In Boss Brooks: A True Story of Fraud, Family, and Forgiveness from Tennessee to Texas, Bingham's granddaughter Kathy Bingham Turner and journalist Leon Alligood uncover the truth about Boss's deception and explore the impacts on both his families. Through meticulous research and personal reflections, the authors delve into the history of rural Tennessee and Texas, revealing the complex legacy of a man whose final confession came only after suffering a stroke in 1972. A gripping memoir of family secrets revealed, Boss Brooks offers a compelling blend of historical context and personal discovery. Turner and Alligood have produced a captivating saga that helps us understand the multifaceted nature of family legacies. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Leon Alligood , an emeritus professor of journalism at Middle Tennessee State University, was previously a reporter covering rural Middle Tennessee in a career spanning two decades and garnering numerous awards. He holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Goucher College and was chosen for the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame. He lives near Lebanon, Tennessee. | History | ||||||||||||
7 |  | Kelli Anderson | Alphabet in Motion: How Letters Get Their Shape | ALPHABET IN MOTION: HOW LETTERS GET THEIR SHAPE ABOUT THE BOOK Ever wonder how we ended up with so many different styles of letters? Open any text editor, email client, or design app and you will immediately be bombarded with a buffet of typographic choices. Serif or sans serif? Display or text? Classical or contemporary? Formal or casual? Featuring seventeen stunning interactive pop-ups, this ABC book explains—and demonstrates—the technologies and philosophies that have shaped letterforms through the ages. A reader and a looker, this one is a remarkable contribution to our history—and to the printing and engineering of books. It’s bonkers. Kelli Anderson has made something special. ABOUT THE AUTHOR "Kelli is a genius." — Debbie Millman, Design Matters | Other | ||||||||||||
8 | Colin Asher | Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music | MIDNIGHT SPECIAL: THE SECRET PRISON HISTORY OF AMERICAN MUSIC ABOUT THE BOOK This innovative history explores the rich tradition of music behind bars and shows how policing and prisons have shaped our musical culture from blues to hip-hop. In American popular music, we often glorify rebellious artists and “outlaws.” But in The Midnight Special, Colin Asher tells a deeper story about the criminal justice system’s impact on our musicians, explored through compelling portraits of five artists whose careers span the twentieth century. Opening with folk and blues artist Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, who was made to perform wearing prison clothes, Asher traces the intertwined histories of music and incarceration, from Southern prison farms of the Jim Crow era, through the heroin-driven mid-century drug wars that villainized a generation of jazz artists, and to our present era of mass incarceration. Asher shows how the suggestion of criminality has often benefited white artists, while prosecutions often hurt Black musicians. Comparing the divergent trajectories of jazz pianist Elmo Hope with country singer Johnny Cash, Asher examines how violent and discriminatory policing stifled Hope’s career and led to the creation of his album Sounds from Rikers Island (1963), while forgiveness and lenience brought us Cash’s masterpiece At San Quentin (1969). With keen musical analysis and sociological insight, The Midnight Special examines key themes in culture and criminal justice, from the movement for prison reform that allowed soul musician Ike White to stage thrilling concerts while locked up and record his album Changin’ Times (1977), to the crushing cultural weight of mass incarceration a generation later. Closing with Tupac Shakur’s Me Against the World (1995) and stories of music in prisons today, The Midnight Special recounts how prisons occasionally incubate talent but more often shorten careers and distort the public’s perception of musicians and their value to society. An urgent book about the ways music can affirm an individual’s sense of humanity in dehumanizing circumstances, The Midnight Special writes the history of prisons into American music—a story as important as it is overlooked. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Colin Asher is the author of the critically acclaimed Never a Lovely So Real. His work has been featured in the Believer, the Baffler, the New Republic, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. | Music, History | |||||||||||||
9 |  | Ramona Ausubel | Unstuck: A Writer's Guide | UNSTUCK: A WRITER'S GUIDE ABOUT THE BOOK “Ramona Ausubel has poured so much humor and wisdom and practically useful counsel into this extraordinary book, a guide for both writing and living.” —Karen Russell, author of The Antidote Unstuck: 101 Doorways Leading from the Blank Page to the Last Page is about staying in love with your writing: feeling excited, mischievous, productive, and hopeful—the opposite of being stuck. Critically acclaimed, award-winning author and beloved teacher Ramona Ausubel offers 101 exercises that promise to welcome you back to the page again and again; to reinvigorate your process and help you see your writing through to the end. Full of personal stories and hard-earned wisdom of a veteran writer, Unstuck is written in the first person, human to human, writer to writer. Practical, clear, and welcoming, Unstuck offers immediately useable strategies for beginning, continuing, and finishing a piece of writing. Organized into doorways and keys, Unstuck turns problems into possibilities, offers keys to put into use right now, all designed to lead the writer back to the art, not toward an outside idea or formula. With Ausubel’s steady, encouraging advice—find your doorway, unlock the lock, and get writing again. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ramona Ausubel is the author of five books, most recently The Last Animal which was a national bestseller, received the National Book Foundation Science + Nature Prize and was a Barnes & Noble book of the month. Her previous books are Awayland : stories , Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty , A Guide to Being Born and No One is Here Except All of Us . She is the recipient of the PEN/USA Fiction Award, the Cabell First Novelist Award and has been a finalist for both the California and Colorado Book Awards and the New York Public Library Young Lions Award. Her work has been published in The New Yorker , The New York Times , The Paris Review daily, One Story , Tin House , The Oxford American , Ploughshares and elsewhere. She is a professor at Colorado State University and has taught in the Bennington Writing Seminars, Tin House Writing Workshop, Writing by Writers, the Community of Writers, Bread Loaf Environmental, Writing Workshop Paris and elsewhere. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her family. | General Nonfiction | ||||||||||||
10 |  | Kylie Baker | Japanese Gothic: A Novel | JAPANESE GOTHIC: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK In this lyrical, wildly inventive horror novel interwoven with Japanese mythology, two people living centuries apart discover a door between their worlds. October, 2026: Lee Turner doesn't remember how or why he killed his college roommate. The details are blurred and bloody. All he knows is he has to flee New York and go to the one place that might offer refuge--his father's new home in Japan, a house hidden by sword ferns and wild ginger. But something is terribly wrong with the house: no animals will come near it, the bedroom window isn't always a window, and a woman with a sword appears in the yard when night falls. October, 1877: Sen is a young samurai in exile, hiding from the imperial soldiers in a house behind the sword ferns. A monster came home from war wearing her father's face, but Sen would do anything to please him, even turn her sword on her own mother. She knows the soldiers will soon slaughter her whole family when she sees a terrible omen: a young foreign man who appears outside her window. One of these people is a ghost, and one of these stories is a lie. Something is hiding beneath the house of sword ferns, and Lee and Sen will soon wish they never unburied it. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kylie Lee Baker is the author of young adult and adult novels. Her writing is informed by her heritage (Japanese, Chinese, and Irish) and her experiences living abroad. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing and Spanish and an M.S. in Library and Information Science. Visit her online at www.kylieleebaker.com. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
11 |  | Robbi Behr | Life on the Moon | LIFE ON THE MOON ABOUT THE BOOK The extraordinary tale of a curious boy sent to live on the moon, the wondrous discoveries he makes, and the courage it takes to speak a truth no one wants to believe. The first rule of life on the moon is: There is no life on the moon. The second rule is: Don't ask questions. 12-year-old Leo gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join the very first Moon colony. He’s excited to be part of the top-secret mission, but things quickly go off the rails. Right after his family lands on the Moon, Leo’s dad is called off on an urgent mission from which he never returns. The authorities claim the mission never existed, and Leo’s dad is accused of desertion. Leo goes looking for his dad and discovers far more than he bargained for. Everyone in the colony insists there’s NO life on the Moon. But Leo’s explorations reveal a landscape brimming with extraordinary creatures—with baffling behaviors and beliefs. Leo’s big question is: why keep Moon life a secret? Who stands to gain? And how can he find a way to save his new Moon friends before the lie becomes a reality? ABOUT THE AUTHOR Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr are the husband/wife, author/illustrator team behind the Cookie Chronicles, The Real McCoys , Babies Ruin Everything, and Everywhere, Wonder (Imprint Books). Until recently, they also ran two small presses: Bobbledy Books and Idiots' Books. These days, they spend most of their time making books and raising four kids in the hayloft of an old barn in Chestertown, Maryland. They spend the rest of their time speaking, teaching, and leading workshops on collaboration and creative entrepreneurship—and the rest of the rest of their time running a commercial salmon-fishing operation on the Alaskan tundra. | Middle Grade | ||||||||||||
12 |  | Olivie Blake | Dreamland: A Novel | DREAMLAND: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK From New York Times bestselling author Olivie Blake comes a tantalizing story of power, seduction, and the omens you’ll ignore when everything you’ve dreamed of feels just within reach. The headlines are calling it the "summer of exsanguination" in LA—girls are being murdered, the Santa Ana winds are blowing a strange energy into the city, and all signs point to fire season. More pressing for Anya Morris, though, is the drudgery of living at home, working part time at the family store, and contending with her mother's disdain for the acting career Anya knows she's destined for but that feels more impossible by the day. It’s in this suffocating late summer heat that Anya receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, an invitation to work for the de Witt family, one of LA’s most influential film dynasties. Soon, she’s spending her days and nights at their strange villa high in the Hollywood Hills, where she meets Jude, a recluse who is both the family’s heir apparent and its most closely guarded secret. There’s a magnetism to Jude that Anya cannot resist, despite warning signs that scream like sirens in the night. Because the villa holds generations of bloodstained history, and an occult family curse may even live within its walls—or within Jude himself. In this city, everyone cuts a deal with the devil. When Anya comes face to face with a devil of her own, she’ll learn just how far she’s willing to go to get everything she’s ever wanted. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Olivie Blake is the New York Times bestselling author of speculative fiction for adults, including The Atlas Six trilogy, Alone with You in the Ether , Masters of Death , the short story collection Januaries , and her novel, Girl Dinner . With Little Chmura, she is the co-creator of the graphic series Clara and the Devil . As Alexene Farol Follmuth, she is also the author of the young adult novels My Mechanical Romance and Twelfth Knight . She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
13 |  | Joe Bond | Hope House: A Novel | HOPE HOUSE: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK Set in 1980s Kentucky, this striking debut novel is told from inside a treatment home for troubled teenagers, where lost boys become more than their pasts and dare to imagine different futures. They came from the streets, the sticks and every place in between. They’d stolen cars, dealt dope and hurt people. They’d been hurt themselves. There’s AWOL, who won’t stop running away. There’s Karvel, who runs the place. There’s Damico, Smoove, and Peanut. Their futures promise prison or worse, but for now they’ve been brought together to live in an old home on a hill and see about getting themselves—and each other—right. Told in chorus through the intersecting lives of a group of teenage boys, Hope House follows its ensemble cast through a five-phase program as they grapple with their pasts and search for the one thing none of them have ever really had: a family. In his deeply honest and soulful debut, Bond crafts a coming-of-age story that sears with the anger and spirit of abandoned youth. The Nickel Boys meets This Boy’s Life, Hope House is a novel about belonging, care, and the desire in all of us to find a home. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joe Bond grew up around group homes and residential treatment programs in eastern Kentucky. He’s been a child-care worker, a copy editor, a security guard at a psychiatric hospital and a research librarian at a law firm in Times Square. For several years he covered mixed martial arts fighting for ESPN and various magazines and newspapers throughout the U.S., Brazil and Japan. He began working on Hope House after his story “Damico” won the Masters Review Short Story Award. He lives in New Orleans. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
14 |  | Max Boot | Reagan: His Life and Legend | REAGAN: HIS LIFE AND LEGEND ABOUT THE BOOK NEW YORK TIMES • 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2024 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Washington Post • 50 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 Best Books of 2024: The New Yorker, The Economist, Chicago Public Library, The Auburn Citizen "This elegant biography of the 40th president stands out for its deep authority and nimble style.... A landmark work." —New York Times, "10 Best Books of 2024" "Reagan: His Life and Legend aims to be the definitive biography, and it succeeds." —New Yorker "Magisterial.... Important.... Vivid... Splendid." —Washington Post Son of the Midwest, movie star, and mesmerizing politician—America’s fortieth president comes to three-dimensional life in this gripping and profoundly revisionist biography. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Max Boot , historian and foreign-policy analyst, is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a columnist for the Washington Post . His New York Times bestseller The Road Not Taken was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. http://www.maxboot.net/ | Biography | ||||||||||||
15 |  | Drew Brockington | CatStronauts: Module Mayhem | CATSTRONAUTS: MODULE MAYHEM ABOUT THE BOOK book when a special cat is stranded in space! It’s business as mew-sual for the CatStronauts. Their space station has been in orbit for over twenty-five years, and the new Jimmy Wub Wub telescope has been deployed without a scratch. But when the president is convinced to cut all funding to the CATSUP space program, Blanket is left in orbit! It’s up to Major Meowser, Waffles, Pom Pom, and even Cat-Stro-Bot to rescue Blanket from space! Could evidence of aliens be the key to this rescue? In this full-color graphic novel, author-illustrator Drew Brockington uses real NASA history and science, from hazardous spacecraft and budget cuts to the real search for extraterrestrial life! ABOUT THE AUTHOR Drew Brockington has flown a space shuttle, helped repair the International Space Station, and served in Mission Control—all during a week at Space Camp. He works at his drawing table while his dog’s ghost snores at his feet. He lives with his family in Minneapolis. | Graphic Novel, Middle Grade | ||||||||||||
16 | Michael Buckley | The Weirdies Get Weirder | THE WEIRDIES GET WEIRDER ABOUT THE BOOK When the Weirdies’ parents come back from the dead, chaos ensues in this darkly humorous sequel to the nationally bestselling The Weirdies, perfect for fans of The Swifts and A Series of Unfortunate Events! ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michael Buckley is the New York Times bestselling author of The Sisters Grimm and NERDS series and the cocreator, writer, and executive producer of Cartoon Network’s Robotomy. He lives in New York City with his son, Finn and their wonder pup, Friday. He invites you to visit him online at michaelbuckleywrites.com and Instagram at @whatsupbuckley. | Middle Grade | |||||||||||||
17 |  | Belle Burden | Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage | STRANGERS: A MEMOIR OF MARRIAGE ABOUT THE BOOK It was a great love story, one for the ages. The speed of our beginning and the speed of our ending felt like matching bookends. They both came out of nowhere. He wanted it, he wanted me. And then he didn’t. In March 2020, Belle Burden was safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha’s Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together—building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whisky sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of twenty years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume. In Strangers, Burden revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was. As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal. Through all of it, she is transformed. The discreet, compliant woman she once was—someone nicknamed “Belle the Good”—gives way to someone braver, someone determined to use her voice. With unflinching honesty and profound grace, Burden charts a path through heartbreak to show the power of a woman who refuses to give up on love. Strangers is a stunning, deeply moving, compulsively readable memoir heralding the arrival of a thrilling new literary talent. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Belle Burden holds a BA from Harvard College and a law degree from the New York University School of Law. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times. She lives with her children in New York City. | Autobiography/Memoir | ||||||||||||
18 |  | Sharon Cameron | Up From the Ashes | UP FROM THE ASHES ABOUT THE BOOK #1 New York Times bestselling author Sharon Cameron returns with a stunning story about the fight to survive--and find love--in the face of the ugliest of nightmares, based on the true story of two heroes and their resistance in the Sobibor death camp during the Holocaust. Selma Wijnberg is a criminal, a prisoner. Because she is Jewish. For this crime, in the depths of Hitler's occupation of Holland, Selma is deported to the Sobibor death camp, sentenced to sort the clothes of the dead while a smoke made of thousands blackens the sky. And in the light of this enormous funeral pyre, at the end of a Nazi pistol, Selma is ordered to dance. The hand that offers to dance with her is strong. Steady. It belongs to Chaim Engel. Chaim is a Polish Jew and also a prisoner. Chaim and Selma don't speak the same language. But sometimes, love doesn't need a language. Who falls in love in the middle of hell? Chaim and Selma do. And who knew that love could kindle so much hope. But when the prisoners of Sobibor hatch a daring plan of escape, it is time to kill or be killed. The gate or the fire. Chaim and Selma will go out on their feet, or out with the smoke. In an hour of terror and panic, of bullets and bloodshed, Chaim and Selma discover that hope--and two hands twined tightly together--can be the key to keeping two people alive. Based on the remarkable true story of Selma Wijnberg and Chaim Engel, and the infamous revolt and escape of the Sobibor death camp prisoners, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Light in Hidden Places, Sharon Cameron crafts an extraordinary and evocative thriller that celebrates how hope and love can conquer even the most impossible of odds. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sharon Cameron is the author of the international bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick The Light in Hidden Places and the critically acclaimed thrillers Bluebird and Artifice. Her debut novel, T he Dark Unwinding , was awarded the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' Sue Alexander Award for Most Promising New Work and the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award and was named a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection. Sharon is also the author of its sequel, A Spark Unseen; Rook , which was an Indiebound Indie Next List Top Ten selection, a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection, and a Parents' Choice gold medalist; and The Forgetting , a #1 New York Times bestseller and an Indie Next Pick of the List selection, as well as its companion novel, The Knowin g. She lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee, and you can visit her online at sharoncameronbooks.com or follow her on Instagram at @sharoncameronbooks or on Twitter at @CameronSharonE. | Young Adult | ||||||||||||
19 |  | Linda Carman | Self-Rising: The Magic Rise Behind Biscuit and Cornbread Culture | SELF-RISING: THE MAGIC RISE BEHIND BISCUIT AND CORNBREAD CULTURE ABOUT THE BOOK Self-Rising: The Magic Rise Behind Biscuit and Cornbread Culture reveals how a combination of simple ingredients sparked a quiet culinary and cultural revolution. Self-rising flour and corn meal―premixed blends of flour or meal, baking powder, and salt―freed home cooks from the guesswork of from-scratch baking and transformed everyday cooking. Throughout the twentieth century, in times of poverty, segregation, and sweeping changes such as electrification, few innovations gave women more control over their time and table. Part historical narrative and part cookbook, this flavorful account starts in Tennessee, the "self-rising capital of the world," and travels across the Southern US. The first half of the book explores how self-rising products not only helped reshape the domestic sphere but further influenced society, culture, and industry. Vitamin boosts and flour-sack fashion made self-rising products a Southern staple. Radio jingles, blues tunes, and Grand Ole Opry broadcasts spread the word. The second half of the book offers a rich collection of timeless, foolproof recipes built for modern kitchens, including chicken and dumplings, fried pickle chips, chewy brownies, apple crisp, and more. Entertaining and insightful, Self-Rising offers a story about the spirit of Southern cooks―a story of nourishment, invention, and resilience. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Linda Carman is the former consumer affairs director, test kitchen director, and baking consultant for Martha White. She was also a consultant for White Lily. | Cookbook | ||||||||||||
20 |  | Soman Chainani | Young World: A Novel | YOUNG WORLD: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK America is on the brink of collapse, and the youth have lost all faith in their leaders. As a pivotal election approaches, Benton Young, a high school senior trying to impress a girl, impulsively uploads a video, daring everyone to interfere with the vote and write him in for President. The video explodes online, igniting election chaos and a national revolt, until the Supreme Court intervenes to put Benton in the White House. Galvanized by Benton’s rise, more global youth take to the streets, and more governments fall, until eight of the world's most powerful nations are led by teenagers. When these young leaders convene at their first summit in Sweden, they face the monumental task of setting a new course for history. But the first night, their unity is shattered when a leader is murdered in cold blood . . . and Benton is the only suspect. Hunted by enemies young and old, he must untangle a deadly web of secrets, betrayal, and power plays—while the future of the world hangs in the balance. With globe-spanning action, stunning twists, and an electric new brand of storytelling, Young World is a heart-stopping thriller that asks: What happens when the future really does belong to the young? ABOUT THE AUTHOR Soman Chainani is the author of the School for Good and Evil series, which has sold over 4.5 million copies, has been translated into 35 languages across six continents, and has been adapted into a major motion picture from Netflix that debuted at #1 in over 80 countries. Together, his books have been on the New York Times Bestseller List for more than 50 weeks. He graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude with a degree in English & American Literature, and an MFA in Film from Columbia University. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri. | Young Adult | ||||||||||||
21 |  | Susanna Chapman | We Are Mighty | WE ARE MIGHTY ABOUT THE BOOK #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “America’s Government Teacher” and author of the New York Times bestselling The Small and the Mighty pens a hopeful picture book about twelve ordinary Americans who stood up to do the next needed thing. “Want mighty kids? Give them these spectacular mighty heroes. I love it. Sharon McMahon is a national treasure!” —Brad Meltzer, bestselling author of the Ordinary People Change the World series One kind act. One spark of bravery. One big idea from someone nobody expected. In this beautifully illustrated collection, you’ll meet twelve real people from America’s past—some famous, most not—whose choices changed the course of history. You’ll meet María de López, who drove ambulances during World War I and helped win the vote for women. You’ll read about two boys—Norman and Alan—who met at a campout, stayed friends for life, and helped lead the country together. And you’ll discover how teachers, kids, and quiet changemakers made a mighty difference in their communities. With powerful storytelling from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sharon McMahon and vivid art from award-winning illustrator Susanna Chapman, We Are Mighty celebrates courage, character, and the idea that the smallest step can create ripples we can’t yet see. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Susanna Chapman is an award-winning illustrator of picture books, including The Girl Who Ran , which received a Gold Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Award, Elizabeth Warren’s Big, Bold Plans ; Ada and the Galaxies ; Covered in Color ; and The Fastest Drummer . Susanna lives in Nashville with her husband where she draws pictures, designs books, and paints murals. | Children’s | ||||||||||||
22 |  | Lydi Conklin | Songs of No Provenance: A Novel | SONGS OF NO PROVENANCE: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK A suspenseful, wildly engaging debut novel by the award-winning author of Rainbow Rainbow, following a musician spiraling in self-doubt and self-searching after a night—and a relationship—gone wrong Songs of No Provenance tells the story of Joan Vole, an indie folk singer forever teetering on the edge of fame, who flees New York after committing a shocking sexual act onstage that she fears will doom her career. Joan seeks refuge at a writing camp for teenagers in rural Virginia, where she's forced to question her own toxic relationship to artmaking—and her complicated history with a friend and mentee—while finding new hope in her students and a deepening intimacy with a nonbinary artist and fellow camp staff member. A propulsive character study of a flawed and fascinating artist, Songs of No Provenance explores issues of trans nonbinary identity, queer baiting and appropriation, kink, fame hunger, secrecy and survival, and the question of whether a work of art can exist separately from its artist. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lydi Conklin is the author of Rainbow Rainbow , which was long-listed for the Story Prize and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. Their fiction has appeared in Tin House , American Short Fiction , and The Paris Review . They’ve drawn comics for The New Yorker , The Believer , Lenny Letter , and other publications. Songs of No Provenance is their first novel. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
23 |  | Jordan Conn | American Men | AMERICAN MEN ABOUT THE BOOK A deeply intimate portrait of the lives of four men that examines—in profound and comprehensive ways—what it means to be a man in America. Men wield outsized power across all major institutions. But they are falling behind across all measures of well-being and success. They include loving husbands and absent fathers, corporate strivers and displaced workers, the objects and instruments of incredible violence. They are half the population. And yet when mentioned as a bloc, it’s often to ask the question: What’s wrong with them? American Men is a book that burrows deep into the lives of four men, exploring how each of them construct their relationship to masculinity, and how they navigate that relationship over time. They include Ryan, an amateur MMA fighter from the Akwesasne Mohawk territory, struggling to come to terms with both his sexuality as a closeted gay man and his draw toward bar room violence; Gideon, an itinerant, tall and handsome West Point graduate and former baseball star who unravels when he encounters challenges to his status as the white masculine ideal; Joseph, a Seattle law student whose marriage teeters on the brink of turmoil as he tries on his own to contend with the effects of childhood sexual trauma; and Nate, a young Ohio man still living at home and trying to establish security for himself in a rural pocket of a red state, where he’s under threat as someone who is Black, trans, and poor. Written with searing intimacy after five years of reporting, American Men interweaves their stories into a mosaic that explores identity, heritage, and the pressures and performance of modern American masculinity. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jordan Ritter Conn is the author of The Road From Raqqa: A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging , runner-up for the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He is a Senior Staff Writer for The Ringer and the host of the narrative podcasts What If: The Len Bias Story and Sonic Boom , named by The Atlantic as one of the best podcasts of 2019 . He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his family. | General Nonfiction | ||||||||||||
24 | The Curry Boys | Asian Smoke: Thai and Southeast Asian Barbecue from the Curry Boys | ASIAN SMOKE: THAI AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN BARBECUE FROM THE CURRY BOYS ABOUT THE BOOK “Each year it seems like dozens of grilling cookbooks hit the market before summer, but none in 2026 have arrived with quite the heat of Asian Smoke. ... If you’re grilling out this summer, think beyond the basics with Asian Smoke.” —Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2026 Make your barbecue more exciting, colorful, flavorful, and adventuresome than you ever imagined possible by mastering the amazing smoke-kissed recipes in Asian Smoke. Who would have guessed that an unassuming mid-size pink stucco restaurant in San Antonio, Texas, would become one of the most celebrated citadels of barbecue in the US, and even in the world, less than five years after it first opened its doors? Yet that is what has happened to Curry Boys BBQ, the brainchild of Andrew Ho, Andrew Samia, and Sean Wen—the Curry Boys—who, by the by, now have two James Beard Best Chef nominations to their names, alongside dozens of other accolades from leading barbecue experts. Ho, Samia, and Wen use traditional Texas-style barbecue and smoking techniques, and even traditional cuts like brisket and ribs, but they infuse everything with the deeply soulful aromas and flavors of Thai cooking (mostly), and of other Southeast Asian and pan-Asian cuisines (to a lesser extent). The flat-out delectable results draw long lines of fans and spectacular reviews on Yelp and in the food media. In this, their first book, they reveal their secrets for home cooks. The recipes include: Thai-Style BBQ Shrimp with Penang Curry Butter on Toasted Baguette Grilled Thai Sriracha Buffalo Wings Thai Street–Style Smoked and Grilled Chicken Satay Skewers with Peanut Sauce Smoked Brisket and Thai Green Curry with Roasted Cauliflower Smoked Lamb Shank and Thai Massaman Curry with Roasted Carrots and Potatoes Smoked Pork Belly Bánh Mì Thai-Inspired Green Curry Smoked Mushrooms Honey Sriracha Pulled Pork Sandwich with Pickled Green Papaya and Penang Mayo Nam Jim Jaew Party Ribs Smoked Coconut Cheesecake The old barbecue is US Southern and still damn good. The new barbecue is global, full of exciting new flavors. Dip your toes in the latter with this colorful, photo-rich, delectable book as your guide. ABOUT THE AUTHOR In 2016, Andrew Ho and Sean Wen left their business careers to found Pinch Boil House and Bia Bar, an Asian street food–themed restaurant in San Antonio, Texas, focused on crawfish (and shrimp and fish) boils and beer—things familiar to the culinary cultures of both Texas and Southeast Asia. In 2020, they teamed up with Andrew Samia, San Antonio’s best young pitmaster and the chef/owner of South BBQ, to launch Curry Boys BBQ. Remarkably, within three years, the trio had earned two James Beard Best Restaurant nominations for Curry Boys BBQ, had appeared on numerous national television BBQ and food shows, and had been featured in Texas Monthly, on CNBC, and in the leading big-city newspapers in Texas. All told, the two Andrews and Sean now rank among the top ten or so chefs in the world who work—and play—at the natural and delectable intersection of Asian BBQ and Southern/Texas-style BBQ. | Cookbook | |||||||||||||
25 | Kelsey Day | The Spiral Key | THE SPIRAL KEY ABOUT THE BOOK At the start of each school year, Madison Pembroke, the most popular girl at Lincoln Academy, sends out invitations to her epic birthday party in the form of custom forged spiral keys. For that one night, a few lucky teens get to enter Ametrine, a virtual paradise that hosts the party of the year—a wild, unforgettable celebration that will secure their social status in the real world. As Madison’s hated ex-BFF, Bree Benson never receives a key. Until now. Despite warnings from her boyfriend, Bree sees the invite as an olive branch, the perfect opportunity to rekindle her once-amazing friendship with Madison. But as the party games begin to turn provocative and violent, Bree finds that Ametrine might not be the decadent wonderland she was promised. And that Madison may have let Bree enter Ametrine, but she has no intention of ever letting her leave . . .Kelsey Day’s gripping YA debut shows that while best friends know each other the best, ex–best friends know how to hurt each other the worst. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kelsey Day (they/them) is a young adult author and queer Appalachian poet. Their writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Orion Magazine, Freeman’s and more. The Spiral Key is their first novel for young readers. | Young Adult | |||||||||||||
26 |  | Asa Drake | Maybe the Body: Poems | MAYBE THE BODY: POEMS ABOUT THE BOOK A Most Anticipated Book of 2026 from Debutiful and Garden & Gun “Radiant . . . a generous offering full of flora and fury.” —Aimee Nezhukumatathil A brilliant debut poetry collection by National Poetry Series finalist Asa Drake that explores the lineage and future lineage of a body shaped by economic, ecological, and political dissonance. In her stunning debut poetry collection, Maybe the Body, Asa Drake witnesses firsthand the conflicts between art and patriotism, labor and longing. She reaches for the lush landscapes—real and recounted—of the Philippines and the American South as she traces the lineage of a body shaped by economic, ecological, and political dissonance. As one poem reminds us, "it's so hard to write about love without writing about the country we live in." These thirty-eight poems, threaded together with a six-part braided sequence, bind a multigenerational conversation between grandmothers, mothers, and aunts through a range of forms, from pantoums to prose poems. With its vivid imagery and an unforgettable lyrical perspective, Maybe the Body reconsiders the natural transactions of work, intimacy, and the poem itself. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Asa Drake is a Filipina/white poet in Central Florida. A 2024 National Poetry Series finalist, she is the recipient of fellowships and awards from the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest, the Florida Book Awards, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Storyknife, Sundress Publications, Tin House, and Idyllwild Arts. Her poems have been published with The Slowdown Podcast, The American Poetry Review , The Paris Review Daily, and The Georgia Review . A former librarian, she currently works as a teaching artist. | Poetry | ||||||||||||
27 | Tony DiTerlizzi | The Wump | THE WUMP ABOUT THE BOOK From the co-creator of the #1 New York Times bestselling Spiderwick Chronicles series comes a deliciously dark supernatural middle-grade coming-of-age story, with two-color illustrations throughout. Timothy’s grandpa has a saying: the best way to deal with bullies is to wump ‘em. But Timothy would never hurt a fly—and not just because he genuinely loves bugs. He’s always been a good kid...until a shadowy monster appears and begins feeding on his darkest thoughts. Facing bullies both at home and at school, Timothy cocoons himself in the monster’s shadows, where he is consumed by a desire for revenge. But how much of himself can Timothy give up before he is completely transformed? Award-winning author-illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi stuns in this creepy, brilliantly illustrated, and poignant reflection of the darkness—and light—inside of all of us. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tony DiTerlizzi is the co-creator of the #1 New York Times bestselling Spiderwick Chronicles series which has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. The series inspired a major motion picture and was recently reimagined as an Emmy Award-winning television series for the Roku Channel. His bestselling science-fiction trilogy, WondLa, was also adapted by Skydance Animation and is now streaming on Apple TV+. | Middle Grade | |||||||||||||
28 |  | Caroline DuBois | All the Sunshine in the World | ALL THE SUNSHINE IN THE WORLD ABOUT THE BOOK In this riveting novel in verse, thirteen-year-old Tolly fears she was to blame for the accident that killed her older sister. If she could just get her phone back, she might find answers about the day Sunny died… It’s been almost six months since Tolly’s sister died in a distracted driving wreck. Tolly misses Sunny every minute of every day, but is it wrong to want a semi-normal birthday? What about a new phone, to replace the one she lost soon after the accident? Instead, she gets grieving parents and a disappointing, misspelled cake. And so Tolly is stuck starting 8th grade without a phone in hand, without answers to the endless questions she has about her sister’s death. Why did it happen… How did it happen… Was it Tolly’s fault? She just needs her old phone back to uncover the truth. Ironically, thanks to being phone-less, Tolly gets put in charge of a new Luddite club at school, for kids who want to avoid technology. It’s the last place she expected to find herself, but it turns out to be a powerful escape from the unrelenting guilt she feels over Sunny’s death—and it might just be the place for her to get those answers, too. Acclaimed poet Caroline Brooks DuBois brings one family’s healing into the light in a compelling novel in verse that speaks to this generation’s messy feelings about technology, as well as the timeless complications of being a teenager. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Caroline Brooks DuBois is the author of The Places We Sleep , which received a starred review from School Library Journal and was an Indies Introduce and Kids Indie Next selection, as well as Ode to a Nobody , which received two starred reviews and was named to multiple state award lists. After teaching English at the middle school, high school, and college level, she was named a Nashville Blue Ribbon Teacher. Caroline lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her family. Visit her online at carolineduboiswrites.com. | Middle Grade | ||||||||||||
29 |  | Kristin Kobes du Mez | Live Laugh Love The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They M | LIVE LAUGH LOVE THE SECRET HISTORY OF WHITE CHRISTIAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD THEY M ABOUT THE BOOK From the New York Times best-selling author of Jesus and John Wayne, a revelatory history of white Christian womanhood in the United States. In her “paradigm-influencing” (Christianity Today) bestseller Jesus and John Wayne, which has changed how countless Americans understand their faith, historian Kristin Kobes Du?Mez showed how evangelicals made Jesus into an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism. Now she uncovers the roots of today’s glittering, Instagram-ready culture of white Christian femininity. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kristin Kobes Du Mez is professor of history at Calvin University. She is currently a senior democracy fellow with the Public Religion Research Institute. She has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post and been interviewed on NPR, PBS, and the BBC, among others outlets. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. | General Nonfiction | ||||||||||||
30 |  | Sarah Durst | Sea of Charms: A Novel | SEA OF CHARMS: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK Marin has always belonged on the great blue sea. Betrayed by love, Marin lives and works as a supply runner, sailing from island to island, delivering an array of goods with Perri the sea serpent and Ree the sailor shrub as her crew. On one of her routine trips to the capital, Alyssium, Marin finds a revolution underway—and her friend Dax in the line of fire. What starts as a rescue evolves into a deal: Marin will keep Dax on as a member of her crew if he pretends to be her boyfriend at the End-of-Harvest Festival back home. But against her better judgment, Marin finds herself intrigued by his stubbornness, his passion for stories, his charming smile—and realizes that perhaps she isn’t saving him. Maybe it’s the other way around. Sea of Charms is a cozy fantasy romance about finding your crew, your family, and moreover, finding yourself. Read in whatever order your heart desires, but don’t miss The Spellshop and The Enchanted Greenhouse. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sarah Beth Durst is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over thirty books for kids, teens, and adults, including cozy fantasy The Spellshop . She's been awarded the American Library Association Alex Award, the Libby Book Award for Best Fantasy, and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Several of her books have been optioned for film/television, including Drink Slay Love , which was made into a TV movie and was a question on Jeopardy! She lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children, and her ill-mannered cat. | Fantasy | ||||||||||||
31 |  | J.T. Ellison | You Know Why: A Novel | YOU KNOW WHY: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK From New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison comes a suspenseful domestic thriller about identity, revenge, and the dangerous secrets kept hidden from the ones we love most. It’s the holidays, and photographer Brooklyn Locke is bound for Italy with her husband, Trey, and their two children. But when Trey vanishes from the airport, missing their connecting flight, their impromptu vacation―and life as she knows it―begins to unravel. Desperate to find her husband, Brooklyn accepts help from a stranger on the same flight, Eden Barrow. But Eden soon makes a shocking claim. She is the sister of Trey’s first wife, and ten years ago he was the main suspect in her murder. Struggling to comprehend these accusations, fate delivers one more blow: a violent accident that leaves Brooklyn fighting for her life. With nowhere else to turn, Brooklyn leans on Eden for support. But each kindness feels too rehearsed, feeding her doubts about Eden’s motives and Trey’s true past. Brooklyn has her own dark history she’d rather forget and confronts an unsettling possibility. Her life is not what it seems, and the truth is a trap―laid by someone waiting for the perfect time to strike. ABOUT THE AUTHOR J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels of psychological suspense, including the Lt. Taylor Jackson series, the Dr. Samantha Owens series, and numerous acclaimed stand-alones. She is the Emmy Award–winning cohost of A Word on Words , the literary television series on PBS. Over a twenty-year career, her work has earned widespread critical recognition, with titles optioned for television and published in thirty countries, and millions of copies in print worldwide. A dedicated voice in the writing community, she also publishes The Creative Edge , a newsletter and blog for writers navigating the craft and business of fiction. She lives with her husband and twin kittens––one of whom is a ghost––in Nashville, Tennessee. | Mystery/Thriller | ||||||||||||
32 |  | Jim Emison | Murder on the Hatchie: The NAACP's First Martyr | MURDER ON THE HATCHIE: THE NAACP'S FIRST MARTYR ABOUT THE BOOK The forgotten lynching that launched America's fight for Black voting rights--and the federal cover-up that followed. Murder on the Hatchie uncovers one of the earliest and most consequential crimes in America's long struggle for Black voting rights: the 1940 lynching of Elbert Williams in Brownsville, Tennessee. A founding member of the local NAACP, Williams was murdered for attempting to register Black voters, decades before the more famous murders of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers. Through rigorous research and gripping narrative, retired trial attorney Jim Emison reconstructs the events surrounding Williams's lynching and the federal government's failure to prosecute his killers. Drawing on FBI files, Department of Justice correspondence, and eyewitness accounts, Emison reconstructs how white officials conspired to silence a community, implicating local law enforcement, federal agents, and even national NAACP leadership. Emison repositions Brownsville as a pivotal site in civil rights history and exposes how voter suppression, racial terror, and government complicity shaped the American democracy we inherit today. With a foreword by Margaret A. Burnham, Murder on the Hatchie challenges liberal assumptions about justice and the embedded character of Jim Crow. For readers of Blood Done Sign My Name and By Hands Now Known, this is both a gripping true-crime investigation and a vital work of historical restoration. ABOUT THE AUTHOR After forty-three years as a Tennessee trial attorney, Jim Emison devoted his retirement to investigating the 1940 murder of NAACP leader Elbert Williams. Emison's work has been featured by the Associated Press, NPR, and Nashville Public Television, and led to a renewed Department of Justice review under the Emmett Till Act. Emison is the co-founder of Tennesseans for Historical Justice and a board member of the Tennessee Historical Society. | History | ||||||||||||
33 |  | Susannah Felts | The Come Apart: A Novel | THE COME APART: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK An authentic rock band story from Chicago to Nashville and, just maybe, back again On the cusp of turning thirty, Chicago indie musician Maggie Corbin has hustled for a decade, set on making her rock and roll dreams come true. Her band, Spinning Birds, fronted by Maggie and her romantic partner Matt Turkish, releases a debut record to critical acclaim, hits the road, and begins working on a follow-up. From the outside, her path looks like success―but as streaming deconstructs the industry and Maggie’s relationships shift and slip, the question remains: Can you live for art alone? When a sudden move back to the South forces Maggie to reframe her dreams and reckon with familial rifts and her past―while still fighting to reimagine what her future could be―a natural disaster in Nashville and a surprise encounter with a character from her childhood shift her perspective on healing, community, and the ties that bind. Drifting in and out of songwriting sessions, cozy kitchens, and moments of bearing witness to the curious power of the natural world, The Come Apart celebrates the times when we must come fully undone in order to put ourselves back together. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Susannah Felts is a writer, editor, and cofounder of the Porch, a nonprofit literary arts center in Nashville, Tennessee. She is the author of the novel This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record , and her writing has appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing, StorySouth, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. She is a contributing writer for Chapter 16 and an editor with SWING , a biannual literary magazine published by the Porch. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
34 |  | Isaac Fitzgerald | American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed | AMERICAN RAMBLER: WALKING THE TRAIL OF JOHNNY APPLESEED ABOUT THE BOOK As a child, Isaac Fitzgerald was captivated by Johnny Appleseed, drawn to the legend by family ties, his father’s larger-than-life stories, and a shared restlessness to leave home and discover what lay beyond. In American Rambler, he sets out on a year-long journey to follow Appleseed’s path, walking (okay, sometimes driving, and at one point, even floating downstream) from Massachusetts to Indiana. On this journey, Fitzgerald turns a childhood fascination into a profound reckoning of loss and grief, ritual and faith, grimy gas station bathrooms and scenic apple picking. He is followed by a mysterious creature, camps in hostile environments, trespasses more than once, and is warmed by the generosity of strangers at every turn. A moving blend of memoir, history, and travelogue, American Rambler is at once an ode to the American heartland, a meditation on escaping the breakneck pace of modern life, and a clear-eyed look at the myths—often violent, sometimes hopeful, frequently romanticized—at the very core of American identity and history. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Isaac Fitzgerald is the New York Times bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts (winner of the New England Book Award). He is also the author of the bestselling children’s book How to Be a Pirate as well as the co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos (winner of an IACP Award). He appears frequently on The Today Show, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times , The Atlantic, Esquire , GQ , The Guardian , The Best American Nonrequired Reading , and numerous other publications. He lives with his wife and their two dogs on the North Fork of Long Island. | General Nonfiction | ||||||||||||
35 |  | Amanda Foody | A Destiny So Cruel | A DESTINY SO CRUEL ABOUT THE BOOK A Destiny So Cruel is the heart-wrenching epic finale to the blockbuster fantasy duology that started in A Fate So Cold, from Amanda Foody and C. L. Herman, the New York Times bestselling authors of All of Us Villains. “From now on, it’s destiny that has to defy us.” After a millennium, Summer’s reign over Alderland has ended. Now it is Winter magicians and their Living Wands who lead the country, and it is Summer’s brutal storms and deadly monsters the nation fears. All thanks to Ellery Caldwell, the Chosen One who thwarted the cataclysm—by slaying Domenic Barrow, the boy she loved. Not that Alderland knows that. As far as the public is concerned, Ellery was their lone hero, and Domenic a failure. Yet rather than celebrate her victory, Ellery has spent the past four months shut away in mourning. Until Domenic is mysteriously resurrected on the first day of Summer. Immediately, he and Ellery both are given a new prophecy to repeat their duel, or this time, it will be Summer’s cataclysm that destroys Alderland. Except not even their duel to the death has erased Ellery and Domenic’s feelings for each other—only complicated them. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re destined enemies. Yet what if destiny isn’t actually all-powerful? And if so, what price are they willing to pay for a happy ending? ABOUT THE AUTHOR Amanda Foody has always considered imagination to be our best attempt at magic. She is a New York Times , USA Today , and indie bestselling author of fantasy novels, including the All of Us Villains duology, the Wilderlore series, The Shadow Game series, and more. You can find her on Instagram or her website. | Young Adult | ||||||||||||
36 |  | Ben Fountain | Rasputin Swims the Potomac: A Novel | RASPUTIN SWIMS THE POTOMAC: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK From the award-winning, bestselling author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk comes a biting satire of American politics and a searingly intelligent novel about the cruel absurdities of contemporary life, centering on a world champion professional wrestler with presidential ambitions Reporter Clarence Thomas Jr. is looking for a great story, former country music teen star Faith Spack has parlayed her fame into a job at the White House, and the two-term incumbent president is campaigning for a constitutionally dubious third term. After an outbreak at a campaign rally, a mysterious new pandemic of “weeping sickness” sweeps the nation, threatening the president’s hold on the Oval Office. Desperate to retain power, he enlists the mystical pro wrestler Rasputin to help ensure his reelection and guarantee additional seasons of his presidential reality TV show, The Real West Wing. But as Rasputin’s appeal threatens to exceed the president’s, and the wrestler’s supposedly supernatural powers start to seem like the real thing, the campaign finds itself trapped in a spandex-clad destiny no number of executive orders can control, one in which both Clarence and Faith are compelled to play increasingly large parts. Hilarious, compelling, and tragically relevant, Rasputin Swims the Potomac is both an escape and a warning, a scathing satire that explores the twists and turns of American democracy as it hurtles toward authoritarianism. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ben Fountain ’s work has received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Los Angeles Book Prize for Fiction, and a Whiting Writers Award, and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He lives in North Carolina. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
37 |  | Alice Gerrard | Custom Made Woman: A Life in Traditional Music | CUSTOM MADE WOMAN: A LIFE IN TRADITIONAL MUSIC ABOUT THE BOOK Alice Gerrard, an award-winning and storied folk and bluegrass musician for over 50 years, is one of the notable few women in a heavily male genre. Custom Made Woman tells Gerrard's story through the music, the folk festivals, the kids, and the relationships--both personal and professional--that defined her storied life and career. Her collaborations with Appalachian singer Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and 1970s were pivotal recordings during the decades after the American folk music boom of the midcentury; the duo produced four albums that have recently been rereleased by Rounder Records and Smithsonian Folkways. In addition to Dickens, Gerrard has worked with folks like Tommy Jarrell, Enoch Rutherford, Otis Burris, Luther Davis, and Matokie Slaughter, and founded The Old-Time Herald, based in Durham, North Carolina, serving as its editor-in-chief from 1987 until 2003. She's also a lifelong documentarian of the folkways scene, and this book features nearly 100 rare photos--many never before seen--of key musicians, including Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, Hazel Dickens, Elizabeth Cotten, Mike Seeger, and more. In telling the story of her time as a player of traditional music, Gerrard gives us a deeply personal way to understand and appreciate a quintessentially American genre that has a long history and thrives to this day. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alice Gerrard is a Grammy-nominated old-time and bluegrass musician whose career has spanned nearly six decades. | Autobiography/Memoir | ||||||||||||
38 |  | Charles Ghigna | The Lost Book of Life: New and Selected Poems | THE LOST BOOK OF LIFE: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS ABOUT THE BOOK A poetic journey through five decades of wonder, memory, and love, where the ordinary becomes sacred and every line leads home Spanning five decades of poetic mastery, The Lost Book of Life: New and Selected Poems is the definitive collection from Charles Ghigna, a beloved and influential voice in contemporary Southern poetry. Drawing from fourteen previous volumes and featuring thirty-seven new poems, this landmark collection captures the full arc of Ghigna’s creative evolution, from his early meditations on nature and family to his later reflections on memory, mortality, and the enduring power of love. With graceful shifts between free verse and traditional forms, Ghigna’s voice is both intimate and expansive―clear as spring water, alive with wit, and steeped in feeling. His poems open doorways into childhood’s bright dreaming, the quiet complexities of fatherhood, and the sacred hush of daily life. Ghigna invites readers to see the world anew, to find beauty in the familiar, and to embrace the sacred in the ordinary. For longtime admirers and new readers alike, The Lost Book of Life is a luminous testament to a life devoted to poetry. It is both compass and keepsake: a celebration of poetry’s enduring light, and a lasting gift to the literature of the American South. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Charles Ghigna is author of more than 5000 poems and one hundred books for children and adults. His books have been published by Disney, Random House, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster and others. His poems have been published in Harper’s , The New Yorker , Rolling Stone , The Saturday Evening Post and The Wall Street Journal . | Poetry | ||||||||||||
39 |  | Juliana Glasse | This is What Happens When Women Read | THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WOMEN READ ABOUT THE BOOK An empowering journey to self-actualization by a former Evangelical Christian pop star whose life was transformed when she began reading books that had been forbidden to her. Julianna Glasse was an influential Christian pop star and author who sang at President Trump's first National Prayer Breakfast, as well as an exemplary Christian wife. But when, out of curiosity, she began reading Plato's Republic, something inside her shifted. She began asking questions and hungered to read more, hiding the forbidden books under her bed, in her linen closet, wherever they wouldn't be found--books by Emerson, Dickinson, Rumi, de Beauvoir. When her husband discovered a pile of her books, he chastised her for her disobedience: "This is what happens when women read," he told her, a phrase that liberated her. She left her marriage, the church, and her married name behind, and set off on a process of educating herself and working to reach other women trapped without agency within religious communities. In this powerful, riveting memoir, Julianna writes of her very public and painful split from both the church and her marriage--the self-hatred, depression, and suicidal impulses that almost destroyed her; the books she read that inspired her to reclaim her life as an autonomous, independent woman and earn an advanced degree at Oxford University; and, finally, her path to self-discovery and purpose. With a suggested reading list at the back of the book, This Is What Happens When Women Read is at once a dramatic personal story, a conversation starter about women's emancipation, and an inspiring paean to the power of books. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Julianna Glasse is a former Christian pop star and the founder and CEO of This Is What Happens When Women Read, a global organization dedicated to the liberation of women through education and safe community. She holds a master's degree from the Saïd Business School at Oxford University, with which she has created a partnership to provide scholarships to educate, support, and empower women who have left restrictive religious communities. She currently resides in New York City. | Autobiography/Memoir | ||||||||||||
40 |  | Allegra Goodman | This Is Not About Us: A Novel | THIS IS NOT ABOUT US: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK Was this just a brief skirmish, or the beginning of a thirty-year feud? In the Rubinstein family, it could go either way. When their beloved sister passes away, Sylvia and Helen Rubinstein are unmoored. A misunderstanding about apple cake turns into a decade of stubborn silence. Busy with their own lives—divorces, dating, career setbacks, college applications, bat mitzvahs and ballet recitals—their children do not want to get involved. As for their grandchildren? Impossible. With This Is Not About Us, master storyteller Allegra Goodman—whose prior collection was heralded as “one of the most astute and engaging books about American family life” (The Boston Globe)—returns to the form and subject that endeared her to legions of readers. Sharply observed and laced with humor, This Is Not About Us is a story of growing up and growing old, the weight of parental expectations, and the complex connection between sisters—a big-hearted book about the love that binds a family across generations. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Allegra Goodman is the author of seven novels, including the national bestseller Isola , which was a Reese’s Book Club pick; two short story collections; and a novel for young readers. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere, and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
41 |  | Nikki Grimes | Twice Blessed: Yard Sale Stories | TWICE BLESSED: YARD SALE STORIES ABOUT THE BOOK Things can be much more than things. Why do we love the things that we do? The old guitar, the champagne flutes, the miniature model car--and what happens when those objects change hands? In the buying and the selling of things, objects once loved but perhaps discarded or forgotten, we find a treasure trove of untold stories. . . stories of pain, joy, hope, dreams, disappointment. What new purposes might unfold when these objects move from old owners to new? What spiritual, unseen things happen in that ordinary human transaction? Can love be passed on through pre-owned possessions? New York Times bestselling author Nikki Grimes invites us to discover what her grandmother taught her--how there is value in the old and used, and how things are much more than things--they are stories of our humanity. Wise, thoughtful, and unsparingly candid, this unique and moving collection of stories-as-verse helps us on our journeys of letting go, rediscovering purpose, and experiencing redemption and renewal for the worn out and broken places in our hearts. Step in, look around, have a listen, and be twice blessed. ABOUT THE AUTHOR New York Times bestselling author Nikki Grimes was inducted into the Black Authors Hall of Fame in 2023. Her honors include the CSK Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, the ALAN Award for significant contributions to young adult literature, the Children's Literature Legacy Medal, and the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Author of the Coretta Scott King Award-Winner Bronx Masquerade, and five Coretta Scott King Author Honors, Nikki won the Printz Honor and Sibert Honor for her memoir Ordinary Hazards. Grimes has been featured in the pages of IMAGE Journal of Arts and Religion, World, Today's Christian Woman, Poetry Magazine, Hunger Mountain, and on the Academy of American Poets series, "Poem a Day," among others. Ms. Grimes lives in Corona, California. | Poetry | ||||||||||||
42 | Emilee Hackney | All That's Unseen | ALL THAT'S UNSEEN ABOUT THE BOOK Named a nonfiction book “Everyone Will Be Reading This Summer” by the New York Times “Devastating and hopeful in turn, All That’s Unseen exquisitely captures a complex and contradictory world.” —Jeannette Walls, New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle In her luminous debut, Emilee Hackney offers both a love letter to and a reckoning of the place that made her—a story of losing her faith, finding her way back to her Appalachian home, and discovering what endures Born and raised deep in the hollers of the Appalachian Mountains, Emilee Hackney knew little beyond the ridgelines and coalfields of southwest Virginia. As an eighth-generation Appalachian, her childhood was steeped in the stories of her grandparents—tales of the coal mines’ brutal grip and the way the land, both beautiful and unforgiving, never quite let anyone go. At fourteen, Emilee meets Sam, a senior at her high school, who offers her a glimpse at a promising future together. But as they begin attending services at Deliverance Christian Church as a couple, Emilee is thrust into the radical realm of Pentecostalism. In a culture where marriage at nineteen isn’t uncommon, Emilee is engaged to Sam. Eager to make her relationship work, she embraces the extremist doctrines of the religion, submitting herself fully to God, to Sam, and to a life of repentance. But what she doesn’t yet know is the man she plans to marry is not who he claims to be. Years later, Emilee finds herself isolated from friends, family, and her own sense of truth. Wracked with shame and self-doubt, she reaches a breaking point. On the verge of spiraling out of control, in a stunning act of defiance and hope, she applies to Harvard; against all odds, she is accepted. From the magisterial mountains of Tazewell to the storied halls of Cambridge, Emilee begins the arduous process of reinventing herself and her relationships with her home, faith, and values against the backdrop of the divisive 2016 election. All That’s Unseen is Emilee Hackney’s fiercely honest memoir about spiritual entrapment, hard-won liberation, and the courage to reclaim her voice after she had been taught to stay silent. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Emilee Hackney grew up in the coalfields of southwest Virginia. She graduated from Harvard University with a BA in English and briefly attended Vanderbilt University’s MFA program. All That’s Unseen is her first book. | Autobiography/Memoir | |||||||||||||
43 |  | Jeff Hardin | Coming Into an Inheritance: Poems | COMING INTO AN INHERITANCE: POEMS ABOUT THE BOOK Jeff Hardin's eighth collection, Coming into an Inheritance, explores how tenderness, gratitude, mercy, and even grace might still inform people's shared sense of the world. Hardin argues that by imagining voices not our own, we might find ourselves called to another language, one aware of its omissions, one able to believe toward some day farther on when we'll find that hoped-for, promised inheritance-fellowship, awe, intimacy-abounds everywhere already within reach. ABOUT THE AUTHOR | Poetry | ||||||||||||
44 |  | Kristy Woodson Harvey | Falling for Peachtree Bluff: A Novel | FALLING FOR PEACHTREE BLUFF: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK Welcome to Peachtree Bluff: a sweet, cozy small town where family is everything. The “go-to for elevated beach reads,” (People), Kristy Woodson Harvey, returns just in time for pumpkin spice season. The air is crisper, the water is calmer, but, when it comes to the Murphy family, nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems. Youngest sister Emerson is busy planning her dream wedding to Kyle. But her difficulty expanding her family is overshadowing her joy. Pregnant middle sister Sloane and her husband Adam’s dream house has turned into a nightmare. Everything is over time, over budget, and Sloane is over it. Eldest sister Caroline, as always, is there to swoop in and get her sisters’ lives under control. Until her focus is more than a little shifted by Emerson’s hunky costar who manages to sweep her right off her feet—just as her not-quite-ex-husband decides it’s high time he begged Caroline for a second chance. Matriarch Ansley and her new husband Jack have finally hit their stride. But when a scandal that would affect every single Peachtree Bluff citizen comes to light—and it seems like Jack just might be at the center of it—Ansley questions whether he is actually the man she thought he was. Through it all, these women must rely on their powerful family bonds, and the quirky characters and small-town charm of the place that, no matter what, always calls them home. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kristy Woodson Harvey is the New York Times , USA TODAY , and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of fourteen novels, including Summer State of Mind, Beach House Rules , and the Peachtree Bluff series. Many of her novels are in stages of option or development for film and television. She has been featured on Good Morning America, in Southern Living , Cosmopolitan, People , and many others. Kristy is the winner of the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing and a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, and her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Parade , Traditional Home , USA TODAY , Country Living , and many more. Kristy is the cocreator and cohost of the hit weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction with fellow New York Times bestselling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, and Patti Callahan Henry. She is also the cofounder of the award-winning interiors site Design Chic, with her mom, Beth Woodson. She lives on the North Carolina coast with her husband, son, and dog, Salt, where she is (always!) working on her next novel. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
45 |  | David Haskell | How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature's Revolutionaries | HOW FLOWERS MADE OUR WORLD: THE STORY OF NATURE'S REVOLUTIONARIES ABOUT THE BOOK We live on a floral planet, yet flowers don’t get the credit they deserve. We admire them for their aesthetics, not their power. In this exquisite exploration of the role flowers played in creating the world we know today, David George Haskell observes, smells, and studies flowers such as magnolias, orchids, and roses, as well as fascinating but less celebrated flowers such as seagrasses and tea to show us what we’ve been missing. Flowers are beautiful revolutionaries. When they evolved, they remade the natural world: Gorgeous petals and alluring aromas transformed former enemies into cooperative partners. Flowers reinvented plant sexuality and motherhood, bringing male and female together in the same flower and amply provisioning seeds and fruits, innovations that also feed legions of animals, ourselves included. Through radical genetic flexibility, flowers turned past environmental upheavals into opportunities for renewal. This inventiveness allowed them to build and sustain rainforests, savannahs, prairies, and even ocean shores. Without flowers, human beings would not exist. We are a floral species. Flowers catalyzed our evolution, and we now depend on them for food and a healthy planet. When we perfume ourselves, give a loved one a bouquet, or use blooms in gardens and religious ceremonies, we honor the special bond between people and flowers. The study of flowers also shaped modern science and horticulture in ways both marvelous and, sometimes, unjust. Looking to the future, flowers offer us lessons on resilience and creativity in the face of rapid environmental change. We need floral creativity, beauty, and joy more than ever. How Flowers Made Our World combines lyrical writing, sensual exploration, and the latest in scientific research to explore some of the most consequential life forms ever to have evolved, showing how our planet came to be and how it thrives today. ABOUT THE AUTHOR David George Haskell is a biologist acclaimed for his lyrical explorations of the living world. His books have twice been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction, in 2012 for The Forest Unseen and in 2022 for Sounds Wild and Broken . His 2017 book, The Songs of Trees , won the John Burroughs Medal. Other literary honors include a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a two-time finalist for the PEN / E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and winner of the Acoustical Society of America’s Science Communication Award, the National Academies’ Best Book Award, the Iris Book Award, the Reed Environmental Writing Award, and the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature. He is a fellow of the Linnean Society of London, a Guggenheim fellow, and adjunct professor of environmental sciences at Emory University. He was previously William R. Kenan Jr. Professor at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Haskell lives in Atlanta, Georgia. | Nature | ||||||||||||
46 |  | M.J. Hastings | Firstborn: A Novel | FIRSTBORN: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK In this epic dystopian romantasy, one eldest daughter must fight for her survival in a world where birth order determines your fate—and defiance comes at a deadly cost. The first children take up arms. The second children take up books. The third children are taken. The Long Night is the final trial for Firstborn soldiers, and Bryn Ruelle must prove she can take a life—or face immediate exile. If she survives, she’ll graduate to defending the country’s borders against their magic-wielding neighbors. Bryn has never made a kill before tonight. By dawn, someone will be dead by her hands. But when Bryn discovers a plot to kidnap the Lastborn, she must discern if the threat to her youngest sister is real, or merely a ruse to throw Bryn off her game. Her search for the truth forces her to work side-by-side with an alluring traitor-born enemy. As adrenaline and rage ignite a dangerous desire she refuses to name, Bryn must choose: her country, or her family? Her siblings, or herself? A crossover fantasy perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and Fourth Wing. ABOUT THE AUTHOR M. J. Hastings is the oldest (and bossiest) of five sisters, which explains how she grew up to become an attorney, one who refused to have the imagination beaten out of her. She graduated from law school with honors and went on to serve as a federal law clerk and practice complex civil litigation. Her greatest education, however, was her childhood in rural Kentucky, which left an indelible mark on her life and her writing. M.J. lives in Louisville with her family. Firstborn is her debut novel. | Young Adult | ||||||||||||
47 |  | Christopher Hebert | Delivery: A Novel | DELIVERY: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK July 30th, 1993. Gabe's life has blown off course. A high school baseball star on the verge of greatness, he finds his confidence shaken by a lingering minor injury. Instead of spending his summer training and waiting for legions of scouts to usher him to the major leagues, he retreats-- baffling his coach, his teammates, and his long-suffering girlfriend by taking an unlikely job as a pizza delivery boy. He spends the sweltering summer days navigating the labyrinth of streets that make up his hometown, surrounded by quirky customers and the cryptic wisdom of Lena, a seasoned delivery driver who communicates through a custom CB radio. But with every pizza Gabe delivers, he feels the weight of the world's expectations loom ever larger. On the eve of an important tournament, with summer coming to an end and his future bearing down, Gabe finds himself drawn into a frantic and decisive night-- one that will force him to finally answer the question: what will he do with his life? ABOUT THE AUTHOR Christopher Hebert is the author of the novels Delivery (Regal), Angels of Detroit (Bloomsbury), and The Boiling Season (HarperCollins). He lives in Knoxville, TN, where he is Associate Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at the University of Tennessee. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
48 |  | Eric Hendrikx | Motorcycle Life | MOTORCYCLE LIFE ABOUT THE BOOK More than 100 riders from around the world reveal how motorcycles shape their lives, identities, and sense of freedom in this visually rich exploration of modern motorcycle culture. Foreword by Norman Reedus Introduction by Mike Wolfe Motorcycles aren't just machines--they're a way of seeing the world. In Motorcycle Life, author and journalist Eric Hendrikx brings together more than 100 riders from across the globe in a visually rich exploration of what draws people to two wheels--and why they never leave. Through intimate interviews and striking photography, the book captures a wide spectrum of voices, from actors and builders to racers, designers, and everyday riders. Featuring stories from Keanu Reeves, Jason Momoa, Tommy Flanagan, Carey Hart, and Steve Caballero, each interview reveals something deeper: how riding becomes a tool for freedom, a response to grief, a path to independence, or a lifelong obsession. Some found motorcycles as children. Others came to them later, searching for something they couldn't name. All of them discovered the same truth--that riding strips life down to something more immediate, more honest, and more real. Part cultural document, part visual journey, Motorcycle Life is a celebration of the people behind the handlebars--and the shared human need for movement, connection, and meaning. Eric Hendrikx is donating 100% of his pre-order royalties to the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride in support of Movember, funding critical programs in men's mental health and prostate cancer research. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Eric Hendrikx is a journalist, author, and lifelong motorcyclist. He regularly contributes to Rolling Stone , Men's Journal , and Robb Report , and his work explores the intersection of adventure, resilience, and rebel culture. As a rider, Hendrikx has carved through switchbacks in Switzerland, hugged the coastlines of California, and led the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride in California and Toronto--where he's raised more than $100,000 for men's health programs. He's shared the throttle and stories with legends like Jason Momoa and Keanu Reeves. He is the co-author of Zakk Wylde's best-selling autobiography Bringing Metal to the Children . Hendrikx serves as Creative Director at NKPR, a leading North American PR and digital agency, based in Toronto. | General Nonfiction | ||||||||||||
49 |  | C.L. Herman | A Destiny So Cruel | A DESTINY SO CRUEL ABOUT THE BOOK After a millennium, Summer’s reign over Alderland has ended. Now it is Winter magicians and their Living Wands who lead the country, and it is Summer’s brutal storms and deadly monsters the nation fears. All thanks to Ellery Caldwell, the Chosen One who thwarted the cataclysm—by slaying Domenic Barrow, the boy she loved. Not that Alderland knows that. As far as the public is concerned, Ellery was their lone hero, and Domenic a failure. Yet rather than celebrate her victory, Ellery has spent the past four months shut away in mourning. Until Domenic is mysteriously resurrected on the first day of Summer. Immediately, he and Ellery both are given a new prophecy to repeat their duel, or this time, it will be Summer’s cataclysm that destroys Alderland. Except not even their duel to the death has erased Ellery and Domenic’s feelings for each other—only complicated them. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re destined enemies. Yet what if destiny isn’t actually all-powerful? And if so, what price are they willing to pay for a happy ending? ABOUT THE AUTHOR C. L. Herman is the New York Times , USA Today , and indie bestselling author of atmospheric, magical novels, including the All of Us Villains duology, The Devouring Gray duology, and The Drowning Summer . Currently, they reside in Massachusetts with their partner and cat. To learn more, follow them on Instagram or visit their website. | Young Adult | ||||||||||||
50 |  | Josiah Hesse | One Fire for God: Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right | ONE FIRE FOR GOD: FEAR, SHAME, POVERTY, AND THE MAKING OF THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT ABOUT THE BOOK One part Educated, one part rebuttal to Hillbilly Elegy, On Fire for God explores the ways evangelical Christianity has preyed upon its followers while galvanizing them into the political force known today as the Christian right. “Of all the books I've read about young people devastated by the fundamentalist religion they've grown up with, this one stands out.”— Frances FitzGerald, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Evangelicals Exvangelical journalist Josiah Hesse grew up in the stifling working-class town of Mason City, Iowa, raised in the institutions of fundamentalist Christianity: a toxic mixture of schools, ministries, and religious camps that taught creationism, instilled sexual shame, and foretold horrific tales of the rapture. In the churches where he worshipped, pastors siphoned their flocks’ wealth while preaching a doctrine of prosperity. Meanwhile, as economic struggles grew in the community, Hesse's fellow believers lambasted organized labor and shunned the social safety net, becoming an army for God against the evils of progressivism. Only upon escaping Iowa in search of something more would he consider the possibility that the world wasn’t about to end and that he was woefully unprepared for a future he’d never believed would arrive. Written in vivid prose, On Fire for God is both an unflinching memoir of religious trauma and survival and a stirring examination of the emotional, political, and sociological effects of the Christian right. Returning to his hometown in search of answers about his upbringing and the political forces at work in the region, Hesse calls into question prevailing theories about the disappearing working class that point to opioids, automation, or globalism as the culprits. His story of awakening and escape exposes how conservative Christian con men have, over generations, trapped working-class believers in an isolated bubble of racism, xenophobia, and self-imposed martyrdom, while stripping communities like his of their wealth and self-esteem. In On Fire for God, Hesse plumbs the depths of his own experience to illuminate, with deep feeling and piercing immediacy, what he describes as the socioeconomic tragedy of the American working class. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Josiah Hesse , author of Runner’s High and the Carnality series , is a freelance journalist out of Denver, Colorado, covering everything from politics, science, and crime, to art, pop culture, and evangelical culture and theology. A regular contributor to The Guardian and Vice , his work has appeared in Esquire, Newsweek, Men's Health, and Politico , among other publications. | Autobiography/Memoir | ||||||||||||
51 |  | Kem Hinton | Nether Land: High School Temptation, Insurance Haze, Stolen Resolution, and | NETHER LAND: HIGH SCHOOL TEMPTATION, INSURANCE HAZE, STOLEN RESOLUTION, AND ABOUT THE BOOK After the shocking murder of Ed Netherland at a secluded location in the Virgin Islands, award-winning author and architect Kem Hinton is stunned and confused by a mysterious occurrence at the funeral of his former classmate. Given a haunting challenge, he embarks on a decade-long investigation into the lifetime exploits of this ingenious person. After their shared time in high school and college, Kem uncovers a fascinating yet bizarre tangled web of toxic waste endeavors, controversial life insurance techniques, enticing investment schemes, the accumulation of enormous wealth, and then great loss ... any one of which may have contributed to the wildly-ambitious Netherland's death in paradise.Author and renowned architect Kem Hinton tells the story with a quick wit and an entertaining style that chronicles not only Netherland's life but also what it was like to grow up in Tennessee in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Filled with anecdotes and photos, Nether Land is a spell-binding page-turner that will keep the reader mesmerized and awake at night pondering the still unsolved crime and its darkest questions. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kem Hinton is an architect, urban designer, visual artist, historian, and author. He was born in Nashville, raised in nearby Murfreesboro, and holds degrees from the University of Tennessee, University of Pennsylvania, and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He was founding partner with Seab Tuck of Tuck-Hinton Architects (1984-2019). Their firm's architectural work received state, regional, and national awards, and their buildings have been publicized in prestigious international design journals of Italy, France, Germany, and Japan. Kem is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, served on the Tennessee Historical Commission (2020-2024), and recipient of the AIA Tennessee "William Strickland Lifetime Achievement Award." He is now studio director of Kem Hinton Design. | General Nonfiction | ||||||||||||
52 | Kim Holderness | Get it Done and Have Fun! ADHD Hacks for Awesome Kids | GET IT DONE AND HAVE FUN! ADHD HACKS FOR AWESOME KIDS ABOUT THE BOOK From the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling authors of All You Can Be with ADHD comes a vibrant and dynamic picture book jam-packed with creative solutions to everyday tasks, empowering young readers to utilize the ingenuity and spark that comes with thinking differently. Hi there! I'm Squeaky McGee. I am a squirrel who has ADHD. Maybe you have a brain that's like mine? I love an adventure all of the time! But do chores get you down--do you find them a bore? Like brushing your teeth or mopping the floor? I'll help you do them! I've got your back! There's this new thing, I call it a HACK. Written in playful rhyme and filled with humor, this engaging picture book will help all young readers successfully tackle that boring list of household to-do's that challenge us all! ABOUT THE AUTHOR Penn and Kim Holderness are the New York Times bestselling authors of All You Can Be with ADHD and ADHD Is Awesome, social media creators, award-winning podcasters, game creators, and winners of The Amazing Race. Their viral videos have garnered over three billion views and have been featured on Good Morning America, the Today show, Fox News Channel, and CNN. Penn and Kim live in Raleigh, North Carolina, with their children, Lola and PC, and their dog, Sunny. They invite you to visit them online at theholdernessfamily.com. | Children's | |||||||||||||
53 | Penn Holderness | Get it Done and Have Fun! ADHD Hacks for Awesome Kids | GET IT DONE AND HAVE FUN! ADHD HACKS FOR AWESOME KIDS ABOUT THE BOOK From the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling authors of All You Can Be with ADHD comes a vibrant and dynamic picture book jam-packed with creative solutions to everyday tasks, empowering young readers to utilize the ingenuity and spark that comes with thinking differently. Hi there! I'm Squeaky McGee. I am a squirrel who has ADHD. Maybe you have a brain that's like mine? I love an adventure all of the time! But do chores get you down--do you find them a bore? Like brushing your teeth or mopping the floor? I'll help you do them! I've got your back! There's this new thing, I call it a HACK. Written in playful rhyme and filled with humor, this engaging picture book will help all young readers successfully tackle that boring list of household to-do's that challenge us all! ABOUT THE AUTHOR Penn and Kim Holderness are the New York Times bestselling authors of All You Can Be with ADHD and ADHD Is Awesome, social media creators, award-winning podcasters, game creators, and winners of The Amazing Race. Their viral videos have garnered over three billion views and have been featured on Good Morning America, the Today show, Fox News Channel, and CNN. Penn and Kim live in Raleigh, North Carolina, with their children, Lola and PC, and their dog, Sunny. They invite you to visit them online at theholdernessfamily.com. | Children's | |||||||||||||
54 |  | Silas House | The Tulip Poplars: A Novel | THE TULIP POPLARS: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK Amos and Tom fall in love while working in the tobacco fields during the hot summers of the early 1900s, yet Tom cannot shake his strict religious upbringing nor the responsibilities of his family's farm. His longtime friend Maeve also pines for a man she can't have, lest she endanger his already tenuous life in a town and world shaped by racial lines. How do you live a life that feels untrue, and at what point do you risk everything? The Tulip Poplars is a gorgeous and moving novel spanning most of the 20th century, centering on four people trying to find happiness in a world that demands conventional choices. House tells a deeply intimate story of faith and doubt, race and class, sexual desire and the longing to be good when you've been taught that you are evil for loving who you love. Based on the story of an ancestor, House's new novel takes us from NYC to Southern cities to Appalachia and will leave you with a bigger heart. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Silas House was a finalist for a 2024 Grammy Award, winner of the 2022 Duggins Prize, and is a two-time winner of the Southern Book Prize. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Time, the New York Times, the Advocate, Time, Garden & Gun , and other publications. He teaches at Berea College and at the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Creative Writing. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
55 |  | Benjamin Houston | Expelled: James Lawson Jr. and Vanderbilt University | EXPELLED: JAMES LAWSON JR. AND VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY ABOUT THE BOOK In February 1960, as lunch counter sit-ins began in Southern cities, national attention focused on Nashville, where demonstrations were carried out by an unusually organized and disciplined group of students tutored extensively in nonviolent direct action. Their mentor was Reverend James Lawson, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University Divinity School with longstanding nonviolent credentials. His workshops with Nashville students, exploring Gandhian style philosophies and tactics, had predated the famed Greensboro sit-ins. As demonstrations continued in Nashville and successive sit-ins saw violence erupt downtown, local Black ministers demanded an audience with Mayor Ben West. At this meeting, an exchange occurred that was misconstrued by subsequent newspaper reportage. Shortly thereafter, Lawson was summarily expelled from Vanderbilt, one semester shy of graduating. Lawson's ouster triggered a wave of repercussions and headlines. After extended negotiations with their superiors were rebuffed, a large contingent of Divinity School faculty resigned en masse. Simmering dissension between the university's professors, Board of Trust, and administrators kept the crisis ongoing. Sustained criticism of Vanderbilt both within the city and nationally made for a turbulent situation as Lawson's expulsion came to symbolize profound tensions about civil rights and racial justice. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Benjamin Houston is a senior lecturer in the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. His specializations include twentieth-century US history, the Black freedom struggle, and oral history. He is the author of The Nashville Way: Racial Etiquette and the Struggle for Social Justice in a Southern City . | History | ||||||||||||
56 | Greg Howard | The Travelers | THE TRAVELERS ABOUT THE BOOK When twelve-year-old Ben Turner’s mom unexpectedly passes away, he's forced into the care of the only living relative he has left—a grandmother he’s never met who lives in a place he’s never been. Rutledge, South Carolina is worlds from bustling Nashville. Upon arriving at his grandmother's house, Ben is dumbfounded by the large, stone and brick building that greets him. Clifton House appears far more haunted mansion than house and Ben can’t get over the fact that this is where his mom grew up. Inside, Ben is surprised to see clocks—clocks of all shapes and sizes on the walls, mantels and tables. What’s even more surprising, is that none of the clocks tell the correct time and some even seem to be moving backwards. Before Ben can ask too many questions, his stern grandmother tells him there are two rules that must be followed at Clifton House: never touch the clocks and never go up to the third floor. But on his very first night, Ben hears footsteps and hushed whispers—all seeming to come from the third floor. Soon Ben begins to suspect there’s something more to Clifton House than broken clocks and dusty old furniture. Is it poltergeists? Hidden passageways? Or something to do with the very fabric of time itself? With the help of two new friends, Ollie and Ash, Ben embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of Clifton House and quickly finds himself in a race against time to save his family and possibly even himself. Edgar-nominated Greg Howard returns with a heartening, twisty mystery that is also a profound journey of loss and healing. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Born and raised in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Greg Howard's love of words and story blossomed at a young age. Greg writes young adult and middle grade novels focusing on LGBTQ characters and issues. He currently resides in Nashville with his three rescued fur babies—Molly, Toby, and Riley. | Middle Grade | |||||||||||||
57 | Molly Irani | Service Ready: A Story of Love, Restaurants, and the Power of Hospitality | SERVICE READY: A STORY OF LOVE, RESTAURANTS, AND THE POWER OF HOSPITALITY ABOUT THE BOOK Molly Irani, the visionary cofounder of the James Beard Award–winning restaurant Chai Pani, shares her passion for hospitality and story of building a thriving business that puts people first. Growing up with parents who owned a restaurant, Molly understood the power of service but also had a keen understanding of the industry’s challenges. When her husband Meherwan wanted to open a restaurant that would serve the Indian street food of his childhood, Molly thought he was nuts. And yet, the couple turned this unlikely dream into a vibrant reality. Chai Pani would eventually win the James Beard Award for Most Outstanding Restaurant in America, and be named one of 50 Favorite Restaurants in America by The New York Times, and one of Southern Living’s 20 Friendliest Places in the South. In Service Ready, Molly takes readers on their inspiring journey to the heights of culinary and professional success. While she and her husband learned their way into running a restaurant, Molly created a groundbreaking work culture with industry-leading retention rates. They have fostered a loyal team and legions of fans, and have since launched multiple Chai Pani locations, the fast-growing spin-off, Botiwalla, and the popular spice business, Spicewalla. Molly shares the ten core principles that have shaped their path, offering essential lessons for any industry. She opens up about the challenges and rewards of being business partners with your life partner and shares how she and Meherwan learned to merge their strengths in order to thrive. Her story celebrates the power of female leadership in a traditionally male-dominated field and is a testament to the essential impact these strengths bring to businesses. As she reflects on navigating a recession, a global pandemic, and the devastating floods in Asheville, she explores resilience, innovation, and how to create a strong culture in any workplace. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Molly Irani is the cofounder and Chief Culture Officer of the James Beard Award–winning Chai Pani Restaurant Group in Asheville, North Carolina. She is responsible for the business’s groundbreaking culture, management style, community engagement, and “mindblasting” hospitality. She lives in Asheville with her husband and business partner, Meherwan Irani, where they raised their daughter, Aria, and her siblings (a.k.a. two goldendoodles). | Cookbook | |||||||||||||
58 |  | Sadeqa Johnson | Keeper of Lost Children: A Novel | KEEPER OF LOST CHILDREN: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK n this new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The House of Eve, one American woman’s vision in post WWII Germany will tie together three people in an unexpected way. Ethel Gathers, the proud wife of an American Officer, is living in Occupied Germany in the 1950s. After discovering a local orphanage filled with the abandoned mixed-race children of German women and Black American GI’s, Ethel feels compelled to help find these children homes. Philadelphia born Ozzie Phillips volunteers for the recently desegregated army in 1948, eager to make his mark in the world. While serving in Manheim, Germany, he meets a local woman, Jelka, and the two embark on a relationship that will impact their lives forever. In 1965 Maryland, Sophia Clark is given an opportunity to attend a prestigious all white boarding school and escape her heartless parents. While at the school, she discovers a secret that upends her world and sends her on a quest to unravel her own identity. Toggling between the lives of these three individuals, Keeper of Lost Children explores how one woman’s vision will change the course of countless lives, and demonstrates that love in its myriad of forms—familial, parental, and forbidden, even love of self—can be transcendent. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sadeqa Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels. Her most recent novel, The House of Eve , was an instant New York Times bestseller, Reese’s Book Club selection, NAACP Image Award nominee, and Goodreads Choice award finalist. Her previous novel, Yellow Wife , was the Library of Virginia’s Literary People’s Choice Award winner, Goodreads Choice Award finalist, Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy finalist, and a BCALA Literary Award honoree. Originally from Philadelphia, Sadeqa currently lives near Richmond, Virginia. For more information, go to Sadeqa.net. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
59 |  | Lucas L. Johnson | Remembering Roots: How an American Classic Transformed the World | REMEMBERING ROOTS: HOW AN AMERICAN CLASSIC TRANSFORMED THE WORLD ABOUT THE BOOK "Remembering Roots highlights the indomitability of the human spirit; and reminds us that, like our ancestors, as long as we continue to breathe, there's hope." --LEVAR BURTON, award-winning actor, director, author, and original cast member of Roots Discover how the book and TV miniseries Roots became a cultural phenomenon that has shaped our understanding of heritage, race, identity, and family for fifty years. As we approach the 50th anniversaries of Alex Haley's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Roots (1976) and its landmark television adaptation (1977), journalist and storyteller Lucas L. Johnson II reflects on the enduring legacy of Haley's work through the voices of those it continues to move, including scholars, artists, genealogists, students, and original cast members like LeVar Burton and Ben Vereen. With vivid personal anecdotes, emotional tributes, and probing reflections, Remembering Roots shows how Haley's vision gave birth to a genealogy movement, inspired generations to reclaim their identities, and challenged America to confront its past. From a sixth-grader who became the first lawyer in her family, to a blind musician empowered by his father's retelling of Roots' most iconic scene, Johnson traces the ripple effects of Haley's griot storytelling across time and culture. As debates rage over which histories get told, Remembering Roots boldly asserts the necessity to remember and retell our stories. A call to action, this book reaffirms that storytelling is not just an art--it's a path to healing. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lucas L. Johnson II is a former reporter for the Associated Press, where he worked for more than twenty years mainly covering politics, education, and prison reform. He is the author of Finding the Good and coauthor of Youth Change Agent . Johnson works in higher education and has taught high school and college students. A freelance writer and communications strategist, Johnson lives in Nashville, Tennessee. | General Nonfiction | ||||||||||||
60 | Micaiah Johnson | The Unhaunting: A Novel | THE UNHAUNTING: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK Award-winning author Micaiah Johnson invites you to Abernathy House. A house, itself, is nothing. It’s not a shelter until it is sheltering someone. A house is a housefire, waiting for its match. A house is a ghost story, waiting for its death. At the end of the Civil War, a daughter of the confederacy made what she thought was an innocent wish: to build a house where nothing bad could happen. But peace came at a price, and one hundred and seventy years later Shantell and her friends are about to discover where all that darkness ended up. When Shantell’s best friend, Avery, tells her he has inherited a house big enough to make their dreams of a sanctuary come true, she’s too cautious to be optimistic. A lifetime of loss — her father to the Iraq war, her brother to police violence, and her mother to suicide — has taught her cynicism, and even though Avery swears the house has never experienced a tragedy, she goes along expecting everything from black mold to evil spirits. But not only is the house in better shape than they’d expected, it makes them better Shantell’s anxiety stops flaring up, terminally shallow Avery is suddenly capable of deeper emotions, and Tobias, Avery’s older brother and the contractor for the job, even quits chain smoking. There’s an eeriness to the calm, and it’s almost a relief when they realize they do not walk alone in Abernathy House. If nothing bad has ever happened here, where are all these ghosts coming from? As they dig into the house’s history, Shantell, Avery, and Tobias discover that there’s only one thing worse than a house that’s haunted: a house that desperately wants to be. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Micaiah Johnson is a Carl Brandon and Compton Crook Award-winning author. Her debut novel, The Space Between Worlds, was a Sunday Times Bestseller, a Locus Award finalist, an Editors’ Choice at The New York Times and was named one of best books of 2020 and one of the best science fiction books of the last decade by NPR. Her follow-up novel, Those Beyond the Wall, a timely look at violence during apartheid, was released in March 2024 and has been named as a Best Books of 2024 by NPR, Reactor, Esquire and Lithub. She received her BA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside, and her MFA in fiction from Rutgers University-Camden, and her PhD from Vanderbilt University. | Horror | |||||||||||||
61 |  | Owen Jones | Force of Nature: Understanding Evolution's Deepest Logic -- And Putting it to | FORCE OF NATURE: UNDERSTANDING EVOLUTION'S DEEPEST LOGIC -- AND PUTTING IT TO ABOUT THE BOOK An eye-opening exploration of natural selection’s power and how it can help human society flourish. Most of us learned about natural selection in our school days and remember the basics of how it drives evolution, plus a few of its everyday implications, like the risks of overusing antibiotics. Yet deep misconceptions about evolution and natural selection abound―even, studies show, among medical students and high school biology teachers, not to mention the rest of us. In Force of Nature, professor of law and biology Owen D. Jones reveals how these misunderstandings cost us opportunities, undermine our goals, and even imperil lives―and shows how a deeper understanding of natural selection is far more useful and powerful than we think. Jones argues that natural selection is not merely a historical process that shaped relationships between species in the past, but an underused framework for navigating today’s most pressing challenges. By sharpening our understanding of how natural selection actually operates―its speed, scale, and profound influence on human and animal behavior―we can make better decisions across a wide range of fields. Drawing on examples from medicine, psychology, and artificial intelligence to economics, agriculture, law, and beyond, Force of Nature demonstrates how evolutionary thinking can open new horizons in cancer treatment and space exploration, create faster machines and more agile robots, and even help design more effective and just laws. Along the way, readers tour some of animals’ most remarkable behaviors, such as the archerfish’s prowess at precision-firing missiles of water and geckos’ ability to walk upside-down―on glass. Enlightening and inspiring, Force of Nature invites us to appreciate natural selection as a dynamic force we can better understand―and harness―to build smarter technologies, wiser policies, and a more resilient future. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Owen D. Jones is a professor of law and of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University. The director of the Weaver Program in Law, Brain Sciences, and Behavior, he is the co-author of Brain Science for Lawyers, Judges, and Policymakers . He lives in Nashville. | General Nonfiction | ||||||||||||
62 |  | Blair Kelley | Black Freedom: A Visual History of Juneteenth and Emancipation Days | BLACK FREEDOM: A VISUAL HISTORY OF JUNETEENTH AND EMANCIPATION DAYS ABOUT THE BOOK The first fully illustrated history of Juneteenth and other Emancipation Day celebrations, told through photographs, art, and an engrossing narrative from an award-winning historian. For more than 150 years, Black communities have gathered to honor freedom, resilience, and the ongoing struggle for true liberation. While Juneteenth has recently gained wider recognition, it was one of many Emancipation Day traditions celebrated across the United States. These observances were spaces of joy, remembrance, and resistance--even as the fight for full freedom was unfinished. This volume brings together stirring essays and striking images from Juneteenth and beyond, offering a sweeping portrait of how Black people have created and sustained rituals of remembrance, a testament to the generations who, through celebration and storytelling, demanded that their contributions to the making of America be fully recognized. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Blair LM Kelley is an award-winning author, historian, and scholar of the African American experience. She is also the president and director of the National Humanities Center, the only independent center for advanced study in the world dedicated exclusively to the humanities. Kelley is the author of Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship (2010) which was awarded the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize and Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class (2023), which received the 2024 Brooklyn Library Book Award, the 2024 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Book Award, the 2024 Philip Taft Labor History Prize, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award in History. | History | ||||||||||||
63 | Amy Sarig King | It Came from the Creek | IT CAME FROM THE CREEK ABOUT THE BOOK From the award-winning author of ATTACK OF THE BLACK RECTANGLES, a novel about standing up to bullies -- whether they’re kids or adults. There's something in the water. It smells really bad. It's a strange color. And it's making people sick. Katy and her best friend Joel can tell something is going wrong in their town. They decide to document it, trying to solve the mystery of what's going on. Someone is dumping toxic waste in places it shouldn't go... and even when he's told to stop, he goes ahead and keeps dumping it anyway. Both in school and outside of it, Kate and Joel are learning that bullies do what they do because they think they can get away with it, because they think they're bigger than the rules. There has to be a way to make them stop... but it just might take a whole town coming together in order to do it. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Amy Sarig King is the author of the middle-grade novels Me and Marvin Gardens, The Year We Fell from Space, and Attack of the Black Rectangles. She has also published many critically acclaimed young adult novels under the name A. S. King, including Please Ignore Vera Dietz, which was named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book; Ask the Passengers, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Michael L. Printz Award winner and LA Times Book Prize finalist Dig; and the collection The Collectors, which also won the Michael L. Printz Award. After many years farming abroad, she now lives back in southeastern Pennsylvania with her family. Visit her website at www.as-king.com. | Middle Grade | |||||||||||||
64 |  | Christina Baker Kline | The Foursome: A Novel | THE FOURSOME: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK From #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline comes a boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in nineteenth-century North Carolina — Kline’s own distant relatives — who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam. When Eng and Chang Bunker arrive in Wilkes County in 1839, they’re not just a curiosity—they’re a sensation. Everyone is eager to learn whether the salacious rumors about them are true. Within months, the twins have opened a general store, bought land, and begun building a plantation. Now, word has it, they’re looking for wives—and in a place that thrives on gossip and legacy, their ambitions set the community on edge. Sarah and Adelaide Yates, daughters of a once-prominent local family brought low by scandal, are drawn into their orbit. Bold, beautiful Adelaide sees in the twins’ fame a chance to reclaim her future. Sarah, quiet and observant, isn’t so sure. When the twins’ lives become entangled with theirs, they must navigate loyalty, longing, and identity in a world where everything—including race, class, and gender—is rigidly defined. Spanning five decades and unfolding against the backdrop of a fractured nation hurtling toward war, The Foursome is both intimate and epic: a story of love and constraint, identity and reinvention. With piercing insight and emotional precision, Kline brings to life a forgotten chapter of American history and the complex, boundary-defying marriages at its center. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Christina Baker Kline is the author of ten novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Orphan Train , The Exiles , and A Piece of the World . Her novels have received the New England Society Book Award for Fiction, the Maine Literary Award, and several bookseller awards, among other prizes. Born in England, she was raised in the American South and Maine. She lives in New York City and in Southwest Harbor, Maine. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
65 |  | Elizabeth Kostova | Mystery Play: A Novel | MYSTERY PLAY: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK The last living member of a family of historians who has been hunted by dark forces associated with Dracula finds himself in peril at the hands of a new threat in this thrilling novel from the #1 bestselling author of The Historian. After his beloved mother passes away suddenly, Jay Turner finds himself at a crossroads. She was always secretive, and when he returns to their Boston home to clear out her possessions, he finds an unusual item: a partially burned scrap of newspaper bearing the name “Gael Brogan.” Soon after, a deliveryman leaves behind a package containing a small antique volume bound in leather—and two bloody footprints. The sight of the volume is chilling. As a young scholar, his mother had been given the medieval book—one of a set commissioned by Vlad Țepeș, otherwise known as Dracula, just before his death in 1477. She'd always warned Jay of the dangers associated with it, and had donated it to a museum before she died . . . yet here it is, back in his possession. Jay sets out to learn more about Gael Brogan, a prominent nineteenth-century actor whose last and most famous role was based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. As Jay begins to dig deeper—with the help of a mysterious woman named Rhiannon—he uncovers the frightening story of a young actress who fell under Brogan's sway long ago. Before long, Jay and Rhiannon realize that something similarly implacable is pursuing them. In this epic and riveting tale, Elizabeth Kostova takes us deep into the Gilded Age of the theater and across the Atlantic in pursuit of an ancient evil and its dramatic followers. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Elizabeth Kostova is the bestselling author of The Shadow Land , The Historian , and The Swan Thieves . She holds a B.A. in British Studies from Yale University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan, where she won the Hopwood Award for the Novel. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
66 | Grace Lin | The Little Stone Buddha | THE LITTLE STONE BUDDHA ABOUT THE BOOK A gorgeous picture book about a community coming together to build something beautiful, from award-winning and New York Times bestselling author-illustrator Grace Lin. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Grace Lin is the award-winning and bestselling author and illustrator of over thirty books, including A Big Mooncake for Little Star (a Caldecott Honor); A Big Bed for Little Snow; Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (a Newbery Honor); Chinese Menu; The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon; The Year of the Dog; and the Ling & Ting series. Grace lives in Massachusetts and invites you to connect with her at gracelin.com | Children's | |||||||||||||
67 |  | Jeremy Lloyd | Forest Time: Footnotes to an Outdoor Education | FOREST TIME: FOOTNOTES TO AN OUTDOOR EDUCATION ABOUT THE BOOK "With an ear for irony and human folly, Lloyd acts as a trail guide for readers who may have no experience in our national parks while able at the same time to provoke wonder and intrigue in even the most seasoned wilderness explorer." -Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, author of Even As We Breathe In his twenties, broke, brokenhearted, and fearful about the future, Jeremy Lloyd stumbled into a job that would change his life. More than two decades later, still an educator at Tremont in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Lloyd recounts his journey as a teacher and student of the great outdoors in Forest Time: Footnotes to an Education Outdoors. Blending natural history, daring--and sometimes foolish--adventure, and spiritual balm for a world suffering from widespread disconnection from nature, Forest Time is equal parts personal, educational, and existential. Lloyd's stories about his work as an educator at an overnight nature center are filled with humility and conviction, examining his relationships to the forests, mountains, and rivers he calls home. Wrestling with the intersections between the wild natural landscape, high-volume tourism, and the national park system, Lloyd's explorations are born from his extensive experience and personal relationship with the park. His voice and candor are as refreshing and distinctive as the natural environment he writes about, reminding readers that the mountains are not only national treasures but also a remedy for modernity's errors and a cultural malaise fixated on material gain and ultimate safety and comfort. Vulnerable, hilarious, and widely accessible, Forest Time fits appropriately on shelves beside the works of Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard, and Kevin Fedarko. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeremy Lloyd lives with his family in East Tennessee and works at Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. | Nature | ||||||||||||
68 |  | Emily Lordi | Holding Lightning: The Life, Loves, and Art of Whitney Houston | HOLDING LIGHTNING: THE LIFE, LOVES, AND ART OF WHITNEY HOUSTON ABOUT THE BOOK A showstopping portrait of Whitney Houston as we’ve never seen her before—a woman in her full power, a musician who knew the impact of her gift, and a fulcrum of Black celebrity—in this first major biography of the artist who became an icon. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Emily Lordi is a writer, cultural critic, and professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of three books on Black literature and popular music. Lordi is also a writer-at-large for T: The New York Times Style Magazine and a contributor to NewYorker.com, The Washington Post , and others. She lives in Nashville, TN. | Music | ||||||||||||
69 |  | J. Vanessa Lyon | Blackness Thirteen Ways: Art, Life, & The Revisions of a Mulatto Lesbian | BLACKNESS THIRTEEN WAYS: ART, LIFE, & THE REVISIONS OF A MULATTO LESBIAN ABOUT THE BOOK The art historian, poet, and novelist close-reads images, moving and still, canonical and lesser known, that have shaped her evolving identity as an American “Mulatta” lesbian born at the end of the Civil Rights movement in this singular blend of life-writing and cultural studies. The daughter of the WASP mother who raised her and a Black father she has never known, J. Vanessa Lyon delivers a candid memoir across thirteen uniquely structured chapters in conversation with enduring, often damaging, mis/representations of so-called race mixing in fine art and popular media. Reflecting on a lifetime of being “dis-read,” she examines insidious cultural tropes of White passing beginning with art from the era of transatlantic slavery—from Rembrandt and Rubens, Gentileschi and Stubbs, to Manet—before moving on to Br’er Rabbit, Louise Nevelson, 1950s melodrama, and Adrian Piper. Original analysis of a broad chronological range of visual art parallels the unfolding of Lyon’s sense of self as animated by the interiors and geographies—not to mention the challenging and remarkable women—that have figured in her life. Through her investigations, she comes to terms with long-withheld information and the seemingly unalterable reality of being an out lesbian who, legally Black, may never be viewed by Whites or other African Americans in the ways she experiences her own raced and gendered personhood. By turns scholarly and intimate, Blackness Thirteen Ways reveals surprising connections between the art Lyon teaches and the woman she has become, challenging history to accommodate an unapologetic image of herself and other “impassably” Black women. ABOUT THE AUTHOR J. Vanessa Lyon is the author of Figuring Faith and Female Power in the Art of Rubens as well as The Groves , an Audible Original and Lush Lives , an NBC News Best LGBTQ Book of the Year. A James Baldwin Fellow at MacDowell and a Fulbright Scholar, Lyon holds a PhD in the history of art from UC Berkeley. She has received fellowships from the Yale Center for British Art, the Lewis Walpole Library, and the Huntington Library and Art Museum, among others. Her studies have appeared in Art History , Huntington Library Quarterly , Word & Image , Representations , and elsewhere. Lyon is professor of art history at Bennington College, where she has directed the Visual Arts Lecture Series since 2017. She and her cat divide their time between southern Vermont and Santa Fe, New Mexico. | Autobiography/Memoir | ||||||||||||
70 | Kwoya Fagin Maples | Long Eye: Poems | LONG EYE: POEMS ABOUT THE BOOK In Long Eye, Kwoya Fagin Maples brings us a sea-bound collection that channels the mythic, defiant voice of a Black Mermaid. Inspired by Mami Wata, a water spirit of West African folklore, Maples explores the power and divinity of being a Black woman, a mother, a thinker, a protector, and creator. The poems emerge from a neurodivergent mind navigating writing, parenthood, and the Atlantic waters of the South Carolina Lowcountry. The sea and its many creatures serve as guides--for survival, resistance, and transformation. As she explores the intersection of science, poetry, and mythology, Maples also seeks to depict Black familial bonds in societies structured against them. Woven through the book is the voice of the mermaid, reminding us that "every underwater being exists in relation." At turns wonderstruck and irreverent, these poems pulse with human longing. Maples is a poet whose work is both musical and meticulous. Her eye somehow equally trained on the world at large and her own inner workings. The result is an astonishing, immersive experience. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kwoya Fagin Maples is a poet, woodworker and teacher of creative writing. A Charleston, S.C. native, her creative practice spans both literary and visual arts. She is the author of Long Eye, forthcoming from Hub City Press 2026; Mend, (University Press of Kentucky, 2018) and co-editor of I Witness: An Anthology of Documentary Poetry, forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press. Maples's debut collection, Mend, received a 2019 Hurston/Wright Legacy Finalist Award for Poetry. Maples is a graduate Cave Canem Fellow. She lives in Birmingham, AL. | Poetry | |||||||||||||
71 | Alice Martin | Westward Women: A Novel | WESTWARD WOMEN: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK It starts with an itch. In homes across the country, women ages eighteen to thirty-five begin to slow down. Tired. Blank. Restless. Drawn to the Pacific Ocean like it’s calling them home. They abandon their lives—jobs, families, their very selves. And once they reach the West, they vanish forever. At the center of the story are three young women caught in the pull of something unstoppable. Aimee follows the trail of her missing best friend to a man called the Piper—known for leading infected women West. Teenie, afflicted and unraveling, clings to a single memory as she looks out the window of the Piper’s van. And Eve, a former journalist, is chasing the story that might just consume her. Each on the edge of transformation. Drawn toward the unknown. In search of a way forward. ABOUT THE AUTHOR ALICE MARTIN holds a PhD in Literature from Rutgers University. She is an Assistant Professor of English Studies at Western Carolina University, where she teaches fiction writing and American literature. She lives outside of Asheville, North Carolina with her husband, her son, and too many typewriters. Westward Women is her debut novel. | Fiction | |||||||||||||
72 | J. W. Mason | Against Money | AGAINST MONEY ABOUT THE BOOK A powerful deconstruction of humanity’s most influential invention, from the acclaimed economists J. W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev. Money is everywhere in our daily lives. It lurks in the swipe of a card at the grocery store, in looming student-loan debts, in the prices of things we want, and in our subconscious navigation of the modern world. Money is an invisible convenience that saves us, as a society, the hassle of bartering for goods and services—a reflection, in our pockets and on our phones, of the hard facts of scarcity and desire. Or is it something more? In this revelatory book, economists J. W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev explain how and why money is so deeply misunderstood by the world it dominates—as well as the dangerous social implications of this misunderstanding. Against Money tackles the most dearly held “truths” of economics, arguing that the world of money has never been an impartial representation of the world of things. Instead, its existence in different forms—debt, capital, liquidity, and interest—increasingly shapes events in the real world rather than just reflecting them. Sometimes money enables new forms of cooperation; more oftenit facilitates domination. Human existence is not just facilitated by money but also governed by it. In the tradition of works by Thomas Piketty and David Graeber, Against Money is an erudite, disruptive exposé of the illusions and tyrannies of money. Mason and Jayadev present a radically different way of thinking about money—imagining a hopeful future in which it no longer dictates the possibilities of our collective existence. ABOUT THE AUTHOR J. W. Mason is associate professor of economics at John Jay College, City University of New York. He is also a fellow at the Groundwork Collective. | General Nonfiction | |||||||||||||
73 |  | Lydia Mathis | Desperate Bodies: Stories | DESPERATE BODIES: STORIES ABOUT THE BOOK From a ferocious new talent, a debut story collection excavating the desire, humor, and horror in the everyday lives of Black women and girls--for readers of Deesha Philyaw and Kelly Link With a voice that vibrates on the page, Lydia Mathis' debut collection is set in the American South and her sharply drawn, authentic characters shine a light on what we're willing to do to ourselves and to others in service of our desires. The madness in the ordinary rules here: an overworked college safety officer is confronted by a bloody figure who walks into her office; a sex worker runs into a client en route to a parent-teacher conference; a teacher is plagued by a ghost determined to tidy her apartment. Desperate Bodies depicts the fragility, strength, and unruliness of Black women and girls' bodies and the power in being honest about their desires. In unflinching prose, Mathis takes a frank and determined look at what it means to be subjected to imbalances of power through the perspectives of young girls and adult women. With surprising turns and a touch of the supernatural, these stories refuse to look away from the most honest, raw moments of womanhood. Visceral and unyielding, Desperate Bodies is a thrillingly dark ride that introduces Lydia Mathis as a major new writer. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lydia Mathis has an MFA in fiction from New York University. She earned her BA in English Literature with a minor in Classical Civilizations from Agnes Scott College. She has worked as a teacher for Teach for America in Memphis and as a teaching fellow at Coler-Goldwater Hospital in New York City. She is the recipient of A Public Space 's 2023 Editorial Fellowship and is currently an assistant editor at A Public Space . She has stories published in North American Review , Southeast Review , Torch Magazine , Stanchion , Five on the Fifth , and oranges journal . She is based in Atlanta, GA. | Short Story | ||||||||||||
74 |  | Donovan McAbee | Holy the Body: Poems | HOLY THE BODY: POEMS ABOUT THE BOOK Holy the Body wrestles with ghosts and shadows, discovers Mother Teresa in a cinnamon bun in Nashville, Tennessee and Jesus’s tears in a trick of light. At once dark and humorous, these poems confront the religiosity of the US and explore the experience of faithful doubt, as God himself “goes under the knife.” The poems in this manuscript take the reader through the brutalities of the author losing his mother to melanoma and of resuscitating his own father, with “the cracking of sternum beneath my hands.” The collection chisels out a hard-earned language for the sacred, one which proclaims that the beauty we find in the midst of uncertainties is itself a solace that, as one of the final poems in the manuscript affirms, “is more than enough.” ABOUT THE AUTHOR Donovan McAbee is a poet, songwriter, and essayist. His work has appeared in The New York Times, TIME, The Sun, The Poetry Review, Poetry London , and a variety of other places. He grew up in Inman, South Carolina, a small town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in Contemporary Poetry from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Donovan lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and their two children. | Poetry | ||||||||||||
75 |  | Jay McInerney | See You on the Other Side: A Novel | SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK Once again brilliantly combining the lyrical observation of F. Scott Fitzgerald with the laser-bright social satire of Evelyn Waugh, Jay McInerney gives us the stunningly accomplished and profoundly affecting final volume in the tetralogy charting the marriage of Russell and Corrinne Calloway, now in their sixties, against the backdrop of various crises that have bedeviled our society in the past forty years. The celebration of the thirty-fifth wedding anniversary of Russell Calloway’s best friend, Washington Lee—the least likely monogamist of his acquaintance somehow having become over the years a model husband and father—at the Odeon in the Spring of 2020 sparks an at once funny and moving autumnal reckoning with mortality as the specter of the Covid-19 virus spreads. In this moment of unprecedented upheaval—frantic and fraught real-time response, piercing personal and political impact—the Calloways find themselves and their marriage tested in ways they could never have anticipated as fatal consequences ensue. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jay McInerney is the author of eight previous novels, a collection of short stories, and three collections of essays on wine. He lives in New York City and Bridgehampton, New York. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
76 |  | Mindy Merrell | Self-Rising: The Magic Rise Behind Biscuit and Cornbread Culture | SELF-RISING: THE MAGIC RISE BEHIND BISCUIT AND CORNBREAD CULTURE ABOUT THE BOOK Self-Rising: The Magic Rise Behind Biscuit and Cornbread Culture reveals how a combination of simple ingredients sparked a quiet culinary and cultural revolution. Self-rising flour and cornmeal—premixed blends of flour or meal, baking powder, and salt—freed home cooks from the guesswork of from-scratch baking and transformed everyday cooking. Throughout the twentieth century, in times of poverty, segregation, electrification, and sweeping change, few innovations gave women more control over their time and table. Part historical narrative and part cookbook, this flavorful account starts in Tennessee, the “self-rising capital of the world,” and travels across the southern US. The first half of the book explores how self-rising products not only helped reshape the domestic sphere but further influenced society, culture, and industry. Vitamin boosts and flour-sack fashion made self-rising products a southern staple. Radio jingles, blues tunes, and Grand Ole Opry broadcasts spread the word. The second half of the book offers a rich collection of timeless, foolproof recipes built for modern kitchens, including chicken and dumplings, fried pickle chips, chewy brownies, apple crisp, and more. Entertaining and insightful, Self-Rising offers a story about the spirit of southern cooks—a story of nourishment, invention, and resilience. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mindy Merrell is coauthor of Cheater BBQ: Barbecue Anytime, Anywhere, in Any Weather and two Jack Daniel’s cookbooks. She is the 2014 winner of the reality cooking show Chopped, a former columnist for The Tennessean and NFocus, and she has worked with baking brand Martha White. | Cookbook | ||||||||||||
77 |  | Daniel Miller | Buried in the Woods Below: A Novel | BURIED IN THE WOODS BELOW: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK SOME MEMORIES WERE NEVER MEANT TO STAY BURIED. When Charlotte Hoffman's picture-perfect career implodes overnight, she retreats to the one place she swore she'd never return: Big Island, Minnesota. Home to her childhood best friend, Olivia Parker, and the place where her life first fell apart. Eighteen years ago, tragedy struck, and Charlotte's blamed herself for that bloody night ever since. Now she's back, staying with the Parkers in their isolated lakeside home, surrounded by dark woods shrouded in mist and the decaying remains of a long-abandoned amusement park. But something isn't right. The Parkers' young twin girls whisper about ghosts in the trees. Threatening notes appear on doors. An old carousel screams in the wind. And every night the island claims another victim. As Charlotte wades ever-deeper into danger, she can't shake the feeling that someone brought her back to the isolated island for a reason. Someone who wants to finish what was started all those years ago. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Daniel G. Miller is the USA Today bestselling author of The Orphanage by the Lake and The Tree of Knowledge thriller series. When he's not writing, he enjoys sipping sunset cocktails with his wife, watching NBA basketball, and singing off-key to his newborn son, not necessarily in that order. He currently lives in Delray Beach, Florida. He loves hearing from readers, so feel free to drop him an email anytime. | Mystery/Thriller | ||||||||||||
78 |  | Jason Miller | Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood: Nina Simone, Langston Hughes, and the Birth of | DON'T LET ME BE MISUNDERSTOOD: NINA SIMONE, LANGSTON HUGHES, AND THE BIRTH OF ABOUT THE BOOK Description On March 24, 1965, Nina Simone performed at a rally for twenty-five thousand people on the last night of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march. Though luminaries like Martin Luther King Jr., Mahalia Jackson, and Dick Gregory were in attendance, it was Langston Hughes, celebrated poet and leader of the Harlem Renaissance, who was the singer's closest confidant and supporter. They had one of the most important--yet unheralded--friendships of the Black Power era. Simone's performance on that Montgomery night catapulted her into a lead role in the civil rights movement, with Hughes as her guide. In Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, W. Jason Miller offers a riveting history of how their relationship helped spark the birth of Black Power--indeed, the phrase itself, made famous by Stokely Carmichael, was a quote from collaborative lyrics by the two. Hughes gave Simone the fuel to be one of the most politically charged artists of the era, while Simone offered Hughes a way to carry his influence into pop music and shape a national movement. Drawing on new firsthand accounts, Miller takes readers inside one of the most powerful friendships in music and civil rights history. ABOUT THE AUTHOR W. Jason Miller is a Distinguished Professor of English at North Carolina State University. He is the author of several books, including a biography of Langston Hughes, and has been featured on CNN, the BBC, NPR, and The Rachel Maddow Show . | Biography | ||||||||||||
79 |  | T. Minton | The Belcourt Theatre: Nashville's Oldest Neighborhood Cinema | THE BELCOURT THEATRE: NASHVILLE'S OLDEST NEIGHBORHOOD CINEMA ABOUT THE BOOK Since opening as the Hillsboro Theatre in 1925, Nashville’s Belcourt Theatre has hosted vaudeville, live theater, concerts, and films, establishing itself as a cornerstone of local entertainment and serving as an incubator of talent by helping to foster the careers of generations of stage, radio, film, and television professionals, such as Lark Taylor, Madge West Joseph, Delbert Mann, Dinah Shore, and Minnie Pearl. Throughout many decades, it has endured and adapted to industry shifts, including the rise of television and global cinema and the emergence of multi-screen cineplexes. And yet, its story has remained largely untold. Now, T. Minton has penned the definitive history of one of Nashville’s most beloved cultural institutions. ABOUT THE AUTHOR T. Minton is a public historian who is currently serving as the oral historian for the Belcourt Stories Project, a celebration of the theater’s centenary. | History | ||||||||||||
80 |  | Donna Mintz | Stars at Noon | STARS AT NOON ABOUT THE BOOK Weaving essay, memoir, and natural history with biography, Stars at Noon is one artist's pilgrimage through a book and a love letter to its author, James Agee, whose untimely death becomes the thread connecting it all. We begin in the landscape of the American South, from the search for a lost grave on the author's Middle Georgia farm, to the hazy blue mysteries of the Cumberland Plateau in Agee's native Tennessee, and on to the red clay hills of Hale County, Alabama, where one hot summer in 1936, Agee found the subject of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, his 1941 masterwork and collaboration with photographer Walker Evans that would change his life. Through seamless storytelling via wanderings in such disparate settings as The Lightning Field, artist Walter De Maria's 1977 installation on the remote High Plains desert of New Mexico, and the intimate streets of Greenwich Village in New York City, Agee's home for most of his adult life, Stars at Noon delivers a meditation on art and beauty, themes that have informed the author's visual artmaking for more than thirty years, and a paean to time and silence and what is found, and lost, in both. Mintz's ultimate realization of what is knowable and what will forever remain hidden, abiding but invisible as the stars at noon, makes the most personal of journeys, its mysteries and its ultimate destination, into a story of universal meaning. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Donna Mintz is a visual artist whose work is held in public institutions and private collections internationally. Her essays and reviews have appeared in Sculpture magazine, the Sewanee Review, SWING, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution , and the online arts journals Burnaway and ArtsATL. She reside in Atlanta, Georgia. Learn more about her here: https://www.donnajmintz.com/ | Autobiography/Memoir | ||||||||||||
81 |  | Arnold Myint | Family Thai: Bringing the Flavors of Thailand Home | FAMILY THAI: BRINGING THE FLAVORS OF THAILAND HOME ABOUT THE BOOK The James Beard nominee and chef of the Thai restaurant International Market in Nashville, Arnold Myint, shares how to make the Thai food he grew up with in a gorgeous cookbook that's approachable yet packs a punch of flavor. In Family Thai, Arnold breaks down an often-intimidating cuisine into accessible building blocks for every home cook, beginning with pantry staples--what's fish sauce? what are the differences between soy sauces?--and moving on to teaching readers essential skills like how to steam the perfect sticky rice or how to make their own noodles if they can't find them stocked nearby. Arnold also shares what he likes to cook at home and adaptations of Thai cuisine that have been inspired by his hometown of Nashville and his travels around the world. From there, he takes us into the vibrant and colorful world of Thai street food--including shumai, shrimp toast, curry puffs, and more--classic noodle dishes, his own original creations, and, of course, his mother's classic recipes. Longtime fans of International Market, who have been begging for their favorite classic recipes for years, will find them among these pages. Arnold Myint grew up as a restaurant kid and was lucky enough to be surrounded by delicious Thai food. His parents, Thai and Burmese immigrants, first opened Nashville's International Market & Restaurant in 1975--a rarity in Tennessee, where Asian cuisine hadn't quite expanded beyond Americanized Chinese takeout. The Myints were determined to introduce Americans to the fiery, bold, and fragrant Thai flavors that had always brought them comfort, and it turned out that a taste of Thailand was exactly what Nashville needed. Almost 45 years later, after attending culinary school in New York City and working with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Arnold now owns and runs International Market, where he continues to serve the comforting, soul-feeding recipes of his mother while also jazzing things up with his own Thai-Southern flare. During the pandemic, Arnold began reaching out to an all-new audience as well through Instagram, teaching "Thai 101" basics to an ever-growing number of viewers. When Thais greet each other, they don't ask how are you or what's up? Instead, they ask, Kin lao yang? or have you eaten? Feeding people is how Patti and Win Myint--and now Arnold--show their love, not just for their family but for everyone within reach. In Family Thai, Arnold shares his boldly flavorful food and welcoming, heartfelt approach with home cooks everywhere. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Arnold Myint is a James Beard Award-nominated chef, recipe developer, TV personality, cooking content creator, Thai food enthusiast, former competitive figure skater, mixologist, and much more. Myint competed on season 7 of Top Chef , as well as season 11 of Food Network Star . He has cooked in New York and Los Angeles and studied at the Institute of Culinary Education. His real training began during his childhood at International Market & Restaurant, his parents' Thai restaurant that opened in 1975 and remains a mainstay of Nashville's culinary scene under his leadership. He lives in Nashville. | Cookbook | ||||||||||||
82 |  | Emily Nemens | Clutch: A Novel | CLUTCH: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK Five friends, twenty years, one reunion trip. As undergrads, Gregg, Reba, Hillary, Bella, and Carson formed the kind of rare bond that college brochures promise—friendship that lasts a lifetime. Two decades later, the women are spread across the country but remain firmly tethered through their ever-unfurling group chat. They’ve made it through COVID and childbirth and midcareer challenges, but no one can anticipate what’s coming down the pike. The five women converge on Palm Springs for a long overdue reunion: Gregg, who has forged a path as a progressive Texas legislator, is facing a huge decision about her political future. Reba, who moved back to the Bay Area after decades away, is deep in IVF treatments while caring for her aging parents and navigating a San Francisco she hardly recognizes. Hillary's medical career in Chicago is going great—but at home, her husband's struggles with addiction have derailed their life. In New York City, Bella faces the biggest case in her career as a litigator while her home life crumbles around her, and across the river in Brooklyn, Carson is working on a new novel as well as forging a possible relationship with the father she's never met. Twenty years into their shared friendship, the stakes are higher than ever, and they must help one another reconcile professional ambition with personal tumult. Clutch is a big, beautiful, and deeply absorbing novel that asks how much space and heart we can give to our friends and our families, and what space we can save for ourselves. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Emily Nemens’s debut novel, The Cactus League , was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and named one of NPR’s and Lit Hub’s favorite books of 2020. Her stories have appeared in BOMB, The Gettysburg Review , n+1 , and elsewhere; her illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker and in collaboration with Harvey Pekar. Emily spent over a decade editing literary quarterlies, including leading The Paris Review and serving as co-editor and prose editor of The Southern Review . She held the 2022-23 Picador Professorship (University of Leipzig) and teaches in the MFA program at Bennington College. She lives in central New Jersey with her husband and dog. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
83 |  | Aimee Nezhukumatathil | Night Owl: Poems | NIGHT OWL: POEMS ABOUT THE BOOK From the New York Times bestselling author of World of Wonders and Bite by Bite, Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s fifth collection of poetry explores love, nature, and the transformative powers of the night. In her latest poetry collection, Aimee Nezhukumatathil plumbs the depths of nighttime, crafting a series of nocturnes that explore the magic, sensuality, and life that emerge as the rest of the world goes to bed. Night Owl navigates questions and concerns for the environment that envelops us. It meditates on our connections to family and beloveds, and explores our position within the broader beauty of the planet. Just as the night transforms how we see things, love in its many forms shifts our understanding of togetherness and the natural world. And these poems are deeply suffused with love—each an expression of Nezhukumatathil’s captivating responses to the animals, plants, and people who have her heart and enliven her world. Night Owl presents a dazzling vision of nature that celebrates the beautiful noises and silences of this planet, as well as its many complications. Nezhukumatathil provides a singular contribution to writing on the natural world, calling on our sense of love—even in the face of increasing violence to one another and the environment—by focusing on the revolutionary impact of the dark. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the New York Times bestselling author of two illustrated collections of essays: Bite by Bite and World of Wonders , chosen as Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year and as a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She has published four award-winning poetry collections and spent a decade serving as the poetry editor for environmental magazines, first for Orion and then Sierra . A professor of English and creative writing for more than twenty-five years, she gives firefly tours for Mississippi State Parks and lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with her family. | Poetry | ||||||||||||
84 |  | Stephanie Niu | I Would Define the Sun: Poems | I WOULD DEFINE THE SUN: POEMS ABOUT THE BOOK Stephanie Niu’s I Would Define the Sun, awarded the 2024 Vanderbilt University Literary Prize, is a collection of poems that declare the impossibility of defining something as immense as the sun while striving toward that impossible act. In an era of planetary collapse, filled with bushfires, bleached coral, and burnout, Niu explores what love can do even through estrangement, even through being together at the end of the world. Recycling and folding language through duplexes, sestinas, and echoing couplets, this collection moves across great distances to include Christmas Island, Chinese-American immigration, and the precarity and abundance of the sea through formal and lyric poetry. Expansive in scope, Niu refits the world into a size “made for [her] hands, [her] human tongue,” propelling readers into continuous motion as she searches for home. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Stephanie Niu is a poet and writer from Marietta, Georgia. She is the author of the chapbooks Survived By: An Atlas of Disappearance (winner of the 2023 Host Publications Chapbook Prize) and She Has Dreamt Again of Water (winner of the 2021 Diode Editions Chapbook Contest). Her work has appeared in The Georgia Review , The Missouri Review , Literary Hub, Copper Nickel , and Ecotone Magazine , among other publications. She is the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship for research on Christmas Island’s labor history, through which she led youth poetry workshops and published the zine Our Island, Our Future . She lives in Brooklyn, NY. | Poetry | ||||||||||||
85 |  | Lauren Nossett | Indie Darling: A Novel | INDIE DARLING: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK Nashville is a city of two faces, where the glitter often masks the grit. Kelly Williams, a Dolly Parton–loving, sports-car-driving private investigator in Nashville, helps women. Sisters in search of lost siblings. Wives determined to uncover affairs. Daughters haunted by men lingering outside their windows. Clients trust her because she listens, she believes them, and over the years she’s honed a specialized skill set. Her latest client is Sarah Owens, better known as Seraph, the magnetic and polarizing lead singer of the indie sensation The Garden Snakes. After a series of threats turns violent, she hires Kelly to identify her assailant. With feminist anthems, cryptic lyrical easter eggs, and an electrifying stage presence, Seraph has built a fiercely loyal following―and attracted a number of critics. At that level of fame, her attacker could be anyone. Then, in the middle of a Nashville performance, Seraph is shot on stage. The ambulance carrying her disappears. As the city reels and conspiracy theories swirl, Kelly is pulled into a dangerous web of secrets involving Seraph’s bandmates, her troubled past, and the high cost of stardom. Propulsive and atmospheric, Indie Darling is both a page-turning mystery and a powerful meditation on art, obsession, and the perils of being a female artist in a celebrity-obsessed world. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lauren Nossett is a former professor turned novelist with a PhD in German literature. Her debut, The Resemblance , won the ITW Thriller Award for Best First Novel. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee. | Mystery/Thriller | ||||||||||||
86 |  | Keith O'Brien | Heartland: A Forgotten Place, An Impossible Dream, and the Miracle of Larry Bird | HEARTLAND: A FORGOTTEN PLACE, AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM, AND THE MIRACLE OF LARRY BIRD ABOUT THE BOOK Donna Mintz is a visual artist whose work is held in public institutions and private collections internationally. Her essays and reviews have appeared in Sculpture magazine, the Sewanee Review, SWING, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the online arts journals Burnaway and ArtsATL. She reside in Atlanta, Georgia. Learn more about her here: https://www.donnajmintz.com/ ABOUT THE AUTHOR Keith O’Brien is the New York Times bestselling author of Charlie Hustle , Paradise Falls , Fly Girls , and Outside Shot. He has won the 2025 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld award for biography; has been a finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports writing; and has written for The New York Times , The Washington Post , The Boston Globe , The Atlantic , Rolling Stone , NPR, and This American Life . A native of Ohio, he lives in New Hampshire. | Biography | ||||||||||||
87 |  | Alexandra Oliva | The Radiant Dark: A Novel | THE RADIANT DARK: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK It’s March 1980, and Carol Girard and her husband are living an ordinary life in a small town in the Adirondacks. They have just had their first child, and though Carol is struggling with the challenges of new motherhood, her future seems clear. Until something extraordinary happens: an inexplicable flickering of light in the sky, which is ultimately determined to be communication from intelligent life on another planet. But these beings are eleven light-years away, and nothing is known about them other than the fact that they seem to know we exist, too. As humanity reels from a shifting understanding of its place in the universe, we follow the stories of the Girard family: Carol, whose fascination with this other life sparks a desperate search for spiritual meaning; Michael, her loyal son, who finds solace not in the stars above his head but in the ground beneath his feet; and Ro, Carol’s bright and ambitious daughter, whose childhood goal to work in interstellar communication will evolve into something far grander. Tracing five decades of love, loss, ambition, and self-discovery, The Radiant Dark is "Daring and expansive, soul-stirring, and precise, this is a novel about love and belonging.” (Eliana Ramage, author of To the Moon and Back). ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alexandra Oliva is the author of The Last One , her debut which was selected as a Best Book of 2016 by The Seattle Times and was translated into twenty-five languages; and Forget Me Not . She grew up in a tiny town in New York's Adirondack Mountains and received her BA from Yale University and her MFA from The New School. She now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family. | Science Fiction | ||||||||||||
88 |  | Erin Osmon | Won't Back Down Heartland Rock and the Fight for America | WON'T BACK DOWN HEARTLAND ROCK AND THE FIGHT FOR AMERICA ABOUT THE BOOK One of America’s leading music journalists on heartland rock’s glory days and its role in the populist politics of the 1980s. Hear “American Girl” or “Born in the U.S.A.” and, like it or not, chances are you begin to hum along. The soundtrack of grocery stores, pool halls, bowling alleys, flea markets, chain restaurants, drug stores, and political rallies—heartland rock, while beloved by some and derided by others, is inescapable even today. As rollicking as the music it describes, acclaimed music critic Erin Osmon’s Won’t Back Down tells the story of the origins, chart-topping development, and tangled legacy of heartland rock, the music that ruled the airwaves of the 1980s and remains instantly recognizable to millions. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Erin Osmon is a music journalist, critic, and author of books on John Prine and Jason Molina. Her writing appears in the Los Angeles Times , New York Times , Rolling Stone , and others. She won the Deems Taylor/Virgil Thompson Award for album notes in 2023 and several LA Press Club Southern California Journalism awards. She lives in Nashville. | Music | ||||||||||||
89 | Lindsay Owens | Gouged: The End of a Fair Price–and What That Means for Your Wallet | GOUGED: THE END OF A FAIR PRICE–AND WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOUR WALLET ABOUT THE BOOK A searing exposé of the new tools of corporate profiteering and a field guide to the deceptive tactics companies are using to cheat consumers out of their money—and how we can get ahead of them—from a leading voice in economic policy and executive director of a corporate watchdog think tank Everywhere you turn, Americans are getting ripped off: Online ticket sellers hide behind exorbitant extra fees. Landlords use software to band together and organize artificial rent hikes. Ride-sharing apps spike their fares when it rains. And car companies install software that reports your driving behavior to auto insurance companies so that they can hike your premiums. Surveillance pricing, algorithmic price fixing, and other high-tech forms of price gouging are the latest frontiers in corporate profiteering—and they’re gutting the American economy and your wallet. In Gouged, economic expert and veteran consumer advocate Lindsay Owens takes us inside the corporate boardrooms where pricing decisions are made, uncovering the tricks, traps, and grifts corporations use to jack up the price you pay at checkout. From data collection to drone surveillance, modern technology provides companies a staggering arsenal of sophisticated tools to squeeze as much money out of consumers as possible, resulting in record profits. Drawing on original reporting, shareholder meeting transcripts, and rigorous economic analysis, Owens takes aim at Big Tech behemoths, airlines, health insurance companies, and others to pull back the curtain on how price gouging is coming for almost every line item in your household budget, from doctor visits to rent, groceries to diapers, and even your summer vacation. Gouged arms us with the essential knowledge we need to first recognize, and then sidestep, the traps that corporations try to conceal from us. In a world where price gouging has become ubiquitous, Gouged is necessary reading for anyone looking to stay an informed consumer, save money rather than surrender it to greedy CEOs, and stand up for fair prices in America. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lindsay Owens is president and CEO of the Groundwork Collaborative, a leading economic think tank and corporate watchdog in Washington, D.C. A nationally recognized public policy expert, she is widely sought after for media commentary, congressional testimony, and innovative investigative research on corporate malfeasance, financial markets, consumer protection, and affordability. She regularly advises government officials, candidates for elected office, and members of Congress and has served as a senior advisor to lawmakers including Senator Elizabeth Warren. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Rolling Stone, and she frequently contributes to CNN, CNBC, CBS, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Planet Money, and Marketplace. Owens holds a PhD in sociology from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. | General Nonfiction | |||||||||||||
90 |  | Joe Pagetta | The Apostle of Tennessee | THE APOSTLE OF TENNESSEE ABOUT THE BOOK When Nashville became a Catholic diocese in 1837, it was mostly an aspirational exercise. The few Catholics scattered throughout the state were ministered to only occasionally by missionary priests who traveled by horseback from Kentucky. It is believed that Hugh Rogan, who arrived in Middle Tennessee in 1780 after working as a surveyor for the Continental Army, did not see a priest for fifty years. That all changed when the Italian-born Father Aloysius “Luigi” Orengo arrived in Nashville in 1848. He traveled all over the state, sleeping in the woods, using his saddle for a pillow, and eating cheese and crackers. He’s credited with building churches in Franklin, Columbia, Pulaski, East Nashville, Tracy City, Gallatin, Humboldt, Brownsville, Grand Junction, Covington, Jackson, and McEwen. But as influential as he was, Father Orengo’s story remained untold—until now. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joe Pagetta began his career writing for the Jersey Journal in his hometown of Jersey City, New Jersey, and has called Nashville, Tennessee, home for close to thirty years. His personal essays and writings on faith and culture have appeared in America: The Jesuit Review , Ambassador Magazine , Today’s American Catholic , Give Us This Day , Chapter 16 , Tennessee Historical Quarterly , and Tennessee Home & Farm . He currently serves as the director of communications for the Tennessee State Museum. | Biography | ||||||||||||
91 |  | Ann Patchett | Whistler: A Novel | WHISTLER: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK The acclaimed, prize-winning #1 New York Times bestselling writer returns with a moving, luminous novel that reminds us of the sweetness and impermanence of life and the power of connection to defy time. When Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older, white-haired gentleman following them. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who had been married to her mother for a little more than year when Daphne was nine. Now fifty-three, Daphne hasn’t seen Eddie for many years, not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again, time falls away; while their relationship was brief, it had a profound impact on them both, and now that they are reunited, they have no intention of ever being separated again. Whistler is a story about two adults looking back over the choices they made, and the choices that were made for them. It’s a story about bravery, memory, the often small yet consequential moments that define our lives, and the endless stream of loss that in time comes for us all. Beautiful in its simplicity, it is ultimately about how love endures, and how the feeling of being known by one other person, even for a short period of time, can change everything. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ann Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Lake , works of nonfiction, and children's books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner, the Women's Prize for Fiction in the UK, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
92 |  | Lisa Patton | Kissing the Sky: A Novel | KISSING THE SKY: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK From the bestselling author of Whistlin’ Dixie in a Nor’easter comes a soulful, nostalgic novel about a young woman coming of age in the ‘60s to the blare of the music that shaped a generation. It’s the summer of ’69. While her peers revel in free love and rock and roll, Suzannah is home from college, sequestered inside her conservative Southern home. Her domineering father has condemned rock music and driven away her best friend. She’s counting the days until fall. But everything changes when her free-spirited best friend, Livy, resurfaces, urging Suzannah, a talented singer, to join her for three days of peace and music in upstate New York. Fed up with her father’s rules and fearful for her brother’s fate in Vietnam, Suzannah agrees to the road trip, sneaking off without her parents’ knowledge. Miles outside her comfort zone, the electrifying bedlam of Woodstock jolts her into a journey of self-transformation. But it’s not all incense and peppermints. Suzannah’s falling hard for Leon, a boy she meets at the festival, and the seductive bud of first love conceals a thorn of heartache. Lies uncover betrayal, and Livy’s wild behavior leads to a startling revelation. A nostalgic trip through the turbulent ’60s, this is the story of a lovable heroine who lets go of the girl she was to embrace the woman she’s becoming while she learns to lift her voice―for herself and perhaps for the world. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lisa Patton, the bestselling author of five novels, is a Memphis, Tennessee, native who spent time as a Vermont innkeeper until three subzero winters sent her speeding back down to the South. She has over twenty-five years of experience working in theater, radio, TV, and music, including a decade with Doobie Brother Michael McDonald, who, along with his wife Amy, helped Lisa cowrite and produce “If Not for You,” an original song for Kissing the Sky . A graduate of the University of Alabama, Lisa is the proud mother of two sons, eight bonus children, and twelve grandchildren. She and her husband live in the rolling hills of Nashville with their four-legged furry son named Ziggy. To find links to the original song “If Not for You,” please visit Lisa’s website at www.lisapatton.com or go to Amazon Music/Amy Holland “If Not for You.” Connect with Lisa on Instagram, @lisapattonbooks, and on Facebook, Lisa Patton.author. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
93 | Chris Pavone | The Doorman: A Novel | THE DOORMAN: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK Named one of the Best Thrillers and a Notable Book of 2025 by the New York Times A pulse-pounding novel of class, privilege, sex, and murder, from the New York Times bestselling author of Two Nights in Lisbon and The Expats. Chicky Diaz is everyone’s favorite doorman at the Bohemia, the most famous apartment house in the world, home of celebrities, financiers, and New York’s cultural elite. Up in the penthouse, Emily Longworth has the perfect-looking everything, all except her husband, whom she’d quietly loathed even before the recent revelations about where all the money comes from. But his wealth is immense, their prenup is iron-clad, and Emily can’t bring herself to leave him. Yet. And downstairs in 2A, Julian Sonnenberg—who has carved himself a successful niche in the art world, and led a good half-century of a full and satisfying, cosmopolitan life—has just received a devastating phone call that does nothing at all to alleviate his sense that, probably for better and worse, he has aged out and he’s just not that useful to anyone any more. Meanwhile, gathered in the Bohemia’s bowels, the building’s almost entirely Black and Hispanic, working-class staff is taking in the news that that just a few miles uptown, a Black man has been killed by the police, leading to a demonstration, a counterdemonstration, and a long night of violence across the tinderbox city. As Chicky changes into his uniform for tonight’s shift, he finds himself breaking a cardinal rule of the job: tonight, he’ll be carrying a gun, bought only hours earlier, but before he knew of the pandemonium taking over the city. Chicky knows that there’s more going on in his patch of sidewalk in front of the Bohemia than anyone’s aware of. Tonight in the city, enemies will clash, loyalties will be tested, secrets will be revealed—and lives will be lost. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chris Pavone is the author of The Paris Diversion, The Travelers, The Accident, and The Expats. His novels have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal; have won both the Edgar and Anthony awards; are in development for film and television; and have been translated into two dozen languages. Chris grew up in Brooklyn, graduated from Cornell, and worked as a book editor for nearly two decades. He lives in New York City and on the North Fork of Long Island with his family. | Mystery/Thriller | |||||||||||||
94 | Gin Phillips | Ruby Falls: A Novel | RUBY FALLS: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK One body. Five suspects. Total darkness. A tense, claustrophobic historical mystery set almost entirely underground at the onset of the Great Depression about the discovery of a 150-foot waterfall in the middle of a mountain, the unthinkable crime that happens in its caves, and a woman who's never felt more alive. In 1928, a Chattanooga man disappears down a hole in the ground and discovers a 150-foot waterfall in the middle of a mountain that he names after his wife: Ruby Falls. Within months, visitors can buy tickets to see the falls for themselves. Ada Smith has been sneaking into the caves at night, entranced by the natural wonders around her and the freedom granted by this new underground world. But it's tough timing for a natural wonder. As the country flounders in the Great Depression, a shrewd public relations ploy seems like the only way to save Ruby Falls. A famous mind reader and mystic agrees to launch himself into the Ruby Falls caverns where he will attempt to locate a hidden hatpin using only his psychic abilities. He'll be joined by five others: his manager, his wife, a guide, a Chattanooga businessman, and a reporter from the Chicago Times. But they're not alone in the caverns. Ada and another guide, Quinton, have been asked to follow the mind reader's party at a distance, staying out of sight. They are a safety net, in case of a broken leg or busted flashlights. One of them will be dead before the end of the day. Faced with a corpse and the stark reality that one of the people in her midst is a killer, Ada needs to get everyone--the murderer and the innocents--back aboveground before their light runs out. Ruby Falls is both a unique twist on the locked-room mystery and an exploration of loss and what it means to start over. It's a heart-racing story of survival and a testament to the threads that bind strangers together. Set against the true story of the discovery of Ruby Falls, the novel also draws on the memoirs of Katie Stabler, a female guide at Wind Caves in South Dakota. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gin Phillips is the author of seven novels, and her work has been sold in 29 countries. Her debut novel, The Well and the Mine, won the 2009 Barnes & Noble Discover Award. Her novel Fierce Kingdom was named one of the best books of 2017 by Publishers Weekly, NPR, Amazon, and Kirkus Reviews. She's a Tall Poppy Writer, and she currently lives in Birmingham, Al., with her family. | Mystery/Thriller | |||||||||||||
95 |  | Jayne Anne Phillips | Small Town Girls: a writers memoir | SMALL TOWN GIRLS: A WRITERS MEMOIR ABOUT THE BOOK Jayne Anne Phillips grew up in the small town of Buckhannon, West Virginia. The distinctly American landscape of Appalachia—dense with forests and small churches, rich in history and misunderstandings—has been the great setting for her fiction, even as she and her boundless imagination have traveled to other times and places. In these pieces, and in her singular first-person voice, at once intimate and wide-ranging, Phillips brings us into her childhood and family, most movingly her mother. She re-creates the place she calls home, its foundational truths and the densely woven ties between the women of the town. She traces her journeys across the country and her discovery of writing and reading as tools for both survival and revelation, offering insights into the fellow writers and touchstones that moved and influenced her. From the local beauty salon to the legendary Hatfield–McCoy feud, from Jean Shrimpton and Barbara Stanwyck to Stephen Crane and Breece D'J Pancake, Phillips ponders her relationship with inspiration, spirituality, culture, and the troubled annals of the last American centuries. Tender, inviting, sparkling with wisdom and open-heartedness, Small Town Girls is part coming-of-age story, part social history, Jayne Anne Phillips’s most personal, most accessible book yet—a love letter to the place and the people who have shaped her perceptions and her writing. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jayne Anne Phillips is the author of Black Tickets, Machine Dreams, Fast Lanes, Shelter, MotherKind, Lark and Termite, Quiet Dell, and Night Watch, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2024. Her work has been a finalist once for the National Book Award and twice for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The recipient of Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Arts, Howard, Bunting, and Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships, she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Boston and New York. | Autobiography/Memoir | ||||||||||||
96 |  | Megan Piphus | Brave Like a Lion! How a Puppeteer Found Her Voice | BRAVE LIKE A LION! HOW A PUPPETEER FOUND HER VOICE ABOUT THE BOOK In this empowering picture book by a groundbreaking Sesame Street Puppeteer, a shy girl finds her voice with the help of her favorite puppet. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Megan started puppetry and ventriloquism at the age of ten years old and taught herself puppetry and ventriloquism by watching VHS tapes. She spent her teenage years traveling the nation singing and performing ventriloquism at schools and churches. In 2010, she graduated valedictorian of her class at Princeton High School and became known as the “Valedictorian Ventriloquist.” She became the "Vanderbilt Ventriloquist" when she started college at Vanderbilt University, where she studied Economics, Music, and Spanish and graduated with honors. While in college, she appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno as a ventriloquist and in June of 2013, she received yes's from all four judges on America’s Got Talent. After graduation, Megan continued her education and received a Master of Science in Finance from Vanderbilt University. After graduate school, she worked in real estate finance and development, underwriting and closing over $2.4 billion worth of commercial real estate. While working in real estate, she performed on television shows Tu Si Que Vales (Italy), Die Puppenstars (Germany), and Showtime at the Apollo with Steve Harvey, where she received a standing ovation from the Apollo Theater audience. In 2019, in collaboration with the University of Cincinnati, she performed and wrote songs for a TV musical series teaching young children basic financial literacy. Megan won four Emmy awards for best composition and best children’s short from the series. Since 2020, Megan has played the role of Gabrielle, a 6-year old black girl Muppet, on Sesame Street. After training for a year to learn Muppet-style puppetry with the cast of Sesame Street, Megan became the first black female puppeteer to perform on Sesame Street in September of 2021. Since joining Sesame Street, Megan has appeared on the View, the Kelly Clarkson Show, and the Today Show. Megan released her debut children’s album “Spaceships & Dreams” under the group name May & Them Pups in 2023. The album was co-produced by Bootsy Collins, Sir the Baptist, Om’Mas Keith, J. Ivy, Anthony Hamilton and Percy Bady. The album made Apple Music Kids’ Best of 2023 list for children’s music. In 2025, In partnership with Saving Our Daughters, a nonprofit that mentors elementary-aged girls, Megan produced a children’s music album that provided over 60 girls across the U.S. with recording opportunities.The album "Cinderella Sweep" was released in July of 2025. Megan is a mom of two boys - Leo and Tyson. | Children’s | ||||||||||||
97 | Luke Pounder | The Cogsworths | THE COGSWORTHS ABOUT THE BOOK Three mechanically created siblings set out to uncover the truth behind their inventor mother’s disappearance in this whimsical mystery adventure from renowned social media storytellers Tristan Tales and Luke Pounder. Perfect for fans of The Swifts and A Series of Unfortunate Events. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tristan Tales and Luke Pounder met during their very first week at USC film school and have since built a social media following of nearly five million fans. Hailing from San Diego (Tristan) and New Jersey (Luke), they now live in Los Angeles. Tristan and Luke invite you to visit them online at talesvision.com, on Instagram @talesvisiontv, on TikTok @tristantales, and on YouTube @TalesVision. | Middle Grade | |||||||||||||
98 |  | Jimmy Proffitt | Seasoned in Appalachia | SEASONED IN APPALACHIA ABOUT THE BOOK Journey to the heart of Appalachia through soul-satisfying recipes, charming personal stories, and stunning images of its natural beauty. Inspired by home-cooked family meals, Seasoned in Appalachia delivers authentic, flavorful dishes paired with charming anecdotes about family traditions and the magic of the Appalachian region. Author and IACP member Jimmy Proffitt, who grew up and learned to cook at an early age in the Shenandoah Valley, presents an authoritative collection of Appalachian cooking featuring heartwarming recipes for 75 delicious dishes, including: Apple Cinnamon Biscuits Green Tomato Pie Country Ham Sloppy Joes Brown Butter Cornbread Cranberry Orange Pound Cake Belsnickel Cookies Snow Cream and more! Featuring beautiful photographs of the recipes and mountain scenes, this easy-to-use cookbook is your guide to the distinctive cuisine of the Appalachian region. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jimmy Proffitt (@theappalachiantale) is a passionate, self-taught chef and foodie who was born in the Shenandoah Valley and began cooking and writing at the age of fifteen. Proffitt currently works as the Marketing Brand Manager and Historian of The Old Mill in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, one of the oldest continually operating gristmills in the country, where he also compiled four single-subject cookbooks. Proffitt has contributed to Okra , Southern Cast Iron , as well as Taste of the South where he was also given a Taste50 award in 2022. When he's not sharing new recipes on his website, The Appalachian Tale (theappalachiantale.com), Proffitt writes about animal rescue and fundraising efforts. | Cookbook | ||||||||||||
99 |  | Virginia Pye | Marriage and Other Monuments: A Novel | MARRIAGE AND OTHER MONUMENTS: A NOVEL ABOUT THE BOOK In the summer of 2020, social justice protests and the removal of Confederate monuments rock the city of Richmond, Virginia, as the marriages of two estranged sisters implode. When Cynthia's husband, Bobby, can no longer hide his dire financial situation, their union finally ruptures. Melissa, her sister, has dedicated herself so fully to racial justice activism that she becomes alienated from her own Black husband. As the summer heats up and their marriages veer in opposite directions, the sisters have no choice but to turn to one another. Meanwhile, their husbands conspire in a racial reckoning that their ancestors-one old Virginia White, the other old Virginia Black-would never have dreamed of. When secrets within marriage erode trust, all couples must decide what's more important: being true to who they are as individuals or holding on to an illusion of the past. Marriage and Other Monuments is a must-read multigenerational drama set against a tumultuous time of racial tension in the South. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Virginia Pye is the author of four award-winning books of fiction, including two post-colonial historical novels set in China, River of Dust and Dreams of the Red Phoenix, the short story collection, Shelf Life of Happiness, and her previous novel, The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann, a love story to writers and readers set in Gilded Age Boston. Virginia's essays have appeared in The New York Times, Literary Hub, Publishers Weekly, Writer's Digest, and elsewhere. She has taught writing at New York University and the University of Pennsylvania, and, most recently, at Grub Street in Boston. Virginia is the fiction editor of the literary journal Pangyrus, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. | Fiction | ||||||||||||
100 |  | R.B. Quinn | Self-Rising: The Magic Rise Behind Biscuit and Cornbread Culture | SELF-RISING: THE MAGIC RISE BEHIND BISCUIT AND CORNBREAD CULTURE ABOUT THE BOOK Self-Rising: The Magic Rise Behind Biscuit and Cornbread Culture reveals how a combination of simple ingredients sparked a quiet culinary and cultural revolution. Self-rising flour and corn meal―premixed blends of flour or meal, baking powder, and salt―freed home cooks from the guesswork of from-scratch baking and transformed everyday cooking. Throughout the twentieth century, in times of poverty, segregation, and sweeping changes such as electrification, few innovations gave women more control over their time and table. Part historical narrative and part cookbook, this flavorful account starts in Tennessee, the "self-rising capital of the world," and travels across the Southern US. The first half of the book explores how self-rising products not only helped reshape the domestic sphere but further influenced society, culture, and industry. Vitamin boosts and flour-sack fashion made self-rising products a Southern staple. Radio jingles, blues tunes, and Grand Ole Opry broadcasts spread the word. The second half of the book offers a rich collection of timeless, foolproof recipes built for modern kitchens, including chicken and dumplings, fried pickle chips, chewy brownies, apple crisp, and more. Entertaining and insightful, Self-Rising offers a story about the spirit of Southern cooks―a story of nourishment, invention, and resilience. ABOUT THE AUTHOR R.B. Quinn is an attorney, historian, and writer. He is coauthor of Cheater BBQ and a former columnist for The Tennessean and NFocus . | Cookbook |