Books

One hook-up is about to become one seriously hilarious situationship in this vibrant and lively romantic comedy about taking chances . . . and breaking the rules.
 
Prima ballet dancer Lillian Jackson is all about control—on stage and in bed. Which is precisely why she keeps her hook-ups to one night, and one night only. No strings. No phone numbers. No scones in the morning. There’s no room for mistakes, especially now that her dance company’s survival depends entirely on winning a million-dollar cash prize in one of America’s biggest reality competitions. That is, until one night with a certain curvy, blue-haired siren changes everything . . .

As burlesque dancer “Blue Lenox,” Izzy Wells is the queen of on-stage seduction. Almost no one knows that she’s close to losing everything—her theater, her home, and her troupe—unless she wins this competition. Now she’s going toe-to-toe with a gorgeous ballerina in front of the world. The chemistry between them is hot, but even more distracting are the feelings they’re starting to develop. There’s no way Lillian can fit Izzy into her life, and Izzy knows better than to fall for someone who can’t put her first. But if they can make it through the show with their hearts and dreams intact, they just might win the biggest prize of all.

A hero? A villain? Maybe a little of both in this sapphic mistaken identity romance.

Sadie Eagan lives a fairly humdrum life in Vector City. Working at a coffeehouse is much safer than opening her own café. If only the local Superheroes and Villains would stop crashing through windows and driving up insurance rates. Then she meets her hot new neighbor: a fit woman with amber eyes, a disarming smile, and an air of mystery. Obviously, this means she’s one of the city’s Superheroes. And dating a literal hero would break the cycle of being with partners who take advantage of her.

Joan Malone does have a secret identity—only she’s Spark, a notorious Supervillain. Shooting fire has always made people afraid of her. She’s been trying to get out of villainy to open a food truck with her twin brother. When her cute and bubbly neighbor assumes Joan’s a Superhero, well, Joan doesn’t correct her. Sadie is the nice girl Joan has dreamt of being with. Though she hates hiding things from someone who understands wanting a better life.

Joan has to keep some rather inept Villains at bay while getting the Supers off her back. And oh yeah, while proving to Sadie not all bad guys are bad and not all heroes are heroic. Not that Sadie’s paying attention—it’s too exciting hanging out with a Superhero.

Only she’s fallen for the bad girl. Again.

A rift with the other Villains forces Joan to choose what she truly wants. Can she be the goodhearted person Sadie thinks she is?

Unlock the secrets of successful Southern gardening with this comprehensive guide that tackles the unique challenges of growing in the South's distinctive climate. From mastering the region's infamous humidity to understanding soil types and proper drainage, this detailed handbook covers everything you need to know. The book spans 16 information-packed chapters addressing crucial topics like plant selection, soil health, watering techniques, pest management, and garden design. Perfect for newcomers to Southern gardening or experienced gardeners seeking to refine their skills, it provides practical knowledge gained from real-world experience. Learn essential techniques for pruning, propagation, and creating beautiful shade gardens, while discovering how to work with the South's six distinct growing seasons. Whether you're tending a small balcony garden or managing a sprawling country plot, this thorough guide offers tested wisdom to help you cultivate a thriving Southern garden.

By: Marcus Bridgewater (Author), Reggie Brown (Illustrator), 2025, Hardcover

Marcus Bridgewater, also known as the social media sensation Garden Marcus, shows kids the lessons he learned in his grandma's garden when he was growing up.

Grandma's favorite place is her garden. It seems like she could stay there forever! Marcus wants to know why--so they set about exploring it together. From shells protecting seeds (like Marcus's helmet protects his head!) to a small seed eventually growing into something big (also just like Marcus!), there are so many amazing connections to be made in this wonderful place. Day after day, Marcus delights in realizing how much he has in common with the plants--he drinks water every day, too, and he gets haircuts just like the plants get pruned. As his grandma says, there's a whole world to explore in a garden, and Marcus likes thinking about it as a playground for all the snails, birds, bugs, and worms. And one of its many beauties is the bounty they are rewarded with after all the love and care they pour into it!

By: Anna-Maria Mclemore (Author), 2024, Paperback, Remixed Classics, 5

A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST SELECTION

In the Remixed Classics series, authors from marginalized backgrounds reinterpret classic works through their own cultural lens to subvert the overwhelming cishet, white, and male canon. This YA reimagining of The Great Gatsby centers trans love in a cast removed from its cishet white default, finally exploring those longing glances and wistful sighs between Nick and Jay.

New York City, 1922. Nicolás Caraveo, a 17-year-old transgender boy from Wisconsin, has no interest in the city’s glamor. Going to New York is all about establishing himself as a young professional, which could set up his future―and his life as a man―and benefit his family.

Nick rents a small house in West Egg from his 18-year-old cousin, Daisy Fabrega, who lives in fashionable East Egg near her wealthy fiancé, Tom―and Nick is shocked to find that his cousin now goes by Daisy Fay, has erased all signs of her Latine heritage, and now passes seamlessly as white.

Nick’s neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious young man named Jay Gatsby, whose castle-like mansion is the stage for parties so extravagant that they both dazzle and terrify Nick. At one of these parties, Nick learns that the spectacle is all meant to impress a girl from Jay’s past―Daisy. And he learns something else: Jay is also transgender.

As Nick is pulled deeper into the glittery culture of decadence, he spends more time with Jay, aiming to help his new friend reconnect with his lost love. But Nick's feelings grow more complicated when he finds himself falling hard for Jay's openness, idealism, and unfounded faith in the American Dream.

Seven years before Brown v. Board of Education, the Mendez family fought to end segregation in California schools. Discover their incredible story in Separate Is Never Equal, a picture book from award-winning creator Duncan Tonatiuh.

Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner * A Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Book * A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book

STARRED REVIEW *“Masterfully combines text and folk-inspired art to add an important piece to the mosaic of U.S. civil rights history.” ―Kirkus Reviews

When her family moved to the town of Westminster, California, young Sylvia Mendez was excited about enrolling in her neighborhood school. But she and her brothers were turned away and told they had to attend the Mexican school instead. Sylvia could not understand why—she was an American citizen who spoke perfect English. Why were the children of Mexican families forced to attend a separate school?

Unable to get a satisfactory answer from the school board, the Mendez family decided to take matters into its own hands and organized a lawsuit. In the end, the Mendez family’s efforts helped bring an end to segregated schooling in California in 1947, seven years before the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ended segregation in schools across America.

Author and illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh writes in his notes, “My hope is that this book will help children and young people learn about this important yet little known event in American history. I also hope that they will see themselves reflected in Sylvia’s story and realize that their voices are valuable.”

Using his signature illustration style and incorporating his interviews with Sylvia Mendez, as well as information from court files and news accounts, Tonatiuh tells the inspiring story of the Mendez family’s fight for justice and equality, a fight that is as relevant today as it was 75 years ago.

By John Fugelsang: Hardcover; 304 pages / English

[Avid Reader Press] NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In the spirit of George Carlin and Christopher Hitchens, the son of a former Catholic nun and a Franciscan brother delivers a deeply irreverent and biblically correct takedown of far-right Christian hatred—a book for believers, atheists, agnostics, and anyone who’ll ever have to deal with a Christian nationalist. For more than two centuries, the United States Constitution has given us the right to a society where church and state exist independently. But Christianity has been hijacked by far-right groups and politicians who seek to impose their narrow views on government, often to justify oppressive and unequal policies. The extremists who weaponize the Bible for earthly power aren’t actually on the side of Jesus—and historically they never have been. How do we fight back against those acting—literally—in bad faith? Comedian and broadcaster John Fugelsang finally offers the answers. In this informative, perspective-shifting book

Lost goals make way for new dreams. Two enemies must face their cold past and find new warmth in this wintry, forced proximity rom-com from Kris Ripper, author of Book Boyfriend.

Aspiring investigative reporter Des Cleary had dreams of a better world―one more accepting of people like him―when he broke the story of Orion Broderick’s relationship. A story that kicked Orion out of the soccer halls of fame and sent him careening into obscurity. Racked with shame, Des abandoned his own career for good.

Now working at an LA marketing firm, Des gets a daunting assignment: recruit Orion for a Pride campaign aiming to get LGBTQI+ kids into sports. But this is no shot at redemption―how could Des ever make up for what he’s done?

Des finds Orion’s cabin in the snowcapped mountains. His strategy? Keep it professional and get out quick. Nature has other plans. Snowed in together, Des and Orion have a chance to address past wrongs and lost goals. Time and shame have changed them both, but winter has a way of clearing the way for fresh beginnings.

2016 Winner of the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction 

2016 ALA Stonewall Book Award, Honor Book

2016 ALA Notable Children's Book

A comic book for kids that includes children and families of all makeups, orientations, and gender identities, Sex Is a Funny Word is an essential resource about bodies, gender, and sexuality for children ages 8 to 10 as well as their parents and caregivers. Much more than the "facts of life" or “the birds and the bees," Sex Is a Funny Word opens up conversations between young people and their caregivers in a way that allows adults to convey their values and beliefs while providing information about boundaries, safety, and joy.

The eagerly anticipated follow up to Lambda-nominated What Makes a Baby, from sex educator Cory Silverberg and artist Fiona Smyth, Sex Is a Funny Word reimagines "sex talk" for the twenty-first century.

(Micah Grey)

"[A] fantastical, richly drawn, poignant take on a classic coming-of-age story . . . a vibrant tale told with surety and grace" – Leigh Bardugo

In the second installment of the Micah Grey Trilogy from the award-winning, USA Today-bestselling author of Dragonfall, Micah must learn two types of magic—one for the stage, and one with deadlier consequences—while navigating a tender new love

Old magics are waking. Will the world survive their return?

Micah Grey almost died when he fled the circus with Drystan. Now he and the ex-clown must use Glamours to disguise themselves and hide in the once-grand Kymri Theatre, run by a once-renowned magician, Jasper Maske. Drystan claims Maske’s stage magic is all smoke and mirrors, but where’s the line between trickery and real power?

Micah and Drystan will soon learn the answer, when Maske's arch-nemesis challenges them all to a duel that will seal all their fates.

Meanwhile, the Shadow still haunts Micah’s steps, and as the duel draws near, Micah increasingly suffers from dark visions. Events that destroyed the ancient world are being replayed. Can Micah's latent powers break this deadly pattern?

In this rich and evocative second novel of the Micah Grey series, L.R. Lam blends a coming-of-age story, queer romance, and magical powers into a charming and original fantasy world, inspired by Victorian Scotland.

By: Kelly Quindlen (Author), 2022, Paperback

After an embarrassing loss to her ex-girlfriend in their first basketball game of the season, seventeen-year-old Scottie Zajac gets into a fender bender with the worst possible person: her nemesis, Irene Abraham, head cheerleader for the Fighting Reindeer.

Irene is as mean as she is beautiful, so Scottie makes a point to keep her distance. When the accident sends Irene’s car to the shop for weeks’ worth of repairs and the girls are forced to carpool, their rocky start only gets bumpier.

But when an opportunity arises for Scottie to get back at her toxic ex―and climb her school’s social ladder―she bribes Irene into an elaborate fake- dating scheme that threatens to reveal some very real feelings.

From author Kelly Quindlen comes a new laugh-out-loud romp through the ups and downs of teen romance, perfect for fans of Adam Silvera.

Two-time British Fantasy Award Winner
Astounding Award Winner
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
Hugo Award Finalist
Locus Award Finalist
A Dragon Award Finalist
Otherwise Award Finalist

"Magnificent in every way."―Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree

"A dazzling new world of fate, war, love and betrayal."―Zen Cho, author of Black Water Sister

She Who Became the Sun reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor.

To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything

“I refuse to be nothing…”

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.