List

Category
Audience
Tags

Memorial Day Surprise

Theresa Martin Golding

It's Memorial Day and Marco and Mama are going to see the parade. On their way, they pass Marco's grandfather's house. They usually stop to see Grandfather, but today Mama is in a rush because she has promised Marco a surprise. Marco can't imagine what the surprise might be. Could it be the marching band? The fire engines? The candy tossed to the crowd by a woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty? Mama promises that it will be a better surprise than candy. As the parade goes by, Marco wishes his grandfather were with him to enjoy it. Then, marching down the street, come the veterans, wearing uniforms and shiny medals. But look! Who is that leading them? Marco never imagined the kind of surprise in store for him.

View Details >>

Who Stole Uncle Sam?

Martha Freeman

Two eleven-year-old sleuths crack a case about the disappearance of a baseball coach in this humourous and offbeat middle-grade mystery, third in Martha Freeman's popular series. After their last success, Alex and Yasmeen made a pact to stop solving mysteries. However, when Alex's baseball coach, a patriotic war veteran nicknamed Uncle Sam, goes missing, it's hard for the young detectives to resist. Soon the two are tracking down clues involving porta-potties, lawn care chemicals, and secret baseball scouts. Will Alex and Yasmeen get to the bottom of the mystery before the summer is over?

View Details >>

Medals and Memorials: a readers' theater script and guide

Nancy K. Wallace

Celebrate Memorial Day with a play! R.J. has an idea. Reece has an idea. But Katie can't figure out what to do for her Memorial Day project. She's stuck! Then she decides to help out Mrs. Cortez, her neighbor. Could the answer to what Memorial Day truly means be right next door? Discover everything you need to put on readers' theater, advanced readers' theater, or a full production with this guide and readers' theater script.

 

View Details >>

Memorial Day

Clara Cella

Many men and women have died fighting for our country. They gave their lives to keep us free. Let's celebrate them on Memorial Day.

View Details >>

Ten Caesars: Roman emperors from Augustus to Constantine

Barry Strauss

Bestselling classical historian Barry Strauss delivers “an exceptionally accessible history of the Roman Empire…much of Ten Caesars reads like a script for Game of Thrones” (The Wall Street Journal)—a summation of three and a half centuries of the Roman Empire as seen through the lives of ten of the most important emperors, from Augustus to Constantine.

In this essential and “enlightening” (The New York Times Book Review) work, Barry Strauss tells the story of the Roman Empire from rise to reinvention, from Augustus, who founded the empire, to Constantine, who made it Christian and moved the capital east to Constantinople.

During these centuries Rome gained in splendor and territory, then lost both. By the fourth century, the time of Constantine, the Roman Empire had changed so dramatically in geography, ethnicity, religion, and culture that it would have been virtually unrecognizable to Augustus. Rome’s legacy remains today in so many ways, from language, law, and architecture to the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. Strauss examines this enduring heritage through the lives of the men who shaped it: Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Diocletian and Constantine. Over the ages, they learned to maintain the family business—the government of an empire—by adapting when necessary and always persevering no matter the cost.

Ten Caesars is a “captivating narrative that breathes new life into a host of transformative figures” (Publishers Weekly). This “superb summation of four centuries of Roman history, a masterpiece of compression, confirms Barry Strauss as the foremost academic classicist writing for the general reader today” (The Wall Street Journal).

View Details >>

One for the Money

Janet Evanovich

Meet Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with attitude. In Stephanie’s opinion, toxic waste, rabid drivers, armed schizophrenics, and August heat, humidity, and hydrocarbons are all part of the great adventure of living in Jersey.

She’s a product of the “burg,” a blue-collar pocket of Trenton where houses are attached and narrow, cars are American, windows are clean, and (God forbid you should be late) dinner is served at six.

Now Stephanie’s all grown up and out on her own, living five miles from Mom and Dad’s, doing her best to sever the world’s longest umbilical cord. Her mother is a meddler, and her grandmother is a few cans short of a case.

One for the Money is now a major motion picture starring Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum and Debbie Reynolds as Grandma Mazur.

View Details >>

Life of Pi: a novel

Yann Martel

The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional--but is it more true?

View Details >>

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Jules Verne

An American frigate, tracking down a ship-sinking monster, faces not a living creature but an incredible invention -- a fantastic submarine commanded by the mysterious Captain Nemo. Suddenly a devastating explosion leaves just three survivors, who find themselves prisoners inside Nemo's death ship on an underwater odyssey around the world from the pearl-laden waters of Ceylon to the icy dangers of the South Pole . . .as Captain Nemo, one of the greatest villians ever created, takes his revenge on all society.

More than a marvelously thrilling drama, this classic novel, written in 1870, foretells with uncanny accuracy the inventions and advanced technology of the twentieth century and has become a literary stepping-stone for generations of science fiction writers.

View Details >>

1984

George Orwell

Winston Smith is a worker at the Ministry of Truth, where he falsifies records for the party. Secretly subversive, he and his colleague Julia try to free themselves from political slavery but the price of freedom is betrayal.

View Details >>

84, Charing Cross Road

Helene Hanff

It all began with a letter enquiring about second-hand books, written by Helene Hanff in New York, and posted to a bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road, London. As Helene's sarcastic and witty letters are responded to by the stodgy and proper Frank Doel of 84 Charing Cross Road, a relationship blossoms into a warm, charming, feisty love affair. We follow, in her subsequent letters and in the shop's responses, the trial of one woman;s idiosyncratic path through English literature. Along the way, as Anne Bancroft notes in her introduction, our enjoyment in sharing. Hanff's literary eduction is deepened by the human story her letters tell as she grows ever fonder of her bookselling friends across the ocean.

View Details >>

A Nice Cup of Tea

Celia Imrie

In this witty third novel in the Nice series, from beloved actress Celia Imrie, the retired expats in the South of France must rally to save their failing restaurant, and protect Theresa from an unsavory stalker.

The beautiful town of Bellevue-sur-Mer, tucked between glitzy Monte Carlo and the plush red carpets of Cannes, is home to Theresa, Carol, William, Benjamin, and Sally: five retired expats who have pooled their resources to set up La Mosaïque, a divine little restaurant. But there is trouble in paradise: the friends are desperately struggling to make ends meet. It will take every bit of their talent and gumption to save La Mosaïque. With fussy customers, obnoxious cruise parties, and a failing delivery van, it's certainly not going to be easy.

On top of this, Theresa and Sally have their own distractions. Theresa's teenage granddaughter has run away, and Theresa herself has been getting mysterious phone calls and the strong sense that someone's watching her. Meanwhile, Sally's run into a nasty couple from her acting days, and their barbed jibes are enough to send her on an ill-advised search for the limelight.

A Nice Cup of Tea is a delightful cozy mystery, a wickedly fun page-turner that's sassier than a cup of tea, no matter how Nice!

View Details >>

Akin: a novel

Emma Donoghue

Noah Selvaggio is a retired chemistry professor and widower living on the Upper West Side, but born in the South of France. He is days away from his first visit back to Nice since he was a child, bringing with him a handful of puzzling photos he's discovered from his mother's wartime years. But he receives a call from social services: Noah is the closest available relative of an eleven-year-old great-nephew he's never met, who urgently needs someone to look after him. Out of a feeling of obligation, Noah agrees to take Michael along on his trip. Much has changed in this famously charming seaside mecca, still haunted by memories of the Nazi occupation. The unlikely duo, suffering from jet lag and culture shock, bicker about everything from steak fries to screen time. But Noah gradually comes to appreciate the boy's truculent wit, and Michael's ease with tech and sharp eye help Noah unearth troubling details about their family's past. Both come to grasp the risks people in all eras have run for their loved ones, and find they are more akin than they knew. Written with all the tenderness and psychological intensity that made Room an international bestseller, Akin is a funny, heart-wrenching tale of an old man and a boy, born two generations apart, who unpick their painful story and start to write a new one together.

View Details >>

The Lido

Libby Page

The international bestselling debut about friendship and love—featuring the life-changing relationship between an anxious young reporter and an eighty-six-year-old lifelong swimmer that “follows in the footsteps of the enormously popular A Man Called Ove…charming and heartwarming” (Kirkus Reviews).

We’re never too old to make new friends—or make a difference.

Rosemary Peterson has lived in Brixton, London, all her life, but everything is changing.

The library where she used to work has closed. The family grocery store has become a trendy bar. And now the lido, an outdoor pool where she’s swum daily since its opening, is threatened with closure by a local housing developer. It was at the lido that Rosemary escaped the devastation of World War II; here she fell in love with her husband, George; here she found community during her marriage and since George’s death.

Twenty-something Kate Matthews has moved to Brixton and feels desperately alone. A once-promising writer, she now covers forgettable stories for her local paper. That is, until she’s assigned to write about the lido’s closing. Soon Kate’s portrait of the pool focuses on a singular woman: Rosemary. And as Rosemary slowly opens up to Kate, both women are nourished and transformed in ways they never thought possible.

*Originally published as The Lido

View Details >>

The Heirloom Garden

Viola Shipman

In her inimitable style, Viola Shipman explores the unlikely relationship between two very different women brought together by the pain of war, but bonded by hope, purpose...and flowers

Iris Maynard lost her husband in World War II, her daughter to illness and, finally, her reason to live. Walled off from the world for decades behind the towering fence surrounding her home, Iris has built a new family...of flowers. Iris propagates her own daylilies and roses while tending to a garden filled with the heirloom starts that keep the memories of her loved ones alive.

When Abby Peterson moves next door with her family--a husband traumatized by his service in the Iraq War and a young daughter searching for stability--Iris is reluctantly yet inevitably drawn into her boisterous neighbor's life, where, united by loss and a love of flowers, she and Abby tentatively unearth their secrets, and help each other discover how much life they have yet to live.

With delightful illustrations and fascinating detail, Viola Shipman's heartwarming story will charm readers while resonating with issues that are so relevant today.

View Details >>

It's Not All Downhill from Here

Terry McMillan

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - After a sudden change of plans, a remarkable woman and her loyal group of friends try to figure out what she's going to do with the rest of her life--from Terry McMillan, the bestselling author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Waiting to Exhale

Loretha Curry's life is full. A little crowded sometimes, but full indeed. On the eve of her sixty-eighth birthday, she has a booming beauty-supply empire, a gaggle of lifelong friends, and a husband whose moves still surprise. True, she's carrying a few more pounds than she should be, but Loretha is not one of those women who think her best days are behind her--and she's determined to prove wrong her mother, her twin sister, and everyone else with that outdated view of aging wrong. It's not all downhill from here.

But when an unexpected loss turns her world upside down, Loretha will have to summon all her strength, resourcefulness, and determination to keep on thriving, pursue joy, heal old wounds, and chart new paths. With a little help from her friends, of course.

View Details >>

Good Eggs: a novel

Rebecca Hardiman

A hilarious and heartfelt debut novel following three generations of a boisterous family whose simmering tensions boil over when a home aide enters the picture, becoming the calamitous force that will either undo or remake this family—perfect for fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Evvie Drake Starts Over.

When Kevin Gogarty’s irrepressible eighty-three-year-old mother, Millie, is caught shoplifting yet again, he has no choice but to hire a caretaker to keep an eye on her. Kevin, recently unemployed, is already at his wits’ end tending to a full house while his wife travels to exotic locales for work, leaving him solo with his sulky, misbehaved teenaged daughter, Aideen, whose troubles escalate when she befriends the campus rebel at her new boarding school.

Into the Gogarty fray steps Sylvia, Millie’s upbeat home aide, who appears at first to be their saving grace—until she catapults the Gogarty clan into their greatest crisis yet.

With charm, humor, and pathos to spare, Good Eggs is a delightful study in self-determination; the notion that it’s never too late to start living; and the unique redemption that family, despite its maddening flaws, can offer.

View Details >>

In West Mills: a novel

De'Shawn Charles Winslow

Let the people of West Mills say what they will about Azalea “Knot” Centre; they won't keep her from what she loves best: cheap moonshine, nineteenth-century literature, and the company of men. And yet, when motherhood looms, Knot begins to learn that her freedom has come at a high price. Low on money, ostracized from her parents and cut off from her hometown, Knot turns to her neighbor, Otis Lee Loving, in search of some semblance of family and home.

Otis Lee is eager to help. A lifelong fixer, Otis Lee is determined to steer his friends and family away from decisions that will cause them heartache and ridicule. After his failed attempt to help his older sister, who lives a precarious life in the North, Otis Lee discovers a possible path to redemption in the chaos Knot brings to his doorstep. But while he's busy trying to fix Knot's life, Otis Lee finds himself powerless to repair the many troubles within his own family, as the long-buried secrets of his troubled past begin to come to light.

Spanning decades in a rural North Carolina town where a canal acts as the color line, In West Mills is a magnificent, big-hearted small-town story about family, friendship, storytelling, and the redemptive power of love.

View Details >>

Henry, Himself

Stewart O'Nan

Soldier, son, lover, husband, breadwinner, churchgoer, Henry Maxwell has spent his whole life trying to live with honor. A native Pittsburgher and engineer, he's always believed in logic, sacrifice, and hard work. Now, seventy-five and retired, he feels the world has passed him by. It's 1998, the American century is ending, and nothing is simple anymore. His children are distant, their unhappiness a mystery. Only his wife Emily and dog Rufus stand by him. Once so confident, as Henry's strength and memory desert him, he weighs his dreams against his regrets and is left with questions he can't answer: Is he a good man? Has he done right by the people he loves? And with time running out, what, realistically, can he hope for? Like Emily, Alone, Henry, Himself is a wry, warmhearted portrait of an American original who believes he's reached a dead end only to discover life is full of surprises.

View Details >>

The Great Unexpected

Dan Mooney

Joel lives in a nursing home, and he’s not one bit happy about it. He hates being told when to eat, when to sleep, when to take his pills. He’s fed up with life and begins to plan a way out when his new roommate, a retired soap opera actor named Frank, moves in and turns the nursing-home community upside down. Though the two men couldn’t be more opposite, a fast friendship is formed when Frank is the only one who listens to and stands up for Joel. When he tells Frank about his burgeoning plan, they embark together on a mission to find the perfect escape, and along the way will discover that it’s never too late for new beginnings.

View Details >>

Chances Are . . .

Richard Russo

One beautiful September day, three men in their late sixties convene on Martha's Vineyard, friends ever since meeting in college in the sixties. They couldn't have been more different then, or even today—Lincoln's a commercial real estate broker, Teddy a tiny-press publisher, and Mickey is a musician beyond his rockin' age. But each man holds his own secrets, in addition to the monumental mystery that none of them has ever stopped puzzling over since a Memorial Day weekend right here on the Vineyard in 1971. Now, forty-five years later, three lives and that of a significant other are put on display while the distant past confounds the present in a relentless squall of surprise and discovery. Shot through with Russo's trademark comedy and humanity, Chances Are . . . introduces a new level of suspense and menace that will quicken the reader's heartbeat throughout this absorbing saga.

View Details >>

Running Out of Road

Daniel Friedman

Once, Detective Buck Schatz patrolled the city of Memphis, chasing down robbers and killers with a blackjack truncheon and a .357. But he's been retired for decades. Now he's frail and demented, and Rose, his wife of 72 years, is ill and facing a choice about her health care that Buck is terrified to even consider. The future looks short and bleak, and Buck's only escape is into the past.

But Buck's past is under attack as well. After 35 years on death row, convicted serial killer Chester March finally has an execution date. Chester is the oldest condemned man in the United States, and his case has attracted the attention of NPR producer Carlos Watkins, who believes Chester was convicted on the strength of a coerced confession. Chester's conviction is the capstone on Buck's storied career, and, to save Chester's life, Watkins is prepared to tear down Buck's reputation and legacy.

View Details >>

When All Is Said

Anne Griffin

If you had to pick five people to sum up your life, who would they be? If you were to raise a glass to each of them, what would you say? And what would you learn about yourself, when all is said?

At the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town sits 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. He’s alone, as usual - though tonight is anything but. Pull up a stool and charge your glass, because Maurice is finally ready to tell his story.

Over the course of this evening, he will raise five toasts to the five people who have meant the most to him. Through these stories - of unspoken joy and regret, a secret tragedy kept hidden, a fierce love that never found its voice - the life of one man will be powerful and poignantly laid bare.

Beautifully heart-warming and powerfully felt, the voice of Maurice Hannigan will stay with you long after all is said and done.

View Details >>

The Hideaway

Lauren K. Denton

In the South, family is always more complicated than it seems.

After her last remaining family member dies, Sara Jenkins goes home to The Hideaway, her grandmother Mags's ramshackle B&B in Sweet Bay. She intends to quickly tie up loose ends then return to her busy life and thriving antique shop in New Orleans. Instead, she learns Mags has willed The Hideaway to her and charged her with renovating it--no small task considering her grandmother's best friends, a motley crew of senior citizens, still live there.

Rather than hurrying back to New Orleans, Sara stays in Sweet Bay and begins the biggest house-rehabbing project of her career. Amid drywall dust, old memories, and a charming contractor, she discovers that slipping back into life at The Hideaway is easier than she expected.

Then she discovers a box Mags left in the attic with clues to a life Sara never imagined for her grandmother. With help from Mags's friends, Sara begins to piece together the mysterious life of bravery, passion, and choices that changed her grandmother's destiny in both marvelous and devastating ways.

When an opportunistic land developer threatens to seize The Hideaway, Sara is forced to make a choice--stay in Sweet Bay and fight for the house and the people she's grown to love or leave again and return to her successful but solitary life in New Orleans.

View Details >>

The Explorer

Katherine Rundell

Parents’ Choice Recommended

From Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winner Katherine Rundell comes an exciting new novel about a group of kids who must survive in the Amazon after their plane crashes.

Fred, Con, Lila, and Max are on their way back to England from Manaus when the plane they’re on crashes and the pilot dies upon landing. For days they survive alone, until Fred finds a map that leads them to a ruined city, and to a secret.

View Details >>

The Great Monkey Rescue: saving the golden lion tamarins

Sandra Markle

Golden lion tamarins are found only in Brazilian forests. These small, remarkable monkeys once had plenty of space to roam and claim family territories. But years of deforestation caused their numbers to shrink. They were in serious danger of becoming extinct.

To help, scientists studied the animals in zoo settings. But they faced several mysteries. Why weren't golden lion tamarins reproducing in zoos? If scientists reintroduced zoo-raised tamarins to the wild, would those monkeys survive? And how could scientists give tamarins enough forest area for the population to grow? Find out how scientists and concerned citizens worked together to give golden lion tamarins a hopeful future.

View Details >>

The 2nd International Cookbook for Kids

Matthew Locricchio

This cookbook includes more than 60 recipes from India, Greece, Thailand, and Brazil that children and their families can make together as they follow easy step-by-step directions. Stunning full-color photographs accompany each recipe, and there are dishes for every time of day, from breakfast through dinner. Chef Matthew Locricchio emphasizes the use of fresh, organic vegetables and includes special sections on safety in the kitchen, cooking terms, and definitions. A great introduction to international cooking.

View Details >>

Capoeira: game! dance! martial art!

George Ancona

CAPOEIRA -- it's a game, a dance, a martial art! It's a way of expressing oneself through movement and music. With action-packed photographs and accessible text, readers are introduced to this exciting, popular game.

At Madinga Academy in Oakland, California, a group of girls and boys practice the acrobatic moves of capoeira. Then they begin to play games to the infectious, rhythmic beat of traditional music and singing.

On to Brazil to experience capoeira in its historic birthplace, where it dates back four hundred years. Capoeira developed as a way of fighting among enslaved Africans, was outlawed the the government, and was permitted once again in 1930 as a martial art and game.

Back in Oakland, at an end-of-year ceremony, students receive their colored ropes indicating their levels of accomplishment. They also look forward to next year, and the fun of expressing themselves through the game, dance and martial art of capoeira.

View Details >>

Brazil

Patrick Cunningham

Five new titles have been added to this unique series that lets young readers experience what life is like in other countries, told through letters that children have sent to their pen pals. Each book describes the child's home, a typical school day, playtime activities, favorite meals, a recipe for a common cultural food, and more.

View Details >>

A to Z: Brazil

Justine Fontes

Presents alphabetically arranged categories and relates them to Brazil, including animals, food, history, and yearly festivals.

View Details >>

Rio de Janeiro

Deborah Kent

Provides a physical description and history, along with a discussion of the people and customs, of the second largest city in Brazil.

View Details >>

Adventures of Riley: Amazon River Rescue

Amanda Lumry

The third chapter in the sensational Adventures of Riley Amazon River Rescue reads like the classic children's books of old, with morally-centered characters, dramatic plot twists and enought captivating science to hold the attention of even the most reluctent reader.

View Details >>

The Quest for Z: the true story of explorer Percy Fawcett and a lost city in the Amazon

Greg Pizzoli

From an award-winning author comes a picture book biography that feels like Indiana Jones for kids

British explorer Percy Fawcett believed that hidden deep within the Amazon rainforest was an ancient city, lost for the ages. Most people didn't even believe this city existed. But if Fawcett could find it, he would be rich and famous forever. This is the true story of one man's thrilling, dangerous journey into the jungle, and what he found on his quest for the lost city of Z.

View Details >>

The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont

Victoria Griffith

While the Wright Brothers were gliding over Kitty Hawk, the charming Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont was making his own mark on the history of flight.

Alberto loved floating over Paris in his personal flying machine called a dirigible. He would tie it to a post, climb down, and spend the day shopping or meeting friends for coffee. But he wanted to make his invention even better. By 1906, Alberto had transformed his balloon into a box with wings! But now there was competition. Another inventor challenged Alberto to see who would be the first in flight. Alberto’s hard work paid off, and his airplane successfully soared into the air, making him the first pilot to lift off and land a completely self-propelled plane.

The book includes an author’s note about Santos-Dumont, a bibliography, an index, and photographs of his flying machines.

View Details >>

The Great Kapok Tree: a tale of the Amazon rain forest

Lynne Cherry

The author and artist Lynne Cherry journeyed deep into the rain forests of Brazil to write and illustrate her gorgeous picture book The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest (1990). One day, a man exhausts himself trying to chop down a giant kapok tree. While he sleeps, the forest's residents, including a child from the Yanomamo tribe, whisper in his ear about the importance of trees and how "all living things depend on one another" . . . and it works. Cherry's lovingly rendered colored pencil and watercolor drawings of all the "wondrous and rare animals" evoke the lush rain forests, as well as stunning world maps bordered by tree porcupines, emerald tree boas, and dozens more fascinating creatures.

View Details >>

Geronimo Stilton: Rumble in the Jungle

Geronimo Stilton

Each Geronimo Stilton book is fast-paced, with lively full-color art and a unique format kids 7-10 will love.

I, Geronimo Stilton, was off to the wildest part of Brazil -- the Amazon jungle! I ended up on a hunt for an rare crystal treasure, which was stolen from a native tribe in the heart of the forest. I'd encounter alligators, snakes, piranhas, and other dangers on my way. Holey cheese! What an adventure!

View Details >>

Boat of Dreams

Rogério Coelho

How does a boy come to live alone in an apparently deserted city? Are they separated by distance or by time? Does the man dream the boy? Does the boy dream the man? Is a blank paper in a floating bottle an invitation to imagine our futures? Is the man's flying boat an encouragement to the boy to dream? Are the man and the boy the same person--the boy dwelling in the man's memory? Is a message in a bottle the earthbound dreams of the elderly? Is a flying boat the unconstrained dreams of the young? This wordless, many-layered 80-page picture book invites all these interpretations and more. The intricately detailed illustrations reveal new wonders with each viewing. Neither children nor adults will ever tire of this wonderful testament to imagination, memory, and dreams.

View Details >>

Curious George: Mother's Day Surprise

H. A. Rey

A level 2 early reader based on Curious George, the Emmy Award-winning PBS TV show, all about surprises, helping friends, and--of course--celebrating mothers!

It's Mother's Day and George's friends Marco and Cecilia want to surprise their mami with a party! George is excited to help Marco make a pinata and other festive decorations while Cecilia and the Man with the Yellow Hat prepare delicious treats. But when Marco and Cecilia see their mami arriving early, they have to scramble to get ready. Will the crew be able to pull the party together in time to make this one Mother's Day she'll never forget?

It's all about teamwork in this level 2 early reader based on the Emmy Award-winning PBS TV show. This book includes a bonus activity with instructions for making your own paper flowers to give to mom!

 

View Details >>

Katie's Happy Mother's Day

Fran Manushkin

When Katie's mom starts to feel under the weather, it's up to the spunky schoolgirl to help her get better. And with Mother's Day coming, Katie wants to get a super-special gift for her super-special mom. But sometimes the best gift isn't a thing you can buy or make . . . it's being a kind and thoughtful daughter!

View Details >>

Zeke Meeks Vs the Mother's Day Meltdown

D. L. Green

Mother's Day is coming up and all of Zeke's classmates are planning great gifts for their moms. But not Zeke. He's tired of his mom's healthy food and all her rules, and he doesn't think she deserves a thing. But when he starts thinking about all the good things his mom does, he starts to feel a little guilty. Will he have time to make the perfect gift, or will Mother's Day be a big meltdown?

View Details >>

What Not to Give Your Mom on Mother's Day

Martha Seif Simpson

A little boy offers advice about what not to give a mom on Mother's Day unless she is a certain kind of animal, sharing such examples as "Don't give her a rotting log unless she's a salamander," and "Don't give her a bunch of flies unless she's a spider."

View Details >>

Gus Makes a Gift

Frank Remkiewicz

From the bestselling illustrator of the FROGGY picture books.

It's Mother's Day, and Gus has a great idea. During art time at school, he'll make Mom a special present. But things don't go exactly as he plans. Will Mom like Gus's gift?

This sweet, simple Pre-Level 1 story takes brand-new readers on an adventure with lovable rhino Gus.

View Details >>

Mother's Day Surprise

Stephen Krensky

Violet is a young snake who likes to play with the other animals in the forest. But when spring arrives, her friends get very busy making presents for Mother's Day. Violet is glad everyone's working so hard, but what can she do for her own mother? Without arms or legs or teeth, she can't make gifts as the other animals can. Then Violet discovers that there is one thing she can do that's different--and comes up with the most original gift of all!

View Details >>

Eloise's Mother's Day Surprise

Lisa McClatchy

Knowing that only the best will do for her mother on Mother's Day, Eloise heads out to the fanciest shops in New York City, along with Nanny and Weenie, in order to find the most perfect gift for her most perfect mom! Original.

View Details >>

T. Rex and the Mother's Day Hug

Lois G. Grambling

Mother's Day is here, and T. Rex wants to plan something extra special for his mama. He really wants to do something instead of just giving something. T. Rex is sure he has a perfect gift idea, but will Mama Rex love it, too?

View Details >>

I Like Noisy, Mom Likes Quiet

Eileen Spinelli

Little Raccoon likes 'clomping and stomping and romping'. He likes noise. He likes messes. But Mama Raccoon, like most mothers, likes a little peace and quiet. She likes sitting on the porch and sketching the cat. She likes tidy rooms. One day, Little raccoon makes an effort to help his mom and makes Mother's Day a very special day.

View Details >>

Mother's Day Crafts

Arlene and Herbert Erlbach

A great way for kids to participate in holidays, this series of craft books includes step-by-step instructions with photos and requires inexpensive materials that can be found at home or in the classroom.

View Details >>

Sophie and the Mother's Day Card

Kaye Umansky

Sophie Rabbit makes a beautiful Mother's Day card at school, but disaster strikes when the daffodil is torn off the front of it. Can Dad come up with a solution in time for Mother's Day? This story, part of the "Read-It-Yourself" series, is intended to help children learning to read alone.

View Details >>

Things to Make for Mother's Day

Rebecca Gilpin

Imaginative craft books use simple methods and easy-to-follow directions for making a wide variety of projects, including cards, decorations, and presents, and each includes stickers to add even more fun to the projects.

View Details >>

Mother's Day

Anne Rockwell

Each child in Mrs. Madoff's class knows just how to celebrate Mother's Day. Jessica and her mom go hiking together. Sam helps pick out a new kitchen table. Sarah and her dad take Grandma to her favorite restaurant. And when a surprise visitor comes to class, the kids learn how to make a handmade gift that's straight from the heart. Here's a loving tribute to all the mothers, grandmothers, and mothers-to-be everywhere, perfect for sharing any day of the year.

View Details >>

Henry and Mudge and the Funny Lunch

Cynthia Rylant

This year Henry and Mudge are out to make the best Mother's Day lunch ever.
It has to be juicy, crunchy, and perfect for family sharing.
When they select a gorgeous golden pineapple, the menu is shaping up to be anything but dull.
Dad is helping them carve something almost too pretty to eat.
So how will Henry ever stop Mudge from devouring the surprise before Mom sees it?

View Details >>

Mother's Day Mess

Harry and Emily are ready for Mother's Day. They plan some great surprises for their mother. But whoops! Emily's flower seeds don't grow into flowers, and Harry's special pancake batter sure looks funny. What a mess! Yet Harry and Emily still have a Mother's Day to remember in this heart-warming easy reader. Holiday House Readers are created for children just beginning to read. They feature large type, simple vocabulary, and short, manageable chapters. Level 2 books are intended for children in first and second grades.

View Details >>

I Love You, Mama!

Isabel Gaines

Roo wants to make Mother's Day extra special for Kanga, but on the big day, he realizes he has forgotten to get her a present and must come up with an alternative gift. Simultaneous.

View Details >>

A Present for Mom

Vivian French

A new charmer by Vivian French celebrates the innocent gift of a child's love.

Mother's Day is tomorrow, and all of Stanley's siblings have something special to give to Mom. Everyone except Stanley, that is. Being the baby of the family, Stanley is having a very hard time finding just the right gift. But after a night of fretful dreams - when it's almost too late - Stanley comes up with an idea for a present that will last forever. With winsome illustrations by Dana Kubick, Vivian French's story of a memorable Mother's Day will resonate with children and parents all year long.

View Details >>

A Gift for Mama

Esther Hautzig

As soon as Sara sees the beautiful black satin slippers in the shoe store window, she knows they're the perfect Mother's Day gift for Mama. Sara has always made gifts for her family on special occasions, but this time she's determined to give a store-bought present- just like grown ups do. But grown-ups have spending money, and Sara does not. Until she makes a plan...

View Details >>

Happy Mother's Day

Steven Kroll

One day when Mom returns home she is greeted by surprise after surprise from each of her six children and her husband.

Lenny, Linda, Laurie, Louise, Larry, baby Lester, and Dad all pitch in to surprise Mom on Mother's Day and surprise her with gifts from each of them.

View Details >>

The Mother's Day Mice

Eve Bunting

Three little mouse brothers go into the meadow to find a present for their mother but it is the littlest mouse that comes up with the most unusual gift of all.

View Details >>

Hooray for Mother's Day!

Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

In searching for a Mother's Day present that will be just right for his mother, Alaric Chicken demonstrates that he is just as cautious and particular as she is.

View Details >>

Crayola Cinco de Mayo Colors

Robin Nelson

Bright piñatas, colorful costumes, festive parades--colors are everywhere during Cinco de Mayo! This book explores the customs and culture that make Cinco de Mayo a joyous celebration full of color. Crayola (R) colors and a reproducible coloring page inspire readers to notice and celebrate the colors of their world.

View Details >>

Super Simple Holiday Treats: easy no-bake recipes for kids

Nancy Tuminelly

Let's cook! The holiday treat recipes in this book are for young chefs. No stovetop required! Cooking teaches kids about food, measuring, and following directions. From Valentine crispies to Halloween pumpkin pie, they'll love sharing their tasty creations with family and friends. If you are familiar with the Checkerboard Cool series, you'll find this to be the "Cool junior" series. Super simple says it all!

View Details >>

Cinco de Mouse-O!

Judy Cox

Mouse wakes up to wonderful smells and follows his nose to an outdoor Cinco de Mayo celebration. All day long folks eat wonderful food and dance. After dark the fireworks light up the sky! Then, wonder of wonders, Mouse spots a burro-shaped pinata swinging from a high tree. Mouse can smell the candy hidden inside but how can he get some? What mouse doesn't notice is that Cat is stalking and planning a wonderful celebration of his own, with Mouse on the menu!

View Details >>

Cinco de Mayo: celebrating the traditions of Mexico

Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith

Every Cinco de Mayo, Rosa and her family cheer at a parade and enjoy delicious Mexican food. But what exactly is Cinco de Mayo? Although many people think May fifth marks Mexico's independence, the holiday is actually the anniversary of a decisive battle against foreign occupiers. Today, Cinco de Mayo is celebrated by many. Follow Rosa, a vivacious Mexican-American girl from California, as she learns about he heritage and celebrates the holiday with her family, friends, and community.

View Details >>

Celebrate! It's Cinco de Mayo!

Janice Levy

It's Cinco de Mayo! Everyone is celebrating the holiday in their own way. "Mama marches in the parade. Papa plays in a mariachi band. Abuelita cooks a special meal." Why do we celebrate Cinco de Mayo? A very simple history of the holiday is interspersed with the story of a young boy celebrating Cinco de Mayo with his family. This bilingual book features a section with "find what's missing" pictures and simple crafts perfect for any child's Cinco de Mayo celebration. Loretta Lopez's engaging and cheerful pictures complement Janice Levy's child-friendly introduction to this important Mexican holiday.

View Details >>

Cinco de Mayo Crafts

Carol Gnojewski

It is Cinco de Mayo and everyone is in the mood to celebrate. Using these easy-to-follow directions and traceable patterns, readers can make sun stone sun prints like the Aztecs did, blooming flowers to decorate their house, a sombrero to get in the spirit of the holiday, and more.

View Details >>

Cinco de Mayo: celebrating Hispanic pride

Carol Gnojewski

Cinco de Mayo is probably the most significant Hispanic holiday celebrated today. Author Carol Gnojewski introduces the history, customs, and practices of this holiday commemorating the victory of the Mexican army over the French on May 5, 1862. Full-color photographs and a craft section help the reader understand more about the culture and the celebrations held today.

View Details >>

Seed to Seed: seed saving and growing techniques for vegetable gardeners

Suzanne Ashworth

Seed to Seed is a complete seed-saving guide that describes specific techniques for saving the seeds of 160 different vegetables. This book contains detailed information about each vegetable, including its botanical classification, flower structure and means of pollination, required population size, isolation distance, techniques for caging or hand-pollination, and also the proper methods for harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storing the seeds.

Seed to Seed is widely acknowledged as the best guide available for home gardeners to learn effective ways to produce and store seeds on a small scale. The author has grown seed crops of every vegetable featured in the book, and has thoroughly researched and tested all of the techniques she recommends for the home garden.

This newly updated and greatly expanded Second Edition includes additional information about how to start each vegetable from seed, which has turned the book into a complete growing guide. Local knowledge about seed starting techniques for each vegetable has been shared by expert gardeners from seven regions of the United States-Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast/Gulf Coast, Midwest, Southwest, Central West Coast, and Northwest.

View Details >>

Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: a master gardener's guide to planting, growing, seed saving, and cultural history

William Woys Weaver

"This book is sure to be a modern classic and is one of the most important books on gardening in the current century."
—Jere Gettle, founder, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds


Heirloom Vegetable Gardening has always been a book for gardeners and cooks interested in unique flavors, colors, and history in their produce. This updated edition has been improved throughout with growing zones, advice, and new plant entries. Line art has been replaced with lush, full-color photography. Yet at the core, this book delivers on the same promise it made two decades ago: It’s a comprehensive guide based on meticulous first-person research to these 300+ plants, making it a book to come back to season after season.

View Details >>

Seed Sowing and Saving: step-by-step techniques for collecting and growing more than 100 vegetables, flowers, and herbs

Carole B. Turner

Those pricey transplants set out on display every spring are so tempting with their leafy faces pleading, "take me home!"  But beware, you never know where those seedlings have been - Crammed in a pest-infested greenhouse?  Packed for days in a sweltering truck?

Start your plants from seeds and you know that's your precious vegetable, herb, or flower has been nurtured with tender loving care every day of its life.  And better yet, when you harvest seeds for next year's crop, you'll get even more plants absolutely FREE!

In this book you'll find everything you need to know to successfully harvest seeds from more than 100 common vegetables, annuals, perennials, herbs, and wildflowers, then dry and store them for maximum viability. You'll also learn how to start seeds indoors to get a jump start on the season, and to prepare your soil beds for planting.

 

View Details >>

The Seed Garden: the art and practice of seed saving

Lee Buttala

Winner of the American Horticultural Society Award for Excellence In Garden Book Publishing

Winner of the Silver Medal for Best Reference from the Garden Writer’s Association

Filled with advice for the home gardener and the more seasoned horticulturist alike, The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving provides straightforward instruction on collecting seed that is true-to-type and ready for sowing in next year’s garden. In this comprehensive book, Seed Savers Exchange, one of the foremost American authorities on the subject, and the Organic Seed Alliance bring together decades of knowledge to demystify the time-honored tradition of saving the seed of more than seventy-five coveted vegetable and herb crops—from heirloom tomatoes and long-favored varieties of beans, lettuces, and cabbages to centuries-old varieties of peppers and grains.

With clear instructions, lush photographs, and easy-to-comprehend profiles on individual vegetable crops, this book not only teaches us how to go about conserving these important varieties for future generations and for planting out in next year’s garden, it also provides a deeper understanding of the importance of saving these genetically valuable varieties of vegetables that have evolved over the centuries through careful selection by farmers and home gardeners.

Through simple lessons and master classes on crop selection, pollination, roguing, and the processes of harvesting and storing seeds, this book ensures that these time-honored traditions can continue. Many of these vegetable varieties are treasured for traits that are singular to their strain, whether that is a resistance to disease, an ability to grow well in a region for which that crop is not typically well suited, resistance to early bolting, or simply because it is a great-tasting variety. In an age of genetically modified crops and hybrid seed, a growing appreciation for saving seeds of these time-tested, open-pollinated cultivars has found a new audience from home vegetable gardeners and cooks to restaurant chefs and local farmers.

Whether interested in simply saving seeds for home use or working to conserve rare varieties of beloved squashes and tomatoes, this book provides a deeper understanding of the art, the science, and the joy of saving seeds.

View Details >>

Starting & Saving Seeds : grow the perfect vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers for your garden

Julie Thompson-Adolf

Are you ready to become a seed-starting and -saving champion? Author and gardening expert Julie Thompson-Adolf will walk you through every step of the journey, making the entire process a joy. In this book you'll find: Extensive plant entries that cover all the most popular vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers; Tips and hints, such as how to encourage stubborn seeds to germinate; Lists to help you find the best plants to add to your garden, whether you want heirloom tomatoes for hot, humid climates or a rainbow of eggplants; Simple DIY projects to aid your seed-starting and -saving adventure; And much more! Whether you're an experienced gardener new to seed starting and saving or a brand-new grower, you'll soon have health, productive, beautiful plants for your garden.

View Details >>

The New Seed-Starters Handbook

Nancy Bubel

Starting plants from a seed grants earlier harvests, greater variety, healthier seedlings, lower costs, and the undeniable sense of satisfaction and reward. 

For the most complete, up-to-date information on starting plants from seed, turn to The New Seed-Starter's Handbook. Written by a gardener with 30 years of experience, this updated, easy-to-use reference explains everything you need to know to start seeds and raise healthy seedlings successfully.

You'll find:

- The latest research in seed starting

- The best growing media

- The newest gardening materials

- Solutions to seed-starting problems

- Source lists for seeds and hard-to-find gardening supplies

The robust encyclopedia section lists more than 200 plants—including vegetables and fruits, garden flowers, wildflowers, herbs, trees, and shrubs—with details on how to start each from seed. 

View Details >>

Gardening With Heirloom Seeds: tried-and-true flowers, fruits, and vegetables for a new generation

Lynn Coulter

Heirloom seeds are more than the promise of next summer's crookneck squash or jewel-colored zinnias. They're living antiques handed down from one generation to the next, a rich inheritance of flavor and beauty from long ago and, often, far away. They are sometimes better adapted to pests and harsh conditions than many modern varieties and often simply smell or taste better. Gardening with Heirloom Seeds serves as a resource for gardeners, cooks, and plant lovers of all levels of expertise who want to know more about finding, sharing, and propagating the seeds of heirloom flowers, fruits, and vegetables.

In these beautifully illustrated pages, Lynn Coulter describes fifty treasured heirloom species, from Frenchman's Darling, a flowering herb whose seeds were pocketed by Napoleon Bonaparte when he invaded Egypt in 1798, to Snow White beets, an old Dutch favorite that will not stain the cook's fingers red. Most of the plants included here will grow all across the United States; a few are best suited for warmer climates.

The text is sprinkled throughout with practical advice from heirloom gardeners and lists sources for finding the seeds of many old varieties. Because it also provides ample room for making notes, Gardening with Heirloom Seeds can be used year after year and can become an heirloom in its own right--a personal journal to pass along to the next generation of gardeners.

View Details >>

Growing Herbs and Vegetables: from seed to harvest

Mark Silber

An indispensable, wonderfully motivating growing guide, based on three decades of gardening experience, from the cofounders of Hedgehog Hill Farm in Sumner, Maine.

The Silbers tell us how to go about searching for just the right seeds, plants, and information; how to determine the number of plants we need; how to set up a germinating area; how to seed and transplant; how to use cold frames and other methods of "hardening off" our seedlings. They take us into the garden and explain how to evaluate soils and break up top growth. We learn about setting out plants; about direct seeding in mulched areas and open ground; about weeding, watering, and fertilizing. They share their wisdom about controlling insect damage and battling plant diseases; about accommodating animals while protecting crops; about harvesting, fall cleanup, and collecting, saving, and storing seeds from our own gardens.

Specific, detailed instructions are given for growing 37 vegetables--alphabetically arranged from asparagus to turnips--and 51 herbs, from angelica to woad. Well-organized charts make it easy to find essential information quickly, and drawings and photographs provide visual direction. Conveniently located sidebars give us guidance on such topics as growing hot peppers, planting mesclun, making sauerkraut, braiding onions, blanching cauliflower, growing moth-repellent herbs, making herb tempura and vinegars, and crystallizing flowers.

Here is a book guaranteed to inspire us to dig into the gardening catalogues and then into the earth to begin the adventure of producing our very own bountiful harvest.

View Details >>

The Making of Asian America: a history

Erika Lee

The definitive history of Asian Americans by one of the nation’s preeminent scholars on the subject.

In the past fifty years, Asian Americans have helped change the face of America and are now the fastest growing group in the United States. But as award-winning historian Erika Lee reminds us, Asian Americans also have deep roots in the country. The Making of Asian America tells the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present-day.

An epic history of global journeys and new beginnings, this book shows how generations of Asian immigrants and their American-born descendants have made and remade Asian American life in the United States: sailors who came on the first trans-Pacific ships in the 1500s; indentured “coolies” who worked alongside African slaves in the Caribbean; and Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and South Asian immigrants who were recruited to work in the United States only to face massive racial discrimination, Asian exclusion laws, and for Japanese Americans, incarceration during World War II. Over the past fifty years, a new Asian America has emerged out of community activism and the arrival of new immigrants and refugees. No longer a “despised minority,” Asian Americans are now held up as America’s “model minorities” in ways that reveal the complicated role that race still plays in the United States.

Published to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the United States’ Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that has remade our “nation of immigrants,” this is a new and definitive history of Asian Americans. But more than that, it is a new way of understanding America itself, its complicated histories of race and immigration, and its place in the world today.

View Details >>

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Ocean Vuong

Poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born -- a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam -- and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.

View Details >>

Forgotten Country

Catherine Chung

Learning on the night of her sister's birth that a daughter has been lost in every generation of her Korean family, Janie assumes a protective role over her sister while learning more cautionary stories from her optimistic father and mythology-minded mother.

View Details >>

The Refugees

Viet Thanh Nguyen

Viet Thanh Nguyen'sThe Sympathizer was one of the most widely and highly praised novels of 2015, the winner not only of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but also the Center for Fiction Debut Novel Prize, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, the ALA Carnegie Medal for Fiction, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the California Book Award for First Fiction. Nguyen's next fiction book,The Refugees, is a collection of perfectly formed stories written over a period of twenty years, exploring questions of immigration, identity, love, and family.

With the coruscating gaze that informedThe Sympathizer, inThe Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams and hardships of immigration. The second piece of fiction by a major new voice in American letters,The Refugees is a beautifully written and sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another, and the relationships and desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives.

View Details >>

The People in the Trees

Hanya Yanagihara

Joining an anthropologist's 1950 expedition to discover a lost tribe on a remote Micronesian island, a young doctor investigates and proves a theory that the tribe's considerable longevity is linked to a rare turtle, a finding that brings worldwide fame and unexpected consequence.

View Details >>

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain

Nghi Vo

From Crawford Award Winner Nghi Vo

The cleric Chih finds themself and their companions at the mercy of a band of fierce tigers who ache with hunger. To stay alive until the mammoths can save them, Chih must unwind the intricate, layered story of the tiger and her scholar lover—a woman of courage, intelligence, and beauty—and discover how truth can survive becoming history.

Nghi Vo returns to the empire of Ahn and The Singing Hills Cycle in When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, a mesmerizing, lush standalone follow-up to The Empress of Salt and Fortune.

View Details >>

Little Fires Everywhere

Celeste Ng

The #1 New York Times bestseller

From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned--from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren--an enigmatic artist and single mother--who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood--and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

View Details >>

The Island of Sea Women

Lisa See

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“A mesmerizing new historical novel” (O, The Oprah Magazine) from Lisa See, the bestselling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, about female friendship and devastating family secrets on a small Korean island.

Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends who come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility—but also danger.

Despite their love for each other, Mi-ja and Young-sook find it impossible to ignore their differences. The Island of Sea Women takes place over many decades, beginning during a period of Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by World War II, the Korean War, through the era of cell phones and wet suits for the women divers. Throughout this time, the residents of Jeju find themselves caught between warring empires. Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator. Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers in their village. Little do the two friends know that forces outside their control will push their friendship to the breaking point.

“This vivid…thoughtful and empathetic” novel (The New York Times Book Review) illuminates a world turned upside down, one where the women are in charge and the men take care of the children. “A wonderful ode to a truly singular group of women” (Publishers Weekly), The Island of Sea Women is a “beautiful story…about the endurance of friendship when it’s pushed to its limits, and you…will love it” (Cosmopolitan).

View Details >>

After the Quake: stories

Haruki Murakami

In 1995, the physical and social landscape of Japan was transformed by two events: the Kobe earthquake, in January, which destroyed thousands of lives, and the poison-gas attacks in the Tokyo subways in March, during the morning rush hour. Following these twin disasters, Haruki Murakami abandoned his life abroad and returned home to confront his country’s grief. The subway attack led to his recent Underground. And out of the quake come these six stories, set in the months between natural catastrophe and man-made terrorism. His characters find their resolutely normal everyday lives undone by events even more surreal (yet somehow believable) than we have come to expect in his fiction. An electronics salesman, abruptly deserted by his wife, is entrusted to deliver a mysterious package but gets more than he bargained for at the receiving end; a Thai chauffeur takes his troubled charge to a seer, who penetrates her deepest sorrow; and, in the unforgettable title story, a boy acknowledges a shattering secret about his past that will change his life forever. But the most compelling character of all is the earthquake itself—slipping into and out of view almost imperceptibly, but nonetheless reaching deep into the lives of these forlorn citizens of the apocalypse. The terrible damage visible all around is, in fact, less extreme than the inconsolable howl of a nation indelibly scarred—an experience in which Murakami discovers many truths about compassion, courage, and the nature of human suffering. From the Hardcover edition.

View Details >>

Exhalation

Ted Chiang

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

THE UNIVERSE BEGAN AS AN ENORMOUS BREATH BEING HELD.


In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity's oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.

In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.

Including stories being published for the first time as well as some of his rare and classic uncollected work, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic--revelatory.

View Details >>

Interpreter of Maladies: stories

Jhumpa Lahiri

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant. She is an important and powerful new voice.

View Details >>

The Three-Body Problem

Cixin Liu

Soon to be a Netflix Original Series!

The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

The Three-Body Problem Series
The Three-Body Problem
The Dark Forest
Death's End

View Details >>

Eat a Peach: a memoir

David Chang

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the chef behind Momofuku and star of Netflix's Ugly Delicious--an intimate account of the making of a chef, the story of the modern restaurant world that he helped shape, and how he discovered that success can be much harder to understand than failure.

"David puts words to so many of the things we all feel, sharing generously of his own journey so we can all benefit in the process."--Chrissy Teigen

In 2004, Momofuku Noodle Bar opened in a tiny, stark space in Manhattan's East Village. Its young chef-owner, David Chang, worked the line, serving ramen and pork buns to a mix of fellow restaurant cooks and confused diners whose idea of ramen was instant noodles in Styrofoam cups. It would have been impossible to know it at the time--and certainly Chang would have bet against himself--but he, who had failed at almost every endeavor in his life, was about to become one of the most influential chefs of his generation, driven by the question, "What if the underground could become the mainstream?"

Chang grew up the youngest son of a deeply religious Korean American family in Virginia. Graduating college aimless and depressed, he fled the States for Japan, hoping to find some sense of belonging. While teaching English in a backwater town, he experienced the highs of his first full-blown manic episode, and began to think that the cooking and sharing of food could give him both purpose and agency in his life.

Full of grace, candor, grit, and humor, Eat a Peach chronicles Chang's switchback path. He lays bare his mistakes and wonders about his extraordinary luck as he recounts the improbable series of events that led him to the top of his profession. He wrestles with his lifelong feelings of otherness and inadequacy, explores the mental illness that almost killed him, and finds hope in the shared value of deliciousness. Along the way, Chang gives us a penetrating look at restaurant life, in which he balances his deep love for the kitchen with unflinching honesty about the industry's history of brutishness and its uncertain future.

View Details >>

My Mother is Mine

Marion Dane Bauer

"My mother is special.

My mother is fine.

All sorts of cuddly baby animals

sing their mothers' praises, inspiring

a child to create a greeting card that

shows why her mother is special too.

That card is attached to the back of

this book, which is a loving tribute

to mothers throughout the year.

My mother, my mother,

my mother is mine!"

 

View Details >>