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Her Majesty's Royal Coven
"Superb and almost unbearably charming, Her Majesty's Royal Coven... expertly launches an exciting new trilogy." --The New York Times Book Review "Talk about a gut punch of a novel. ...A provocative exploration of intersectional feminism, loyalty, gender and transphobia [that] invites readers into an intricately woven web of magic, friendship and power." --The Nerd Daily A Discovery of Witches meets The Craft in this epic fantasy about a group of childhood friends who are also witches. If you look hard enough at old photographs, we're there in the background: healers in the trenches; Suffragettes; Bletchley Park oracles; land girls and resistance fighters. Why is it we help in times of crisis? We have a gift. We are stronger than Mundanes, plain and simple.
At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls--Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle--took the oath to join Her Majesty's Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she's a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right. Juno Dawson explores gender and the corrupting nature of power in a delightful and provocative story of magic and matriarchy, friendship and feminism. Dealing with all the aspects of contemporary womanhood, as well as being phenomenally powerful witches, Niamh, Helena, Leonie and Elle may have grown apart but they will always be bound by the sisterhood of the coven. -
Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways
Social justice work, we often assume, is raised voices and raised fists. It requires leading, advocating, fighting, and organizing wherever it takes place--in the streets, slums, villages, inner cities, halls of political power, and more. But what does social justice work look like for those of us who don't feel comfortable battling in the trenches?
Sensitive souls--including those who consider themselves highly emotional, empathic, or introverted--have much to contribute to bringing about a more just and equitable world. Such individuals are wise, thoughtful, and conscientious; they feel more deeply and see things that others don't. We need their contributions. Yet, sustaining justice work can be particularly challenging for the sensitive, and it requires a deep level of self-awareness, intentionality, and care.
In Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul, writer Dorcas Cheng-Tozun (Enneagram 4, INFJ, nonprofit/social enterprise professional, and multiple-burnout survivor) offers six possible pathways for sensitive types:
- Connectors: relational activists whose interactions and conversations build the social capital necessary for change
- Creatives: artists and creators whose work inspires, sheds light, makes connections, and brings issues into the public consciousness
- Record Keepers: archivists who preserve essential information and hold our collective memory and history
- Builders: inventors, programmers, and engineers who center empathy as they develop society-changing products and technologies
- Equippers: educators, mentors, and elders who build skills and knowledge within movements and shepherd the next generation of changemakers
- Researchers: data-driven individuals who utilize information as a persuasive tool to effect change and propose options for improvement
Alongside inspiring, real-life examples of highly sensitive world-changers, Cheng-Tozun expands the possibilities of how to have a positive social impact, affirming the particular gifts and talents that sensitive souls offer to a hurting world.
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Where Sleeping Girls Lie
In Where Sleeping Girls Lie -- a YA contemporary mystery by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, the New York Times-bestselling author of Ace of Spades -- a girl new to boarding school discovers dark secrets and coverups after her roommate disappears.
It's like I keep stumbling into a dark room, searching for the switch to make things bright again... Sade Hussein is starting her third year of high school, this time at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school after being home-schooled all her life. Misfortune has been a constant companion all her life, but even Sade doesn't expect her new roommate, Elizabeth, to disappear after Sade's first night. Or for people to think she had something to do with it. With rumors swirling around her, Sade catches the attention of the girls collectively known as the 'Unholy Trinity' and they bring her into their fold. Between learning more about them--especially Persephone, who Sade is inexplicably drawn to--and playing catchup in class, Sade already has so much on her plate. But when it seems people don't care enough about what happened to Elizabeth to really investigate, it's up to she and Elizabeth's best friend to solve it. And then a student is found dead. As they keep trying to figure out what's going on, Sade realizes there's more to Alfred Nobel Academy and its students than she thought. Secrets lurk around every corner and beneath every surface...secrets that rival even her own. -
The Broken Earth Trilogy: The Fifth Season, the Obelisk Gate, the Stone Sky
This collectable boxed set edition includes all three books in N. K. Jemisin's incredible NYT bestselling and three-time Hugo award-winning Broken Earth Trilogy. This complete collection would be a great gift for any occasion and includes The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky. This is the way the world ends for the last time. . . A season of endings has begun. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy. -
Lady Gaga: A Little Golden Book Biography
Help your little one dream big with a Little Golden Book biography about pop music icon, actress, and philanthropist Lady Gaga. Little Golden Book biographies are the perfect introduction to nonfiction for young readers--as well as fans of all ages! This Little Golden Book about Lady Gaga--the genre-straddling singer of hits including "Born This Way" and "Shallow" and star of House of Gucci and A Star is Born--is an inspiring read-aloud for young children and their parents who are fans. Look for more Little Golden Book biographies:
- Willie Nelson
- Beyoncé
- Dolly Parton
- Taylor Swift
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You Are the One You've Been Waiting for: Applying Internal Family Systems to Intimate Relationships
A groundbreaking approach for practicing courageous love and resilient intimacy--from the creator of Internal Family Systems therapy
Do loving relationships end because couples lack communication skills, struggle to empathize, and fail to accommodate each other's needs? That's a common belief within and outside of the therapeutic world... but what if it's all wrong? In You Are the One You've Been Waiting For, Dr. Richard Schwartz, the celebrated founder of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, offers a new way--a path toward courageous love that replaces the striving, dependent, and disconnected approach to solving relationship challenges.
The breakthrough realization of IFS is that our psyche contains multiple parts, each with a life of its own. Most problems in relationships arise because we unknowingly burden our partner with the task of caring for our disowned and unloved parts. In this book, you'll discover essential insights and tools to foster healthy dialogue with your parts and your partner, including:
- How to recognize and disarm the cultural assumptions that create shame, guilt, and isolation in relationships- The Three Projects--why we fool ourselves into thinking we must change our partner, change ourselves, or give up on true intimacy- Finding and Healing Exiles--transforming the way our most vulnerable parts influence the way we treat each other- How to reorient relationship conflicts to help each of us grow toward the Self--the center of our clarity and wisdom- Courageous Love--building resilient intimacy with each other and our parts to create healthy, lasting partnerships
"No one can do the work of healing our orphaned parts for us," says Dr. Schwartz. "Yet when we begin with Self-leadership, a relationship can become a safe place in which we help each other heal and grow." Here is an invaluable guide for therapists and laypersons alike to promote connection, trust, and understanding--within yourself and with the one you love. -
Mrs. S
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Oprah Daily・Electric Literature・Gay Times・NBC OutA JULY 2023 INDIE NEXT PICK
A sublime and sensual debut novel exploring the nature of queer love and attraction, the transformative power of desire, and the dissonance between self and place, by White Review Fiction Prize shortlisted writer K Patrick
In an elite English boarding school where the girls kiss the marble statue of the famous dead author who used to walk the halls, a butch antipodean outsider arrives to take up the antiquated role of "matron." Within this landscape of immense privilege, where difference is met with hostility, the matron finds herself unsure of her role, her accent and her body.
That is until she meets Mrs. S, the headmaster's wife, a woman who is her polar opposite--an assured, authoritative paragon of femininity. Over the course of a long, restless summer, their unspoken yearning blooms into an illicit affair of electric intensity. But, as the summer fades, a choice must be made.
Seductive, stylish, and disarmingly wry, K Patrick's bold and revelatory debut smolders with the heat of summer as it explores the queer experience and the force of forbidden love.
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Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally
An approachable guide to being a thoughtful, informed ally to disabled people, with actionable steps for what to say and do (and what not to do) and how you can help make the world a more inclusive place ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, Booklist - "A candid, accessible cheat sheet for anyone who wants to thoughtfully join the conversation . . . Emily makes the intimidating approachable and the complicated clear."--Rebekah Taussig, author of Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary, Resilient, Disabled Body
People with disabilities are the world's largest minority, an estimated 15 percent of the global population. But many of us--disabled and nondisabled alike--don't know how to act, what to say, or how to be an ally to the disability community. Demystifying Disability is a friendly handbook on the important disability issues you need to know about, including: - How to appropriately think, talk, and ask about disability
- Recognizing and avoiding ableism (discrimination toward disabled people)
- Practicing good disability etiquette
- Ensuring accessibility becomes your standard practice, from everyday communication to planning special events
- Appreciating disability history and identity
- Identifying and speaking up about disability stereotypes in media Authored by celebrated disability rights advocate, speaker, and writer Emily Ladau, this practical, intersectional guide offers all readers a welcoming place to understand disability as part of the human experience. Praise for Demystifying Disability "Whether you have a disability, or you are non-disabled, Demystifying Disability is a MUST READ. Emily Ladau is a wise spirit who thinks deeply and writes exquisitely."--Judy Heumann, international disability rights advocate and author of Being Heumann "Emily Ladau has done her homework, and Demystifying Disability is her candid, accessible cheat sheet for anyone who wants to thoughtfully join the conversation. A teacher who makes you forget you're learning, Emily makes the intimidating approachable and the complicated clear. This book is a generous and needed gift."--Rebekah Taussig, author of Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body -
The Cemetery of Untold Stories
Literary icon Julia Alvarez, bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies shares an inventive and emotional novel about storytelling and her homeland of the Dominican Republic. Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories, doesn't want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories--literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and revisions, and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her. Alma wants her characters to rest in peace. But they have other ideas, and the cemetery becomes a mysterious sanctuary for their true narratives. Filomena, a local woman hired as the groundskeeper, becomes a sympathetic listener as Alma's characters unspool their secret tales. Among them: Bienvenida, the abandoned second wife of dictator Rafael Trujillo, consigned to oblivion by history, and Manuel Cruz, a doctor who fought in the Dominican underground and escaped to the United States. The characters defy their author: they talk back to her and talk to one another behind her back, rewriting and revising themselves. The Cemetery of Untold Stories asks: Whose stories get to be told, and whose buried? Finally, Alma finds the meaning she and her characters yearn for in the everlasting vitality of stories. Readers of Isabel Allende's Violeta and Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead will devour Alvarez's extraordinary new novel about beauty and authenticity, and will be reminded that the stories of our lives are never truly finished, even at the end. -
Heavenly Tyrant
Zetian must balance dangerous politics with a new quest for vengeance in the sequel to the #1 New York Times bestseller Iron Widow, a blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction. After suffering devastating loss and making drastic decisions, Zetian finds herself at the seat of power in Huaxia. But she has also learned that her world is not as it seems, and revelations about an enemy more daunting than Zetian imagined forces her to share power with a dangerous man she cannot simply depose. Despite having vastly different ideas about how they must deconstruct the corrupt and misogynist system that plagues their country, Zetian must join this man in a dance of truth and lies and perform their roles to perfection in order to take down their common enemy, who seeks to control them as puppets while dangling one of Zetian's loved ones as a hostage. With political unrest and perilous forces aiming to undermine Zetian at every turn, can she enact positive changes as a fair and just ruler? Or will she be forced to rely on fear and violence and succumb to her darker instincts in her quest for vengeance? Find out in this highly-anticipated sequel to Iron Widow, a #1 New York Times bestseller! -
Read These Banned Books: A Journal and 52-Week Reading Challenge from the American Library Association
The American Library Association presents a must-read banned book for every week of the year in this beautiful book lover's reading log.
Expand your reading list and stand against literary censorship with this one-year reading challenge and book journal! Featuring 52 modern and classic books that have been challenged or banned, from The Hunger Games to Maus, this book log includes ALA's insights into each title as well as writing prompts for further reflection. A perfect holiday stocking stuffer, birthday present, or gift for bibliophiles, librarians, teachers and educators, activists, and rebel readers of all genres!
Includes:
- 52 banned, censored, or challenged book recommendations and the reasons they were banned
- Room to reflect on each book and how you can relate to it as you complete the challenge
- Pages for your personal reading log, perfect for sharing on social media or with friends
- An appendix highlighting the 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books from 2010-2019 and information about how YOU can help fight book banning.
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To Paradise
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - From the award-winning, best-selling author of the classic A Little Life--a bold, brilliant novel spanning three centuries and three different versions of the American experiment, about lovers, family, loss and the elusive promise of utopia. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: VOGUE - ESQUIRE - NPR - GOODREADS To Paradise is a fin de siècle novel of marvelous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius. The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara's understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love--partners, lovers, children, friends, family, and even our fellow citizens--and the pain that ensues when we cannot. In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist's damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him--and solve the mystery of her husband's disappearances. These three sections comprise an ingenious symphony, as recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another: A townhouse in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village; illness, and treatments that come at a terrible cost; wealth and squalor; the weak and the strong; race; the definition of family, and of nationhood; the dangerous righteousness of the powerful, and of revolutionaries; the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise, and the gradual realization that it can't exist. What unites not just the characters, but these Americas, are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human: Fear. Love. Shame. Need. Loneliness. -
How to Solve Your Own Murder
Named most aniticpated by: Goodreads, BookRiot, The Nerd Daily, Shelf Reflection, Novel Suspects, Borrow Read Repeat, The Everygirl
A Publishers Marketplace 2024 BuzzBook
For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club, an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate.... Now it's up to her great-niece to catch the killer. It's 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances's night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn't happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be. In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances's lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer? As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt's fate instead of her fortune. -
The Sunbearer Trials
Welcome to The Sunbearer Trials, where teen semidioses compete in a series of challenges with the highest of stakes, in this electric new Mexican-inspired fantasy from Aiden Thomas, the New York Times bestselling author of Cemetery Boys.
"Only the most powerful and honorable semidioses get chosen. I'm just a Jade. I'm not a real hero." As each new decade begins, the Sun's power must be replenished so that Sol can keep traveling along the sky and keep the chaotic Obsidian gods at bay. Sol selects ten of the most worthy semidioses to compete in the Sunbearer Trials. The winner carries light and life to all the temples of Reino del Sol, but the loser has the greatest honor of all--they will be sacrificed to Sol, their body melted down to refuel the Sun Stones, protecting the world for another ten years. Teo, a seventeen-year-old Jade semidiós and the trans son of the goddess of birds, isn't worried about the Trials . . . at least, not for himself. His best friend, Niya is a Gold semidiós and a shoo-in for the Trials, and while he trusts her abilities, the odds of becoming the sacrifice is one-in-ten. But then, for the first time in over a century, the impossible happens. Sol chooses not one, but two Jade competitors. Teo, and Xio, the thirteen-year-old child of the god of bad luck. Now they must compete in five trials against Gold opponents who are more powerful and better trained. Worst of all, Teo's annoyingly handsome ex-best friend and famous semidiós Hero, Aurelio is favored to win. Teo is determined to get himself and his friends through the trials unscathed--for fame, glory, and their own survival. -
Sisters of the Lost Nation
Named a Most Anticipated Book by Barnes and Noble ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ GoodReads ∙ Book Riot ∙ CrimeReads ∙ Ms. Magazine ∙ SheReads ∙ Amazon Editor's Pick ∙ Tor.com ∙ and more! A young Native girl's hunt for answers about the women mysteriously disappearing from her tribe's reservation leads her to delve into the myths and stories of her people, all while being haunted herself, in this atmospheric and stunningly poignant debut. Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation's casino...and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step--an ancient tribal myth come-to-life, one that's intent on devouring her whole. With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing and the tribe scrambles to find answers, Anna struggles with her place on the rez, desperately searching for the key she's sure lies in the legends of her tribe's past. When Anna's own little sister also disappears, she'll do anything to bring Grace home. But the demons plaguing the reservation--both ancient and new--are strong, and sometimes, it's the stories that never get told that are the most important. Part gripping thriller and part mythological horror, author Nick Medina spins an incisive and timely novel of life as an outcast, the cost of forgetting tradition, and the courage it takes to become who you were always meant to be. -
I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times
PORCHLIGHT BOOKS JUNE 2022 NONFICTION BESTSELLER "I can see this book helping estranged parties who are equally invested in bridging a gap--it could be assigned reading for fractured families aspiring to a harmonious Thanksgiving dinner." --New York Times "Like all skills, these techniques take practice. But anyone who sincerely wants to bridge the gaps in understanding will appreciate this book. Guzmán is emphatic about making an effort to work on difficult conversations." --Manhattan Book Review We think we have the answers, but we need to be asking a lot more questions. Journalist Mónica Guzmán is the loving liberal daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted--twice--for Donald Trump. When the country could no longer see straight across the political divide, Mónica set out to find what was blinding us and discovered the most eye-opening tool we're not using: our own built-in curiosity. Partisanship is up, trust is down, and our social media feeds make us sure we're right and everyone else is ignorant (or worse). But avoiding one another is hurting our relationships and our society. In this timely, personal guide, Mónica, the chief storyteller for the national cross-partisan depolarization organization Braver Angels, takes you to the real front lines of a crisis that threatens to grind America to a halt--broken conversations among confounded people. She shows you how to overcome the fear and certainty that surround us to finally do what only seems impossible: understand and even learn from people in your life whose whole worldview is different from or even opposed to yours. Drawing from cross-partisan conversations she's had, organized, or witnessed everywhere from the echo chambers on social media to the wheat fields in Oregon to raw, unfiltered fights with her own family on election night, Mónica shows how you can put your natural sense of wonder to work for you immediately, finding the answers you need by talking with people--rather than about them--and asking the questions you want, curiously. In these pages, you'll learn:- How to ask what you really want to know (even if you're afraid to)
- How to grow smarter from even the most tense interactions, online or off
- How to cross boundaries and find common ground--with anyone
Whether you're left, right, center, or not a fan of labels: If you're ready to fight back against the confusion, heartbreak, and madness of our dangerously divided times--in your own life, at least--Mónica's got the tools and fresh, surprising insights to prove that seeing where people are coming from isn't just possible. It's easier than you think.