Collection: Shop Woman

Discover this exquisite poetry and prose collection about the pains of growing up from the popular millennial Instagram poet, perfect for fans of Amanda Lovelace and Rupi Kaur.

Following her breakout debut Eighteen Years, poet Madisen Kuhn is thrilled to share this intimate portrait of a young woman navigating early adulthood and leaving her teenage years behind.

Chronicling the complexities, joys, and challenges of this transitional phase of life, Please Don't Go Before I Get Better is a powerful, deeply affecting work that pierces your heart with its refreshing candor and vulnerability. A poignant exploration of self-image, self-discovery, and self-reflection, this anthology brilliantly captures the universal experience of growing up, and you are bound to find yourself reflected in these glimmering pages.

When Flossy Merrill summons her children to the beloved family beach house to celebrate their father's eightieth birthday, both cherished memories and long-kept secrets come to light in this charming and lyrical novel from the author of The Lake Season and Mystic Summer. Flossy Merrill has managed to--somewhat begrudgingly--gather her three ungrateful grown children from their dysfunctional lives for a summer reunion at the family's Rhode Island beach house. Clementine, her youngest child and a young mother of two small children, has caused Flossy the most worry after enduring a tragically life-altering year. But Samuel and his partner Evan are not far behind in their ability to alarm: their prospective adoption search has just taken a heart-wrenching turn. Only Paige, the eldest of the headstrong Merrill clan, is her usual self: arriving precisely on time with her well-adapted teens. Little does her family know that she, too, is facing personal struggles of her own. No matter. With her family finally congregated under one seaside roof, Flossy is determined to steer her family back on course even as she prepares to reveal the fate of the summer house that everyone has thus far taken for granted: she's selling it. The Merrill children are both shocked and outraged and each returns to memories of their childhoods at their once beloved summer house--the house where they have not only grown up, but from which they have grown away. With each lost in their respective heartaches, Clementine, Samuel, and Paige will be forced to reconsider what really matters before they all say goodbye to a house that not only defined their summers, but, ultimately, the ways in which they define themselves. Featuring McKinnon's "sharp and evocative" (Kirkus Reviews) voice, this warm-hearted novel is perfect for fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Mary Alice Monroe.

Two women, brought together by tragedy, strive to find themselves on Martha's Vineyard. But it's not easy to heal old wounds in a powerful novel about family, secrets, motherhood, and the cold grip of the past.

A desperate murder committed by Angela Miller's mother tore Angela's life apart and brought her to Martha's Vineyard to live with her wealthy grandparents. It's where her cousin, Kiki King, was born and raised, and Kiki now wants nothing more than to see the world beyond its sandy perimeter. Kiki's mother escaped it. She took a late-night swim off Tashmoo Beach and was never seen again.

Once bound by broken childhoods, Angela and Kiki have grown up divided--by their obsessions, their love for the same man, and their own conflicted journeys of motherhood. But when a small box of bones is unearthed in the woods, Angela and Kiki discover there's so much more to learn about each other, their families, and the dark side of the picturesque island they call home.

It's time for Angela and Kiki to expose their secrets, to finally end a cycle of family drama and anguish, and to forgive and make peace with the past on their own terms.

USA TODAY bestselling author Kathryn Springer brings holiday cheer in this festive story about fresh starts and unexpected love blooming on a snow-covered Christmas tree farm.

It's three weeks until Christmas, and Lucy Gable is not in the holiday spirit. She's the assistant to bestselling romance author Brynn Dixon, who's been suffering from major burnout. Hoping to reduce Brynn's stress, Lucy's organized an intimate book tour--one that includes a charming little Christmas tree farm. And they're still hoping that no one discovers that Lucy was the one who finished writing Brynn's last book...

But Lucy's carefully planned book tour is going completely awry. The Christmas tree farm owner is a reluctant host, the fans are going wild for the changes Lucy's made to the book and Brynn's adult son--who no one else knows about--is an unexpected (if handsome) distraction. And, as if those challenges aren't enough, a winter storm at the farm is ensuring that hiding the truth is all but impossible.

Yet somewhere between snowy sleigh rides, a cozy bonfire, caroling and the promise of new love, Lucy is experiencing her first winter wonderland. And Brynn is discovering that it might not be too late to find her own happy ending. With a little courage and a sense of adventure, it might just be the start of whole new chapters for both of them--and an accidentally perfect white Christmas.

"A tender, touching story filled with memorable characters who will sweep you away on a journey of hope, second chances, and new beginnings."

--Bestselling author Irene Hannon on The Gathering Table

Miss May Does Not Exist, by Carrie Courogen is the riveting biography of comedian, director, actor and writer Elaine May, one of America's greatest comic geniuses. May began her career as one-half of the legendary comedy team known as Nichols and May, the duo that revolutionized the comedy sketch.

After performing their Broadway smash An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Elaine set out on her own. She toiled unsuccessfully on Broadway for a while, but then headed to Hollywood where she became the director of A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, and the legendary Ishtar. She was hired as a script doctor on countless films like Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Tootsie, and The Birdcage. In 2019, she returned to Broadway where she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in The Waverly Gallery. Besides her considerable talent, May is well known for her reclusiveness. On one of the albums she made with Mike Nichols, her bio is this: "Miss May does not exist." Until now.

Carrie Courogen has uncovered the Elaine May who does exist. Conducting countless interviews, she has filled in the blanks May has forcibly kept blank for years, creating a fascinating portrait of the way women were mistreated and held back in Hollywood. Miss May Does Not Exist is a remarkable love story about a prickly genius who was never easy to work with, not always easy to love and frequently often punished for those things, despite revolutionizing the way we think about comedy, acting, and what a film or play can be.

SWISH! Cheer courtside for a Muslim teen as she joins an all-girls, hijab-wearing basketball team and learns that she's much more than a score. This energetic graphic novel is inspired by a true story!

Aliya is new to Wisconsin, and everything feels different than Florida. The Islamic school is bigger, the city is colder, and her new basketball team is...well, they stink.

Aliya's still excited to have teammates (although the team's captain, Noura, isn't really Aliya's biggest fan), and their new coach really understands basketball (even if she doesn't know much about being Muslim). This season should be a blast...if they could just start to win. As they strengthen their skills on the court, Aliya and the Peace Academy team discover that it takes more than talent to be great--it's teamwork and self-confidence that defines true success.

For fans of The Crossover and Roller Girl, this graphic novel goes big with humor and heart as it explores culture and perceptions, fitting in and standing out, and finding yourself, both on and off the court.

When a famous children's author is murdered at the library, Tricia Miles has to find the killer before it's too late in the latest entry to Lorna Barrett's New York Times bestselling Booktown series.

Tricia Miles is ready to close the book on all her amateur sluething--she's tired of finding dead bodies and being accused of murder. But even the best laid plans often go awry.

Stoneham is all abuzz when Lauren Barker, a famous children's book author, arrives for an event at the local library. Lauren is a Stoneham native, and her new book strikes some members of the town as controversial. But when Lauren is found strangled to death after an altercation at the event, the plot twist throws Tricia right back into the middle of things.

Who could possibly have wanted Lauren dead? Was it Dan Reed, who had to be thrown out of the signing for spouting conspiracy theories and causing a disturbance? Stella Kraft, Lauren's high school teacher, who thought of the author as a protégé--something Lauren violently disputed? Or the mystery man who spoke to Lauren just before she was found dead? With the suspect count climbing higher and more information about Lauren's past coming to light, will Tricia be able to give this story a happily ever after?

Sophie Kowalevski was both a brilliant mathematician and a talented writer. Creative work nurtured her mathematical research, giving her a flexibility of thought she treasured. A wonderful STEAM figure, she not only did mathematical research, but she also created many literary works. This inspiring title tells the story of Sophie's journey as the first woman to receive a doctorate in mathematics, which required original research, holding a university chair in mathematics, and becoming the editor of a major scientific journal.

No matter how wrong relationships can be, there's nothing quite like getting them right.

Every guy's been a creep at one point or another. That's just the way it is. Or at least, that's what Cleo tells herself once she finds out her boyfriend might not be the man she thought he was. Is it possible to keep loving someone you're not sure you can trust? More to the point, should you? Once the fabric of Cleo's relationship rips at the seams, the life she had built with him--abroad and away from those closest to her--unravels right before her eyes. Yet, letting it fall to pieces as she walks away is only half the story.

So Long Sad Love swaps out the wobbly transition of weaving a new existence into being post-heartbreak for the surprising effortlessness and simplicity of a life already rebuilt. Cleo not only rediscovers her identity as an artist but uncovers her capacity to find love where she has always been most at home: with other women.

Mirion Malle dares to tell a story with a happier ending in a stunning, full-color follow-up to the multi-award nominated This is How I Disappear. Translated by Governor General Literary Award nominee Aleshia Jensen, So Long Sad Love unabashedly skips to the good part and shines a light on just how rewarding following your bliss can be.

One woman's trash is another woman's--lost Chagall masterpiece?!?

Expat Zoe Barlow has settled well into her artist's life among the Lost Generation in 1920s Paris. When a too-tipsy guest at her weekly poker game breaks Zoe's favorite clock, she's off to a Montparnasse flea market to bargain with the vendor Laurette for a replacement. What Zoe didn't bargain for was the lost Chagall painting that's been used like a rag to wrap her purchases! Eager to learn whether Laurette has more Chagalls lying about like trash, Zoe sets off to track her down at her storage shed. With no Laurette in sight, Zoe snoops around and indeed finds several additional Chagalls--and then she finds Laurette herself, dead beneath a scrap heap, her beautiful face bashed in.

With Paris hosting the 1924 Summer Olympics, the police are far too busy with tourist-related crimes to devote much time to the clock seller's murder. After returning the paintings to a grateful Marc Chagall, Zoe begins her own investigation. Did the stolen paintings play any part in the brutal killing? Or was it a crime of passion? Zoe soon discovers that there were many people who had reason to resent the lovely Laurette. But who hated the girl enough to stop her clock permanently? When Zoe discovers a second murder victim, the pressure is on to find the killer before time--and luck--run out.

Former international flight attendant Annie Taylor is embracing her country roots and racing toward a future with her sustainable farmer fiancé, but wedding plans are complicated by her new job, a mysterious ex-boyfriend, and a narcissistic father.

Meanwhile, Annie's old-fashioned grandma, Beulah, is facing a shake-up in the last place she ever thought she would--home. A crisis on May Hollow Road follows a friend's betrayal, challenging Beulah's forgiving nature. An unwelcome diet, a new houseguest, and a possible overseas trip will all stretch her spirit--if she lets it.

Granted takes readers from the comforts of the Kentucky countryside to old-world Tuscany with a cast of memorable characters. Granted follows Grounded and Guarded in the May Hollow Trilogy.

When a dying man hands orphan Gabe a coded manuscript, he's hurled into a quest that takes him far beyond his monastery home. With new, unexpected friends, Gabe sets out to uncover the book's secrets and finds himself questioning everything he knows about right and wrong and wondering if he'll ever find a way back home?

There's deadweight behind the bar at the Rusty Anchor and it's up to Cape Cod bike shop owner Mackenzie "Mac" Almeida to solve the murder in Agatha Award-winner Maddie Day's latest Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery . . .

A rainy July weekend in Westham means the beaches are empty and business is dead at Mac's Bikes but couldn't be livelier inside the Rusty Anchor Pub. But come Monday morning one patron is not so lively when the chef opens up and finds a body behind the bar. It's last call for Bruce Byrne, an elderly high school teacher who's been around so long it seems like he taught everybody.

When Mac's friend Flo, the librarian, makes the list of suspects, Mac gathers the Cozy Capers Book Group to clear her name. With no end in sight to the rain, the group has plenty of time to study the clues and sort through a roll call of suspects to determine who decided to teach Mr. Bryne a lesson. But with a killer desperate to cover their tracks, Mac and the group will be tested as never before . . .

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is one of history's most powerful acts of resistance. Here, author Joshua M. Greene (Signs of Survival) tells the true story of a young Jewish woman who was instrumental in the uprising as a smuggler of messages and weapons into and out of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Scholastic Focus is the premier home of thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and thoughtfully designed works of narrative nonfiction aimed at middle-grade and young adult readers. These books help readers learn about the world in which they live and develop their critical thinking skills so that they may become dynamic citizens who are able to analyze and understand our past, participate in essential discussions about our present, and work to grow and build our future.

Warsaw, Poland, 1940s: The Nazis are on the march, determined to wipe out the Jewish people of Europe. Teenage Vladka and her family are among the thousands of Jews forced to relocate behind the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto, a cramped, oppressive space full of starvation, suffering, and death.

When Vladka's family is deported to concentration camps, Vladka joins up with other young people in the ghetto who are part of the Jewish underground: a group determined to fight back against the Nazis, no matter the cost.

Vladka's role in the underground? To pass as a non-Jew, sneaking out of the ghetto to blend into Polish society while smuggling secret messages and weapons back over the ghetto wall. Every move she makes comes with the risk of being arrested or killed. But Vladka and her friends know that their missions are worth the danger--they are preparing for an uprising like no other, one that will challenge the Nazi war machine.

This astonishing true story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, told through the lens of Holocaust survivor and educator Vladka Meed, introduces readers to a crucial piece of history while highlighting the persistence of bravery in the face of hate.

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help us start anew.

It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn't here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she's dreamt of coming for years--she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she's here without him. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe--which makes it that much more surprising when the women can't stop confiding in each other.

In turns uproariously, absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach's The Wedding People is a look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined--and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Belly Up is a story collection that contains ghosts, mediums, a lover obsessed with the sound of harps tuning, teenage girls who believe they are actually plants, gulag prisoners who outsmart a terrible warden, and carnivorous churches. Throughout these grotesque and tender stories, characters question the bodies they've been given and what their bodies require to be sustained.