Brick x Brick: How to Build Amazing Things with 100-ish Bricks or Fewer
Adam Ward
Join the "Bob Ross of LEGO" in constructing cool creations with this how-to guide that brings legendary builds to life!
Looking for something a little more exciting than your average LEGO® guide? You're in luck! Not only does this spectacular book offer step-by-step instructions for fun builds and crafts, it also includes intriguing trivia, micro challenges, and advice to boost your creative confidence. You'll also learn all about the author, Adam Ward, a professional artist who hosts the popular YouTube series Brick x Brick--and who wants you to become the best builder you can be. With a difficulty rating provided for each build, this is the perfect pick for LEGO® lovers of every skill-level. Get ready to make a masterpiece!
Treasure Island: Your Classics. Your Choices. (You Are the Classics)
Robert Louis Stevenson, Matt London
In these literary classics, you make the choices. Readers explore alternative paths, new character developments, shocking new endings, and surprising plot twists, told in the same adventurous voice as Robert Louis Stevenson's original.
While readers can follow the original tale of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, new options allow readers to explore additional characters and settings. Some lead to new endings, while others send readers back into the original storyline. Fans of literary classics will delight in seeing their favorite stories given new life, and reluctant readers will discover the classics through the engaging format of an interactive story.
Hop into an Easter adventure with this rhyming picture book that celebrates the magic of the holiday!
Have you ever wondered where the Easter Bunny lives, or how he makes all those colorful eggs? Join a group of children as they follow a trail of eggs and discover his secret hideaway! The question is, what will they find there? Find out in Emma Randall's enchanting tale, complete with bright illustrations that encourage young ones to appreciate and enjoy the season.
Celebrate Earth Day with Tiny in this fun 8x8!
It's Earth Day, and Tiny and Elliott are on their way to the park, picking up litter and throwing it in the trash. At the park, a friend asks for help transporting trees to plant. But when they discover there aren't any shovels for digging, they're not sure what to do! Can Tiny find a way to save the day and help the planet?
Celebrate Halloween with the dino-zombies as they stomp and chomp through the streets on their quest for candy!
In this rhyming story designed to engage early readers, charming characters combine with simple text, lively illustrations, and laugh-out-loud humor to help boost kids' confidence and create lifelong readers!
Dino-zombies--that's right, real dinosaur zombies--are on the hunt. But don't worry, there's no need to be scared. Just join the creepy crew as they trick-or-treat to collect and consume all the candy they can!
Exciting, easy-to-read books are the stepping stone a young reader needs to bridge the gap between being a beginner and being fluent.
* "Belongs alongside Holly Goldberg Sloan's Counting by 7s, Cindy Baldwin's Where the Watermelons Grow, and Ali Benjamin's The Thing about Jellyfish. Highly recommended."--School Library Journal, starred review
An emotional and uplifting debut about a girl named Jack and her gender creative little brother, Birdie, searching for the place where they can be their true and best selves.
After their mama dies, Jack and Birdie find themselves without a place to call home. And when Mama's two brothers each try to provide one--first sweet Uncle Carl, then gruff Uncle Patrick--the results are funny, tender, and tragic.
They're also somehow . . . spectacular.
With voices and characters that soar off the page, J. M. M. Nuanez's debut novel depicts an unlikely family caught in a situation none of them would have chosen, and the beautiful ways in which they finally come to understand one another. Perfect for fans of The Thing about Jellyfish and Counting By Sevens.
"A luminous debut."--Ashley Herring Blake, author of Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World, Stonewall Honor book
An NPR Book Concierge Pick of the Year
“The fun of this engrossing read is that underneath the slapstick lies a finely nuanced meditation on how we perform as ourselves.” —New York Times Book Review
From the New York Times bestselling author of Frankly in Love comes a moving young adult novel about friendship, identity, and acceptance. Perfect for fans of John Green and To All the Boys I've Love Before.
When Sunny meets Cirrus, he can't believe how cool and confident she is. So when Cirrus mistakenly thinks Sunny plays guitar, he accidentally winds up telling her he's the front man of a rock band.
Before he knows it, Sunny is knee-deep in the lie: He gets his best friends to form a fake band with him and starts dressing like a rock star. But no way can he trick this amazing girl into thinking he's cool, right?
Just when Sunny is about to come clean, Cirrus asks to see them play sometime. Gulp.
Now there's only one thing to do: Fake it till you make it.
The New York Times bestselling author of The Unwanteds brings us an epic animal adventure story perfect for fans of Pax and A Wolf Called Wander.
Clarice is a young ship mouse grieving the loss of her mother when a mutiny forces her onto a small, leaky boat with a dangerous cat. Worse, she is separated from her younger brother, Charles Sebastian, who is trapped aboard the great ship.
Clarice and Charles Sebastian were taught to always be careful—but they will need to grow bold if they are to survive . . . and find one another again.
A sweet picture book about a girl who finds a special dress at a thrift store and imagines who may have owned the dress before her.
When Rosie finds the most beautiful yellow dress at her local thrift store, the first thing she notices when she brings it home is a name written on the tag: Mila. Rosie wonders if Mila liked any of the same things she did, and what amazing things Mila might have done in the dress.
The dress makes Rosie feel like her best self--like she can do anything. But soon it’s time to donate the dress so someone else can make their own memories with it. Letting it go is hard, but Rosie smiles when she wonders what the dress’s next owner will do while wearing it….
The joy and wonder of recycled clothing is brought to life by Leanne Hatch's charming text and whimsical illustrations.
From Good Morning America anchor Amy Robach and her husband, actor Andrew Shue comes a sweet tale about finding common ground and accepting and appreciating each others' differences.
When a big thunderstorm shakes their woodland home, the Squirrelly family must flee their nest for a hollow in an oak tree. To their surprise, the McMunk family had the exact same idea. This family of squirrels and a family of chipmunks must find ways to live together--which isn't always easy since they come from different backgrounds. But after some important lessons in compromise, the Squirrellys and the McMunks realize that life is better together as the McSquirrelies.
*"A highly recommended title for any library shelf. A lovely look at love." --Kirkus reviews (starred review)
A tender and lyrical story about a child's magical journey in search of Love. Perfect for fans of Corinna Luyken and Matt de la Peña.
Listen. Do you hear it? Hidden up in the storm clouds, stored up and waiting. It's time for a celebration. Love is here.
Told through poetic and lyrical text and accompanied by lush watercolor illustrations, a child takes a magical journey in search of love, only to find that it lived everywhere, in everything, even in one's own backyard. A celebration of the interconnectedness of our lives and proof that love is all around you--if you look closely enough for it. Even when the world feels darkest, love is here. Perfect for those looking to teach kindness and empathy to little ones.
Praise for Love is Here:
*"Readers are gifted with spectacular double-page spreads of bold watercolor and gouache illustrations that capture the mystery, grandeur, and immensity of love. Many picture books have been written about the subject matter, but this one elegantly treads familiar grounds. " --Kirkus reviews (starred review)
"Vibrant watercolor and gouache scenes make up author-illustrator Malbrough’s poetic paean . . . a chance to see how wonder can be shared—a fitting conclusion to this ebullient book." --Publishers Weekly
“Legitimately unputdownable. It’s a scathing critique of toxic masculinity wrapped up in a gorgeously written prep-school mystery.”—Becky Albertalli, NYT bestselling author of Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda
Seton Academic High is a prep school obsessed with its football team and their thirteen-year conference win streak, a record that players always say they’d never have without Seton’s girls. What exactly Seton girls do to make them so valuable, though, no one ever really says. They're just "the best." But the team’s quarterback, the younger brother of the Seton star who started the streak, wants more than regular season glory. He wants a state championship before his successor, Seton’s first Black QB, has a chance to overshadow him. Bigger rewards require bigger risks, and soon the actual secrets to the team's enduring success leak to a small group of girls who suddenly have the power to change their world forever.
The amusing differences between dogs and cats are shown through clever rhyming couplets in this lively picture book by a renowned poet
From morning to night, a cat and dog who live together show their innate feline and canine natures. The dog barks at the delivery man while the cat barely notices; the dog runs out to play when the children return from school, while the cat prefers to keep napping on the soft couch. Neither gets the better of the other in their rhyming interchanges, and by day's end they realize that, despite being opposites, they are happier when they're together.
A sweet-new sibling story, perfect for gifting to expecting parents, big siblings to-be, and dog-loving families everywhere
Patches the puppy is very good at waiting--or at least that's what he thinks. But his patience is put to the test when his two moms arrive home with an unexpected bundle. Is it a new toy? No! It's a new baby. Suddenly, everything Patches wants to do takes a little bit longer. But patience, it turns out, is a lesson worth learning.
A sumptuously illustrated exploration of the joy that comes with creating art for one's own self
There once was a time when all the colors, from midsummer blue to sunrise orange, lived at the tips of Annie's fingers...
But when her classmates' sidelong glances cause Annie to notice all the tiny flaws in her art, her colorful creative spark fades--quite literally--to gray. With lyrical prose and eye-catching illustration author-artist Lisa Anchin shows readers how to find the beauty in imperfections and celebrate the joy of creation for creations' sake.
The Mamas: What I Learned About Kids, Class, and Race from Moms Not Like Me
Helena Andrews-Dyer
Can white moms and Black moms ever truly be friends? Not just mom friends, but like really real friends? And does it matter?
“Utterly addictive . . . Through her sharp wit and dynamic anecdotal storytelling, Helena Andrews-Dyer shines a light on the cultural differences that separate Black and white mothers.”—Tia Williams, New York Times bestselling author of Seven Days in June
Helena Andrews-Dyer lives in a “hot” Washington, D.C., neighborhood, which means picturesque row houses and plenty of gentrification. After having her first child, she joined the local mom group—“the Mamas”—and quickly realized that being one of the only Black mothers in the mix was a mixed bag. The racial, cultural, and socioeconomic differences were made clear almost immediately. But spending time in what she calls “the Polly Pocket world of postracial parenting” was a welcome reprieve. Then George Floyd happened. A man was murdered, a man who called out for his mama. And suddenly, the Mamas hit different. Though they were alike in some ways—they want their kids to be safe; they think their husbands are lazy; they work too much and feel guilty about it—Andrews-Dyer realized she had an entirely different set of problems that her neighborhood mom friends could never truly understand.
In The Mamas, Andrews-Dyer chronicles the particular challenges she faces in a group where systemic racism can be solved with an Excel spreadsheet and where she, a Black, professional, Ivy League–educated mom, is overcompensating with every move. Andrews-Dyer grapples with her own inner tensions, like “Why do I never leave the house with the baby and without my wedding ring?” and “Why did every name we considered for our kids have to pass the résumé test?” Throw in a global pandemic and a nationwide movement for social justice, and Andrews-Dyer ultimately tries to find out if moms from different backgrounds can truly understand one another.
With sharp wit and refreshing honesty, The Mamas explores the contradictions and community of motherhood—white and Black and everything—against the backdrop of the rapidly changing world.
The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life
A.J. Jacobs
The New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically goes on a rollicking journey to understand the enduring power of puzzles: why we love them, what they do to our brains, and how they can improve our world.
“Even though I’ve never attempted the New York Times crossword puzzle or solved the Rubik’s Cube, I couldn’t put down The Puzzler.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before
Look for the author’s new podcast, The Puzzler, based on this book!
What makes puzzles—jigsaws, mazes, riddles, sudokus—so satisfying? Be it the formation of new cerebral pathways, their close link to insight and humor, or their community-building properties, they’re among the fundamental elements that make us human. Convinced that puzzles have made him a better person, A.J. Jacobs—four-time New York Times bestselling author, master of immersion journalism, and nightly crossworder—set out to determine their myriad benefits. And maybe, in the process, solve the puzzle of our very existence. Well, almost.
In The Puzzler, Jacobs meets the most zealous devotees, enters (sometimes with his family in tow) any puzzle competition that will have him, unpacks the history of the most popular puzzles, and aims to solve the most impossible head-scratchers, from a mutant Rubik’s Cube, to the hardest corn maze in America, to the most sadistic jigsaw. Chock-full of unforgettable adventures and original examples from around the world—including new work by Greg Pliska, one of America’s top puzzle-makers, and a hidden, super-challenging but solvable puzzle—The Puzzler will open readers’ eyes to the power of flexible thinking and concentration. Whether you’re puzzle obsessed or puzzle hesitant, you’ll walk away with real problem-solving strategies and pathways toward becoming a better thinker and decision maker—for these are certainly puzzling times.
The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health--and How We Must Adapt
Sinan Aral
A landmark insider’s tour of how social media affects our decision-making and shapes our world in ways both useful and dangerous, with critical insights into the social media trends of the 2020 election and beyond
“The book might be described as prophetic. . . . At least two of Aral’s three predictions have come to fruition.”—New York
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY WIRED • LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD
Social media connected the world—and gave rise to fake news and increasing polarization. It is paramount, MIT professor Sinan Aral says, that we recognize the outsize effect social media has on us—on our politics, our economy, and even our personal health—in order to steer today’s social technology toward its great promise while avoiding the ways it can pull us apart.
Drawing on decades of his own research and business experience, Aral goes under the hood of the most powerful social networks to tackle the critical question of just how much social media actually shapes our choices, for better or worse. He shows how the tech behind social media offers the same set of behavior influencing levers to everyone who hopes to change the way we think and act—from Russian hackers to brand marketers—which is why its consequences affect everything from elections to business, dating to health. Along the way, he covers a wide array of topics, including how network effects fuel Twitter’s and Facebook’s massive growth, the neuroscience of how social media affects our brains, the real consequences of fake news, the power of social ratings, and the impact of social media on our kids.
In mapping out strategies for being more thoughtful consumers of social media, The Hype Machine offers the definitive guide to understanding and harnessing for good the technology that has redefined our world overnight.
The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter
Kai Bird
“Important . . . [a] landmark presidential biography . . . Bird is able to build a persuasive case that the Carter presidency deserves this new look.”—The New York Times Book Review
An essential re-evaluation of the complex triumphs and tragedies of Jimmy Carter’s presidential legacy—from the expert biographer and Pulitzer Prize–winning co-author of American Prometheus
Four decades after Ronald Reagan’s landslide win in 1980, Jimmy Carter’s one-term presidency is often labeled a failure; indeed, many Americans view Carter as the only ex-president to have used the White House as a stepping-stone to greater achievements. But in retrospect the Carter political odyssey is a rich and human story, marked by both formidable accomplishments and painful political adversity. In this deeply researched, brilliantly written account, Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Kai Bird deftly unfolds the Carter saga as a tragic tipping point in American history.
As president, Carter was not merely an outsider; he was an outlier. He was the only president in a century to grow up in the heart of the Deep South, and his born-again Christianity made him the most openly religious president in memory. This outlier brought to the White House a rare mix of humility, candor, and unnerving self-confidence that neither Washington nor America was ready to embrace. Decades before today’s public reckoning with the vast gulf between America’s ethos and its actions, Carter looked out on a nation torn by race and demoralized by Watergate and Vietnam and prescribed a radical self-examination from which voters recoiled. The cost of his unshakable belief in doing the right thing would be losing his re-election bid—and witnessing the ascendance of Reagan.
In these remarkable pages, Bird traces the arc of Carter’s administration, from his aggressive domestic agenda to his controversial foreign policy record, taking readers inside the Oval Office and through Carter’s battles with both a political establishment and a Washington press corps that proved as adversarial as any foreign power. Bird shows how issues still hotly debated today—from national health care to growing inequality and racism to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—burned at the heart of Carter’s America, and consumed a president who found a moral duty in solving them.
Drawing on interviews with Carter and members of his administration and recently declassified documents, Bird delivers a profound, clear-eyed evaluation of a leader whose legacy has been deeply misunderstood. The Outlier is the definitive account of an enigmatic presidency—both as it really happened and as it is remembered in the American consciousness.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A small town is transformed when seven strange trees begin bearing magical apples in this masterpiece of horror from the author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents.
“This masterful outing should continue to earn Wendig comparisons to Stephen King.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
LOCUS AWARD FINALIST • AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something besides the season is changing there.
Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black.
Take a bite of one of these apples, and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing—and become darker.
This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples . . . and what’s the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?
Even if something else is buried in the orchard besides the seeds of these extraordinary trees: a bloody history whose roots reach back to the very origins of the town.
But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. It’s harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two outcasts find themselves caught in a web of dangerous magic and dark secrets that could change the world forever in the start of a riveting epic fantasy series from the author of The Shadowhunter Chronicles.
“Everything I look for in fantasy.”—George R. R. Martin
A POPSUGAR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
In the vibrant city-state of Castellane, the richest of nobles and the most debauched of criminals have one thing in common: the constant search for wealth, power, and the next hedonistic thrill.
Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword Catcher—the body double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He and Conor are as close as brothers, but his destiny is to die for Conor. No other future is possible.
Lin Caster is a physician from a small community whose members still possess magical abilities. But despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend without access to forbidden knowledge.
After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the ruler of Castellane’s criminal underworld. But as long-kept secrets begin to unravel and forbidden attractions arise, they must ask themselves: Is knowledge worth the price of betrayal? And will their discoveries plunge their nation into war—and the world into chaos?
A writer who craves a real-life happily ever after and a gruff fisherman who doesn’t believe in them find out they’re part of the greatest love story of all time.
“Cleverly imagines the epilogue Romeo and Juliet didn’t get to have, and how curses can be blessings in disguise.”—JODI PICOULT
A POPSUGAR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
After a bad breakup, Helene Janssen runs away to Alaska to find some peace and quiet. She’s been dreaming up bits and pieces of a novel for years and hopes to finally have time to write it.
On her first night there, Helene meets Sebastien Montague, a crab fisherman who looks exactly like the hero in the book she’s working on. But how is that even possible?
Sebastien seems to recognize Helene, too, but he lies about it and brushes her off, even though their chemistry is immediate and undeniable.
This is because their love story defies the ages: She is Juliet, reincarnated, and he is Romeo, lost in time. And if Helene can convince Sebastien to give her a chance, maybe this time they can rewrite their ending and find a true happily-ever-after.
The lore and legends around the underground game known as Rabbits gain new dimensions in The Quiet Room, a twisty tale set in the world of the hit Rabbits podcast.
“Another mind-bending adventure replete with mystery.”—Publishers Weekly
After nearly winning the eleventh iteration of Rabbits, the mysterious alternate reality game so vast it uses the entire world as its canvas, Emily Connors suddenly finds herself trapped in a dimensional stream where the game does not exist. At all. Except . . . why do sinister figures show up to stop her every time she goes looking? Does Rabbits truly not exist, or is it being hidden? And if it’s being hidden, why—and by whom?
Meanwhile, architect and theme park designer Rowan Chess is having the weirdest month of his life, full of odd coincidences and people who appear one moment and vanish the next, with no trace they ever even existed. The game that is hiding from Emily seems to have found Rowan—with a vengeance.
But only when Rowan and Emily meet do things start to get dangerous, for together they uncover a conspiracy far deeper and deadlier than either of them expected—one that could forever change the nature not only of the game, but of reality itself.
“Happily Ever After” is a total scam, but at least this time the princess is the one controlling the grift—until her true love arrives and threatens to ruin the whole scheme. Intrigue, magic, and wit abound in this Cinderella fairytale reimagining, perfect for fans of Heather Walter and Naomi Novik.
“A dazzlingly magical, thrilling, and inventive take on a beloved classic.”—Lana Harper, New York Times bestselling author of Payback's a Witch
I’m not who you think I am.
My transformation from a poor, orphaned scullery maid into the enchantingly mysterious lady who snagged the heart of the prince did not happen—as the rumors insisted—in a magical metamorphosis of pumpkins and glass slippers. On the first evening of the ball, I didn’t meekly help my “evil” stepmother and stepsisters primp and preen or watch forlornly out the window as their carriage rolled off toward the palace. I had other preparations to make.
My stepsisters and I had been trained for this—to be the cleverest in the room, to be quick with our hands and quicker with our lies. We were taught how to get everything we wanted in this world, everything men always kept for themselves: power, wealth, and prestige. And with a touchingly tragic past and the help of some highly illegal spells, I would become a princess, secure our fortunes, and we would all live happily ever after.
But there’s always more to the story. With my magic running out, war looming, and a handsome hostage prince—the wrong prince—distracting me from my true purpose with his magnetic charm and forbidden flirtations, I’m in danger of losing control of the delicate balance I’ve created . . . and that could prove fatal.
There’s so much more riding on this than a crown.
A hero once believed to be the chosen one must find a new path with the help of a band of unlikely allies in the sequel to The Art of Prophecy, an epic fantasy ode to martial arts and magic from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Wesley Chu.
Once there was a prophecy that a chosen one would rise to defeat the Eternal Khan, an immortal god-king.
But the prophecy was wrong.
Now Jian, the former chosen hero, is just an ordinary young man trying to find his own way. But he may yet have an extraordinary destiny, because he joins forces with Taishi, his grumpy grandmaster, who instructs him in the ways of her family’s powerful war art. Jian still has a long way to go before he can become her heir, so she recruits a band of elderly grandmasters out of retirement to whip him into shape and help with this one last job.
And there are others who are also seeking their own destiny, like Qisami, an assassin on a secret mission to protect a powerful noblewoman from her enemies. But as Qisami goes undercover to complete her mission, she takes on a new identity that gives her something she never had before: friendship, found family, and new purpose.
Sali also thought her fate was laid before her. She was supposed to be looking for the next Eternal Khan and now finds her clan exiled from everything she’s ever known. As she leads the survivors in search of a new home, Sali discovers that she’s something she never thought she could be: a leader and a revolutionary.
Because sometimes destiny is grander than any prophecy can foresee. And the greatest destiny of all is the one you choose for yourself.
A rebellious young heroine begins a voyage of self-discovery in the third novel of an epic fantasy series set in the world of Viridian Deep, from the legendary author of the Shannara saga.
Auris’s adoptive sister Char has always been the baby of the family—a position that grates on Char, especially when everyone insists on telling her exactly what to do and how to do it. But Char is certain that her headstrong, impulsive behavior, the quality her family sees as her greatest weakness, is actually her greatest strength: the willingness to instantly brave danger and leap to the rescue when anyone she loves is threatened.
Char knows she will never grow into the woman she was meant to be under her family’s loving but repressive eye, so a month before she turns fifteen, she runs away and joins a Human pirate crew in the warm southerly regions of her world. Then, three years into her pirate career, her captain—the man she is convinced she loves—is captured by the leaders of the slave trade he has been fighting. When Char leaps in to rescue him, she finds herself thrust into an adventure that will uncover secrets she never suspected about herself, one that will maybe, finally, teach her to look before she leaps.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the creator of The Iron Druid Chronicles comes the final book in the epic fantasy trilogy that began with A Plague of Giants, about a war that broke a continent—and opened the door to a new world.
A TORDOTCOM BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Seeker and Sower Pen Yas ben Min’s cousin was one of the legendary heroes of the wars against the giants until her untimely death. Pen has grown up in her famous cousin’s shadow, but when she’s given a quest to plant the seed of the magical Fourth Tree, she has a chance to step into the light—and usher in a new age for her country.
Fighter and Friend Abhi’s life—and the world—changed when he discovered a lost magic: the power to speak to animals. After fighting so many battles, he’s weary and longs for home and his love, Tamhan. But before he can return, there is one last mission that only Abhi can complete: to speak to the colossal creatures who wait beneath the waves—the krakens.
Sailor and Explorer Koesha and her shipmates have already made an impossible journey by navigating the Northern Yawn, at the end of which she secured an unusual cloak. But when that cloak turns out to be the key to unlocking the mystery of the Seventh Kenning, Koesha has to risk everything on another life-threatening journey and hope that she can steer her crew to safety.
Don’t miss any of Kevin Hearne’s action-packed Seven Kennings series A PLAGUE OF GIANTS • A BLIGHT OF BLACKWINGS • A CURSE OF KRAKENS
Center Center: A Funny, Sexy, Sad Almost-Memoir of a Boy in Ballet
James Whiteside
“James Whiteside is an electrifying performer, an incredible athlete, and an artist, through and through. To know James is to love him; with Center Center, you are about to fall in love.” —Jennifer Garner
“A frank examination and celebration of queerness.” —Good Morning America
A daring, joyous, and inspiring memoir-in-essays from the American Ballet Theatre principal dancer-slash-drag queen-slash-pop star who's redefining what it means to be a man in ballet
There's a mark on every stage around the world that signifies the center of its depth and width, called "center center." James Whiteside has dreamed of standing on that very mark as a principal dancer with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre ever since he was a twelve-year-old blown away by watching the company's spring gala. The GLAMOUR. The VIRTUOSITY. The RIPPED MEN IN TIGHTS!
In this absurd and absurdist collection of essays, Whiteside tells us the story of how he got to be a primo ballerino—stopping along the way to muse about the tragically fated childhood pets who taught him how to feel, reminisce on ill-advised partying at summer dance camps, and imagine fantastical run-ins with Jesus on Grindr. Also in these pages are tales of the two alter egos he created to subvert the strict classical rigor of ballet: JbDubs, an out-and-proud pop musician, and Ühu Betch, an over-the-top drag queen named after Yoohoo chocolate milk.
Center Center is an exuberant behind-the-scenes tour of Whiteside’s triple life, both on- and offstage—a raunchy, curious, and unapologetic celebration of queerness, self-expression, friendship, sex, creativity, and pushing boundaries that will entertain you, shock you*, inspire you, embolden you . . . and maybe even make you cry.
*THIS IS NOT A BOOK FOR CHILDREN.
“A rollercoaster of terror, marked by whip-fast twists and turns.”—The New York Times
“Pulled me in from the first page... Put this one high on your summer list.”—Stephen King
When a small-town family is pushed to the brink, how far will they go to protect one of their own? An edgy, propulsive read about what we will do in the name of love and blood
Tony has always looked out for his younger brother, Nick. So when he's called to a hospital bed where Nick is lying battered and bruised after a violent sexual assault, his protective instincts flare, and a white-hot rage begins to build.
As a small-town New England lawyer, Tony's wife, Julia, has cases involving kids all the time. When Detective Rice gets assigned to this one, Julia feels they're in good hands. Especially because she senses that Rice, too, understands how things can quickly get complicated. Very complicated.
After all, one moment Nick was having a drink with a handsome stranger; the next, he was at the center of an investigation threatening to tear not only him, but his entire family, apart. And now his attacker, out on bail, is disputing Nick's version of what happened.
As Julia tries to help her brother-in-law, she sees Tony's desire for revenge, to fix things for Nick, getting out of control. Tony is starting to scare her. And before long, she finds herself asking: does she really know what her husband is capable of? Or of what she herself is?
Exploring elements of doubt, tragedy, suspense, and justice, The Damage is an all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer.
A warm, inventive, and multilayered novel about two families - one made up largely of scientists, and the other of artists and mystics - whose worlds collide in pursuit of a lost daughter
Mette, a twenty-year old programmer of visual effects for video games, lives with her mother, Saskia, an aspiring playwright, in Brooklyn. Mette is a private and socially awkward young woman, who finds something consoling in repetitive mathematical calculations. But she has been recently rejected in love, and feels stuck in an endless loop, no longer certain of her place in the world.
As Brian Hall's new novel opens, Mette has gone missing. Her disappearance forces Saskia to reunite with Mette's father, Mark, an emotionally distant astronomy professor in Ithaca, to embark on a journey together to find her. Mette's path will take her across America and then to a fateful visit with her charismatic grandfather, Thomas, who formerly ran the commune north of Ithaca where Saskia was raised, and who now lives as a hermit in a windmill on a remote Danish island.
Playing out over nine decades and three generations, and stitching together a dazzling array of subjects—from cosmology and classical music to number theory and medieval mystery plays—The Stone Loves the World is a story of love, longing, and scientific wonder. It offers a moving reflection on the human search for truth, meaning, and connection in an often incomprehensible universe, and on the genuine surprises that the real world, and human society, can offer.
