Everyone can bloom in the library garden!

$2.00 a day : living on almost nothing in America

Edin, Kathryn, 1962-


"A revelatory account of poverty in America so deep that we, as a country, don't think it exists Jessica Compton's family of four would have no cash income unless she donated plasma twice a week at her local donation center in Tennessee. Modonna Harris and her teenage daughter Brianna in Chicago often have no food but spoiled milk on weekends. After two decades of brilliant research on American poverty, Kathryn Edin noticed something she hadn't seen since the mid-1990s -- households surviving on virtually no income. Edin teamed with Luke Shaefer, an expert on calculating incomes of the poor, to discover that the number of American families living on $2.00 per person, per day, has skyrocketed to 1.5 million American households, including about 3 million children. Where do these families live? How did they get so desperately poor? Edin has "turned sociology upside down" (Mother Jones) with her procurement of rich -- and truthful -- interviews. Through the book's many compelling profiles, moving and startling answers emerge. The authors illuminate a troubling trend: a low-wage labor market that increasingly fails to deliver a living wage, and a growing but hidden landscape of survival strategies among America's extreme poor. More than a powerful expose, $2.00 a Day delivers new evidence and new ideas to our national debate on income inequality. "--
Date Published:2015

"A revelatory account of poverty in America so deep that we, as a country, don't think it exists Jessica Compton's family of four would have no cash income unless she donated plasma twice a week at her local donation center in Tennessee. Modonna Harris and her teenage daughter Brianna in Chicago often have no food but spoiled milk on weekends. After two decades of brilliant research on American poverty, Kathryn Edin noticed something she hadn't seen since the mid-1990s -- households surviving on virtually no income. Edin teamed with Luke Shaefer, an expert on calculating incomes of the poor, to discover that the number of American families living on $2.00 per person, per day, has skyrocketed to 1.5 million American households, including about 3 million children. Where do these families live? How did they get so desperately poor? Edin has "turned sociology upside down" (Mother Jones) with her procurement of rich -- and truthful -- interviews. Through the book's many compelling profiles, moving and startling answers emerge. The authors illuminate a troubling trend: a low-wage labor market that increasingly fails to deliver a living wage, and a growing but hidden landscape of survival strategies among America's extreme poor. More than a powerful expose, $2.00 a Day delivers new evidence and new ideas to our national debate on income inequality. "--

Date Published:2015

All are welcome

Penfold, Alexandra,


Illustrations and simple, rhyming text introduce a school where diversity is celebrated and songs, stories, and talents are shared.
Date Published:2018

Atmosphere : A Love Story.

Reid, Taylor Jenkins


1-28-2026 (45.00). Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Now selected from thousands to train at the Johnson Space Center, she makes close friends, until it all changes in an instant.
Date Published:2025

Between the world and me

Coates, Ta-Nehisi.


"For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him -- most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. What were they afraid of? In Tremble for My Country, Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings -- moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago's South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America's 'long war on black people,' or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police. In his trademark style -- a mix of lyrical personal narrative, reimagined history, essayistic argument, and reportage -- Coates provides readers a thrillingly illuminating new framework for understanding race: its history, our contemporary dilemma, and where we go from here"--
Date Published:2015

"For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him -- most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. What were they afraid of? In Tremble for My Country, Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings -- moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago's South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America's 'long war on black people,' or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police. In his trademark style -- a mix of lyrical personal narrative, reimagined history, essayistic argument, and reportage -- Coates provides readers a thrillingly illuminating new framework for understanding race: its history, our contemporary dilemma, and where we go from here"--

Date Published:2015

The boy at the back of the class

Rauf, Onjali Q.


When quiet, nine-year-old Ahmet arrives in their classroom, a boy and his friends fail to draw him out but try a new plan after learning he is a Syrian refugee.
Date Published:2019

Dictionary for a better world : poems, quotes, and anecdotes from A to Z

Latham, Irene,


Words for a better world -- Acceptance -- Ally -- Belonging -- Compassion -- Courage -- Create -- Dialogue -- Diversity -- Dream -- Empathy -- Equality -- Exercise -- Experiment -- Forgiveness -- Freedom -- Fuel -- Gratitude -- (Epitaph for) hate -- Hope -- Humility -- Intention -- Justice -- Kindness -- Laughter -- Listen -- Love -- Mindfulness -- Nature -- Netiquette -- Open -- Pause -- Peace -- Question -- Reach -- Release -- Respect -- Service -- Shero -- Team -- Tenacity -- Upstander -- Vulnerable -- Voice -- (Bear) witness -- Wonder -- Xenial -- Yes -- Zest -- The etymology of progress. "Organized as a dictionary, entries in this book for middle-grade readers present words related to creating a better, more inclusive world. Each word is explored via a poem, a quote from an inspiring person, and a short personal anecdote from one of the co-authors, a prompt for how to translate the word into action, and an illustration"--
Date Published:2020

Words for a better world -- Acceptance -- Ally -- Belonging -- Compassion -- Courage -- Create -- Dialogue -- Diversity -- Dream -- Empathy -- Equality -- Exercise -- Experiment -- Forgiveness -- Freedom -- Fuel -- Gratitude -- (Epitaph for) hate -- Hope -- Humility -- Intention -- Justice -- Kindness -- Laughter -- Listen -- Love -- Mindfulness -- Nature -- Netiquette -- Open -- Pause -- Peace -- Question -- Reach -- Release -- Respect -- Service -- Shero -- Team -- Tenacity -- Upstander -- Vulnerable -- Voice -- (Bear) witness -- Wonder -- Xenial -- Yes -- Zest -- The etymology of progress. "Organized as a dictionary, entries in this book for middle-grade readers present words related to creating a better, more inclusive world. Each word is explored via a poem, a quote from an inspiring person, and a short personal anecdote from one of the co-authors, a prompt for how to translate the word into action, and an illustration"--

Date Published:2020

Disability visibility : twenty-first century disabled voices


Unspeakable conversations / Harriet McBryde Johnson -- Ki'tay D. Davidson : a eulogy / Talila A. Lewis -- If you can't fast, give / Maysoon Zayid -- There's a mathematical equation that proves I'm ugly--or so I learned in my seventh grade art class / Ariel Henley -- The erasure of indigenous people in chronic illness / Jen Deerinwater -- When you are waiting to be healed / June Eric-Udorie -- The isolation of being deaf in prison / Jeremy Woody as told to Christie Thompson -- Common cyborg / Jillian Weise -- I'm tired of chasing a cure / Liz Moore -- We can't go back / Ricard T. Thornton, Sr. -- Radical visibility : a disabled queer clothing reform movement manifesto / Sky Cubacub -- Guide dogs don't lead blind people. We wander as one / Haben Girma -- Taking charge of my story as a cancer patient at the hospital where I work / Diana Cejas -- Canfei to canji : the freedom to be loud / Sandy Ho -- Nurturing black disabled joy / Keah Brown -- Last but not least : embracing asexuality / Keshia Scott -- Parenting with a disability makes me feel like an 'impostor' as a mother / Jessica Slice -- How to make a paper crane from rage / Elsa Sjunneson-Henry -- Selma Blair became a disabled icon overnight. Here's why we need more stories like hers / Zipporah Arielle -- Why my novel is dedicated to my disabled friend Maddy / A.H. Reaume -- The anti-abortion bill you aren't hearing about / Rebecca Cokley -- So. Not. Broken / Alice Sheppard -- How a blind astronomer found a way to hear the stars / Wanda Díaz-Merced -- Incontinence is a public health issue and we need to talk about it / Mari Ramsawakh -- Falling/burning : Hannah Gadsby, Nanette, and being a bipolar creator / Shoshana Kessock -- Six ways of looking at crip time / Ellen Samuels -- Lost causes / Reyma McCoy McDeid -- On NYC's paratransit, fighting for safety, respect, and human dignity / Britney Wilson -- Gaining power through communication access / Lateef McLeod -- The fearless Benjamin Lay : activist, abolitionist, dwarf person / Eugene Grant -- To survive climate catastrophe, look to queer and disabled folks / Patricia Berne -- Disability solidarity : completing the 'vision for black lives / Harriet Tubman Collective -- Time's up for me, too / Karolyn Gehrig -- Still dreaming wild disability justice dreams at the end of the world / Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha -- Love means never having to say ... anything / Jamison Hill -- On the ancestral plane : crip hand me downs and the legacy of our movements / Stacey Milbern -- The beauty of spaces created for and by disabled people / s.e. smith. "A groundbreaking collection of first-person writing on the joys and challenges of the modern disability experience: Disability Visibility brings together the voices of activists, authors, lawyers, politicians, artists, and everyday people whose daily lives are, in the words of playwright Neil Marcus, "an art . . . an ingenious way to live." According to the last census, one in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some are visible, some are hidden--but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together an urgent, galvanizing collection of personal essays by contemporary disabled writers. There is Harriet McBryde Johnson's "Unspeakable Conversations," which describes her famous debate with Princeton philosopher Peter Singer over her own personhood. There is columnist s. e. smith's celebratory review of a work of theater by disabled performers. There are original pieces by up-and-coming authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma. There are blog posts, manifestos, eulogies, and testimonies to Congress. Taken together, this anthology gives a glimpse of the vast richness and complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own assumptions and understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and past with hope and love"--
Date Published:2020

Unspeakable conversations / Harriet McBryde Johnson -- Ki'tay D. Davidson : a eulogy / Talila A. Lewis -- If you can't fast, give / Maysoon Zayid -- There's a mathematical equation that proves I'm ugly--or so I learned in my seventh grade art class / Ariel Henley -- The erasure of indigenous people in chronic illness / Jen Deerinwater -- When you are waiting to be healed / June Eric-Udorie -- The isolation of being deaf in prison / Jeremy Woody as told to Christie Thompson -- Common cyborg / Jillian Weise -- I'm tired of chasing a cure / Liz Moore -- We can't go back / Ricard T. Thornton, Sr. -- Radical visibility : a disabled queer clothing reform movement manifesto / Sky Cubacub -- Guide dogs don't lead blind people. We wander as one / Haben Girma -- Taking charge of my story as a cancer patient at the hospital where I work / Diana Cejas -- Canfei to canji : the freedom to be loud / Sandy Ho -- Nurturing black disabled joy / Keah Brown -- Last but not least : embracing asexuality / Keshia Scott -- Parenting with a disability makes me feel like an 'impostor' as a mother / Jessica Slice -- How to make a paper crane from rage / Elsa Sjunneson-Henry -- Selma Blair became a disabled icon overnight. Here's why we need more stories like hers / Zipporah Arielle -- Why my novel is dedicated to my disabled friend Maddy / A.H. Reaume -- The anti-abortion bill you aren't hearing about / Rebecca Cokley -- So. Not. Broken / Alice Sheppard -- How a blind astronomer found a way to hear the stars / Wanda Díaz-Merced -- Incontinence is a public health issue and we need to talk about it / Mari Ramsawakh -- Falling/burning : Hannah Gadsby, Nanette, and being a bipolar creator / Shoshana Kessock -- Six ways of looking at crip time / Ellen Samuels -- Lost causes / Reyma McCoy McDeid -- On NYC's paratransit, fighting for safety, respect, and human dignity / Britney Wilson -- Gaining power through communication access / Lateef McLeod -- The fearless Benjamin Lay : activist, abolitionist, dwarf person / Eugene Grant -- To survive climate catastrophe, look to queer and disabled folks / Patricia Berne -- Disability solidarity : completing the 'vision for black lives / Harriet Tubman Collective -- Time's up for me, too / Karolyn Gehrig -- Still dreaming wild disability justice dreams at the end of the world / Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha -- Love means never having to say ... anything / Jamison Hill -- On the ancestral plane : crip hand me downs and the legacy of our movements / Stacey Milbern -- The beauty of spaces created for and by disabled people / s.e. smith. "A groundbreaking collection of first-person writing on the joys and challenges of the modern disability experience: Disability Visibility brings together the voices of activists, authors, lawyers, politicians, artists, and everyday people whose daily lives are, in the words of playwright Neil Marcus, "an art . . . an ingenious way to live." According to the last census, one in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some are visible, some are hidden--but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together an urgent, galvanizing collection of personal essays by contemporary disabled writers. There is Harriet McBryde Johnson's "Unspeakable Conversations," which describes her famous debate with Princeton philosopher Peter Singer over her own personhood. There is columnist s. e. smith's celebratory review of a work of theater by disabled performers. There are original pieces by up-and-coming authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma. There are blog posts, manifestos, eulogies, and testimonies to Congress. Taken together, this anthology gives a glimpse of the vast richness and complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own assumptions and understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and past with hope and love"--

Date Published:2020

Firekeeper's daughter

Boulley, Angeline,


Daunis, who is part Ojibwe, defers attending the University of Michigan to care for her mother and reluctantly becomes involved in the investigation of a series of drug-related deaths.
Date Published:2021

Fourteen days : a collaborative novel

Various authors


"Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days is a surprising and irresistibly propulsive novel with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of New York neighbors has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice-from Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston to Tommy Orange and Celeste Ng.One week into the COVID-19 shutdown, tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan have begun to gather on the rooftop and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more neighbors gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants-some of whom have barely spoken to each other-become real neighbors. In this Decameron-like serial novel, general editor Margaret Atwood, Authors Guild president Douglas Preston, and a star-studded list of contributors create a beautiful ode to the people who couldn't get away from the city when the pandemic hit. A dazzling, heartwarming collection, Fourteen Days reveals how beneath the horrible loss and suffering, some communities managed to become stronger. Includes writing from:Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston, Celeste Ng, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, Ishmael Reed, Meg Wolitzer, Luis Alberto Urrea, James Shapiro, Sylvia Day, Mary Pope Osborne, Monique Truong, Hampton Sides, R. L. Stine, R. O. Kwon, David Byrne, Louise Erdrich, Neil Gaiman, Rachel Kushner, Candace Bushnell, Nora Roberts, Scott Turow, Tommy Orange, and more!"--
Date Published:2024

"Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days is a surprising and irresistibly propulsive novel with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of New York neighbors has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice-from Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston to Tommy Orange and Celeste Ng.One week into the COVID-19 shutdown, tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan have begun to gather on the rooftop and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more neighbors gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants-some of whom have barely spoken to each other-become real neighbors. In this Decameron-like serial novel, general editor Margaret Atwood, Authors Guild president Douglas Preston, and a star-studded list of contributors create a beautiful ode to the people who couldn't get away from the city when the pandemic hit. A dazzling, heartwarming collection, Fourteen Days reveals how beneath the horrible loss and suffering, some communities managed to become stronger. Includes writing from:Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston, Celeste Ng, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, Ishmael Reed, Meg Wolitzer, Luis Alberto Urrea, James Shapiro, Sylvia Day, Mary Pope Osborne, Monique Truong, Hampton Sides, R. L. Stine, R. O. Kwon, David Byrne, Louise Erdrich, Neil Gaiman, Rachel Kushner, Candace Bushnell, Nora Roberts, Scott Turow, Tommy Orange, and more!"--

Date Published:2024

The girls who grew big

Mottley, Leila, 2002-,


"A novel about the heartbreaks, triumphs, and betrayals of a group of teenage mothers living on the Florida panhandle"--
Date Published:2025

Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert : a novel.

Bob the Drag Queen


4-14-2025 (25.00). In an age of miracles where our greatest heroes from history have magically, unexplainably returned to shake us out of our confusion and hate, Harriet Tubman is back, and she has a lot to say. Harriet Tubman and four of the enslaved persons she led to freedom want to tell their story in a unique way--by following in the footsteps of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton. Harriet wants to put on a show about her life, and she needs a songwriter to help her. She calls upon Darnell Williams, a once successful hip-hop producer who was topping the charts before being outed by a rival at the BET Awards. Darnell has no idea what to expect when he steps into the studio with Harriet, only that they have one week to write a Broadway caliber musical she can take on the road. Over the course of their time together, they not only mount a show that will take the country by storm, but confront the horrors of both their pasts, and learn to find a way to a better future. Original, evocative, and historic, Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert is a landmark achievement that will burrow deep into our hearts (and ears).
Date Published:2025

4-14-2025 (25.00). In an age of miracles where our greatest heroes from history have magically, unexplainably returned to shake us out of our confusion and hate, Harriet Tubman is back, and she has a lot to say. Harriet Tubman and four of the enslaved persons she led to freedom want to tell their story in a unique way--by following in the footsteps of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton. Harriet wants to put on a show about her life, and she needs a songwriter to help her. She calls upon Darnell Williams, a once successful hip-hop producer who was topping the charts before being outed by a rival at the BET Awards. Darnell has no idea what to expect when he steps into the studio with Harriet, only that they have one week to write a Broadway caliber musical she can take on the road. Over the course of their time together, they not only mount a show that will take the country by storm, but confront the horrors of both their pasts, and learn to find a way to a better future. Original, evocative, and historic, Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert is a landmark achievement that will burrow deep into our hearts (and ears).

Date Published:2025

I'm still here : Black dignity in a world made for whiteness

Brown, Austin Channing,


White people are exhausting -- Playing spades -- The other side of harmony -- Ain't no friends here -- Whiteness at work -- Interlude: Why I love being a black girl -- White fragility -- Nice white people -- The story we tell -- Creative anger -- Interlude: How to survive racism in an organization that claims to be antiracist -- The ritual of fear -- A God for the accused -- We're still here -- Interlude: A letter to my son -- Justice, then reconciliation -- Standing in the shadow of hope. The author's first encounter with a racialized America came at age seven, when her parents told her they named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. She grew up in majority-white schools, organizations, and churches, and has spent her life navigating America's racial divide as a writer, a speaker, and an expert helping organizations practice genuine inclusion. While so many institutions claim to value diversity in their mission statements, many fall short of matching actions to words. Brown highlights how white middle-class evangelicalism has participated in the rise of racial hostility, and encourages the reader to confront apathy and recognize God's ongoing work in the world.
Date Published:2018

White people are exhausting -- Playing spades -- The other side of harmony -- Ain't no friends here -- Whiteness at work -- Interlude: Why I love being a black girl -- White fragility -- Nice white people -- The story we tell -- Creative anger -- Interlude: How to survive racism in an organization that claims to be antiracist -- The ritual of fear -- A God for the accused -- We're still here -- Interlude: A letter to my son -- Justice, then reconciliation -- Standing in the shadow of hope. The author's first encounter with a racialized America came at age seven, when her parents told her they named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. She grew up in majority-white schools, organizations, and churches, and has spent her life navigating America's racial divide as a writer, a speaker, and an expert helping organizations practice genuine inclusion. While so many institutions claim to value diversity in their mission statements, many fall short of matching actions to words. Brown highlights how white middle-class evangelicalism has participated in the rise of racial hostility, and encourages the reader to confront apathy and recognize God's ongoing work in the world.

Date Published:2018

Just like me: 40 neurologically and physically diverse people who broke stereotypes

Gooding, Louise


A collection of true stories about inspiring people and famous figures from around the world, all with physical or neurological differences.
Date Published:2021

The lilac people : a novel

Todd, Milo,


"In 1932 Berlin, Bertie, a trans man, and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin's thriving queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond, but everything changes when Hitler rises to power. The institute is raided, the Eldorado is shuttered, and queer people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie, to a nearby farm. There they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in isolation. In the final days of the war, with their freedom in sight, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man collapsed on their property, still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They vow to protect him-not from the Nazis, but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners while liberating the rest of the country. Ironically, as the Allies' vise grip closes on Bertie and his family, their only salvation becomes fleeing to the United States"--
Date Published:2025

"In 1932 Berlin, Bertie, a trans man, and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin's thriving queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond, but everything changes when Hitler rises to power. The institute is raided, the Eldorado is shuttered, and queer people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie, to a nearby farm. There they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in isolation. In the final days of the war, with their freedom in sight, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man collapsed on their property, still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They vow to protect him-not from the Nazis, but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners while liberating the rest of the country. Ironically, as the Allies' vise grip closes on Bertie and his family, their only salvation becomes fleeing to the United States"--

Date Published:2025

Our south : black food through my lens

Shanti, Ashleigh,


"Raised in Appalachia, native daughter Ashleigh Shanti, a queer Black woman and acclaimed chef, knows Southern Black cooking means more than we've come to believe. While hot buttered cast-iron-pan cornbread and crunchy, juicy, lard-fried chicken have their roles to play, they are far from the entire story. The key to understanding how Black influence has defined foodways and cultures in the South is to explore its microregions, each with its own distinct flora and fauna, dialects, traditions, and dishes. In Our South, Ashleigh takes you through the five regions closest to her heart, beginning with a glimpse of mountain life in the Backcountry through recipes like Fish Camp Hush Puppies and quail spiked with black pepper. A swing over to the coastal Lowcountry fills your plate with smoky grilled oysters and benne seed-topped crab toasts. Seasonal produce shines in the Midlands, where bountiful stone fruits enrich dishes from shortcakes to salads. Lowlands nods to the diversity of food cultures that meet in the region, where Ashleigh grew up eating noodle dishes like Virginia yock alongside Southern classics like Brunswick stew. The book culminates in Homeland, with foods that share what it's like to cook-and live-as a Black Southern chef now. Ashleigh's culinary journey culminates in Our South, where each dish speaks deeply to its origins, revealing the true story of Black food in the region and the many pleasures of the South you can savor at home, wherever that may be"--
Date Published:2024

"Raised in Appalachia, native daughter Ashleigh Shanti, a queer Black woman and acclaimed chef, knows Southern Black cooking means more than we've come to believe. While hot buttered cast-iron-pan cornbread and crunchy, juicy, lard-fried chicken have their roles to play, they are far from the entire story. The key to understanding how Black influence has defined foodways and cultures in the South is to explore its microregions, each with its own distinct flora and fauna, dialects, traditions, and dishes. In Our South, Ashleigh takes you through the five regions closest to her heart, beginning with a glimpse of mountain life in the Backcountry through recipes like Fish Camp Hush Puppies and quail spiked with black pepper. A swing over to the coastal Lowcountry fills your plate with smoky grilled oysters and benne seed-topped crab toasts. Seasonal produce shines in the Midlands, where bountiful stone fruits enrich dishes from shortcakes to salads. Lowlands nods to the diversity of food cultures that meet in the region, where Ashleigh grew up eating noodle dishes like Virginia yock alongside Southern classics like Brunswick stew. The book culminates in Homeland, with foods that share what it's like to cook-and live-as a Black Southern chef now. Ashleigh's culinary journey culminates in Our South, where each dish speaks deeply to its origins, revealing the true story of Black food in the region and the many pleasures of the South you can savor at home, wherever that may be"--

Date Published:2024

The Poet X

Acevedo, Elizabeth


Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers, especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.
Date Published:

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers, especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.

Date Published:

The power of strangers : the benefits of connecting in a suspicious world

Keohane, Joe,


Prologue: Strangers in a cab -- Learning to talk, again -- A readily available source of happiness -- Maybe the world isn't so bad after all -- The howdy door -- How we learned to cooperate with strangers -- How we met -- The murderer and the man from another dimension -- Strangers from another dimension -- How to listen to strangers -- The problem with cities -- Diversity -- Stranger danger -- How fear and instability can make us friendly -- Procreating with strangers in Finland -- Back to school -- Okay, so when are we allowed to talk to strangers? -- Talking to strangers in the field -- How to talk to enemy strangers -- The god of strangers -- Epilogue: The next social renaissance. "In The Power of Strangers, journalist Joe Keohane takes us through an inquiry into our shared history, one that offers surprising and compelling insights into our own social and political moment. But if strangers seem to some to be the problem, history, data, and science show us that they are actually our solution. In fact, throughout human history, our address to the stranger, the foreigner, the marginalized, and the other has determined the fate and well-being of both nations and individuals. A raft of new science confirms that the more we open ourselves up to encounters with those we don't know, the healthier we are. Modern cities are vast clusters of strangers. Technology has driven many of us into silos of isolation. Through deep immersion with sociologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians, philosophers, political scientists and historians, Keohane learns about how we're wired to sometimes fear, distrust, and even hate strangers; what happens to us--as individuals, groups, and as a culture--when we indulge those biases; and at the same time, he digs into a growing body of cutting-edge research on the surprising social and psychological benefits that come from talking to strangers; how even passing interactions with strangers can enhance empathy, happiness, and cognitive development, ease loneliness and isolation, and root us in the world, deepening our sense of belonging; how paradoxically, strangers can help us become more fully ourselves. Keohane explores the ways in which biology, culture, and history have defined us and our understanding of people we don't know"--
Date Published:2021

Prologue: Strangers in a cab -- Learning to talk, again -- A readily available source of happiness -- Maybe the world isn't so bad after all -- The howdy door -- How we learned to cooperate with strangers -- How we met -- The murderer and the man from another dimension -- Strangers from another dimension -- How to listen to strangers -- The problem with cities -- Diversity -- Stranger danger -- How fear and instability can make us friendly -- Procreating with strangers in Finland -- Back to school -- Okay, so when are we allowed to talk to strangers? -- Talking to strangers in the field -- How to talk to enemy strangers -- The god of strangers -- Epilogue: The next social renaissance. "In The Power of Strangers, journalist Joe Keohane takes us through an inquiry into our shared history, one that offers surprising and compelling insights into our own social and political moment. But if strangers seem to some to be the problem, history, data, and science show us that they are actually our solution. In fact, throughout human history, our address to the stranger, the foreigner, the marginalized, and the other has determined the fate and well-being of both nations and individuals. A raft of new science confirms that the more we open ourselves up to encounters with those we don't know, the healthier we are. Modern cities are vast clusters of strangers. Technology has driven many of us into silos of isolation. Through deep immersion with sociologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians, philosophers, political scientists and historians, Keohane learns about how we're wired to sometimes fear, distrust, and even hate strangers; what happens to us--as individuals, groups, and as a culture--when we indulge those biases; and at the same time, he digs into a growing body of cutting-edge research on the surprising social and psychological benefits that come from talking to strangers; how even passing interactions with strangers can enhance empathy, happiness, and cognitive development, ease loneliness and isolation, and root us in the world, deepening our sense of belonging; how paradoxically, strangers can help us become more fully ourselves. Keohane explores the ways in which biology, culture, and history have defined us and our understanding of people we don't know"--

Date Published:2021

Reena's rainbow

White, Dee


Reena is deaf and Dog is homeless. Sometimes neither of them feels as if they quite fit in. But when Reena and Dog form a unique bond, it's not long before everyone finds out just how special they are. A heartwarming story of friendship, diversity and acceptance.
Date Published:2017

Sister mother warrior : a novel

Riley, Vanessa,


"Queen of diverse historicals Vanessa Riley brings readers a vivid, sweeping novel of the Haitian Revolution based on the true-life stories of two extraordinary women: the first Empress of Haiti, Marie-Claire Bonheur, and Gran Toya, a West African-born warrior who helped lead the rebellion that drove out the French and freed the enslaved people of Haiti"--
Date Published:2022

Tomorrow will be different : love, loss, and the fight for trans equality

McBride, Sarah, 1990-,



Date Published:2018