American Literature

Sixteen-year-old Diamond "Ray-Ray" Jenkins has it made in the shade, until one wrong move by her parents turns their lives upside down. Their secret of taking from the wrong street King in the Trap, Damien Orlando, has now put her in peril. The death of her parents signals an end to Diamond's semi-perfect life, putting her in the hands of evil. Her only salvation is to learn the game, and to put her trust in a kid wearing a hoodie.

Doing Time: For the prison writers whose work is included in this anthology, it means more than "serving a sentence"; it means staying alive and sane, preserving dignity, reinventing oneself, and somehow retaining one's humanity. For the last quarter century the prestigious writers' organization PEN has sponsored a contest for writers behind bars to help prisoners face these challenges. The contest honors the best short stories, plays, essays, and poems among hundreds submitted annually by men and women nationwide.

Three best friends who've grown up together encounter some of the real tests of manhood. All's good for James and Cathy until a woman shows up with James' love child. Suave Brent thinks he's found happiness with a born-again churchgoer - until another leads him into temptation. And longtime friend Sonny is going to need help from James and Brent if he's to have any hope of salvaging his marriage.

In this sequel to Something on the Side, two Rubenesque beauties kiss the Big Apple goodbye and launch a new chapter of the Big Girls Book Club in Richmond, Virginia. But this time, the size-14-and-over ladies’ club is welcoming a chunky (and very male) player into its ranks—and plus-size shenanigans are sure to follow.

Following Blood and Iron and The Center Cannot Hold, The Victorious Opposition triumphantly concludes Harry Turtledove's American Empire trilogy - a masterful saga of alternate history. War is brewing yet again as the U.S.A. struggles to occupy Canada, and the C.S.A. begins forcing blacks into concentration camps.

Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep.

It is 1984 in Chile, in the middle of the Pinochet dictatorship. A member of the secret police walks into the office of a dissident magazine and finds a reporter, who records his testimony. The narrator of Nona Fernández's mesmerizing and terrifying novel The Twilight Zone is a child when she first sees this man's face on the magazine's cover with the words "I Tortured People". His complicity in the worst crimes of the regime and his commitment to speaking about them haunt the narrator into her adulthood and career as a writer and documentarian.

Playwright, poet, and novelist Ntozake Shange originally composed for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf in as a mesmerizingly original choreopoem. The New York Post called it "rich with the author's special voice: by turns bitter, funny, ironic, and savage; fiercely honest and personal." Now a new audiobook, it chronicles the interconnected lives of a group of women facing shatteringly difficult issues, and evokes the indomitable power of enduring hope and joy.

In order to find love, you have to take a chance. You have to open yourself up to the possibility of being hurt. You have to expose yourself in a way that you usually wouldn't; allow others to see vulnerabilities that you try to hide. Journalist Aria Smith tried that three years ago and it ended in disaster. Now, she's just trying to focus on moving up the ladder in her career. She's just been handed the most coveted interview in sports writing, so it looks like she's well on her way. Basketball star Tory Barker is fresh off of a championship season and is in high demand right now.

Exotic dancer Ceazia Deveareux has grown accustomed to the luxurious lifestyle she was living before the death of her boyfriend, Vegas Jackson. Even though she was the one who caused his death, Ceazia feels no guilt. She believes she still deserves to have the finest of everything, and she's determined to get it. Vegas' brother Snake is patiently waiting for the day that he can avenge his brother's death. The only problem is that he has a fascination with strippers, and the sexy Ceazia might prove to be more than he can resist.

James Fenimore Cooper was the most popular American writer of his day, but today he is best known for The Last of the Mohicans. A part of his Leatherstocking Tales, The Last of the Mohicans takes place in 1757 during the French and Indian War, when France and England battled for control of the American and Canadian colonies.

Born in a time of violent upheaval, young Odion and his little sister, Tutelo, live in fear that one day Yellowtail Village will be attacked. When that day comes, and Odion and Tutelo are marched away as slaves, Odion's only hope is that his parents are coming to rescue them. They are. But War Chief Koracoo and Deputy Gonda think they are tracking an ordinary war party herding captive women and children to an enemy village. Instead, they are following close on the heels of a legendary evil.

Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home—until they find a secret place, walled off in an unfinished attic bedroom. A portal opens to another reality, Askí, bringing them onto frozen, barren grounds, where they meet Ochek (Fisher).

Josephine "Jojo" Best has it all figured out. Just 17, she's been to college, she has her own hairdressing shop, and nothing will distract her from her goals. That is, until handsome George Brooks begins to pursue her. Then the return of her childhood nemesis complicates her life even further. No girl is immune to Adam Morgan's charm. But when a wound brings him home from the War Between the States, it's a girl he used to call "Pest" who's turning the tables. All grown up, Jojo is being courted by another soldier, and Adam knows it would be foolish to play with her heart.

When an unexpected blizzard grounds all flights, Nia and Andrew’s holiday plans are put on ice, and they’re stuck spending Christmas Eve at the airport. Soon the pair of travelers decide to make the best of it and team up to spread holiday cheer to the other stranded passengers. After all, just because their flight is cancelled doesn’t mean Christmas is. Now they’re about to discover that with the right person, home for the holidays can be anywhere—and life’s crossroads are the perfect place to begin a new story.

Ke'yoko and Ka'yah are identical twins with two totally different personalities. As young girls they formed a bond that could not be broken. It isn't until they become grown women that their loyalty is tested by secrets, deception, and lies. Growing up with a strict and controlling father and a weak and sniveling mother, Ke'yoko's only goal is to get as far away from them as possible, even if it means leaving Ka'yah behind. Being rescued by Ja'Rel is like a dream come true.

Mary Mae Clark has learned the hard way not to trust what a man says. Broken promises have made her wary, and now she only wants to return to Santa Fe to help her friend Sophia keep her wee son. Warren Russell has been freighting on the Trail for four years. He likes it that way. No ties. No family. No love. He doesn't deserve it after his neglect of his wife and small son resulted in their deaths. But the accidental death of his best friend on the trail leaves Warren as guardian to the man's 10-year-old niece, Polly.

This is the way the world ends...for the last time. 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.

In a quiet suburb of New Delhi, two next-door neighbors develop a friendship: one, a young woman engaged to be married, and the other, Nadine: a woman in her 60s living with her second husband. We follow these two women through their phone calls and visits together, diving deeper into Nadine's storied past: With her larger-than-life personality and proclivity to defy society's conventions, her insight weighs heavily on her young friend, about to face a major turning point of her own.

New York Times best-selling author Sherrilyn Kenyon has created a sensation with her sexy stories about the Bureau of American Defense. Now, three novellas about BAD agents are collected in one steamy volume!