Collection: Adult

SUPER MARIO BROS. AND DESIGN

Celebrating 40 Years of Super Mario Bros.! The Design Secrets of a 40KB Masterpiece

Released on September 13, 1985, Super Mario Bros. marks its 40th anniversary this year. Selling around 40 million copies worldwide, it became the best-selling game of its time and sparked an unprecedented global phenomenon. As new hardware emerged, Mario continued to evolve, with the series surpassing 450 million copies sold to date -- ushering in a golden age of gaming and turning Mario into one of the world's most iconic characters.

What is the story behind his creation? We sit down for an in-depth interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's Representative Director and Executive Fellow, and the creator of Mario. From the secrets of pixel-art design born from a mere 40KB of ROM capacity, to rare development materials and the evolution of the series, this feature dissects the world of Mario through the lens of design.

When life knocks you down, how do you stand up again?

In a quiet suburban town, young Jesse lives for the thrill of soccer-the feel of the ball at his feet, the cheers from his family on the sidelines, and the dream of playing forever. But one summer day, a terrible accident shatters that dream, leaving Jesse with a broken leg and an even bigger challenge: learning how to walk again before he can ever hope to play again.

As the days turn into months of surgeries, braces, and setbacks, Jesse discovers that true strength isn't just in your muscles-it's in your heart, your courage, and the people who never stop believing in you.

With unwavering love from his mom, dad, brothers, and even his loyal pets, Jesse's journey becomes more than just recovery; it's a powerful story of family, hope, and the unstoppable spirit of a boy who refuses to give up.

Perfect for readers of all ages, Play Again reminds us that no dream is ever truly lost-and sometimes, the hardest battles make the sweetest victory.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Better Than the Movies, Lynn Painter, comes a rags-to-riches rom-com about a small-town girl whose family inherits a fortune and moves to New York City, where she meets a big-city boy hiding an explosive secret.

Julia is just a small-town girl from Nebraska who loves her peaceful life. But when her elderly next-door neighbor--who just happens to be a secret multi-millionaire--leaves everything to Julia and her family after his passing, Julia is swept away to live in a historic brownstone in New York City and attend an elite private school for the super-rich.

It should be a dream come true. Wrong. Julia doesn't fit in at her new school; worse, she's failing. Enter Damion, the mysterious and handsome tutor who will get Julia back on track. Except Damion has a secret. He is the great-nephew of the man who left everything to Julia's family. Damion doesn't buy for a second that the person who was like a father to him would leave his home to strangers. And he's determined to prove it.

To uncover the truth, Damion schemes to earn Julia's trust. Not an easy task with Julia unsure about this rich boy with a rebellious personality. But the more time Damion spends with Julia, the more his plan begins to backfire. Because he is falling for the enemy--and the enemy is falling for him.

As Damion and Julia figure out where they belong, can they see past their differences and act on their feelings, or will the trust Damion has worked so hard to gain fall apart?

Welcome to Peachtree Bluff: a sweet, cozy small town where family is everything. The "go-to for elevated beach reads," (People), Kristy Woodson Harvey, returns just in time for pumpkin spice season.

The air is crisper, the water is calmer, but, when it comes to the Murphy family, nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems.

Youngest sister Emerson is busy planning her dream wedding to Kyle. But her difficulty expanding her family is overshadowing her joy. Pregnant middle sister Sloane and her husband Adam's dream house has turned into a nightmare. Everything is over time, over budget, and Sloane is over it. Eldest sister Caroline, as always, is there to swoop in and get her sisters' lives under control. Until her focus is more than a little shifted by Emerson's hunky costar who manages to sweep her right off her feet--just as her not-quite-ex-husband decides it's high time he begged Caroline for a second chance.

Matriarch Ansley and her new husband Jack have finally hit their stride. But when a scandal that would affect every single Peachtree Bluff citizen comes to light--and it seems like Jack just might be at the center of it--Ansley questions whether he is actually the man she thought he was.

Through it all, these women must rely on their powerful family bonds, and the quirky characters and small-town charm of the place that, no matter what, always calls them home.

These recipes are designed for everyday baking--easy to start, hard to resist, and always worth it.

You can make these recipes on a weeknight or on a whim: one-bowl cakes, muffins and quick breads, cookies and bars, and cakes that look impressive but demand little time or technique. New York Times bestselling author John Kanell has developed them just the way he does for his online baking destination Preppy Kitchen. You won't need special tools beyond a stand mixer or hand mixer, and for ingredients--just basic pantry staples. Think butter, flour, sugar, and other supermarket items. Nothing fancy.

Designed to fit into busy days, these recipes make it easy to bake just because. Or, if you need something for any occasion they fit the bill, whether a breakfast or bake sale, a party or potluck, or simply because you really need a snack from scratch.

- Breakfast Bakes: Rum Raisin Cinnamon Rolls, Biscuits Three Ways, Berry-Orange Turnovers
- Muffins, Quick Breads, and Yeasted Breads: Grapefruit Poppy Seed Muffins, English Muffins, Buttermilk Dinner Rolls
- Cookies, Brownies, and Bars: Cherry Pie Bars, German Chocolate Brownies, Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles
- Cakes: Angel Food Loaf Cake, Classic Swiss Roll, Coconut Sheet Cake
- Air-Fryer Sweets: Apple Crumb Cake, Triple Chocolate Lava Cakes
- Pies, Tarts, and Make-Ahead Desserts: Limoncello Meringue Pie, Pear and Buttered Rum Crisp, Vanilla Bean Semifreddo

A former math and science teacher, John brings his superpowers of clarity and consistency to every page so that bakers both new and experienced can bake with confidence and delight.

In #1 New York Times bestseller J.R. Ward's newest Black Dagger Brotherhood installment, star-crossed lovers face the battles of their lives...in the midst of war with the Lessening Society.

A Hidden Past

Allhan, a computer genius who works for the Brotherhood, has a deadly secret. Torn between what he must do, and his increasing attachment to Vishous, he's not looking for any more complications in his life. He's not going to survive the one he has.

A Royal Future

Princess Dennesha, heir to the throne of the Shadows, is a live and let die kind of female. At least until she finds herself tangling in the destiny of a human--even though it goes against every instinct of hers and all common sense.

A Terrible Choice

When Allhan and Denne meet by chance, their passion is undeniable. But a rare astrological event triggers a crossroads for the Princess. Either mate a male she doesn't love and assume the throne, or stay true to her heart and condemn the Territory to destruction. With Allhan fighting his conscience--and a lesser who's after Wrath and the Brothers--can the two find a way out of their fates? Or are they doomed to grieve a love that could never be for eternity...

In a near-future world, humans and non-humans alike must endure in a world that wants them dead. The fan-favorite danmei (Boys' Love) novels return with an all-new translation and illustrations!

In a future Earth ravaged by radiation, the Northern Base is one of humanity's last bastions of survival--and that survival depends on keeping nonhuman life forms out at all costs.

Anzhe, a mushroom disguised as a human, knows that stepping foot in the Northern Base is risking instant extermination. But he has no choice: The humans have taken his spore, and he is instinctually driven by the need to reclaim it.

His mission depends on passing flawlessly as a human. While Anzhe is able to fool the Base's advanced technology, he's unlucky enough to have caught the keen eye of the handsome but merciless Judge--a man licensed to kill to keep the Northern Base safe from parasites and invaders. Can Anzhe survive under the watch of those beautiful eyes?

Each deluxe hardcover release of the award-winning novel features special embellishments: a dust jacket featuring all-new art, a new illustration against the hardcover itself, and beautiful printed edges.

"I couldn't stop reading! Absolutely a triumph!" --Freida McFadden, New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid From the internationally bestselling author of Strange Sally Diamond comes a twisted suspense novel about two sisters and the scandal that changes their lives forever.

If my sister hadn't been beautiful, none of it would have happened.

Sixteen-year-old Ruby and her older sister Erin live comfortably in their Boston home with their pastor father and Irish mother, until one day Ruby is involved in an incident with Erin's boyfriend, Milo, that causes her family to implode. Ruby and her mother leave in a hurry for Ireland, while Erin and her father stay behind.

As the story alternates between Erin and Ruby's perspectives over decades, two very different women emerge. Erin struggles with trust issues. Ruby is set on a course of self-destruction.

When the truth threatens to emerge from this "brilliantly dark and tangled web" (Graham Norton), the sisters' lives may be upended all over again. Can either of them ever truly recover from the events of that day in 1999?

THE MASTER OF ADVENTURE, WILBUR SMITH, RETURNS WITH A BRAND-NEW SAFFRON COURTNEY WWII THRILLER

AN IMPOSSIBLE MISSION. A QUEST FOR THE TRUTH. ONLY SHE HAS WHAT IT TAKES . . .

1943, America

SOE's Saffron Courtney is back in New York, but even as she recovers from her mission to Washington, events on the other side of the Atlantic are making her return to England inevitable. The War Office need someone to extract an asset - a Jewish scientist, George Ezra, a man vital to the war effort - from his hideaway on the besieged island of Leros. But first there is a debt to settle, and the mob do not wait - even for a decorated war hero . . .

1946, Kenya

Back in her beloved homeland, and reunited with her lover-now-husband Gerhard Meerbach, Saffron thinks that she might finally have found the peace that she craves. The war is over. But when she's paid a visit by an English operative who blackmails her with accusations of Gerhard's involvement in Nazi atrocities, Saffron has no choice but to return to the US at his bidding. With not only her life, but her family at stake, Saffron must track down Ezra once more - before it's too late . . .

A BRAND-NEW BOOK IN THE LONG-RUNNING EPIC HISTORICAL SAGA OF THE COURTNEY FAMILY AND THE FOLLOW ON FROM WORLDWIDE BESTSELLERS COURTNEY'S WAR, LEGACY OF WAR AND CROSSFIRE.

"A republic, if you can keep it."

When Benjamin Franklin spoke those words at the birth of our nation, it wasn't a boast. It was a warning. A reminder that freedom isn't automatic. It isn't permanent. And it isn't someone else's job to protect it.

It's ours.

Nearly 250 years later, many Americans feel the ground shifting beneath their feet. Trust is low. Politics feels broken. Institutions we once believed in don't feel steady anymore. Step outside, turn on the news, scroll your phone-it can feel like the world has grown louder, angrier, less certain.

And more and more of us are asking the same plain, uneasy question:

What is happening to America?

In Redefining Freedom, award-winning author, journalist, and legal analyst Sophia A. Nelson invites readers to step back from the noise and remember what freedom really asks of us-not as partisans, but as citizens. Drawing on history, lived experience, and decades covering American public life, she offers a hopeful, practical roadmap for restoring trust, renewing our civic spirit, repairing what division has broken, and rebuilding the foundations of democracy.

At the heart of the book are four pillars-Personal Freedom, Shared Freedom, Lived Freedom, and Protected Freedom-showing how everyday people, not politicians alone, sustain a republic.

In this timely and empowering book, you'll discover how to:

- Replace cynicism with citizenship

- Rebuild trust and opportunity in your community

- Defend truth and dignity in an age of disinformation

- Protect your rights while safeguarding the rights of others

- Help restore, renew, repair, and rebuild the American promise

Part history, part civic guide, and part love letter to America, Redefining Freedom reminds us that democracy will not save itself. We must. And together, we still can.

An all-new adventure from the #1 global bestselling Dog Man phenomenon coming November 3, 2026!

In the newest saga, our anti-hero, Grandpa, alters the fabric of time and space. Is his evil the necessary soil for Dog Man and friends to grow and bloom? Can we all step up to be the change? It's the saga of the century -- Dog Man: A Sprinkle in Time!

Witness the rise of the Shadow Slave in this gritty, dark fantasy adventure where a nameless street rat must rise to challenge the gods themselves.

Growing up in poverty, Sunny never expected anything good from life. However, even he did not anticipate being chosen by the Nightmare Spell and becoming one of the Awakened -- an elite group of people gifted with supernatural powers.

Transported into a ruined magical world, he finds himself facing off against terrible monsters and other Awakened in a deadly battle of survival.

What's worse, the shadow powers he received happen to possess a small and potentially fatal side effect.

But that won't stop him. Born a slave. Destined for the grave. He chooses to survive.

No matter the cost...

One of the most popular web-serials of all time, Shadow Slave has more than 221 million reads and listens. Shadow Slave is the #1 most-read series on Webnovel with more than 95 million reads and thousands of 5-star ratings. Shadow Slave also boasts more than 126 million listens on PocketFM. Now, the hit series gets a new life and progresses to a deluxe hardcover edition with Book 1: Child Of Shadows!

"One of my favorite new reads! The world and magic system design are unbelievably intricate and impressive, and at each turn I couldn't wait to see what was around the corner." --Will Wight (New York Times bestselling author of Cradle)

About the Series: A dark progression fantasy series known for its deep world-building and complex power system. It follows the story of a shadow-ability wielding young man named Sunny as he navigates a brutal world where humanity must battle terrifying creatures in a nightmare realm to survive. Sunny is a calculating anti-hero who relies on intelligence and adaptability rather than raw power.

For fans of: He Who Fights With Monsters, Magic the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Solo Leveling, Overlord, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Cradle, Red Rising, Shadow & Bone, The Beginning After the End, and Lord of the Mysteries.

Before Bernie Sanders, before Zohran Mamdani, America's favorite socialist was Eugene Debs.

In 1912, some 1,200 Socialists held elected office across the United States. Wisconsin had a Socialist congressman in Washington, and ministers in Oklahoma preached the gospel of "Christian socialism" at revival-style gatherings come summertime. The leader of this vibrant movement? One Eugene V. Debs--part working-class agitator, part radical prophet, a man who made it feel like being an American and a socialist was the most natural thing in the world.

Even opponents would describe Debs as Christlike. Born in Indiana in 1855, he'd dropped out of school at fourteen to work on the railroad. Elected to the state legislature in his twenties, he'd seemed a rising star in the Democratic Party: an optimistic moderate who urged respectability and compromise.

But this was the Gilded Age: an era of corporate tycoons and outrageous sums of money in politics, of grueling hours and few rights for workers (if any). And when, in 1894, the president sent in thousands of troops to break a nationwide railroad strike Debs helped organize, Debs was radicalized. He emerged from a six-month prison sentence as a crusader, a stirring orator who would soon see all forms of unaccountable power--rich over poor, men over women, white over Black, colonizer over colonized--as poisonous to human freedom.

Cofounding the Socialist Party of America, Debs would run for president five times and spend the rest of his life convincing ordinary workers that, together, they could create a political movement strong enough to transform the world. It wouldn't be easy. He would suffer from chronic illness, lose friends and enrage allies, risk his marriage to a woman he loved, and receive a decade-long prison sentence for opposing World War I. And yet, countless Americans--not just in his lifetime, but in ours--would heed Debs's righteous call for human solidarity. When Debs ran for president in 1920 from behind bars, he received almost a million votes.

A rousing, poignant, intimately human tale of struggle against the odds, American Socialist is a stunning portrait of one man's radicalization--and of the country he radicalized in turn. It's a story that speaks powerfully to our own Gilded Age, when the very wealthy again rule America's political and economic life and millions are looking for an alternative.

S. A. Cosby's All the Sinners Bleed meets Percival Everett's Erasure in this literary thriller following the grandson of a famous Black actress from the 1920s to the 1940s, now a filmmaker himself, who returns to his grandmother's cabin retreat in the California mountains only to encounter the legacy of her rage born in Old Hollywood.

Award-winning author Tananarive Due returns with the follow-up to the multi-award-winning The Reformatory in this generational novel of rage. With flashbacks to Johnny's grandmother--who brushed shoulders with giants like Lena Horne, Clark Gable, and Hattie McDaniel--this novel explores three generations, beginning with Mazelle Washington's life as a young actress. Fifty years after Mazelle's death, Johnny will discover the secret she kept and nurtured since she was a child, when she had a dark wish come true.

A monster lurks outside Mazywood, hidden for generations, and Johnny brought his family to its hunting grounds.

As featured in Entertainment Weekly, People, IndieWire, MovieMaker and more!

Ferris Bueller...You're My Hero is the definitive behind-the-scenes look at one of the most beloved comedies of all time: Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Author Jason Klamm takes readers inside John Hughes' creative hot streak--fresh off Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club--as teen angst gave way to slapstick humor, surreal storytelling, and a hero who knew exactly where the camera was.

As Ferris Bueller's Day Off celebrates its 40th anniversary, go behind the scenes as Hughes shot over a million feet of film before the movie was even halfway finished, navigated studio panic, and turned controlled chaos into cinematic magic.

Built from 125 new, exclusive interviews, this all-access account features candid stories from Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Cindy Pickett, James Hughes (John's son), producers, soundtrack musicians, parade attendees, museum staff, high-school actors--even the legendary school-bus Gummy Bear Girl ("They've been in my pocket. They're real warm and soft"). Additional Hughes alumni, including Jon Cryer and Andrew McCarthy, weigh in on the lasting impact of the film and its creator.

Featuring never-before-seen photos and unforgettable on-set stories, this book reveals how Ferris Bueller's Day Off broke the rules, bent reality, and turned skipping school into a masterclass in rebellion for an entire generation.

You too can Eat (Like) the Rich with over 75 damn near perfect (and perfectly decadent) recipes from chef and creator Olivia Tiedemann.

Olivia is not here to tell you her whole life story or share some cute memories of cooking in the kitchen with her mom. Sure, she'll give you some of that, but really, why would you be here for that anyway? You should be here to learn how to make some really good food.

In Eat (Like) the Rich, Olivia lays down her kitchen commandments, the lessons she's learned from years working as a restaurant chef and private cook for high-end clients. She tells you which tools you need (she'd better not have to tell you why plastic is out) and what high-quality ingredients and brands are non-negotiable. Disagree with her recommendations? Well, too bad. Then she'll get into techniques like how to actually make a French omelet, how to make good whipped cream without killing your arms (hint: a blender), and how to make condiments you'll want to use instead of that crusty jar of mayo you've got in the back of the fridge.

In case you wanted to know what some of these recipes are, there's:

• Breakfast Quesadillas with Corn Salsa
• Psychosis Crab Cakes
• Steak Sandwiches with Peppers, Onions, and Provolone Whiz
• Summer Lobster Salad
• Nonna's Nightmare Short Rib Lasagna
• Not Your Grandma's Chicken Parm
• Seared Ribeye with Charred Scallion Chimichurri and Perfect Roasted Potatoes
• Pan-Seared Branzino with Brown Butter Parsnip Puree and Apple Pomegranate Vierge

And before you ask, there are four desserts. This is not a dessert book. There are other people for that.

But seriously, these recipes will prepare you to cook like a private chef and Eat (Like) the Rich. Olivia shares these recipes and tips with you not to get a "yes, chef" but so you can learn how to make whatever you want, whenever.