Collection: Adult

WINNER, IPPY BOOK AWARDS, LGBTQ+ FICTION

WINNER, 2023 BEST INDIE BOOK AWARD, LGBTQ2 FICTION

SHORT LIST, VCU CABELL FIRST NOVELIST AWARD

ON LAMBDA LITERARY REVIEW'S SEPTEMBER MOST ANTICIPATED LIST

ONE OF QUEER FORTY'S BEST PRIDE READS FOR SUMMER 2023!

Three gay men in pre-Stonewall New York City find their fates thrown together in the police raid of a Village bar.

Roger Moorhouse is a Wall Street banker and Westchester family man with a preciously guarded secret. As the shouting begins and flashlights blaze in his face, the life he's carefully curated over the years--a fancy new office overlooking lower Broadway, a house in Beechmont Woods, his wife and children--is about to come crashing down around him.

Columbia literature professor Julian Prince lives a comparatively uncloseted life when he finds his first committed relationship tested to its limits. How could he explain to Gus, a fearless young artist, that he couldn't stay with him that weekend because the woman who was still technically Julian's fiancée would be visiting? But when Gus is struck unconscious by a police baton, Julian comes out of hiding to protect him, even if exposure means losing everything.

For Danny Duffy, an Irish kid from the Bronx with a sassy mouth and a diverse group of friends, the raid is a galvanizing, Spartacus moment. Danny doesn't have too much left to lose; his family has just disowned him. But once his name appears in the newspaper, he'll be fired from his job at Sloan's Supermarket, where he's risen to assistant manager of produce, and begin a journey that veers between political enlightenment and violent revenge.

The three men find themselves in a police wagon together, their hidden lives threatened to be revealed to the world. Blackmail, a private investigator, Gus's disappearance, and Danny's quest for retribution propel Disorderly Men to its piercing conclusion, as each man meets the boundaries of his own fear, love, and shame. The stakes for each are different, but all of them confront a fundamental question: How much happiness is he allowed to have . . . and what share of it will he lay claim to?

Beautifully illustrated with more than 200 photographs, including never-before-seen images, The Look is a stunning journey through Michelle Obama's style evolution, in her own words for the first time.

In this celebration of style, from the moment she entered the public eye during her husband's U.S. Senate campaign through her time as the first Black First Lady and today as one of this country's most influential figures, Michelle Obama shares how she uses the beauty and intrigue of fashion to draw attention to her message.

Featuring the voices of Meredith Koop, Obama's trusted stylist, as well as her makeup artist Carl Ray, hairstylists Yene Damtew, Johnny Wright, and Njeri Radway, and many of the designers who have dressed Obama for notable events, The Look brings readers behind the scenes not only to reveal how her most memorable looks came together but also to tell a powerful story about how we present ourselves.

Obama's intimate and candid stories illuminate how her approach to dressing has evolved throughout her life--from the colorful sheath dresses, cardigans, and brooches she wore during her time as First Lady to the bold suits, denim, and braids of her post-White House life and all the active looks and beautiful gowns in between.

In The Look, Michelle Obama explores the joy and the purpose of fashion and beauty and how--when wielded with grace and care--they can uplift and affirm the values one holds most dear. Confidence, she concludes, cannot be put on. But when you're wearing something that's intentional or beloved, clothing can make you feel like the best version of yourself.

For three decades following World War II, the Great Lakes overtook Europe as the epicenter of global economic strength. The region was the beating heart of the world economy, possessing all the power and prestige Silicon Valley does today. And no ship represented the apex of the American Century better than the 729-foot-long Edmund Fitzgerald--the biggest, best, and most profitable ship on the Lakes.

But on November 10, 1975, as the "storm of the century" threw 100 mile-per-hour winds and 50-foot waves on Lake Superior, the Mighty Fitz found itself at the worst possible place, at the worst possible time. When she sank, she took all 29 men onboard down with her, leaving the tragedy shrouded in mystery for a half century.

In The Gales of November, award-winning journalist John U. Bacon presents the definitive account of the disaster, drawing on more than 100 interviews with the families, friends, and former crewmates of those lost. Bacon explores the vital role Great Lakes shipping played in America's economic boom, the uncommon lives the sailors led, the sinking's most likely causes, and the heartbreaking aftermath for those left behind--"the wives, the sons, and the daughters," as Gordon Lightfoot sang in his unforgettable ballad.

Focused on those directly affected by the tragedy, The Gales of November is both an emotional tribute to the lives lost and a propulsive, page-turning narrative history of America's most-mourned maritime disaster.

"One of the best books of the year." --Booklist, starred review

Jesse Lonergan rewrites the rules of graphic novels with Drome, a visually mind-blowing epic about war, love, and death in a fledgling world.

First, there was nothing. Then, humanity was born, and an endless cycle of violence began. From the depths of the ocean, a mighty demigoddess is called forth to rein in humankind's destructive impulses, and teach a language of peace and harmony. Civilization quickly takes root, a great city rising from the desert. But the balance between chaos and order is a fragile one, and there are higher powers at work in this strange new world.

Creator Jesse Lonergan pushes the boundaries of the comics medium in this visually spectacular epic. In turns pulse-pounding and heart-wrenching, Drome is a creation myth for the modern age.

Heartthrob George wants to prove he's smart enough to graduate. Nerdy Lucas wants to finally ask his crush out. They strike a deal to get what they want . . . but they may accidentally splash into a row-mance together in this queer, sports rom-com.

George and Lucas can't stand each other--which makes it very awkward being on the same Cambridge University rowing team. The uber-charming, all-American George got accepted at Cambridge for his sporting prowess, not his subpar grades. Economics whizz and sarcasm expert Lucas, meanwhile, works hard for everything he's got, which sadly does not include a boyfriend.

When the news leaks that George receives academic preferential treatment--Cambridge couldn't lose their star athlete, after all--he's told he must actually study this year to pass his exams. That's when he zeroes in on Lucas for help. Lucas agrees, but on one condition: George will teach Lucas his lothario ways so he can finally seduce his long-time crush, Amir.

But soon they're in way over their heads, seducing and cheating their way to what they want. As they face rivals within their own squad and cutthroat competitors at Oxford, they find themselves unexpectedly becoming closer. What happens when your worst enemy may just be who you needed all along?

Something from Nothing is Alison Roman's latest book featuring over 100 deceptively simple, casually stylish, impossibly delicious recipes that make the most of your pantry.

In Something from Nothing, bestselling author Alison Roman gives you a collection of simple, smart, timeless recipes that rely on a home cook's best kept secret: a well-stocked pantry. Making the most of your shelf-stable bottles, bags, jars and cans, Alison shows you how to cook as she does-loosely, intuitively, and with maximum flavor. With each recipe you'll fall deeper in love with the magic of pantry cooking by using flavorful, hardworking ingredients, leaving you to ask, "How did something so wonderful come from basically nothing?". In this book, you'll find warm, opinionated writing coupled with classic recipes, both with signature Alison flair, such as:

• Snacks and Things to Start with: Herbed Artichoke Dip; Spanish Tortilla (with Aioli and Friends); and Labne with Caramelized Harissa
• Soups and Stews: Kimchi and Tomato Soup; Golden Mushroom Soup with Buttered Orzo; and Ginger and Greens Chicken Soup
• Vegetables and How to Make Them Taste Even Better: Forever-Roasted Squash with Brown Butter Dates; Braised Green Beans with Anchovy; and Spiced Butter-Roasted Carrots with Walnuts
• Pasta and Noodles: Saucy Roasted Eggplant Pasta; Bolognese with Fennel; Carbonara for Two
• Beans and Grains: Crispy Baked Beans with Mushrooms and Parmesan; Polenta with Fresh Corn; Caramelized Beans with Tomato, Cabbage and Browned Butter
• Meats and Some Fishes: Crushed Olive Chicken with Turmeric; Steak, like Tartare; Crispy Fish with Garlic Yogurt, Capers, and Greens

Whether you're feeding yourself on a busy weeknight or hosting a last-minute dinner party, this book has just what you need. For easy, straightforward recipes that still impress, Something from Nothing has you covered, showing you how to turn every bag of beans, tin of anchovies and jar of olives into a meal worth celebrating.

DELUXE EDITION--a beautiful hardcover edition featuring dark teal sprayed edges, a foil stamp on the casing, and full-page illustrations!

From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part-even if it breaks his heart.

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion's greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children's books and recruiting posters--but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.

Centuries later, Owen Mallory--failed soldier, struggling scholar--falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives--and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.

But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una's legend--if they want to tell a different story--they'll have to rewrite history itself.

"Alix E. Harrow is an exceptional, undeniable talent." --Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

An utter masterpiece...I loved every single page. --Rachel Gillig, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of One Dark Window

"Lily King has written another masterpiece. This book overflows with her brilliance and her heart. We are so lucky."--Emma Straub

From the New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers comes a magnificent and intimate new novel of desire, friendship, and the lasting impact of first love

You knew I'd write a book about you someday.

Our narrator understands good love stories--their secrets and subtext, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules.

In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. But youthful passion is unpredictable, and soon she finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever.

Decades later, the vulnerable days of Jordan's youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news brings the past crashing into the present, she returns to a world she left behind and must confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self.

Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving love story that celebrates literature, forgiveness, and the transformative bonds that shape our lives. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.

"The most of-the-moment novel I've read all year, and it's the book of the summer."--Real Simple

"A wise, propulsive, and deeply powerful novel."--Laura Dave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me

Set at a summer rental on the Chesapeake Bay, a riveting family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence, from the bestselling author of the "wise and addictive" (New York Times) The Gifted School.

When the Cassidy-Shaws' autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver's seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret, implicating them each in the accident.

During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie's future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei's odd behavior tugs at Noah's suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident--suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet's teenaged daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI.

Culpability explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.

The U.S. Constitution is among the oldest constitutions in the world but also one of the most difficult to amend. Jill Lepore, Harvard professor of history and law, explains why in We the People, the most original history of the Constitution in decades--and an essential companion to her landmark history of the United States, These Truths.

Published on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding--the anniversary, too, of the first state constitutions--We the People offers a wholly new history of the Constitution. "One of the Constitution's founding purposes was to prevent change," Lepore writes. "Another was to allow for change without violence." Relying on the extraordinary database she has assembled at the Amendments Project, Lepore recounts centuries of attempts, mostly by ordinary Americans, to realize the promise of the Constitution. Yet nearly all those efforts have failed. Although nearly twelve thousand amendments have been introduced in Congress since 1789, and thousands more have been proposed outside its doors, only twenty-seven have ever been ratified. More troubling, the Constitution has not been meaningfully amended since 1971. Without recourse to amendment, she argues, the risk of political violence rises. So does the risk of constitutional change by presidential or judicial fiat.

Challenging both the Supreme Court's monopoly on constitutional interpretation and the flawed theory of "originalism," Lepore contends in this "gripping and unfamiliar story of our own past" that the philosophy of amendment is foundational to American constitutionalism. The framers never intended for the Constitution to be preserved, like a butterfly, under glass, Lepore argues, but expected that future generations would be forever tinkering with it, hoping to mend America by amending its Constitution through an orderly deliberative and democratic process.

Lepore's remarkable history seeks, too, to rekindle a sense of constitutional possibility. Congressman Jamie Raskin writes that Lepore "has thrown us a lifeline, a way of seeing the Constitution neither as an authoritarian straitjacket nor a foolproof magic amulet but as the arena of fierce, logical, passionate, and often deadly struggle for a more perfect union." At a time when the Constitution's vulnerability is all too evident, and the risk of political violence all too real, We the People, with its shimmering prose and pioneering research, hints at the prospects for a better constitutional future, an amended America.

A crucial subversion of the misconceptions around the participation of gender diverse athletes--advocating for the inclusion of trans and nonbinary athletes across all levels of sport

The debate over the inclusion of gender diverse people in sport has become the latest battleground in the fight for basic human rights and equality. Trans and nonbinary people around the world are facing physical harm and violence--including death--at unprecedented rates. In Let Us Play, trans athlete Harrison Browne and investigative journalist Rachel Browne reveal how the opposition towards gender diverse athletes is fueled by fear and a moral panic as opposed to facts around what makes "a level playing field."

Interweaving Harrison's first-hand experience as a transgender athlete with exclusive accounts--from athletes, coaches, policymakers, and advocates on the front lines--Let Us Play dismantles the illusion that sports have ever been fair, that trans athletes pose a threat to women's sports, and that gender-affirming healthcare for athletes should be prohibitive to play.

Calling for a reframing of the binaries from youth and high school levels all the way to the national leagues, Browne and Browne offer a new path forward, led by solutions proposed by gender diverse athletes themselves.

In this hilarious, off-the-wall queer fantasy romance, a reclusive sorcerer is forced to protect a cowardly knight after a prophecy ties their fates together.

Funny, touching and inventive, this brilliant debut is perfect for fans of Mortal Follies, A Marvellous Light and Dreadful.

All his life, Sir Cameron has stayed as far away from danger as possible. He is, quite frankly, too handsome to die a violent and pointless death in battle. But when the Church hands down a prophecy to his fellow knights predicting that the only way to defeat their nemesis, the mad sorcerer Merulo, is to kill Cameron, he finds himself in a situation too sticky for even his considerable wiles. Short of ideas, Cameron throws himself on the mercy of the one person who now actually wants him to survive: the mad sorcerer.

Merulo isn't thrilled to be babysitting a spoilt, attention-seeking knight, but fate has tied them together. And transmogrifying Cameron into a vulture is at least a great source of entertainment. Cameron, meanwhile, is on a voyage of self-discovery. It turns out he's really, really into surly sorcerers who lock him up and tell him what to do. Who knew?

As a legion of knights surround their stronghold, the sorcerer's poisonous ambitions draw ever closer to fruition. Cameron is quite invested in not dying, but he finds he's also invested in Merulo. And sometimes, supporting the sorcerer you care about means taking an interest in their hobbies. Even if that hobby is trying to kill God.

Even if it might get you killed, too.

The first woman ever admitted to a prestigious order of mages unravels a secret conspiracy that could change the practice of magic forever in this standalone dark fantasy from the author of The Sword of Kaigen.

For twenty years, Sciona has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry at the University of Magics and Industry.

When Sciona finally achieves her ambition and becomes a Highmage, she finds her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues are determined to make her feel unwelcome--and instead of a qualified lab assistant they give her a janitor.

What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was not always a janitor. Ten years ago he was a nomadic hunter who lost his family on their perilous journey from the wild plains to the city. But now he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland--and keep the privileged in power.

At first, mage and outsider have a fractious relationship. But working together, they uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever--if it doesn't get them killed first.

Other Networks is writer and researcher Lori Emerson's index of telecommunications networks that existed before and outside of the internet.

The internet as we know it is not a foregone conclusion. Indeed, the present corporatized, monolithic, surveilled state of our networked communications is just one possibility out of many, and there is radical promise in uncovering hidden alternatives: from pirate radio to barbed wire telegraph, from synthesizers transmitted over the telephone to encoded messages bounced off the surface of the moon. Other Networks is writer and researcher Lori Emerson's speculative index of communications networks that existed before or outside of the internet: digital as well as analog, IRL as well as imagined, state-sponsored systems of control as well as homebrew communities in the footnotes of hacker culture. Featuring explanatory descriptions of each network, archival images, and original artwork and design by Robert Beatty, Other Networks documents historically alternative networks with a particular eye towards their experimental usage by artists and writers. The result is a boldly creative taxonomy of our networked world, a liberatory sourcebook for readers eager to escape the hegemony of technological history, and a lovingly designed guide to the freedoms and communal possibilities that have been lost along the way.