Collection: Shop Woman

Come learn about the oldest operating library in existence that was originally founded by a Muslim woman in 859!

Merhaba! Welcome! Meet Al-Qarawiyyin Library--the oldest library in the world. Do you want to see what magical treasures are behind its doors? You'll find special reading rooms where young and old gathered to discuss, debate, and discover the world. And, most important, the collection of books that hold knowledge more valuable than any jewels! Open its doors, unlock its story, and discover an adventure that only a library can share.

Told from the unique perspective of the library, award-winning author Hena Khan, along with luminous illustrations by Nabila Adani, bring to readers Behind My Doors, a charming ode to the magical wonders of each and every library.

The latest novel in the award-winning Bangalore Detectives Club series finds amateur sleuth Kaveri Murthy involved in a dangerous plot that endangers the life of the visiting Prince of Wales.

This latest novel in the Bangalore Detectives Club mystery series takes the reader deep into the historical era surrounding the visit by Edward, Prince of Wales, to Bangalore in 1921. When the prince begins a tour of a number of Indian cities, he encounters passionate crowds demanding independence from Britain, with rioting on the streets of Bombay in November 1921.

The mood of the prince's subsequent trip to Bangalore and Mysore in January 1922 appears, at first glance, very different and is made to large, welcoming crowds. But perhaps all is not what it seems to be. While exploring another (seemingly unrelated) crime scene, Kaveri and Ramu become tangled in a complex web of intrigue, getting pulled into a potentially dangerous plan that could endanger the life of the visiting prince.

This new novel also takes us into the world of jadoo--Indian street magic--with sleight-of-hand magicians, snake charmers, and rope tricks. Kaveri and Ramu continue their sleuthing, with help from the Bangalore Detectives Club, amidst the growing rumblings of Indian independence and the backdrop of female emancipation.

This heart-wrenching novel about family and war unearths generations of secrets and sacrifices--perfect for fans of The Paris Orphan and The Lost Girls of Paris.

2017, London: When Aurelia Leclaire inherits an opulent Paris apartment, she is shocked to discover her grandmother's hidden secrets--including a treasure trove of famous art and couture gowns. One obscure painting leads her to Gabriel Seymour, a highly respected art restorer with his own mysterious past. Together they attempt to uncover the truths concealed within the apartment's walls.

Paris, 1942: The Germans may occupy the City of Lights, but glamorous Estelle Allard flourishes in a world separate from the hardships of war. Yet when the Nazis come for her friends, Estelle doesn't hesitate to help those she holds dear, no matter the cost. As she works against the forces intent on destroying her loved ones, she can't know that her actions will have ramifications for generations to come.

Set seventy-five years apart, against a perilous and a prosperous Paris, both Estelle and Lia must summon hidden courage as they navigate the dangers of a changing world, altering history--and their family's futures--forever.

"Hear the dark liquor of her laughter rippling behind her sentences" in this magnetic memoir as it explores a journalist's obsession with pop culture and the difficulty of navigating relationships as a Black woman through fanfiction, feminism, and Southern mores (Saeed Jones).

A Roxane Gay Audacious Bookclub November Pick
Named "Most Anticipated Books of 2021" by Buzzfeed and Lithub

Pop culture is the Pandora's Box of our lives. Racism, wealth, poverty, beauty, inclusion, exclusion, and hope -- all of these intractable and unavoidable features course through the media we consume. Examining pop culture's impact on her life, Nichole Perkins takes readers on a rollicking trip through the last twenty years of music, media and the internet from the perspective of one southern Black woman. She explores her experience with mental illness and how the TV series Frasier served as a crutch, how her role as mistress led her to certain internet message boards that prepared her for current day social media, and what it means to figure out desire and sexuality and Prince in a world where marriage is the only acceptable goal for women.

Combining her sharp wit, stellar pop culture sensibility, and trademark spirited storytelling, Nichole boldly tackles the damage done to women, especially Black women, by society's failure to confront the myths and misogyny at its heart, and her efforts to stop the various cycles that limit confidence within herself. By using her own life and loves as a unique vantage point, Nichole humorously and powerfully illuminates how to take the best pop culture has to offer and discard the harmful bits, offering a mirror into our own lives.

A funny, moving, and urgent new play from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage.

In this razor-sharp new comedy, a truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at reclaiming their lives. Even as the shop's tough-as-nails owner tries to keep them under her thumb, the motley crew of line cooks are given purpose and permission to dream through their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich.

In the #1 New York Times bestselling series by J. D. Robb comes Connections in Death, a gritty and gripping new novel that follows Eve Dallas as she fights to save the innocent--and serve justice to the guilty--on the streets of New York.

Homicide cop Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband, Roarke, are building a brand-new school and youth shelter. They know that the hard life can lead kids toward dangerous crossroads and, with this new project, they hope to nudge a few more of them onto the right path. For expert help, they hire child psychologist Dr. Rochelle Pickering--whose own brother pulled himself out of a spiral of addiction and crime with Rochelle's support.

Lyle is living with Rochelle while he gets his life together, and he's thrilled to hear about his sister's new job offer. But within hours, triumph is followed by tragedy. Returning from a celebratory dinner with her boyfriend, she finds Lyle dead with a syringe in his lap, and Eve's investigation confirms that this wasn't just another OD. After all his work to get clean, Lyle's been pumped full of poison--and a neighbor with a peephole reports seeing a scruffy, pink-haired girl fleeing the scene.

Now Eve and Roarke must venture into the gang territory where Lyle used to run, and the ugly underground world of tattoo parlors and strip joints where everyone has taken a wrong turn somewhere. They both believe in giving people a second chance. Maybe even a third or fourth. But as far as they're concerned, whoever gave the order on Lyle Pickering's murder has run out of chances...

Lucy Kincaid returns in Allison Brennan's Stalked--as a killer's obsession.

IN THE GAME OF CRIME

A new trainee at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Lucy Kincaid has already seen more than her share of murder and mayhem. Still reeling from the sex-crime case that sealed her reputation, she's found a true friend and mentor in Agent Tony Presidio. No matter what goes down at the Bureau, Tony's got her back--until he's called to New York to help investigate the murder of a reporter with ties to Lucy.

NEVER PLAY THE VICTIM

But the reporter may not be the first victim of a patient killer with a penchant for revenge, and she's definitely not the last. Connections between closed cases, a missing person, and Tony himself lead Lucy to fear for those she cares for most. When the FBI is rocked by the death of one of their own, Lucy seeks the help of her boyfriend, private investigator Sean Rogan, to help put together the puzzle--and puts her career in jeopardy. But the harder she pushes for answers, the clearer the truth becomes: There's a killer inside Quantico. Watching her every move. Waiting to kill again...

"Brennan knows how to deliver!"--Lisa Gardner, New York Times bestselling author

A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction...literally, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Year Slip and The Dead Romantics.

Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don't leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she's so set on going her annual book club retreat this year--she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures--no matter what.

But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it's right out of a novel...

Because it is.

This place can't be real, and yet... she's here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store's honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar's burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It's perfect--and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author's last unfinished story.

Elsy is sure that's why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.

Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can't place--a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.

Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town's happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.

The first study of the gardens and landscapes of Bunny Mellon, written by a leading specialist, illustrated with both new and archival photography.

" . . . The Gardens of Bunny Mellon is a tome to treasure." --Architectural Digest

Throughout her long and storied life, Rachel "Bunny" Mellon's greatest passion was garden design. She and her husband, Paul Mellon, one of the wealthiest men in America, maintained homes in New York, Cape Cod, Nantucket, Antigua, and Upperville, Virginia, and she designed the gardens at all of them. She also designed gardens for some of her dearest friends, including the Rose Garden and the East Garden at the White House, at the request of President Kennedy, and the gardens at both the Paris home and the château of couturier Hubert de Givenchy.

All of these gardens are featured in The Gardens of Bunny Mellon, illustrated with Mellon's own garden plans, sketches, and watercolors. Much like one of Mellon's landscapes, The Gardens of Bunny Mellon slowly matured over several years, allowing the gifted landscape photographer Roger Foley to record Oak Spring, her cherished Virginia home, in all four seasons. The book also features vintage photographs by Horst, Aarons, and others of Mellon's gardens for her homes in Cape Cod, Antigua, and New York. Author Linda Jane Holden's text is based on extensive interviews with Mellon before Mellon's death at age 103 in 2014.

"The Gardens of Bunny Mellon is part guide--with gorgeous photographs by Roger Foley that could make even the least inclined to go hunting for a trowel--part biography, and part social history. Mellon's passion is apparent throughout." --Vogue.com

Step into the world of Georgian England and learn more about the genteel life of this beloved author.

Although Jane Austen's works were first published anonymously and brought her little personal recognition, today they are rarely out of print and have inspired movies, television shows and mini-series, literary anthologies, and many other adaptations all around the world. Her writing--principally her five novels--is a critique of the British landed gentry at the end of the eighteenth century, and often a comment on the pursuit of a "good match" in matters of marriage. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Northhanger Abbey remain her most famous works. Who Was Jane Austen? reveals the life of this most private author.

This summer, relax with two breezy tales of how opposites attract. Because sometimes very different people can make a perfect match.

The Way to a Man's Heart

On the surface, Meghan O'Day and Grey Carlyle seem like they couldn't be more different. But stuffy literature professor Grey keeps coming back to the diner where bubbly Meghan works--and it's not just for the coffee and pie. They both love chatting about books, and Meghan has opinions on the classics she's not afraid to share. She also thinks she could teach the professor a thing or two about happily-ever-after.

Fallen Angel

Amy Johnson is firmly anchored in Seattle, working as an executive for her father's oil company. It's always been assumed she'll eventually take over, even if her heart isn't in it. When Amy meets Josh Powell, a self-described drifter who's rejected his money and power, she begins to question what she really wants. Maybe it's time to craft a new future, together.

"Debbie Macomber tells women's stories in a way no one else does." --BookPage

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment with this stirring historical novel about women's suffrage!

She's searching for her sister. Along the way, she finds a friend . . . and a cause.

It's been three years since Violet's sister, Chloe, left home, and Violet is determined to find her! She runs away and follows her sister's trail all the way to New York and then Tennessee. There, she discovers not only Chloe but the fierce fight for women's right to vote.

And what a fight it is! Violet and her new friend Myrtle join Chloe in the Suffragists' cause, eager to sway legislators to their side. Violet knows that her parents would surely disapprove of her decisions, but if fighting for justice makes her the wrong kind of girl . . . then why does it feel so right?

A perfect Common Core tie-in, The Hope Chest includes back matter with period photographs, historical notes about the suffrage movement, a "Voting in America" timeline, and other activities. It's also a New York State curriculum title for fourth grade.

Don't miss Starting from Seneca Falls, another historical novel about women's suffrage from the author of The Hope Chest!

Una extraordinaria e ingeniosa novela sobre la narración de historias y lo que pasa con las que nunca contamos, de la querida autora bestseller de En el tiempo de las mariposas y De cómo las muchachas García perdieron el acento.

Cementerio de las historias no contadas es la historia de Alma Cruz, una escritora que se acerca al final de su carrera y de su vida, y no quiere terminar como una colega y mentora suya, quien por mucho tiempo luchó por acabar una novela que nunca terminó y casi la enloquece.

Después de la muerte de sus ancianos padres, Alma y sus hermanas heredan pequeños terrenos en la República Dominicana. Alma elige el más grande, que ninguna de las otras quieres por su supuesta ubicación indeseable y su mal estado. Se le ocurre la hermosa idea de convertirlo en un lugar para enterrar las historias que no ha compartido: manuscritos, páginas, borradores, revisiones, personajes y vidas sobre las que había trabajado, incluso por años, pero que nunca consiguió terminar. Ahora desea dejarlas descansar en paz.

Alma necesita ayuda con su plan, de modo que Brava, una amiga artista que "lo capta" (a diferencia de sus hermanas), se le une. El cementerio se convierte en un jardín de esculturas: las lápidas que Brava diseña para cada trama. Filomena, una mujer de la localidad y una de las pocas que gana acceso al cementerio contando sus propios relatos al intercomunicador que abre el portón, se convierte en la celadora, y tanto su historia como la su hermana Perla se vuelven centrales en la narración. Esta es una novela en la que las distintas historias desarrollan tentáculos que se entrelazan con los de otras, se insinúan de manera mutua y crean nuevas historias en el proceso. Las circunstancias de la propia vida de Filomena la convierten en la comprensiva escucha que las historias de Alma siguen necesitando mientras prolongan su inmutable deseo de ser contadas, encontrar un sentido y tener un final.

A wonderfully inventive novel about telling stories and what happens to the stories we leave untold, from the beloved and bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents.

Untold is the story of a writer as she reaches the end of her career and her life. Alma Cruz doesn't want to end up like a fellow author and mentor whose cautionary tale she tells, one who fought so long and hard with a novel she couldn't complete that it threatened her sanity.

After the death of Alma's elderly parents, she and her sisters each inherit small plots of land in the Dominican Republic. Alma chooses the biggest one, which none of the others want because of its supposedly undesirable location and its state of dishevelment. She has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories, the manuscripts and pages, drafts, revisions--the characters and lives she worked on, sometimes for years, but could never get quite right. To let them rest in peace.

Alma needs help with her plan, so Brava, an artist friend who "gets it" (unlike Alma's perplexed sisters), jumps on board--the cemetery becomes a sculpture garden, Brava's work the custom markers for each plot. Filomena, a local and one of the few who gains entry to the cemetery by telling her own stories to an intercom that opens the gate, is soon the caretaker, and her story and the story of her sister Perla become central to the narrative. This is a novel in which stories develop tentacles that entwine other stories, insinuating themselves one to the other, and making new stories in the process.

A reimagining of the traditional princess story, Princess Maniya offers a glimpse into the powerful female archetype that is a mainstay of Haitian culture. Set in Haiti during the reign of King Melenik, our brave heroine Princess Maniya goes hunting with her father. The original Haitian Creole text is displayed next to the English so that this beautiful language and rich culture can be preserved and passed down from one generation to the next. Sure to delight families of the Haitian diaspora, this story will also expand the mind of any child who is curious about other cultures.

This story is written and illustrated by Haitian women living in the community. In March and June of 2017, NABU, with funding from USAID, hosted a series of Writers Workshops in Port-au-Prince with the purpose of creating original children's books in Haitian Creole. The Writers Workshops were created as part of our goal to address the need for children's books in mother tongue languages. NABU and our director in Haiti, Françoise Thybulle, recruited Haitian authors and illustrators to participate. These sessions were our first and we have since also had workshops in Rwanda to create original books in Kinyarwanda. The two sessions in Haiti each hosted 25 Haitian authors and illustrators and created a total of 259 titles. It is out of these workshops that an initial collection of 16 was borne. We intend to release two books every month from the colleciton, and all of the profits from the sale of this book will go to support local authors and illustrators and NABU reading programs in Haiti.

NABU is a New York-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, with a mission to solve the imbalance in children's book creation and distribution, so all children can read and rise to their full potential.

NABU Publishing creates children's stories with a cultural point of view. Children who are exposed to multiple cultures and languages are more likely to become lifelong learners and compassionate global citizens. We believe that culturally-relevant stories that reflect who children see when they look in the mirror help to develop healthy self esteem and a sense of pride, and children who learn about cultures different from their own are much more likely to develop into adults who value the dignity of human life and making the world a better place for all. This series of NABU stories are bilingual, written in both Haitian Creole and English, making them ideal for exposing young children to new cultures or helping children of the diaspora connect to the culture of their families.

Full-tilt, hardcore, down-home, and groundbreaking, the women of country music speak volumes with every song. From Maybelle Carter to Dolly Parton, k.d. lang to Taylor Swift--these artists provided pivot points, truths, and doses of courage for women writers at every stage of their lives. Whether it's Rosanne Cash eulogizing June Carter Cash or a seventeen-year-old Taylor Swift considering the golden glimmer of another precocious superstar, Brenda Lee, it's the humanity beneath the music that resonates.

Here are deeply personal essays from award-winning writers on femme fatales, feminists, groundbreakers, and truth tellers. Acclaimed historian Holly George Warren captures the spark of the rockabilly sensation Wanda Jackson; Entertainment Weekly's Madison Vain considers Loretta Lynn's girl-power anthem "The Pill"; and rocker Grace Potter embraces Linda Ronstadt's unabashed visual and musical influence. Patty Griffin acts like a balm on a post-9/11 survivor on the run; Emmylou Harris offers a gateway through paralyzing grief; and Lucinda Williams proves that greatness is where you find it.

Part history, part confessional, and part celebration of country, Americana, and bluegrass and the women who make them, Woman Walk the Line is a very personal collection of essays from some of America's most intriguing women writers. It speaks to the ways in which artists mark our lives at different ages and in various states of grace and imperfection--and ultimately how music transforms not just the person making it, but also the listener.

The Essential Ruth Stone collects a beloved American poet's career-defining poems into a single, incandescent volume.