Lisa Reneé Pitts

"Best friends Lola Poole and Joan Proctor-Riley have finally found the love and excitement they've always longed for. Online-dating an endless line of wealthy, no-strings-attached lovers is the perfect escape from their unfulfilling lives. And between Joan's selfish husband and Lola's hateful, demanding relatives, the hotter these ladies' secret activities get, the more they crave -- and the more reckless they become . . . When rugged trucker Calvin...

Eight-year-old Steve Satlow is thrilled when Jackie Robinson moves into his Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn in 1948, although many of his neighbors are not. When Steve actually meets his hero he is even more excited -- and worried that a misunderstanding over a Christmas tree could damage his new friendship.

"'We should have known the end was near.' So begins Imbolo Mbue's exquisite and devastating novel How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by a large and powerful American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of clean up and financial reparations to the...

Blanche White is a plump, feisty, middle-aged African-American housekeeper working for the genteel rich in North Carolina. But when an employer stiffs her, and her checks bounce, she goes on the lam, hiding out as a maid for a wealthy family at their summer home. That plan goes awry when there's a murder and Blanche becomes the prime suspect. So she's forced to use her savvy, her sharp wit, and her old-girl network of domestic workers to discover...

Eve L. Ewing knows Chicago Public Schools from the inside: as a student, then a teacher, and now a scholar who studies them. And that perspective has shown her that public schools are not buildings full of failures-they're an integral part of their neighborhoods, at the heart of their communities, storehouses of history and memory that bring people together. Never was that role more apparent than in 2013 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced an unprecedented...

"Set during the [era after the Civil War] and exploring the next chapter of history--the end of slavery--this ... story of love and healing is about three people who struggle to overcome the pain of the past and define their own future"-- The Civil War has ended, and Madge, Sadie, and Hemp have each come to Chicago in search of a new life. Born with magical hands, Madge has the power to discern others' suffering, but she cannot heal her own damaged...

A collection of speeches that showcases the voices of those at the reins of power and of those who are not. Read the original words, sometimes abridged and sometimes in their entirety, that have shaped our cultural fabric. Introductions provide historical context and critical insights into the meaning and impact of every speech.

The beloved #1 Essence bestselling authors of Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made now deliver a novel in which you'll meet their most unforgettable characters.

Carmen, Jewel, and Regina could not be more different. When they meet as freshmen at Columbia University, they are at a crossroad, and each is pretty confident that a friendship among them isn't in the cards. Jewel is Hollywood royalty. As the teenage star of the television show Daddy's

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Twelve-year-old Princess Sofia of Drachenheim enjoys freedom from her sister's manipulations during a diplomatic mission to far-off Villenne, until she and her dragon friend, Jasper, are forced to face ice giants.

Ten-year-old Dreenie feels both intrigued and frightened when she thinks about the girl nicknamed Bluish, whose leukemia is making her pale and causing her to use a wheelchair.