I'm Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter meets Emergency Contact in this stunning Pura Belpré Honor Book about first love, familial expectations, the power of food, and finding where you belong. Penelope Prado has always dreamed of opening her own pastelería next to her father's restaurant, Nacho's Tacos. But her mom and dad have different plans—leaving Pen to choose between not disappointing her traditional Mexican American parents or following her own path. When she confesses a secret she's been keeping, her world is sent into a tailspin. But then she meets a cute new hire at Nacho's who sees through her hard exterior and asks the questions she's been too afraid to ask herself. Xander Amaro has been searching for home since he was a little boy. For him, a job at Nacho's is an opportunity for just that—a chance at a normal life, to settle in at his abuelo's, and to find the father who left him behind. But when both the restaurant and Xander's immigrant status are threatened, he will do whatever it takes to protect his newfound family and himself. Together, Pen and Xander must navigate first love and discovering where they belong in order to save the place they all call home. This stunning and poignant novel from debut author Laekan Zea Kemp explores identity, found families and the power of food, all nestled within a courageous and intensely loyal Chicanx community.

Poetry. Women's Studies. Young Adult. Somewhere between the stem and the fruit is that paradoxical nexus, the point that is both connection and separation, from where you came, to what you are becoming, the scene of the severing, the letting go, the stepping away, the necessary violence and the radical isolation required to be oneself, wholly. And, perhaps, holy. "The poems are written / before they occur to me," Gwen Frost declares at the conclusion of her shattering first collection. "Something about a scar, something about a hymn." She says that poetry saved her life, making this volume a document of that on-going process of healing, and a gift and a hope for others on the same journey. Foremost, it is a document of a contemporary young woman negotiating her way through a perilous world. "Turns out, there are a million different ways to kill a girl," she observes in "Watch," a poem that references Hitchcock's advice to "torture the women" in order to make a popular film, and by extension the misogynistic voyeurism that fetishizes violence against women. This book documents more than a few of those ways, and nowhere more chillingly than in the poem "sticking heads in the sand," in which the query "How was your summer?" follows up almost casually with another question, "What was your rapist's name?" In the inventory of anticipated experience for a young woman, "summer love and sexual assault / adventures and attacks" go hand in hand, "heads pushed into sand" both an act of violence and an act of willful forgetting. Gwen Frost won't forget, and won't let us forget. She is fiercely self-examining and self-revealing, admitting her chief fear is "what I am capable of, I am afraid / that I could kill a man, / and I am afraid / that I might like it." In lieu of this (perhaps understandable) act of violence, she exorcises and expiates through her verse. In the process, she might save us along with herself. She concludes that she "will write one, unshareable poem, / and I will let it die with me, simple and / forever, folded neatly in my throat." This is her one prediction that we must hope is untrue, for we need her to write many, many more poems, and to share them for many years to come.

“Intriguing” women’s fiction from a USA Today–bestselling author with “credible, compassionate, and even heartless characters” and an “enticing plot” (New York Journal of Books). Cristy Haviland gave birth behind bars to the child of the man who put her there and might yet destroy her. Now she’s free again, with no idea what to do next. As smart as she is, a learning disability has kept her from learning to read. And that’s the least of her hurdles. Georgia Ferguson, talented educator, receives a mysterious charm bracelet that may lead her to the mother who abandoned her at birth. Does she want to follow the clues? Can she bring herself to reach out for help along the way? Now Cristy and Georgia are standing at a crossroads, a place where unlikely unions can be formed. A place where two very different women might bridge the gap between generations and education, and together make tough choices. They might even, if they dare, find friendship. Praise for One Mountain Away, book 1 of the Goddesses Anonymous series: “Richards creates a heart-wrenching atmosphere that slowly builds to the final pages, and continues to echo after the book is finished.” —Publishers Weekly “Complex characters, compelling emotions and the healing power of forgiveness—what could be better? I loved this book!” —New York Times–bestselling author Sherryl Woods

The celebration isn't supposed to end in tragedy. The night of their high-school drama group's cast party starts out as fun for sisters Amy and Erin. Their lives come crashing down when Amy takes the car to get more food and has a horrible accident. Erin and her family pray for Amy to awaken from her coma. But as the monitor bleeps and the respirator hisses, Amy lies somewhere between life and death. Erin and her parents must find the courage to accept the fact that Amy's life-support system will never bring her back. When she dies, can the family give some meaning to her senseless death? Can Amy's dying become the hope for someone else's living?

Akbar Ahmed’s Suspended Somewhere Between is a collection of poetry from the man the BBC calls “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam.” A mosaic of Ahmed’s life, which has traversed cultural and religious barriers, this book of verse is personal with a vocal range from introspective and reflective to romantic and emotive to historical and political. The poems take the reader from the forbidding valleys and mountains of Waziristan in the tribal areas of Pakistan to the think tanks and halls of power in Washington, DC; from the rustic tranquility of Cambridge to the urban chaos of Karachi. The collection spans half a century of writing and gives the reader a front row seat to the drama of a world in turmoil. Can there be more drama than Ahmed’s first memories as a boy of four on a train through the killing fields of North India during the partition of the subcontinent in 1947? Or the breakup of Pakistan into two counties amidst mass violence in 1971? Yet, in the midst of change and uncertainty, there is the optimism and faith of a man with confidence in his fellow man and in the future, despite the knowledge that perhaps the problems and challenges of the changing world would prove to be too great. Ahmed’s poetry was a constant source of solace and renewal to which he escaped for inspiration and sanity. He loved poetry of every kind whether English, Urdu or Persian. Ahmed was as fascinated by Keats and Coleridge as he was by Rumi and Ghalib. For us, he serves as a guide to the inner recesses of the Muslim world showing us its very heart. Through the poems, the reader gets fresh insights into the Muslim world and its struggles. Above all, they carry the eternal message of hope and compassion.

In seeking to align herself with the expanding consciousness prevalent today, Bertoia has had many masterful teachers: her children, flying fish, angels that travel by Greyhound, bullfrogs, and a storm, to name a few. Helpful hints come from the invisible realms through a dragon, various other selves, and a team of light beings. Some of the subjects she explores, with frequent humor, great affection, and occasional annoyance, are quantum evolution, remote viewing, the binary language of time and timelessness, the artist as a channel, the dial of perception, the power of transformation, and dreamtime communications. A delightful and uplifting book.

Barbara Johnson reveals her hilarious anti-aging remedy. Living Somewhere Between Estrogen and Death is your wise and witty guide to the joys and challenges of aging gleefully. "They say the best way to grow old is not to be in a hurry about it and Lord knows, I've put it off for as long as I could," says Barbara. But old age happens without any effort on our part. If you're alive, you're getting older. So what happens when you find yourself between menopause and LARGE PRINT? This best-selling author offers a delightful recipe for living life to the fullest in your later years and spices it with loads of laughter. She shows how she came to her own decision to age ferociously instead of gracefully. From savoring the "here and now" to preparing for our glorious future in heaven, Living Somewhere Between Estrogen and Death is a lighthearted and encouraging book on the joys and problems of growing older. You'll laugh at Barbara Johnson's zany insights on aging.