ON SALE DECEMBER 2
Sparks Fly by Zakiya N. Jamal | ADULT FICTION
When Stella Renee Johnson's roommate invites her to a sex club party but bails at the last minute, Stella decides to use the opportunity to finally cash in her V-card. But just when things are heating up between Stella and a sexy stranger, they realize they don’t have protection and Stella, taking it as a sign this wasn't meant to be, flees.
Frustrated in more ways than one, Stella is shocked to learn that the digital media website where she works is partnering with an AI company. She's even more shocked when the alluring man from the previous night walks in. Max Williams is the CEO's brother and the creator of the AI program now threatening her job.
Despite the conflict of interest, Stella and Max can't resist their magnetic attraction toward each other, and agree to keep their personal lives separate from what’s happening at work. But the more similarities they discover at home—both Black, book smart, and bisexual—the more they butt heads at work. Stella and Max must decide whether to think with their heads and walk away from their budding relationship, or follow their hearts and take a chance on love, no matter the cost.
The Jaguar's Roar by Micheliny Verunschk | Translated by Juliana Barbassa | ADULT FICTION
In 1817, two German scientists traveled across Brazil and into the Amazon gathering flora and fauna to study and display in Europe. Among the collection they brought to the Bavarian court were two Indigenous children.
The children's images became widespread, satisfying European curiosity about the distant land they came from. But little was known about the children themselves. Despite the scientists' detailed records about many of the plant and animal specimens, they only noted the children's tribes: the girl was a Miranha, and the boy, a Juri. After a few months, the children died in Germany, far from anyone who knew their names.
The Jaguar's Roar, a spellbinding poetic novel told in many voices, imagines the children's journey and a modern Brazilian woman's effort to counter their disappearance from history.
Galápagos by Fátima Vélez | Translated by Hannah Kauders | ADULT FICTION
Lorenzo is a painter who doesn’t paint. He spends his days watching Jeanne Moreau films, luxuriating in his partner Juan B’s bed, and swapping letters with his lovers. Then, one day, his nail falls off. Then another nail, then all of them. Thus begins a journey of decomposition that carries him from Colombia to Paris, from Paris to the French countryside, and on a final journey to the Galápagos Archipelago.
As they cruise the islands on a custom-made ship, Lorenzo and his friends and lovers drink, swap stories, and feast gluttonously, even as their bodies succumb to an unspeakable disease. In this contemporary plague novel, rife with pathos and humor, ailing bodies are torn between desire and decay, lust and friendship, creativity and destruction. Vélez revolutionizes the novel form, pushing language to its extreme as she tests the limits of how we understand illness, sexuality, the body, and what it means to make art in the face of our own mortality.
Meet the Smushkins by Claudia Rueda | Illustrated by Claudia Rueda | PICTURE BOOK
The Smushkins are looking for a house, but what makes a good house for the Smushkins? They all agree: there must be lots of light, a big table everyone can sit on to look out the window, and an apple tree for making pies. Oh, and a playground, puddles to jump in, an ice cream cart, and so much more! But most of all, a good house for the Smushkins is a house full of Smushkins! Kicking off a delightful concept board book series, this boldly illustrated, giftable picture book introduces a family of characters so adorable, so goofy, and so lovable that readers of all ages can’t help but feel that they’ve known them forever.
The Last Vampire by Romina Garber | YOUNG ADULT
When a boarding school opens in a once-condemned Victorian manor buried in the woods of New Hampshire, Austen-loving Lorena Navarro enrolls in hopes of finding her own Mr. Darcy. Instead, she stumbles across a coffin and accidentally awakens the world’s last vampire.
After hibernating for nearly three centuries, William Pride is desperate to find his family—and clueless about the modern world. Relying on Lorena for more than just blood, he enrolls at the school to catch up on all he’s missed.
Soon, William uncovers a chilling truth: He is the last hope for his kind’s return to power. Torn between protecting the humans around him and fulfilling his fate, William must make a choice that could change everything. Will he sacrifice his species for love . . . or will he embrace his dark destiny at last?
We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope Edited by Malka Older, Annalee Newitz, Karen Lord | SHORT STORIES
In this collection, editors Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older champion realistic, progressive social change using the speculative stories of writers across the world. Exploring topics ranging from disability justice and environmental activism to community care and collective worldbuilding, these imaginative pieces from writers such as NK Jemisin, Charlie Jane Anders, Alejandro Heredia, Sam J. Miller, Nisi Shawl, and Sabrina Vourvoulias center solidarity, empathy, hope, joy, and creativity.
Each story is grounded within a broader sociopolitical framework using essays and interviews from movement leaders, including adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha, charting the future history of protest, revolutions, and resistance with the same zeal for accuracy that speculative writers normally bring to science and technology. Using the vehicle of ambitious storytelling, We Will Rise Again offers effective tools for organizing, an unflinching interrogation of the status quo, and a blueprint for prefiguring a different world.
Sea Salt and Coffee Beans by Grace Santamaria | ADULT FICTION
When Sofia loses her coveted job, her American dream is on the line. With her U.S. work visa hanging by a thread, a job interview at a top Miami marketing firm is her last shot at staying in the country. But as she navigates the high-stakes competition, she finds herself irresistibly drawn to her chief rival for the position—charming and ambitious Esteban.
Esteban embodies the glamorous Miami lifestyle Sofia has always admired, and he's unbothered by their rivalry. But for Sofia, everything is at stake. She can’t bring herself to tell him how much this job means to her, nor that her future depends on securing it. With her visa expiring, mounting family pressures, and bills piling up, Sofia faces an impossible choice: win the job, or risk returning to a life she fought so hard to leave behind.
Can Sofia claim the career—and the love—she longs for, or will her dreams slip through her fingers just as they're within reach?
ON SALE DECEMBER 9
Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures--The Training Sessions by Dave Scheidt & Daniel José Older | Illustrated by Andy Duggan, Dan Jackson, Comicraft | CHILDREN’S
In a galaxy far, far away, three Jedi younglings travel the stars in search of adventure….
Follow Kai Brightstar, Lys Solay, and Nubs as they set off on missions across the galaxy to learn the ways of the Force! Aboard the Crimson Firehawk — piloted by their friend, Nash Durango, and her trusty droid companion RJ-83 — the younglings seek out new missions and challenges that require their Jedi skills!
In this volume, Kai, Lys, and Nubs race Wookiees to climb the tallest trees on Kashyyyk; Nubs and Jedi padawan Qort rush to rescue a Republic ship from disaster; and the younglings go on a scavenger hunt in a stinky swamp full of monsters!
ON SALE DECEMBER 16
Marayrasu by Edgardo Rivera Martínez | Translated by Amy Olen | SHORT STORIES
The stories in Marayrasu stage fantastical, mysterious encounters that belie the characters' often harsh economic and political realities as they seek belonging in modern Peru through art, music, and relationships. Depicted in poetic prose, these characters are loners, orphans, and outcasts experiencing quiet, tender encounters with other people and animals, the creative arts, and the land they find themselves depending on. Living vibrantly within these stories, the leviathan of Inca lore considers its own form, a young boy moves to a mining town and gets involved with a local union leader's fight for worker rights while feeling the powerful pull of a large mountain overlooking the town, and a Persian cat captures the attention of a family down on its luck. Amy Olen's translation smoothly captures Rivera Martínez's impressive stories, offering a unique lens into the region at the heart of this canonical author's inimitable work.
ON SALE DECEMBER 23
Human Agency in a Digital World: Understand technology and make it work for you by Marcus Fontoura | NONFICTION
Human Agency in a Digital World is a book about reclaiming our role—not as passengers, but as pilots—in the fast-moving journey of technological change. Written by a computer scientist who is also a father, a teacher, and a lifelong student of how things work, this book is a deeply personal and accessible guide to the systems shaping our lives—and how we might shape them back.
We are surrounded by digital agents. They suggest the next song, answer our questions, sort our emails, recommend what to watch, and—often invisibly—shape what we think. But what do we know about them? And how much power do we really have to question, understand, or even redirect their impact?
In this book, Marcus Fontoura explores the hidden architectures of modern life—from social media and search engines to cloud computing, AI, and quantum technologies—uncovering both how they work and what they mean. Drawing from decades of experience building the backbone of the internet and cloud platforms, he demystifies the core concepts that govern today's systems and offers readers a way to develop digital fluency without needing a computer science degree.
ON SALE DECEMBER 30
Song of Ancient Lovers by Laura Restrepo | Translated by Caro De Robertis | ADULT FICTION
Retelling the mythical love story between the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon in the refugee camps of the present day, Song of Ancient Lovers is a sublime ode to love and desire as forces shaping human history, with power that rivals forces of destruction.
Ethereal in its weaving of the real and the mythical, the contemporary and the ancient, this is the story of Bos Mutas, a young writer traveling from South America to northern Africa in search of traces of his obsession. His research unveils the Queen of Sheba as unyielding and committed to her independence, with remarkable influence both in her time—over Solomon and all the subjects in her expansive kingdom—and on thinkers and artists across the centuries, from Thomas Aquinas to Gérard de Nerval, Frida Kahlo to Patti Smith. He also finds traces of her influence in the magic made of devastating circumstances by women he meets on his journey, especially Zahra Bayda, a Somali midwife who has taken it upon herself to show him around.
