Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni's Room

One of Entertainment Weekly‘s Most Anticipated Books of 2019

“A heady admixture of explosive plot and taut, burnished prose . . . Mesha Maren writes like a force of nature.” –Lauren Groff, author of Florida

In 1989, Jodi McCarty is seventeen years old when she’s sentenced to life in prison. When she’s released eighteen years later, she finds herself at a Greyhound bus stop, reeling from the shock of unexpected freedom but determined to chart a better course for herself. Not yet able to return to her lost home in the Appalachian Mountains, she heads south in search of someone she left behind, as a way of finally making amends. There, she meets and falls in love with Miranda, a troubled young mother living in a motel room with her children. Together they head toward what they hope will be a fresh start. But what do you do with your past–and with a town and a family that refuses to forget, or to change?

Set within the charged insularity of rural West Virginia, Mesha Maren’s Sugar Run is a searing and gritty debut about making a break for another life, the use and treachery of makeshift families, and how, no matter the distance we think we’ve traveled from the mistakes we’ve made, too often we find ourselves standing in precisely the place we began.

A fun and feisty tour of famous girl BFFs from history who stuck together and changed the world.

Spanning art, science, politics, activism, and even sports, these girl squads show just how essential female friendship has been throughout history and throughout the world. In this hilarious and heartfelt book, geek girl Sam Maggs takes you on a tour of some of history’s most famous female BFFs, including:

– Anne Bonny and Mary Read, the infamous lady pirates who sailed the seven seas and plundered with the best of the men
– Jeanne Manon Roland and Sophie Grandchamp, Parisian socialites who landed front-row seats (from prison) to the French Revolution
– Sharon and Shirley Firth, the First Nations twin sisters who would go on to become Olympic skiiers and break barriers in the sport
– The Edinburgh Seven, the band of pals who fought to become the first women admitted to medical school in the United Kingdom
– The Zohra Orchestra, the ensemble from Afghanistan who defied laws, danger, and threats to become the nation’s first all-female musical group

Fun, feisty, and delightful to read–with empowering illustrations by artist Jenn Woodall–it’s the perfect gift for your bestfriend.

In this honest and stunning novel, soon to be a major motion picture directed by Barry Jenkins, James Baldwin has given America a moving story of love in the face of injustice.

Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions-affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.

In the future, the world is mostly united under one government, our Earth having been nearly consumed by conflict that threatened the existence of all humanity. This new united world will seem largely familiar, except for the fact that organized religion has been rendered illegal and punishable by death. When an elite squad of assassins is tasked with taking out the last vestiges of religion and spirituality on the planet, they are thrown into a plot too obscure to possibly envision from the beginning. Welcome to One World.