One kokeshi, two kokeshi, three kokeshi, four…. Anna is a Japanese-American girl whose grandparents live in Japan. They have been sending her adorable Kokeshi dolls made of painted wood each year for her birthday since she was very small. The dolls, like people, are all different— and beautiful! In this charming children's book by award-winning author Tracy Gallup, we watch Anna grow up as her Kokeshi collection grows bigger, and we see how these dolls bring Anna and her grandparents closer together as the years pass. Part counting book, part visual narrative, this beautifully-illustrated bilingual picture book shows how simple objects can serve as a bridge between people and cultures on opposite sides of the globe. It also introduces these beautiful dolls and the ways in which they are formed and painted. The story is in Japanese and English, with a free audio recording available online. A note at the end gently explains the history of Kokeshi dolls and why they are made the way they are.

--- She found the perfect guy. But he hates her dolls. --- Anna is the weirdest girl Gavin has ever dated. He lost his arm in an accident, and his mohawk makes him stand out from the crowd, so he's dated his share of weirdos, geeks, and freaks. Yet no one quite like Anna. She's cute, hot, and has boobs Gavin wants to bury his face in, but she just won't shut up about her limited edition Japanese doll collection, or whatever they're called. So Gavin comes up with a perfect plan - a no strings attached relationship, so they can fool around without overcommitting. He'd get to have his pussy and eat it too. Anna thinks she's met the perfect boyfriend in Gavin, but her pierced and tattooed prince of darkness turns out to be yet another disappointment relationship-wise. When he proposes a friends-with-benefits arrangement, Anna figures she might as well make the best of it and unleash all her kinky fantasies on the guy. After all, it's not like he'll be there to judge her in half a year's time. Soon enough, there are more strings attached than any of them expected. WARNING Contains adult content: steamy scenes, explicit language. Expect inappropriate behavior on the subway, at a cemetery, and in a room full of dolls. POSSIBLE SPOILERS: Themes: commitment, dollfie, unusual hobbies, alternative lifestyle, friends with benefits, love triangle, friend zone, goth, Paris, London, disability Genre: New Adult romance Length: 60,000 words (Standalone novel, no cliffhanger.)

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch When Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money? Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world. Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else. The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic. Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette’s copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms. Praise for Empty Mansions “An amazing story of profligate wealth . . . an outsized tale of rags-to-riches prosperity.”—The New York Times “An evocative and rollicking read, part social history, part hothouse mystery, part grand guignol.”—The Daily Beast “Fascinating . . . [a] haunting true-life tale.”—People “One of those incredible stories that you didn’t even know existed. It filled a void.”—Jon Stewart, The Daily Show “Thrilling . . . deliciously scandalous.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Thirty Hispanic stories by women writers. They range from Mary Ponce's Just Desserts, about a woman whose date turns sour, to Lucha Corpi's Epiphany: The Third Gift, on a girl who lacks femininity and the effect this has on her family.

--- Too cool for school. ---Ethan is a levelheaded, some might say 'antisocial', young artist-entrepreneur with a love for quirky taxidermy. He is close to graduating high school and at a crossroads. All he wants is to develop his business further, yet all his parents want is for him to go to law school. That is more than enough problems for Ethan, so any kind of love life is off his agenda. That is until Robert Hunter, the quarterback of the football team, comes crashing into him. Literally. Robert drifts along in high school. He has good grades, he's getting ready for med school, he's even leaving potentially problematic dating until college. He's gay, not ashamed of it, but he doesn't want to stir up any trouble. His carefully laid plans might just go completely off the rails though, when he drinks too much at a party and causes irreversible damage to Ethan, the school's weirdo. Robert has to face the fact that maybe he isn't the good guy he always considered himself to be. And maybe he doesn't want to go to med school. And maybe, just maybe, he doesn't actually want to wait with dating until college. POSSIBLE SPOILERS:Themes: First love, virginity, bullying, fitting in, entrepreneurship, disability, high school, jock/goth, taxidermy, artistErotic content: explicit sex scenes, dub-conGenre: New Adult gay erotic romanceLength: ~ 90,000 words (Standalone novel, no cliffhanger.)