New Book Releases

Young D.J. is going to be a page for the queen of Zulu, the oldest African-American parade in the New Orleans Mardi Gras.

If only you believe in yourself, you can do anything! That's the lesson this little float learns in the New Orleans based adaptation of Watty Piper's classic tale, The Little Engine That Could. The Little Float wants to be a part of the big parade this year. To get to New Orleans, the float will have to cross a really tall bridge. It will take some persuading to make it across and onto the parade route! What will give the float the confidence to get across and entertain all the costumed children waiting to see the parade?

The definitive guide to all things Mardi Gras . . . past and present! From Twelfth Night to Ash Wednesday, New Orleans is transformed. Queens and fools, demons and dragons reign over the Crescent City. This vividly photographed book is a lively, comprehensive history of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Fascinating and intimate, this book seamlessly intertwines the past with the present.

"Science doesn't freak meowt!"

Alycat is excited that it’s Science Fair Day, but why is her classmate copying almost everything about her, from the shirt she’s wearing to the project she’s doing? Soon Alycat learns, through patience and kindness, that two similar things can be better when they work together. This latest addition to the kitten picture-book series includes STEM themes plus instructions for making your own glitter volcano!

Princess had it all, except for one thing. 

Princess adores playing with her many stuffed animals. One day, Princess realizes something is missing . . . she needs a real pet! Determined to make Princess’s dream come true, Queen summons her subjects from far and wide to help find Princess a pet. Soon, amazing animals start arriving from all over. How will she choose just one?

Tour the nation's capital in this playful and colorful A - Z tour of Washington, DC. "W is for Washington, D.C. offers a fresh perspective on the iconic monuments, landmarks, famous places and fun things to do in D.C with graphic illustrations and whimsical text. From Air Force One to the National Zoo, W is for Washington, D.C. captures the best of Washington, D.C.

The tour includes stops at Rock Creek Park, the Smithsonian Museum, The Washington Monument, cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin, The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and ice skating at the National Gallery. There is even a page devoted to Presidential Dogs!

W is for Washington, D.C. is a full-size full-size picture book with gorgeous illustrations printed on premium gloss paper. This Washington, D.C. children's book is a great gift for a native Washingtonian or visitor of any age!

With vivid, design-centric illustrations that and short whimsical rhymes, S is for Seattle shows off the iconic people, places, food and music of Seattle. This A-Z tour of the Emerald City takes readers through iconic landmarks in the Seattle, including the Space Needle, the Public Market, the Monorail and iconic Seattle ferries. Other stops include a visit to the octopus that lives in Puget Sound and the great, gross Gum Wall. S is for Seattle also highlights the nature of the Northwest, especially Mount Rainier.

Seattle sports fans won't be disappointed either with an image of iconic Seattle sports legends' jerseys. Can you guess them all?

This Seattle children's book is a full-size picture book with gorgeous illustrations printed on premium gloss paper. Whether on a coffee table or on the nightstand, this large-format book is sure to make any resident or visitor smile.

With vivid, design-centric illustrations that and short whimsical rhymes, B Is for Boston shows off the iconic people, places, food and music of Boston. From the New England Aquarium to the Zakim Bridge, this alphabetical tour of the city includes stops at the Old North Church, Boston Harbor, The New England Aquarium and the Public Gardens. Boston sports fans won't be disappointed either with a stop at the Green Monster of Fenway Park and iconic Boston sports legends jerseys. Can you guess them all?

This Boston children's book is a full-size picture book with gorgeous illustrations printed on premium gloss paper. Whether on a coffee table or on the nightstand, this large-format book is sure to make any local or visitor smile.

A perfect keepsake for any local or visitor, A Is for Aspen is a charming picture book that explores the town of Aspen, Colorado, through short, sweet rhymes and clean, graphic illustrations. Explore this iconic mountain town from yoga at the top of Ajax Mountain to rafting the whitecaps on the Roaring Fork River. Stops include snowboarding on Buttermilk Mountain, hiking the Bowl at the Highlands and the spectacle of extreme athleticism at the X-Games.

This Aspen, Colorado children's book celebrates everything that both locals and visitors love about this special mountain town.

Join Beignet Bunny on a whimsical adventure through New Orleans as he searches for friends, convinced he's a sugar-covered treat, and encounters a colorful cast of characters along the way.

When Momma Bunny calls her new baby “my little beignet,” he becomes convinced he’s actually a sugar-covered treat, beloved in New Orleans. Beignet Bunny embarks on an adventure, asking a pelican, crawfish, turtle, and even a sleeping possum where all the other beignets play. Will he be able to find a friend? Young readers will enjoy hopping along with the sweetest bunny as he searches for others like him.

The definitive biography of the Revolutionary War doctor and hero.

An American doctor, Bostonian, and patriot, Joseph Warren played a central role in the events leading to the American Revolution. This detailed biography of Warren rescues the figure from obscurity and reveals a remarkable revolutionary who dispatched Paul Revere on his famous ride and was the hero of the battle of Bunker Hill, where he was killed in action. Physician to the history makers of early America, political virtuoso, and military luminary, Warren comes to life in this comprehensive biography meticulously grounded in original scholarship.

Fran and Van Harahan are excited about the circus coming to New Orleans, not far from their bayou home. The couple remembers seeing those talented Cajun gators walking a boudin-link tightrope, high diving into a big gumbo pot, swinging from muscadine vines, spinning seafood platters, and more. When Fran and Van arrive for the show, they learn that Van is holding the golden ticket and will be in the last daring act of the night! Young readers will marvel at all the goings-on at this one-of-a-kind circus. 

Join Pinky the penguin as she teaches children about manners in this charming and educational story.

Pinky the penguin is very polite. She always tries to do what’s right. Today she will show us manners the Louisiana way, from sharing beignets at breakfast to tipping street musicians, greeting the streetcar driver, being a good sport at the football game, and more.

Evie is a Cajun girl who dreams of having her very own pair of white shrimp boots. She learns of all the quirky and hilarious regional nicknames they are called in different parts of Louisiana. When she gets her own pair of boots for her birthday, she’s faced with having to come up with a name for them! What will she call them? Pelican State Princess Slippers is a colorful, fashion-forward adventure sprinkled with Cajun French sayings and Louisiana places. 

Born and raised in Louisiana, author and illustrator Kristie Guillory Edmondson is a speech diagnostician. She has a degree in visual art from McNeese State University and a master's from University of Louisiana at Lafayette. A speech pathologist by trade, she has worked with children in the school system for nineteen years and resides in Louisiana with her husband and two children.

Pirate's Pantry: Treasured Recipes of Southwest Louisiana (50th Anniversary) is a bountiful collection of family and regional recipes, with a spicy lagniappe of local historical lore that reflects the Creole and Cajun flavor of this unique area, steeped in mystique and legend.

This counting book for young readers offers a rhyming Halloween twist on the old camp song The Ants Go Marching One by One (also known as the tune When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again). It also shows little ones how to banish the monsters who sneak into their rooms.

J is for Jefferson and S is for signatures in this illustrated children's picture book that traces the events leading up to the Declaration of Independence and its subsequent profound impact. Unlike alphabet books that string together unrelated facts, this one actually tells the story of how our nation's founding document came to be.

Notable Quotations from Frederick Douglass

This pocket-sized hardcover book contains dozens of quotations from abolitionist, orator, social reformer and statesman Frederick Douglass.

"No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other enfastened about his own neck."

-Frederick Douglass, Speech at Civil Rights Mass Meeting, Washington, DC, October 22, 1883

Freed slaves who headed West to start careers in the army after the Civil War were nicknamed buffalo soldiers by the Cheyenne Indians because of their hair and their displays of strength. A buffalo soldier�s account of the bravery and courage of the Tenth Calvary during the Indian wars and the Spanish-American War.

O. Henry’s classic 1905 Christmas story in an elegant gift hardback with illustrations. A treasure for readers of any age.

This sentimental holiday classic follows a young married couple and the sacrifices made to purchase cherished gifts for each other only to discover the true gift of Christmas is not found in objects but in their own devoted love. 

The Applewood Holiday Classics series presents some of the most beloved holiday short stories in a warm, elegant hardback edition with attractive illustrations. Perfect as a cherished seasonal book or a holiday gift for any occasion.

An accessible, intimate look at the oft-neglected history of Arab Americans in Greater Indianapolis who have made a remarkable impact on the region since the late 1800s.From establishing local businesses to working in the fields of health care and education, Arab Americans have made indelible contributions to the cultural vitality, economic growth, and social fabric of central Indiana. Arab Indianapolis features the stories of Arab Americans--some famous, some not--who have shaped the Capital City's past and will continue to define its future. It details a history hidden in plain sight, one sometimes buried beneath Indianapolis's most iconic landmarks such as Lucas Oil Stadium, Monument Circle, the Indiana War Memorials, the Governor's Residence, and Riverside Park. Highlights include: Helen Corey, the first Arab American to hold statewide elected office and the author of one of the most famous books on Syrian cuisine

• Jeff George, a Syrian American from the region who went on to play quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts
• The Syrian Christian community and the building of St. George Orthodox Church
• Indianapolis's connection to St. Jude Children's Hospital
• Governor Mitch Daniels, Indiana governor and grandson to Syrian immigrants

Through short essays, over eighty beautiful photographs, interviews, and even a few recipes, this collection embraces the full humanity of Arab Americans in the Midwest. It will give you a deeper sense of the myriad lives of Arab-descended Hoosiers who call Indianapolis home. Arab Indianapolis is an indispensable resource for anyone looking to know the full story of how Arab Americans continue to shape one of the Midwest's most iconic cities.

Phil Christman is one of the best cultural critics working today. Or, as a reviewer of his previous book, Midwest Futures, put it, one of the most underappreciated writers of [his] generation.You may also know Phil from his columns in Commonweal and Plough, or his viral essay What Is It Like To Be A Man?, the latter adapted in his new book, How to Be Normal.

Christman's second book includes essays on How To Be White, How to Be Religious, How To Be Married, and more, in addition to new versions of the above. Find in it also brilliant analyses of middlebrow culture, bad movies, Mark Fisher, Christian fundamentalism, and more.

With exquisite attention to syntax and prose, the astoundingly well-read Christman pairs a deceptively breezy style with radical openness. In his witty, original hands, seemingly normal subjects are rendered exceptional, and exceptionally.

A memoir of a life in activism by one of the original defendants in the Trial of the Chicago 7, subject of the 2020 Oscar-nominated Aaron Sorkin film of the same name.

In March 1969, eight young men were indicted by the federal government for conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. First dubbed the Conspiracy 8 and later the Chicago 7, the group included firebrands like Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Bobby Seale. But it also included a little-known community activist and social worker from the South Side of Chicago named Lee Weiner, who was just as surprised as the rest of the country when his name was included in the indictment. The ensuing trial of the Chicago 7 became a media sensation, and it changed Weiner's life forever. In this irreverent, freewheeling memoir of an indelible moment in history--which Kirkus Reviews called a welcome addition to the library of the countercultural 1960s left--Conspiracy to Riot shows how a commitment to your ideals can change your destiny forever.

With startling relevance to today's polarized political climate, Conspiracy to Riot is a book for anyone who hopes for a better, more just world, and offers a blueprint for how to make it happen.

An ambitious, honest portrait of the Black experience in flyover country. One of The St. Louis Post Dispatch's Best Books of 2020.

Black Americans have been among the hardest hit by the rapid deindustrialization and accompanying economic decline that have become so synonymous with the Midwest. After the 2016 election, many traditional media outlets renewed their attention on the conditions of Middle America, but they often marginalized or completely overlooked the experience of the Black people who live there.

Edited by Terrion Williamson, the director of the Black Midwest Initiative, Black in the Middle places the voices of Black midwesterners front and center. Filled with compelling personal narratives, thought-provoking art, and searing commentaries, this anthology explores the various meanings and experiences of blackness throughout the Rust Belt, the Midwest, and the Great Plains. It brings together people from major metropolitan centers like Detroit and Chicago as well as smaller cities and rural areas where the lives of Black residents have too often gone unacknowledged to create a timely, compelling collection that allows predominantly Black Midwesterners to reclaim their home, histories, and future.

A much-needed corrective to common narratives about the Midwest.

From Erin Keane, editor in chief at Salon, comes a touching memoir about the search for truths in the stories families tell. In 1970, Erin Keane's mother ran away from home for the first time. She was thirteen years old. Over the next several years, and under two assumed identities, she hitchhiked her way across America, experiencing freedom, hardship, and tragedy. At fifteen, she met a man in New York City and married him. He was thirty-six.  Though a deft balance of journalistic digging, cultural criticism, and poetic reimagining, Keane pieces together the true story of her mother's teenage years, questioning almost everything she's been told about her parents and their relationship. Along the way, she also considers how pop culture has kept similar narratives alive in her. At stake are some of the most profound questions we can ask ourselves: What's true? What gets remembered? Who gets to tell the stories that make us who we are?  Whether it's talking about painful family history, #MeToo, Star Wars, true crime forensics, or The Gilmore Girls, Runaway is an unforgettable look at all the different ways the stories we tell--both personal and pop cultural--create us.

The true story of Marshall "Major" Taylor, who overcame racial prejudice to become one of the most dominant cyclists in history. Part of Belt's Revival series and with an introduction by Zito Madu.

The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World, which Taylor self-published in 1928, gives a riveting first-person account of his rise to the highest echelons of professional cycling. Born in Indianapolis, he eventually became the first African American cycling world champion, going on to set seven world records in the sport. Readers will learn about Taylor's exploits as an athlete, including his early taste of success in a grueling six-day race, his unparalleled dominance as a sprinter, and some of his most bitter defeats. But the man who achieved international fame as the "Black Cyclone" also details the extreme prejudice he faced both on and off the track. It's a story about one of the greatest athletes in American history but also a moving testament to Taylor's resilience and determination in the face of overt racism and seemingly impossible odds.

As he tells us himself, "I am writing my memoirs . . . in the spirit calculated to solicit simple justice, equal rights, and a square deal for the posterity of my down-trodden but brave people, not only in athletic games and sports, but in every honorable game of human endeavor."

Longlisted for the 2022 PEN America John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, a riveting and tightly argued history of eugenics and its ripple effects, by acclaimed historian Elizabeth Catte.

Between 1927 and 1979, more than 8,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in five hospitals across the state of Virginia. From this plain and terrible fact springs Elizabeth Catte's Pure America, a sweeping, unsparing history of eugenics in Virginia, and by extension the United States. Virginia's eugenics program was not the misguided initiative of well-meaning men of the day, writes Catte, it was a manifestation of white supremacy. It was a form of employment insurance. It was a means of controlling troublesome women and a philosophy that helped remove poor people from valuable land. It was cruel and it was wrong. As was amply evidenced by her acclaimed 2018 book What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, Catte has no room for excuses; no patience for equivocation. What does it mean for modern America, she asks here, that such buildings are given the second chance that 8,000 citizens never got?

Grounded, well-rendered, and highly disturbing, Pure America is another necessary corrective to the historical record, a must-read for anyone concerned with how to repair its damage.

This book made me laugh out loud and also gave me glimpses of an entire horizon of possibility I hadn't seen before.--Chris Hayes, host of MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes

End the filibuster. Abolish the Senate. Make everyone vote. Only if we do this (and then some), says Thomas Geoghegan, might we heal our fractured democracy.

In 2008, Geoghegan―then an established labor lawyer and prolific writer―embarked on a campaign to represent Chicago's Fifth District in Congress, in a special election called when Rahm Emanuel stepped down to serve as President Barack Obama's chief of staff. For ninety days leading up to the election, Geoghegan, a political neophyte at age sixty, knocked on doors, shook hands at train stations, and made fundraising calls. On election night he lost, badly.

But this humbling experience helped him develop a framework for reimagining American government in a way that is truly just, fair, and constitutional. Taking its title from Walt Whitman, The History of Democracy Is Yet to Be Written: How We Have to Learn to Govern All Over Again, combines hilarious tales from his time on the campaign trail with an incisive vision of how we might be able to create an America that fulfills its great promise. In a polarized country, where 100 million citizens don't vote, and those who do are otherwise rarely politically engaged, he makes an impassioned case for the possibility of a truly representative democracy, one built on the ideals of the House of Representatives, the true chamber of the people, and inspired by the poet who gives the book its name.

At once an engaging memoir and a call to arms, The History of Democracy Is Yet to Be Written will inspire and invigorate political veterans and young activists alike.

Detroit in 50 Maps shows you the Motor City from entirely new perspectives, from neighborhood coffee shops to the legacy of redlining.

There are thousands of ways to map a city. Roads, bridges, and railways help you navigate the twists and turns; topography gives you the lay of the land; population growth shows you its changing fortunes. But the best maps let you feel what that city's really like. Detroit in 50 Maps deconstructs the Motor City in surprising new ways. Track where new coffee shops and coworking spaces have opened and closed in the last five years. Find the areas with the highest concentrations of pizzerias, Coney Island hot dog shops, or ring-necked pheasants. In each colorful map, you'll find a new perspective on one of America's most misunderstood cities and the people who live here.

A conversation starter for Detroiters past, present, and future, Detroit in 50 Maps is for anyone keen to understand the city in new and surprising ways.

The Midwest finally gets its due through essays penned by architects and critics, who shine a much-deserved spotlight on the region's architecture, from its celebrated landmarks to its lesser-known projects.

Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright may be the Midwest's (and the nation's) most famous architects, but the region has always been fertile ground for both master and amateur builders. Through a gorgeous array of photographs and short essays, Midwest Architecture Journeys takes readers on a trip to visit some of the region's most inventive buildings by architects such as Bertrand Goldberg, Bruce Goff, David Haid, Earl Young, and Lillian Leenhouts. It also includes stops at less obvious but equally daring sites, such as:

- The Cahokia mounds

- Buffalo grain silos

- Flint parking lots

- Dayton flea markets

- Fermilab

- New Glarus restaurants

- Minneapolis underground buildings

- Bronzeville churches

- Pruitt-Igoe public housing

- Cleveland's abandoned warehouses.

This vital collection of essays, full of stunning photographs, proves that what might seem flat is actually monumental, and what we assume to be boring is brimming with experimentation.

The perfect coffee table book that's also perfect for your next road trip.