Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired) leads a quiet life in the village of St. Mary, England, until his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But will their relationship survive in a society that considers...

This novel of female power and vulnerability, race, and class explores the unlikely friendship between a precocious black girl and a mysterious white woman in a small Mississippi town in the early 1980s.

"Ziwe made a name for herself by asking guests like Alyssa Milano, Fran Lebowitz, and Chet Hanks direct questions. In Black Friend, she turns her incisive perspective on both herself and the culture at large. Throughout the book, Ziwe combines pop-culture commentary and personal stories, which grapple with her own (mis)understanding of identity. From a hilarious case of mistaken identity via a jumbotron to a terrifying fight-or-flight encounter in...

"FIRST FRIENDS includes the riveting histories of myriad presidential friendships, among them Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed, the man with whom Lincoln once shared a bed and who did more to help him emerge from his crippling depression than anyone else; Harry Truman and Eddie Jacobson, the Kansas City haberdasher who played a pivotal part in America's recognition of the state of Israel in 1948; and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Daisy Suckley, a...

In this 1983 short story about race and the relationships that shape us through life, Twyla and Roberta, friends since childhood who are seemingly at opposite ends of every problem as they grow older, cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them. Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old, roommates in the St. Bonaventure shelter. After losing touch, they meet several times by accident. Seemingly...

"A brand-new Hap and Leonard series collection chock full of Joe R. Lansdale's inimitable blend of humor, mayhem, and insight, Of Mice and Minestrone delivers never-before-seen stories, a selection of the boys' favorite recipes, by Kasey Lansdale, and an introduction from New York Times bestselling crime author Kathleen Kent. Hap Collins looks like a good ol' boy. But even in his misspent youth, his best pal is Leonard Pine, who is black, gay, and...

Boston, 1992. David Greenfeld is one of the few white kids at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Middle School. Everybody clowns him, girls ignore him, and his hippie parents won't even buy him a pair of Nikes, let alone transfer him to a private school. Unless he tests into the city's best public high school--which, if practice tests are any indication, isn't likely--he'll be friendless for the foreseeable future. Nobody's more surprised than Dave when...

"The names Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery may not be well known, but the image of them from September 1957 surely is: a black high school girl, dressed in white, walking stoically in front of Little Rock Central High School, and a white girl standing directly behind her, face twisted in hate, screaming racial epithets. This famous photograph captures the full anguish of desegregation -- in Little Rock and throughout the South -- and an...

"Bianca is Keira's best friend. At school, they are inseparable. But Keira questions their friendship when she learns more about the meaning of the Confederate flag hanging from Bianca's front porch. Will the two friends be able to overlook their distinct understandings of the flag? Or will they reckon with the flag's effect on yesterday and today? In That Flag, Tameka Fryer Brown and Nikkolas Smith graciously tackle the issues of racism, the value...

Honeydripper: "Tyrone Purvis will try anything to keep his blues lounge, The Honeydripper, alive. So when a popular guitar player fails to slow up for a packed Saturday night, Purvis turns to a young wanderer for help"--Container. Race to freedom: the Underground Railroad: "Chronicles the dangerous journey of four determined slaves from a cotton plantation in America to the "Promised Land" in Canada."--Container. Nightjohn: The story of twelve-year-old...