2021 LODESTAR AWARD for BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK Fourteen-year-old Mona isn’t like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can’t control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt’s bakery making gingerbread men dance. But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…

Selected by Joy Harjo as the winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets Emily Skaja’s debut collection is a fiery, hypnotic book that confronts the dark questions and menacing silences around gender, sexuality, and violence. Brute arises, brave and furious, from the dissolution of a relationship, showing how such endings necessitate self-discovery and reinvention. The speaker of these poems is a sorceress, a bride, a warrior, a lover, both object and agent, ricocheting among ways of knowing and being known. Each incarnation squares itself up against ideas of feminine virtue and sin, strength and vulnerability, love and rage, as it closes in on a hard-won freedom. Brute is absolutely sure of its capacity to insist not only on the truth of what it says but on the truth of its right to say it. “What am I supposed to I’m free ?” the first poem asks. The rest of the poems emphatically discover new ways to answer. This is a timely winner of the Walt Whitman Award, and an introduction to an unforgettable voice.

The essential literary collection of H. P. Lovecraft’s ten finest short stories, from the celebrated editor of the two-volume New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft . An indispensable collection of the best of one of literature’s “most critically fascinating and yet enigmatic figures” (Alan Moore), featuring H. P. Lovecraft’s most bone-chilling tales, “Dagon”, “The Outsider”, “The Music of Erich Zann”, “The Rats in the Walls”, “The Call of Cthulhu", “The Colour Out of Space”, “The Dunwich Horror”, “The Shadow over Innsmouth”, “The Shadow Out of Time” and “The Haunter of the Dark”. Though he died an unknown, dejected pulp-magazine writer in 1937, Howard Phillips Lovecraft is now considered the first great “genius of weird fiction” (Peter Straub). There is no better guide through the peculiarities of his universe than Leslie S. Klinger, whose work as annotator of the “exciting and definitive” (Danielle Trussoni, New York Times Book Review ) New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft has proven him a leading Lovecraft scholar. Keenly aware of the author’s inspiration of “dozens―hundreds―of stories written by others playing in [his] galactic sandbox,” Klinger now presents this essential reader’s edition for both fanatics and newcomers to the canon. Equipped with explanatory annotations and sharp historical insight, this highly accessible?collection features Lovecraft’s ten most profound and unnerving short stories. From the early tale “Dagon” to the mature and sprawling “The Haunter of the Dark,” these expertly curated stories built a Lovecraftian sense of dread that has reverberated in the world of horror literature for that all of us are “outsiders” in the universe. 11 black-and-white photographs

John Milton's Paradise Lost is one of the greatest epic poems in the English language. It tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of innocence pitted against corruption, in which God and Satan fight a bitter battle for control of mankind's destiny. The struggle rages across three worlds - heaven, hell, and earth - as Satan and his band of rebel angels plot their revenge against God. At the center of the conflict are Adam and Eve, who are motivated by all too human temptations but whose ultimate downfall is unyielding love. Marked by Milton's characteristic erudition, Paradise Lost is a work epic both in scale and, notoriously, in ambition. For nearly 350 years, it has held generation upon generation of audiences in rapt attention, and its profound influence can be seen in almost every corner of Western culture.

“Sky pirates, gunslingers, mythic knights, & treasure maps. This book has everything I’ve ever wanted in an epic future fantasy, all wrapped up in one stunning, action-packed debut.”Captain Grey and his crew of sky pirates have a reputation for doing the impossible. From breaking into high-security military research facilities to conning the iCity elite—there isn’t a lock they can’t pick, a safe they can’t break, or a hidden treasure they can’t find. Until now.Returning from a harrowing heist involving a neon battery and a trash chute, Grey and his crew are approached by Dalia, the immortal daughter of the infamous ArchGovernor—and she has an offer.The job? Locate and steal the Stones of Indigo—seven fabled rocks invested with godlike power. The search for the first stone is a bona fide treasure hunt, guided by an ancient map to a deadly, uncharted island that’s protected by a mysterious guardian. The score? One million credits per crew member, per stone. The catch? Well, that’s where things get a little complicated.The stones don’t exist. They’re a myth. A bedtime story told to little pirates to make them believe that power and wealth are attainable if you just work hard enough.And to make matters infinitely worse, Grey’s never trusted immortals, and Dalia’s definitely hiding something. Something bad. And if they don’t figure out what it is, it might cost them their lives.ONE CREW OF SKY PIRATESSEVEN MYTHOLOGICAL STONESA RACE TO FIND THEM ALL

Bestselling author of the Queen of the Tearling series, Erika Johansen, journeys to a new kingdom in this brilliant stand-alone novel—a darkly magical take on The Nutcracker where two sisters, cursed from birth, are forever changed one memorable Christmas. . . . Light and dark—this is the destiny placed upon Natasha and Clara, the birthright bestowed by their godfather, the mysterious sorcerer Drosselmeyer. Clara, the favorite, grows into beauty and ease, while Natasha is cursed to live in her sister’s shadow. But one fateful Christmas Eve, Natasha gets her chance at revenge. For Drosselmeyer has brought the Nutcracker, an enchanted present that offers entry into a deceptively beautiful world: the Kingdom of Sweets. In this land of snow and sugar, Natasha is presented with a power far greater than Drosselmeyer: the Sugar Plum Fairy, who is also full of gifts . . . and dreadful bargains. As Natasha uncovers the dark destiny laid before her birth, she must reckon with powers both earthly and magical, and decide to which world she truly belongs.