"An intelligent, moving read" (Pages) and "a testament to women’s friendship and to Ann Hood’s talent" (Hilma Wolitzer). After the loss of her only child, Mary Baxter finds herself unable to read or write, the activities that used to be her primary source of comfort. She reluctantly joins a knitting circle as a way to fill her lonely days—not knowing it will change her life. As they teach Mary new knitting techniques, the women in the circle also reveal their own secrets of loss, love, and hope. With time, Mary is finally able to tell her own story of grief, and in so doing finds the spark of life again.

Blending literature and travel, this book offers a look at 15 U.S. destinations featured in the works of famous writers. Designed as a guide to help avid bibliophiles experience, in person, the places they've only read about, award-winning journalist Terri Peterson Smith takes readers on lively tours that include a Mark Twain inspired steamboat cruise on the Mississippi, a Devil in the White City view of Chicago in the Gilded Age, a voyage through the footsteps of the immigrants and iconoclasts of San Francisco, and a look at low country Charleston's rich literary tradition. With advice on planning stress-free group travel and lit trip tips for novices, this resource also features beyond the book experiences, such as Broadway shows, Segway tours, and kayaking, making it a one-of-a-kind reference for anyone who wants to extend the experience of a great read.

An enthralling novel about love, loss, secrets, friendship, and the healing power of literature, by the bestselling author of The Knitting Circle. Ava’s twenty-five-year marriage has fallen apart, and her two grown children are pursuing their own lives outside of the country. Ava joins a book group, not only for her love of reading but also out of sheer desperation for companionship. The group’s goal throughout the year is for each member to present the book that matters most to them. Ava rediscovers a mysterious book from her childhood—one that helped her through the traumas of the untimely deaths of her sister and mother. Alternating with Ava’s story is that of her troubled daughter Maggie, who, living in Paris, descends into a destructive relationship with an older man. Ava’s mission to find that book and its enigmatic author takes her on a quest that unravels the secrets of her past and offers her and Maggie the chance to remake their lives.

GOLD MEDAL, BEST FICTION: AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND-AOTEAROA/PACIFIC RIM. 2024 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER BOOK AWARDS SILVER MEDAL, LITERARY FICTION, 2024 READERS' FAVORITE BOOK AWARDS From Jenni Ogden, author of multiple-award-winning A Drop in the Ocean, comes another evocative story of friendship, coral reefs, and marine conservation for book-club readers. It is the late 1970s and teenagers Gaia and her brother Bron live with their parents on their isolated property on Western Australia’s Coral Coast. Intensively trained for a career as a professional ballet dancer by her mother, once a Principal Dancer in the American Ballet Theatre, Gaia also loves snorkeling over the coral reef that borders their small market garden. Then comes a day that changes her life forever: she discovers a rare pair of dramatically colored seadragons, their courtship dance over the coral spellbinding, and that night she loses her entire family and her dancing dream. Two years later she returns to the abandoned property, determined to live off the land. For years her only friends are the wild animals of the bush and reef, and Mary and Eddie, an Aboriginal couple who work for the racist farmer on the neighboring property — until one morning Jarrah, Mary’s 11-year-old orphaned nephew, is entranced when he sees Gaia dancing on the beach. As an unlikely friendship between these two lonely and scarred people deepens, they discover that when you lose everything the only way to survive is to open your heart.

Thirty acclaimed writers share their personal birth stories—the extraordinary, the ordinary, the terrifying, the sublime, the profane It's an elemental, almost animalistic urge—the expectant mother's hunger for birth narratives. Bookstores are filled with month-by-month pregnancy manuals, but the shelves are virtually empty of artful, entertaining, unvarnished accounts of labor and delivery—the stories that new mothers need most. Here is a book that transcends the limits of how-to guides and honors the act of childbirth in the twenty-first century. Eleanor Henderson and Anna Solomon have gathered true birth stories by women who have made self-expression their business, including Cheryl Strayed, Julia Glass, Lauren Groff, Dani Shapiro, and many other luminaries. In Labor Day, you'll read about women determined to give birth naturally and others begging for epidurals; women who pushed for hours and women whose labors were over practically before they'd started; women giving birth to twins and to ten-pound babies. These women give birth in the hospital, at home, in bathtubs, and, yes, even in the car. Some revel in labor, some fear labor, some feel defeated by labor, some are fulfilled by it—and all are amazed by it. You will laugh, weep, squirm, perhaps groan in recognition, and undoubtedly gasp with surprise. And then you'll call every mother or mother-to-be that you know and say "You MUST read Labor Day." Contributors: Nuar Alsadir Amy Brill Susan Burton Sarah Shun-lien Bynum Lan Samantha Chang Phoebe Damrosch Claire Dederer Jennifer Gilmore Julia Glass Arielle Greenberg Lauren Groff Eleanor Henderson Cristina Henriquez Amy Herzog Ann Hood Sarah Jefferis Heidi Julavits Mary Beth Keane Marie Myung-Ok Lee Edan Lepucki Heidi Pitlor Joanna Rakoff Jane Roper Danzy Senna Dani Shapiro Anna Solomon Cheryl Strayed Sarah A. Strickley Rachel Jamison Webster Gina Zucker

On another visit to her local yarn shop, Asante Jones seeks the comfort and solace of the familiar haven and the perfect yarn for her latest project. In addition to more yarn for her stash, a hidden treasure awaits her in the form of a mysterious antique patterns book, 'The Magic of Knitting Patterns.' Asante begins a new journey as she follows the patterns, seemingly unleashing the book's power. In her quest for answers, Asante teams up with local historian LaShawn Davie to navigate the threads of history and magic woven into the very fabric of the patterns. As she knits her way through the instructions, she discovers a connection between the designer and a stolen painting, adding an unexpected twist to her already captivating journey. Join Asante and LaShawn in this riveting tale of mystery, magic, and unraveling secrets, where the soothing click of needles becomes a conduit to the unknown, and each knitted stitch reveals a hidden world waiting to be explored. 'The Magic of Knitting Patterns' is not just a book—it's a gateway to a realm where creativity intertwines with the extraordinary.

Before the film industry arrived, Hollywood was filled with quaint bungalows, millionaires' estates, and churches dedicated to teetotalism. Movies shattered Hollywood's tranquillity, and brought wealth, fame and glamorous movie stars. The giants of the movie industry invented klieg-lighted movie premieres and the Academy Awards in Hollywood. Go beyond the star-studded surface to the district's days of union busting, gangsters, and scandal, foreshadowing Hollywood's seedy decline. The book concludes with Hollywood's redevelopment that continues today. The book features the famous faces and places that made the town legendary, offering a unique perspective on celebrity nightlife and the behind-the-scenes stories of day-to-day life. Lavishly illustrated with over 800 vintage images from the author's private collection, "The Story of Hollywood" brings new insights to readers with a passion for Hollywood and its place in the history of film, radio, and television.

 Knitted slippers and house shoes: These are the new frontier for the legions of knitters passionate about sock knitting. And The Knitted Slipper Book is an everything-you-need-to-know guide to making this exciting variation on the sock. Whatever your preference—moccasins, mukluks, clogs, ballet flats, boots, booties, or Mary Janes—you’ll find all of the instruction you need. This eclectic collection of 30 designs is meant to satisfy the slipper styles of everyone in the family, young and old, male and female. In addition to the knitting instructions, techniques covered include felting; shaping; sizing; attaching soles, linings, and insoles; and finishing with tassels, pom-poms, and other trims. Step-by-step photos assure beautiful, hard-wearing, and well-fitting results. Praise for The Knitted Slipper Book: “It’s impossible to flip through without smiling. The color, the photography, the projects are imbued with joy.†? —Knitty.com “I really like the range of sizes . . . I love, love, love the Genie Folk Slippers!†? —Knit Knit Café Blog “Fireside booties are genius shoes because they warm the feet and the ankles. The sleepy friends slippers are super adorable. The photos of each slipper are fantastic.†? —Sweetly Made "This book is a lot of fun, offering options both whimsical and practical. But beware: looking at it might inspire you to want to knit slippers for everyone in your family. Or everyone on your Christmas list. Or to institute a no shoes in the house rule and knit a basket of slippers to leave by the door for guests.†? —About.com “We’re super psyched to offer you a free knitting pattern . . . (You’ll definitely want to check out the trailer for the book. It’s unbelievably adorable!) Katie suggests whipping up several of these clogs for house guests—but of course, a couple of pairs for yourself would be nice, too.†? —Craftsy.com “I love this book! You will too. And so will Mom, and Grandma! A perfect gift for every knitter on your Holiday gift list.†? —Gingerbread Snowflakes “You can have all your gift knitting done from one book! Such a smart, fun yet functional collection of knits.†? —Petite Purls “The Knitted Slipper Book provides magic, along with a hefty dose of practicality.†? —Shelf Awareness “It’s a wonderful, multi-faceted book—and once I’ve finished knitting my way through it, I’ll be looking for the sequel!†? —Kangath Knits “We’re in the time of year when crafters seek out patterns and ideas for handmade holiday gifts. There’s a winner on each page of The Knitted Slipper Book.†? —Cleveland Plain Dealer “Patterns range from baby to large adults sizes, making this book of 30 designs especially appealing to those who have plans to make handmade holiday gifts this year.†? —Grand Rapids Press “Everything you need to know about how to make these warm and cozy beauties is all in one book, hooray for that!†? —Smashed Peas and Carrots “Because everyone needs cute house shoes, right?†? —DallasNews.com

Reading Sideways explores the pivotal role that various art forms played in American literary fiction in direct relation to the politics of gender and sexuality in works of modern American literature. It tracks the crosswise circulation of aesthetic ideas in fiction and argues that at stake in the aesthetic turn of these works was not only the theorization of aesthetic experience but also an engagement with political arguments and debates about available modes of sociability and sexual expression. To track these engagements, its author, Dana Seitler, performs a method she calls “lateral reading,” a mode of interpretation that moves horizontally through various historical entanglements and across the fields of the arts to make sense of—and see in a new light—their connections, challenges, and productive frictions. Each chapter takes a different art form as its object: sculpture, portraiture, homecraft, and opera. These art forms appear in some of the major works of literature of the period central to negotiations of gender, race, and sexuality, including those by Henry James, Davis, Willa Cather, Du Bois, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Mary Wilkins Freeman. But the literary texts that each chapter of this book takes as its motivation not only include a specific art form or object as central to its politics, they also build an alternative aesthetic vocabulary through which they seek to alter, challenge, or participate in the making of social and sexual life. By cultivating a counter-aesthetics of the unfinished, the uncertain, the small, the low, and the allusive, these fictions recognize other ways of knowing and being than those oriented toward reductively gendered accounts of beauty, classed imperatives established by the norms of taste, or apolitical treatises of sexual disinterestedness. And within them—and through “reading sideways”—we can witness the coming-into-legibility of a set of diffuse practices that provide a pivot point for engaging the political methods of minoritized subjects at the turn of the twentieth century.