Adult

Jennifer Chiaverini presents a stunning account of the friendship that blossomed between Mary Todd Lincoln and her seamstress, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Keckley, a former slave who gained her professional reputation in Washington, D.C. by outfitting the city’s elite. Keckley made history by sewing for the First Lady within the White House, a trusted witness to many private moments between the President and his wife.

The 18 stories in this book render the fantastic commonplace and the ordinary extraordinary. From a composer that speaks through his ears to a man at war with his wife who he accidentally shrank, these characters and stories are ones a reader will never forget.

Cyndi Lee, the founder of New York's OM yoga Center, was in a lifelong cycle of harsh judgment about her body. Despite her success in many physically demanding professions, she still could not be happy with her physique. This memoir tells the story of Cyndi's journey to self acceptance.

On May 30, 1593, a celebrated young playwright was killed in a tavern brawl in London. That, at least, was the official version. Now Christopher Marlowe reveals the truth: that his "death" was an elaborate ruse to avoid a conviction of heresy; that he was spirited across the English Channel to live on in lonely exile; that he continued to write plays and poetry, hiding behind the name of a colorless man from Stratford --- one William Shakespeare.

The author of a classic self-help guide to love and relationships, Peter Herman has won the hearts of romantics and cynics alike. But decades have passed since Marriage Is a Canoe was published, and a recently widowed Peter begins to question his own advice. Much to his chagrin, he receives a call from Stella Petrovic, an ambitious young editor in New York City who forces him to reconsider his life’s work, not to mention the full force of his delusions.

Honor Bright is a modest English Quaker who moves to Ohio in 1850. Sick from the journey and forced by family tragedy to immediately rely on help from strangers, Honor realizes that in a country that still allows slavery, principles count for little. When drawn into helping with the Underground Railroad, she finally finds her principles put to use.

In 1982, Sue Grafton introduced us to Kinsey Millhone. Thirty years later, Kinsey is an established international icon and Grafton is a number-one bestselling author. To mark this anniversary year, Grafton has given us stories that reveal Kinsey’s origins and Grafton’s past. KINSEY AND ME has two parts: the nine Kinsey stories (1986-93), and the And Me stories, written in the decade after Grafton's mother died.

For Rebecca Dana, Truman Capote and Nora Ephron were her gods and New York City was her Jerusalem. After graduating from college, she moves to New York and all of her dreams come true. However, when they come crashing down around her, she finds herself living in Brooklyn's Lubavitch community with Cosmo, a 30-year-old Russian rabbi who practices jujitsu on the side. Both disenchanted with their religions, they go searching for meaning.

Seth Weinstein knew Tina was way out of his league, so it’s astonishing that he was on the plane now for their destination wedding in Florida. In the next several hours, he and his friends will become embroiled with rioters, Russian gangsters, angry strippers, a pimp as big as the Death Star, a very desperate Haitian refugee on the run with her two children from some very bad men, and an 11-foot albino Burmese python named Blossom.

In February 1861, just days before he assumed the presidency, Abraham Lincoln faced a “clear and fully-matured” threat of assassination as he traveled by train from Springfield to Washington for his inauguration. Over a period of 13 days, the legendary detective Allan Pinkerton worked feverishly to detect and thwart the plot, assisted by a captivating young widow named Kate Warne, America’s first female private eye.