A “moving and memorable” novel about a cafe where everyone has a story to tell from the award-winning author of The Women of Brewster Place (The Boston Globe). In post–World War II Brooklyn, on a quiet backstreet, there’s a little place that draws people from all over—not for the food, and definitely not for the coffee. An in-between place that’s only there when you need it, Bailey’s Cafe is a crossroads where patrons stay for a while before making a choice: Move on or check out? In this novel, National Book Award–winning author Gloria Naylor’s expertly crafted characters experience a journey full of beauty and heartbreak. Touching on gender, race, and the African American experience, Bailey’s Cafe is “a sublime achievement” about the resilience of the human spirit (People).

Set in a diner where the food isn't very good and the ambience veers between heaven and hell, this bestselling novel from the author of Mama Day and The Women of Brewster Place is a feast for the senses and the spirit. "A virtuoso orchestration of survival, suffering, courage and humor."--New York Times Book Review.

NOW A HALLMARK CHANNEL ORIGINAL MOVIE! Love is like a perfect recipe… You never want to lose it. Years ago, Kelly McIntyre and Andrew York were engaged and dreaming of opening a restaurant together. Then he chose an opportunity to study in Paris over the small-town life they’d planned, and their romance came to a bittersweet end. But Kelly’s doing fine. She’s not only the owner of a potbellied pig named Gray, but also of her own bakery. Business is good—so good that she’s invited to compete in a Valentine’s Day bake-off. As she prepares for the contest, she tries not to get distracted by Andrew’s visit to town. When Andrew sees Kelly, it stirs up his old feelings. Little does he know that soon, in New York, he’ll compete against her in the bake-off…and they’ll both realize how much their past is a part of them still. This irresistible romance includes a free Hallmark original recipe for Honey Almond Cake with Berries and Mascarpone Crème Fraiche.

The evocative and poignant stories of the wounded and exiled denizens of a 1940s diner capture the pathos, power, and humor of the human spirit

A raw and engrossing portrait of familial and marital dysfunction by “one of Britain’s most original young writers” (The Observer). Neve is a writer in her mid-thirties married to an older man, Edwyn. For now they are in a place of relative peace, but their past battles have left scars. As Neve recalls the decisions that led her to this marriage, she tells of other loves and other debts, from her bullying father and her self-involved mother to a musician who played her and a series of lonely flights from place to place. Drawing the reader into the battleground of her relationship, Neve spins a story of helplessness and hostility, an ongoing conflict in which both husband and wife have played a part. But is this, nonetheless, also a story of love?

Three lyrical and unforgettable novels from the National Book Award–winning author of The Women of Brewster Place. After winning both the National Book Award and the American Book Award for her now iconic debut novel, The Women of Brewster Place, which was later made into a TV miniseries starring Oprah Winfrey, Gloria Naylor continued to garner acclaim as one of the most original voices in twentieth-century American literature with novels such as Mama Day, Linden Hills, and Bailey’s Cafe. Mama Day: On Willow Springs, an island off the coast between Georgia and South Carolina, superstition is more potent than any trappings of the modern world. Here, the formidable Mama Day uses her powers to heal. But her great-niece, Cocoa, can’t wait to escape to New York City. When Cocoa returns to the island with her husband, George, darker forces challenge the couple—and their only hope may be the mystical matriarch. Steeped in the folklore of the South and inspired by Shakespeare, Mama Day is one of Naylor’s “richest and most complex” novels (Providence Journal). “[A] wonderful novel, full of spirit and sass and wisdom, and completely realized.” —The Washington Post Linden Hills: For its wealthy African American residents, the exclusive neighborhood of Linden Hills is a symbol of making it. But what happens when the dream of material success turns out to be an empty promise? Using Dante’s Inferno as a model, Naylor reveals the true cost of success for the lost souls of Linden Hills—a hell of their own making. “Every page contains a brilliant insight, a fine description, some petty and human, some grandiloquent.” —Chicago Tribune Bailey’s Cafe: This “moving and memorable” national bestseller is set in post–World War II Brooklyn, on a quiet backstreet, where Bailey’s Cafe serves as a crossroads for a broad range of patrons, a place of limbo for tortured souls before they move on—or check out (Boston Globe). “A virtuoso orchestration of survival, suffering, courage and humor.” —The New York Times Book Review

We hung the walls with old French movie posters advertising the films of Marcel Pagnol, films that had already provided us with both a name and an ideal: to create a community of friends, lovers, and relatives that span generations and is in tune with the seasons, the land, and human appetites. So writes Alice Waters of the opening of Berkeley's Chez Panisse Café on April Fool's Day, 1980. Located above the more formal Chez Panisse Restaurant, the Café is a bustling neighborhood bistro where guests needn't reserve far in advance and can choose from the ever-changing à la carte menu. It's the place where Alice Waters's inventive chefs cook in a more impromptu and earthy vein, drawing on the healthful, low-tech traditions of the cuisines of such Mediterranean regions as Catalonia, Campania, and Provence, while improvising and experimenting with the best products of Chez Panisse's own regional network of small farms and producers. In the Chez Panisse Café Cookbook, the follow-up to the award-winning Chez Panisse Vegetables, Alice Waters and her team of talented cooks offer more than 140 of the café's best-recipes--some that have been on the menu since the day café opened and others freshly reinvented with the honesty and ingenuity that have made Chez Panisse so famous. In addition to irresistible recipes, the Chez Panisse Café Cookbook is filled with chapter-opening essays on the relationships Alice has cultivated with the farmers, foragers and purveyors--most of them within an hour's drive of Berkeley--who make it possible for Chez Panisse to boast that nearly all food is locally grown, certifiably organic, and sustainably grown and harvested. Alice encourages her chefs and cookbook readers alike to decide what to cook only after visiting the farmer's market or produce stand. Then we can all fully appreciate the advantages of eating according to season--fresh spring lamb in late March, ripe tomato salads in late summer, Comice pear crisps in autumn. This book begins with a chapter of inspired vegetable recipes, from a vivid salad of avocados and beets to elegant Morel Mushroom Toasts to straightforward side dishes of Spicy Broccoli Raab and Garlicky Kale. The Chapter on eggs and cheese includes two of the café's most famous dishes, a garden lettuce salad with baked goat cheese and the Crostata di Perrella, the café's version of a calzone. Later chapters focus on fish and shellfish, beef, pork, lamb, and poultry, each offering its share of delightful dishes. You'll find recipes for curing your own pancetta, for simple grills and succulent braises, and for the definitive simple roast chicken--as well as sumptuous truffed chicken breasts. Finally the pastry cooks of Chez Panisse serve forth a chapter of uncomplicated sweets, including Apricot Bread Pudding, Chocolate Almond Cookies, and Wood Oven-baked Figs with Raspberries. Gorgeously designed and illustrated throughout with colored block prints by David Lance Goines, who has eaten at the café since the day it opened, Chez Panisse Café Cookbook is destined to become an indispensable classic. Fans of Alice Waters's restaurant and café will be thrilled to discover the recipes that keep them coming back for more. Loyal readers of her earlier cookbooks will delight in this latest collection of time-tested, deceptively simple recipes. And anyone who loves pure, vibrant, delicious fare made from the finest ingredients will be honored to add these new recipes to his or her repertoire.

The National Book Award-winning novel—and contemporary classic—that launched the brilliant career of Gloria Naylor, now with a foreword by Tayari Jones “[A] shrewd and lyrical portrayal of many of the realities of black life . . . Naylor bravely risks sentimentality and melodrama to write her compassion and outrage large, and she pulls it off triumphantly.” —The New York Times Book Review “Brims with inventiveness—and relevance.” —NPR's Fresh Air In her heralded first novel, Gloria Naylor weaves together the stories of seven women living in Brewster Place, a bleak-inner city sanctuary, creating a powerful, moving portrait of the strengths, struggles, and hopes of black women in America. Vulnerable and resilient, openhanded and openhearted, these women forge their lives in a place that in turn threatens and protects—a common prison and a shared home. Naylor renders both loving and painful human experiences with simple eloquence and uncommon intuition in this touching and unforgettable read.