Climate change. Two words that are quickly becoming the clarion call to action in the twenty-first century. It is a voter issue, an economy driver, and a defining dynamic for the foreseeable future. Yet, in Black communities, climate change is seen as less urgent when compared to other pressing issues, including police brutality, gun violence, job security, food insecurity, and the blatant racism faced daily around the country. However, with Black Americans disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change--making up 13 percent of the US population but breathing 40 percent dirtier air and being twice as likely to be hospitalized or die from climate-related health problems than white counterparts--climate change is a central issue of racial justice and affects every aspect of life for Black communities. In Before the Streetlights Come On, climate activist Heather McTeer Toney insists that those most affected by climate change are best suited to lead the movement for climate justice. McTeer Toney brings her background in politics, community advocacy, and leadership in environmental justice to this revolutionary exploration of why and how Black Americans are uniquely qualified to lead national and global conversations around systems of racial disparity and solutions to the climate crisis. As our country delves deeper into solutions for systemic racism and past injustices, she argues, the environmental movement must shift direction and leadership toward those most affected and most affecting change: Black communities.

An expert explains how the conventional wisdom about decision making can get us into trouble—and why experience can’t be replaced by rules, procedures, or analytical methods In making decisions, when should we go with our gut and when should we try to analyze every option? When should we use our intuition and when should we rely on logic and statistics? Most of us would probably agree that for important decisions, we should follow certain guidelines—gather as much information as possible, compare the options, pin down the goals before getting started. But in practice we make some of our best decisions by adapting to circumstances rather than blindly following procedures. In Streetlights and Shadows, Gary Klein debunks the conventional wisdom about how to make decisions. He takes ten commonly accepted claims about decision making and shows that they are better suited for the laboratory than for life. The standard advice works well when everything is clear, but the tough decisions involve shadowy conditions of complexity and ambiguity. Gathering masses of information, for example, works if the information is accurate and complete—but that doesn't often happen in the real world. (Think about the careful risk calculations that led to the downfall of the Wall Street investment houses.) Klein offers more realistic ideas about how to make decisions in real-life settings. He provides many examples—ranging from airline pilots and weather forecasters to sports announcers and Captain Jack Aubrey in Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander novels—to make his point. All these decision makers saw things that others didn’t. They used their expertise to pick up cues and to discern patterns and trends. We can make better decisions, Klein tells us, if we are prepared for complexity and ambiguity and if we will stop expecting the data to tell us everything. “I know of no one who combines theory and observation—intellectual rigor and painstaking observation of the real world—so brilliantly and gracefully as Gary Klein.” —Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and Blink

From Agony to Grace is the story of womanonce a little girl who loved to jump rope and play with her dolls, but now troubled by the circumstances of her life. From early adolescence to adulthood, her life was torn apart by physical abuse, sexual abuse, and drug addiction. Her life became a complete train wreck until one day a miracle happenedshe found Jesus! Geneva Evans was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. For twenty-five years her life spiraled out of control because of drug addiction and physical abuse. Determined to turn her life around, Geneva came back to God through prayer, strength, and sheer determination. She conquered the demon of drug addiction and has been clean and sober for the past fifteen years. Geneva has a wealth of expertise and wise counsel to offer women who have been physically, sexually, emotionally, and verbally abused. With Gods help, she will unquestionably attain her dream to complete college and become a full-time advocate for abused women. From Agony to Grace begins that work, offering help to women of all ages and in all situations.

Poetry Collection

Lock the doors. Close the windows. And prepare yourself for the heart-stopping debut of Anthony Izzo, a new master of horror who will chill you to the bone. . . Jack Harding and his friends feel sorry for the new kid in town. His name is Ronnie Winter, and he's a bit of a weirdo. So when the local bullies try to beat him up, Jack and his friends step in to protect Ronnie--and that's their first mistake. Because Ronnie Winter is not like any other kid they've ever known. He lives at the old Steadman place, in the big creepy mansion that used to be a mental hospital. And his young, beautiful mother has a strange way of making Jack promise to be Ronnie's friend. . .forever. The closer Jack and his friends get to Ronnie, the colder it gets. The town is plunged into a wave of brutal snowstorms--and plagued by a series of gruesome murders. And as the grisly death toll mounts, Jack realizes that Ronnie is surrounded by something far more powerful than a mother's love--he's guarded by a force of unspeakable evil that will torture and destroy everything in its path. . . The Thing in the Tunnel "Listen," Paul said. Slow footsteps echoed, a soft-crunch in the dark. At first Jack thought Ronnie turned the flashlight off and snuck into the tunnel in order to scare them, but the footsteps were too heavy. They belonged to someone bigger. "Reach out your hand, Paul." "Okay." They started to go but something found Paul first. It jerked Paul back, and purely out of reflex, Jack clamped on to Paul's hand, this alone preventing him from being torn back into the tunnel by whatever was down there. "It's got me hooked! Its arm is around me!" Jack felt Paul leave his feet as his attacker hoisted him into the air, intent on dragging Paul back into the tunnel. It pulled again, like a shark dragging a swimmer down, and it was too strong. Paul's hand slipped from Jack's, and Paul shrieked. "Let me go! Bastard! Let me go! God, it smells bad!" Jack charged ahead and slammed into someone as solid as a muscle man in a magazine. He wrapped his arms around the waist and pulled, but it was like trying to drag down a redwood tree. He was being dragged behind the guy like tin cans on a wedding car. It stank like old leaves or hair that's clogged in a drain, wet and dead. What is it and why did we have to run into it?

From the author of the Oprah's Book Club Selection An American Marriage, here is a beautifully evocative novel that proves why Tayari Jones is "one of the most important voices of her generation" (Essence). It was the end of summer, a summer during the two-year nightmare in which Atlanta's African-American children were vanishing and twenty-nine would be found murdered by 1982. Here fifth-grade classmates Tasha Baxter, Rodney Green, and Octavia Harrison will discover back-to-school means facing everyday challenges in a new world of safety lessons, terrified parents, and constant fear. The moving story of their struggle to grow up-and survive- shimmers with the piercing, ineffable quality of childhood, as it captures all the hurts and little wins, the all-too-sudden changes, and the merciless, outside forces that can sweep the young into adulthood and forever shape their lives. PRAISE FOR TAYARI JONES "Tayari Jones is blessed with vision to see through to the surprising and devastating truths at the heart of ordinary lives, strength to wrest those truths free, and a gift of language to lay it all out, compelling and clear." -- Michael Chabon "Tayari Jones has emerged as one of the most important voices of her generation." -- Essence "One of America's finest writers." -- Nylon.com "Tayari Jones is a wonderful storyteller." -- Ploughsharesspan

With trouble on the streets, DS Zander Ellery is under even more pressure to solve the case of the Prayer Slayer. His partner DC Isabel York is convinced she is being targeted, as all the postcards the Slayer sends are addressed only to her. With Zander and Isabel pulled in different directions, the body count escalates, until the case explodes in a direction no one could foresee—Something that will test everyone to the limits of their experience and faith.

The empty Sky Room was an oval Victorian greenhouse restaurant atop Chicago’s about-to-be-destroyed 17-story Majestic Hotel. It was a penthouse covering three-fourths of the roof, which was surrounded by a safety parapet about three feet high, capped with glazed tile the green color of oxidized bronze. I expected that Willie would be waiting to leap out at me from behind one of the abandoned fake plants. All I heard over the storm was the murmuring of pigeons hiding in the chimney from the rain. I stood in the center of the room, figuring Willie must have secreted herself in her trench coat and hat against one of the ebony oak pilasters along the edge of the room. I waited for lightning to give away her position. It did. I saw her outside the glass walls through rivulets of rain, as sheet lightning illuminated the clouds over the lake, silhouetting Willie perched atop the parapet wall on the far corner of the building like some sort of gargoyle. The tails of her trench coat were flapping in the gale rising from Quincy Street. Her rain hat was gone and her drenched black curls were writhing on each side of her face. I ran to the door she’d left open and stepped toward her. She crouched like a swimmer on a starting block, staring at the bottom of the pool stories below... a very dark pool. A flashing traffic light jaundiced her face like some wild Hitchcock effect. She didn’t look at me, but down toward the blinking amber light. I stopped dead in my tracks, not sure what to do. She was perched only a few feet from where I stood. If I startled her, she could fall. I looked for a gentle way to get her attention. The low thunder from the sheet lightning over Lake Michigan growled in our faces. Suddenly a shock wave of light and heat, like a nuclear blast, erupted as lightning struck the boom of the demolition derrick. A gust of hot firey dragon breath belched from the crane. Willie bolted straight up, but she lost her footing on the parapet’s wet glazed cap. As she did, I leapt from the doorway and was able to catch hold of the tail of her trench coat just as her butt hit the edge and slipped over the side. I had the trench coat and the trench coat had Willie, but only by her arms. I was in a tug-of-war where both sides would win, or both sides would lose. Without thought, I collected all the material from her coat that I could and twisted it by ducking and pirouetting behind the parapet. This wrapped the makeshift hawser around my left forearm for a more-secure grip. I peered over the parapet where I could see the top of Willie’s head with her arms raised up above her like count Dracula about to turn into a bat and take flight. “Cross your arms!” I shouted, but there was no response.

In the history of New York City’s underworld, there have been a host of criminal figures whose exploits have gone on to inspire. Their stories are told on street corners and in back alleys. One of them is Jonas Rafferty, known among friends and enemies alike as Wrath. Jonas, the only boy in a family of four children, came into the world under less than favorable conditions, and he has always been a fighter. From the neighborhood bullies to the stepfather who uses him and his siblings as punching bags, his life has always been one battle after another. At night, he would lay awake and dream of rising above his circumstances, and when he crosses paths with rogue homicide detective Louis “Lou” Ceavers, he’s offered a bargain that will change the course of his life. Detective Ceavers becomes like a guardian angel and surrogate father to Jonas, teaching him the game and guiding him in his quest for power. In a short time, Jonas goes from errand boy and street muscle to one of the most dangerous young men in the city, dubbed Wrath because of his violent exploits. His dreams are finally becoming reality, and Wrath feels like he’s on his way to having everything he’s ever dreamed of, until Alex, his childhood crush, comes home on break from college and gives him a glimpse of the one thing he’s always craved more than money and power: love. Wrath begins to question himself and his decisions as he’s drawn further away from the world he’s created and deeper into the stable life he believes he could have with Alex. When Alex becomes pregnant, Wrath decides that being there for her and his unborn child are more important to him than power or money, but when he seeks to end his arrangement with the detective, he’s taught the final lesson in his education: no bargain comes without a price.

(Kar-ma - The sum of a person’s actions during the successive phases of his or her existence, regarded as determining his or her destiny in future incarnations.) “Karma” it’s all around us affecting our everyday lives, we’re absorbed by it. It’s as real as the air we breathe, and the love we share. Just like the love we feel and the air we breathe it’s going on without being seen. No one is more affected by this than Christopher. After years of sexual escapades, breaking hearts, and in the end ruining good women over and over again, he thought that he had finally found the ONE. There was something different about her, she had a certain realness about herself, she was special. So special in fact that instead of her being head over heels for him like so many others before her, it was the complete opposite. It was she that had him wide open, and in the end it would be him that would have to pick up the pieces of his broken heart, and find a way to go on with his existence.