INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * One of NPR's Best Books of 2020

A provocative, absorbing read. -- People

"A feast of a read... I finished A Good Neighborhood in a single sitting. Yes, it's that good." --Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light

In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son, Xavier, who's headed to college in the fall. All is well until the Whitmans--a family with new money and a secretly troubled teenage daughter--raze the house and trees next door to build themselves a showplace.

With little in common except a property line, these two families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers.

Therese Anne Fowler's A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about life in America today--what does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don't see eye to eye?--as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending love in a story that's as provocative as it is powerful.

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE - A "boisterous and infectious debut novel" (The Guardian) about a group of friends and their immigrant families from Queens, New York--a tenderly observed, fiercely poetic love letter to a modern generation of brown girls.

"An acute study of those tender moments of becoming, this is an ode to girlhood, inheritance, and the good trouble the body yields."--Raven Leilani, author of Luster

FINALIST FOR THE NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARD - FINALIST FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar, Kirkus Reviews

If you really want to know, we are the color of 7-Eleven root beer. The color of sand at Rockaway Beach when it blisters the bottoms of our feet. Color of soil . . .

Welcome to Queens, New York, where streets echo with languages from all over the globe, subways rumble above dollar stores, trees bloom and topple over sidewalks, and the funky scent of the Atlantic Ocean wafts in from Rockaway Beach. Within one of New York City's most vibrant and eclectic boroughs, young women of color like Nadira, Gabby, Naz, Trish, Angelique, and countless others, attempt to reconcile their immigrant backgrounds with the American culture in which they come of age. Here, they become friends for life--or so they vow.

Exuberant and wild, together they roam The City That Never Sleeps, sing Mariah Carey at the tops of their lungs, yearn for crushes who pay them no mind--and break the hearts of those who do--all while trying to heed their mothers' commands to be obedient daughters. But as they age, their paths diverge and rifts form between them, as some choose to remain on familiar streets, while others find themselves ascending in the world, beckoned by existences foreign and seemingly at odds with their humble roots.

A blazingly original debut novel told by a chorus of unforgettable voices, Brown Girls illustrates a collective portrait of childhood, adulthood, and beyond, and is a striking exploration of female friendship, a powerful depiction of women of color attempting to forge their place in the world today. For even as the conflicting desires of ambition and loyalty, freedom and commitment, adventure and stability risk dividing them, it is to one another--and to Queens--that the girls ultimately return.

An unexpected inheritance, a promise broken, and four lives changed forever: discover "the gold standard of summertime escapism" from USA Today bestselling author Jamie Brenner (Elin Hilderbrand).
Summer has started in idyllic Sag Harbor, and for Emma Mapson that means greeting guests at the front desk of The American Hotel. But when one of the town's most famous residents, artist Henry Wyatt, dies suddenly, Emma learns he has mysteriously left his waterfront home -- a self-designed masterpiece filled with his work -- to her teenage daughter, Penny.
Back in Manhattan, legendary art patron Bea Winstead's grief at her lifelong friend and former business partner Henry's passing turns to outrage at the news of his shocking bequest. How did these unknown locals get their hands on the estate? Bea, with her devoted assistant Kyle in tow, descends on Sag Harbor determined to reclaim the house and preserve Henry's legacy.
While Emma fights to defend her daughter's inheritance, Bea discovers that Henry left a treasure trove of sketches scattered around town. With Penny's reluctant help, Bea pieces them together to find a story hidden in plain sight: an illustration of their shared history with an unexpected twist that will change all of their lives. Drawn together in their battle for the house, Emma and Bea are forced to confront the past while facing a future that challenges everything they believe about love, fate, and family.

Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty's enthralling dissection of suburbia meets Shirley Jackson's creeping dread in this "wickedly funny, unnerving puzzle box of a novel" (Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will) about the downward spiral of a Long Island community after a tragedy exposes its residents' depths of deception.

Welcome to Maple Street, a picture-perfect slice of suburban Long Island, its residents bound by their children, their work, and their illusion of safety in a rapidly changing world.

But menace skulks among this exclusive enclave. When the Wilde family arrive, they trigger their neighbors' worst fears. Dad Arlo's a gruff has-been rock star with track marks. Mom Gertie's got a thick Brooklyn accent, with high heels and tube tops to match. Their weird kids cuss like sailors. They don't fit with the way Maple Street sees itself.

Maple Street's Queen Bee, Rhea Schroeder--a lonely professor repressing a dark past--initially welcomed Gertie, but relations plummeted during one summer evening, when the new best friends shared too much, too soon. By the time the story opens, the Wildes are outcasts.

As tensions mount, a sinkhole opens in a nearby park, and Rhea's daughter Shelly falls inside. The search for Shelly brings a shocking accusation against the Wildes. Suddenly, it is one mom's word against the other's in a court of public opinion that can end only in blood.

Riveting and ruthless, Good Neighbors is "a chilling, compulsively readable novel that looks toward the future in order to help us understand how we live now" (Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here).

The city of Santa Monica in the post-World War II era has enjoyed a colorful history as both a resort community and as a bustling, vibrant city. Its coastal Mediterranean climate has provided an ideal atmosphere for the famous California lifestyle. Known for the 100-year-old Santa Monica Pier, as well as the Third Street Promenade, for its beautiful beaches and quaint neighborhoods, Santa Monica has been home to many famous Hollywood movie stars, including Shirley Temple, Cary Grant, Betty Grable, Clark Gable, Bette Davis, and Robert Redford. Arnold Schwarzenegger has also maintained offices here. Santa Monica has played host to many of the nation's most famous names, such as Gen. Jimmy Doolittle and Pres. John F. Kennedy. The companion piece to Images of America: Early Santa Monica, this volume's more than 200 photographs cover the dynamic people, businesses, events, attractions, and celebrities that have shaped Santa Monica into the world-renowned city of today.

I was intrigued by Our Little World from the chilling first paragraph. It's a coming-of-age novel complicated by a tragic and untimely death, and it's also a novel about two sisters you will never forget. I fell in love with the confidence of the writing and the colorful nostalgia of the mid-'80s details. Our Little World will transport and transfix you.--Elin Hilderbrand

July 1985. It's a normal, sweltering New Jersey summer for soon-to-be seventh grader Bee Kocsis. Her thoughts center only on sunny days spent at Deer Chase Lake, on evenings chasing fireflies around her cul-de-sac with the neighborhood kids, and on Max, the boy who just moved in across the street. There's also the burgeoning worry that she'll never be as special as her younger sister, Audrina, who seems to effortlessly dazzle wherever she goes.

But when Max's little sister, Sally, goes missing at the lake, Bee's long-held illusion of stability is shattered in an instant. As the families in her close-knit community turn inward, suspicious and protective, things in Bee's own home become increasingly strained, most of all with Audrina, when a shameful secret surfaces. With everything changed, Bee and Audrina's already-fraught sisterhood is pushed to the limit as they grow up--and apart--in the wake of an innocence lost too soon.

Perfect for readers of Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You, Our Little World is a powerful and lyrical coming-of-age story that examines the complicated bond of sisterhood, the corrosive power of envy, and how the traumas of our youths can shape our identities for a lifetime.

The powerful story of an inspiring doctor who made a difference, by helping to create a program to care for Boston's homeless community--by the Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Mountains Beyond Mountains

"I couldn't put Rough Sleepers down. I am left in awe of the human spirit and inspired to do better."--Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone

Tracy Kidder has been described by The Baltimore Sun as a "master of the nonfiction narrative." In Rough Sleepers, Kidder shows how one person can make a difference, as he tells the story of Dr. Jim O'Connell, a gifted man who invented ways to create a community of care for a city's unhoused population, including those who sleep on the streets--the "rough sleepers."

When Jim O'Connell graduated from Harvard Medical School and was nearing the end of his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, the chief of medicine made a proposal: Would he defer a prestigious fellowship and spend a year helping to create an organization to bring health care to homeless citizens? Jim took the job because he felt he couldn't refuse. But that year turned into his life's calling. Tracy Kidder spent five years following Dr. O'Connell and his colleagues as they served their thousands of homeless patients. In this illuminating book we travel with O'Connell as he navigates the city, offering medical care, socks, soup, empathy, humor, and friendship to some of the city's most endangered citizens. He emphasizes a style of medicine in which patients come first, joined with their providers in what he calls "a system of friends."

Much as he did with Paul Farmer in Mountains Beyond Mountains, Kidder explores how a small but dedicated group of people have changed countless lives by facing one of American society's difficult problems instead of looking away.

As west as metropolitan Los Angeles's trendy Westside gets, Santa Monica has enjoyed a colorful history as both a resort community and a bedrock hometown on the Southern California coast. As a playground and ready-made set for Hollywood, traditional hotbed of progressive politics, and amorphous fun zone for a greater century of visitors, the city of Santa Monica has remained at the forefront of the evolution of California culture. Prior to World War II, Santa Monica was a collection of distinct neighborhoods--Santa Monica Canyon and Ocean Park among them--and its pier, built in 1909 beneath the bluffs of Palisades Park, became a regional draw, especially after the nation's largest dance emporium, La Monica Ballroom, was built on it. The vintage photographs in this tour through Santa Monica's beginnings and its growth through the early 20th century were selected from the archives of the Santa Monica Historical Society Museum.

"Hosts of all kinds, this is a must-read!" --Chris Anderson, owner and curator of TED

From the host of the New York Times podcast Together Apart, an exciting new approach to how we gather that will transform the ways we spend our time together--at home, at work, in our communities, and beyond.

In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive--which they don't have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play.

Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn't, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings--conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp--and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience.

The result is a book that's both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue--and how you host and attend them.

Instant New York Times Bestseller!

The book we need NOW to avoid a social recession, Murthy's prescient message is about the importance of human connection, the hidden impact of loneliness on our health, and the social power of community.

Humans are social creatures: In this simple and obvious fact lies both the problem and the solution to the current crisis of loneliness. In his groundbreaking book, the 19th surgeon general of the United States Dr. Vivek Murthy makes a case for loneliness as a public health concern: a root cause and contributor to many of the epidemics sweeping the world today from alcohol and drug addiction to violence to depression and anxiety. Loneliness, he argues, is affecting not only our health, but also how our children experience school, how we perform in the workplace, and the sense of division and polarization in our society.

But, at the center of our loneliness is our innate desire to connect. We have evolved to participate in community, to forge lasting bonds with others, to help one another, and to share life experiences. We are, simply, better together.

The lessons in Together have immediate relevance and application. These four key strategies will help us not only to weather this crisis, but also to heal our social world far into the future.

1. Spend time each day with those you love. Devote at least 15 minutes each day to connecting with those you most care about.
2. Focus on each other. Forget about multitasking and give the other person the gift of your full attention, making eye contact, if possible, and genuinely listening.
3. Embrace solitude. The first step toward building stronger connections with others is to build a stronger connection with oneself. Meditation, prayer, art, music, and time spent outdoors can all be sources of solitary comfort and joy.
4. Help and be helped. Service is a form of human connection that reminds us of our value and purpose in life. Checking on a neighbor, seeking advice, even just offering a smile to a stranger six feet away, all can make us stronger.

During Murthy's tenure as Surgeon General and during the research for Together, he found that there were few issues that elicited as much enthusiastic interest from both very conservative and very liberal members of Congress, from young and old people, or from urban and rural residents alike. Loneliness was something so many people have known themselves or have seen in the people around them. In the book, Murthy also shares his own deeply personal experiences with the subject--from struggling with loneliness in school, to the devastating loss of his uncle who succumbed to his own loneliness, as well as the important example of community and connection that his parents modeled. Simply, it's a universal condition that affects all of us directly or through the people we love--now more than ever.

For fans of Mystic River by Dennis Lehane and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Stephen Amidon's Locust Lane is a taut and utterly propulsive story about the search for justice and the fault lines of power and influence in a seemingly idyllic town. Can anyone be trusted?

On the surface, Emerson, Massachusetts, is just like any other affluent New England suburb. But when a young woman is found dead in the nicest part of town, the powerful neighbors close ranks to keep their families safe. In this searing novel, Eden Perry's death kicks off an investigation into the three teenagers who were partying with her that night, each a suspect. Hannah, a sweet girl with an unstable history. Jack, the popular kid with a mean streak. Christopher, an outsider desperate to fit in. Their parents, each with motivations of their own, only complicate the picture: they will do anything to protect their children, even at the others' expense.

With a brilliantly woven, intricately crafted plot that gathers momentum on every page, this is superb storytelling told in terse prose--a dynamic read that is both intensely gripping and deeply affecting.