In Thicker than Water, Kerry Washington provides an intimate view into her public and private worlds – as an artist, advocate, entrepreneur, mother, daughter, wife, and Black woman. Chronicling her upbringing and life’s journey thus far, she reveals how she faced a series of challenges and setbacks, effectively hid childhood traumas, met extraordinary mentors, managed to grow her career, and crossed the threshold into stardom and political advocacy, ultimately discovering her truest self and, with it, a deeper sense of belonging.…

Jada Pinkett Smith revisits lessons learned in the course of a difficult but riveting life journey in Worthy, a bracingly honest memoir that takes readers on a rollercoaster ride from the depths of suicidal depression to the heights of personal rediscovery and authentic feminine power. With no holds barred, Pinkett Smith reveals her unconventional upbringing in Baltimore – as the child of two addicts to a promising theater student and a violent interlude as a petty drug-dealer – followed by a parallel rise to stardom alongside her close friend,…

From legendary singer and social justice activist Joan Baez comes an album of drawings that feel like a long, funny letter from an old friend. Since retiring from active performing, Baez has focused her formidable talents on painting and drawing, and this collection of her work – lovingly loose and charming sketches on recurring themes such as politics, relationships, women, animals, and family – shows another, insightful side of her. Each section, organized thematically, includes an introductory piece by the artist.…

As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen – to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.” And yet we don’t always do this well. All around us, people feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us do better,…

New York Times bestselling author Abraham Verghese is back with his long-awaited new book, The Covenant of Water: A Novel. Spanning the years between 1900 and 1977 and set in Kerala on South India’s Malabar Coast, the story follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning – and in Kerala, water is everywhere. Against this backdrop of foreboding is a 12-year-old girl, grieving her father and on her way to her wedding by boat,…

Intergalactic visions, deadly threats, and explosive standoffs between mostly good and completely evil converge in Walter Mosley’s dystopian fantasy Touched. Martin Just wakes up one morning after what feels like – and might actually be – a centuries-long sleep, with two innate pieces of knowledge: Humanity is a virus destined to destroy all existence and he is the cure. Just begins slipping into an alternate consciousness and discovering new physical strengths, strengths he’ll need to violently defend himself,…