Sean Crisden

In 1939 North Carolina, an all-Black baseball team "trespasses" on the whites-only baseball field, and the resulting racial outrage can only be resolved on the mound. 1935. Twelve-year-old Cato wants nothing more than to play baseball, perfect his pitch, and meet Mr. Satchel Paige--the best pitcher in Negro League baseball. But when he and his teammates "trespass" on their town's whites-only baseball field for a practice, the resulting racial outrage...

Kiese Laymon's debut novel is a Twain-esque exploration of celebrity, authorship, violence, religion, and coming of age in Post-Katrina Mississippi, written in a voice that's alternately funny, lacerating, and wise. The book contains two interwoven stories. In the first, it's 2013: after an on-stage meltdown during a nationally televised quiz contest, 14-year-old Citoyen "City" Coldson becomes an overnight YouTube celebrity. The next day, he's sent...

As teenagers, Lola Poole and Joan Procter concocted a scheme to escape their boredom and bring in some money: corresponding with lonely, unsuspecting-- and generous-- older men. In return for their "love letters" the teens were rewarded with checks-- until their swindle nearly got them killed. Now Joan is unhappily married, while Lola is done with putting her life on hold for the demands of others. As girls they were looking for money, but as women...

"Best friends Lola Poole and Joan Proctor-Riley have finally found the love and excitement they've always longed for. Online-dating an endless line of wealthy, no-strings-attached lovers is the perfect escape from their unfulfilling lives. And between Joan's selfish husband and Lola's hateful, demanding relatives, the hotter these ladies' secret activities get, the more they crave -- and the more reckless they become . . . When rugged trucker Calvin...

"Juan Pablo Campos doesn't do regrets. He's living the dream as a physical therapist with his beloved New York Yankees. He has the best friends and family in the world and simply no time to dwell on what could've been. Except when it comes to Priscilla, the childhood friend he's loved for what seems like forever. New York City police detective Priscilla Gutierrez has never been afraid to go after what she wants. Second guessing herself isn't a thing...

Cassaundra Moore, event planner extraordinaire, never believed in fairy tales, only in creating them for her clients. Why would she believe something so magical would happen to her after being scammed by her ex causing her loss of business and social standing? But when Adam Simmons, candidate for governor of Virginia, comes along making a proposition that would not only help propel him in the race but also relieve her of her financial worries, she...

Thelonius "Monk" Ellison is an erudite, accomplished but seldom-read author who insists on writing obscure literary papers rather than the so-called "ghetto prose" that would make him a commercial success. He finally succumbs to temptation after seeing the Oberlin-educated author of We's Lives in da Ghetto during her appearance on a talk show, firing back with a parody called My Pafology, which he submits to his startled agent under the gangsta pseudonym...

"Young Savannah Dubrinsky was a mistress of illusion, a world-famous magician capable of mesmerizing millions. But there was one-Gregori, the Dark One-who held her in terrifying thrall. Whose cold silver eyes and heated sensuality sent shivers of danger, of desire, down her slender spine. With a dark magic all his own, Gregori-the implacable hunter, the legendary healer, the most powerful of Carpathian males-whispered in Savannah's mind that he was...

Julian Savage hunted alone, away from his Carpathian kin and alien even to his twin, until he met a woman he was sworn to protect and who taunted him with unparalleled femine powers.

Named one of the Top 10 Books of 2008 by The Times-Picayune. Winner of the 2009 Humanities Book of the Year award from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Awarded the New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award for 2008. New Orleans is the most elusive of American cities. The product of the centuries-long struggle among three mighty empires—France, Spain, and England—and among their respective American colonies...