Parragon Books

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Illinois

English

With over 400 puzzles

Ultimate Mind Games is a fantastic compendium that includes 400 puzzles to test your mind, set up over four sections so you can choose the puzzle that fits your mood. Become an all-around puzzler and improve your sudoku, word search, crossword, and brain game skills. The perfect way of improving your vocabulary, mental agility, and problem-solving skills, this puzzle-packed book will provide you with hours of mind-sharpening fun! 400 PUZZLES & SOLUTIONS: Hours of fun and entertainment to enjoy, including solutions for each challenge EASY-TO-CARRY: Pocket format, small enough to fit in a purse, briefcase, or backpack. Great for on-the-go wherever your travels take you. Just the right size to leave on your nightstand and coffee table VARIETY OF PUZZLES: 150 sudoku, 77 word search, 79 crossword, and over 100 mind puzzles MAKES A GREAT GIFT: For the novice to expert this word search book makes a great gift! ON-THE GO POCKET PUZZLE COLLECTION: Look for more puzzle books including Extreme word search and Fantastic Word Search

Ultimate Mind Games

e80cf8d1-52d3-4ebb-b0fb-772ae6697095-0

Debbie Mason

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

'Tis the season for love . . . Sophie DiRossi loved growing up in Harmony Harbor. But after fleeing in disgrace many years ago, it is the last place she wants to be. Left homeless by a fire, she's forced to go back to the small coastal town that harbors a million secrets, including her own. Sophie sees this secret reflected every day in her daughter's blue eyes-and she must keep it hidden from the only man she has ever loved. Sophie's return is a shock for everyone . . . especially Liam Gallagher. The firefighter had some serious feelings for Sophie-and seeing her again sparks a desire so fierce it takes his breath away. Now Liam will do whatever it takes to show Sophie that they deserve a second chance at love, even if everything they've concealed threatens to keep them apart. In this special town at this special time of the year, Sophie and Liam can only hope for a little holiday magic...

Mistletoe Cottage

07a564a4-1c1d-4f73-be92-560ba7ba58ec-1

Bob Glickman

Over 800 Creative Concepts and Elements for the Event Professional

The Event Brainstormer

a2ebc673-40fd-4619-85dc-21ffc58872fd-0

L. J. Tracosas

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Use Your Wits to Survive and Decipher the Clues to Escape

Solve dozens of unique puzzles to lift a castles curse in The Cursed Castle: An Escape Room in a Book!

The Cursed Castle: an Escape Room in a Book

67c1bbdf-5a41-4357-b616-b88b73e60feb-1

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

A Novel

Once There Were Wolves

Andy Warhol

From a to B and Back Again

Warhol offers his observations of love, beauty, fame, work, and art and discusses the continuous play and display of his many fetishes

The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

a3bd0f21-d064-4b47-ab7f-b4883fbad67b-1

Andrew Wheeler

Finding yourself torn between two potential boyfriends is tough. Domo is learning that it's even tougher when you're trying to win the captaincy of your school's tug-of-war team!

His competition is Jocasta, a serious athlete who will stop at nothing to prove she's the best. Can Domo lead his team to victory while he struggles with his feelings for ambitious Gabriel and flamboyant Emil?

Love and War is a queer sports rom com about how our conflicting passions can pull us in different directions!

Collects Love and War from the ComiXology original digital series in print for the first time.


Love and War

dded6e44-ebdb-4eda-87c2-333538b6b407-1

Garrard Conley

A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family

The New York Times bestselling memoir about identity, love and understanding. Now a major motion picture starring Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and Lucas Hedges, directed by Joel Edgerton. “Every sentence of the story will stir your soul” (O Magazine). The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded in church life in small town Arkansas, as a young man Garrard Conley was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality. When Garrard was a nineteen-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to "cure" him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. Through an institutionalized Twelve-Step Program heavy on Bible study, he was supposed to emerge heterosexual, ex-gay, cleansed of impure urges and stronger in his faith in God for his brush with sin. Instead, even when faced with a harrowing and brutal journey, Garrard found the strength and understanding to break out in search of his true self and forgiveness. By confronting his buried past and the burden of a life lived in shadow, Garrard traces the complex relationships among family, faith, and community. At times heart-breaking, at times triumphant, Boy Erased is a testament to love that survives despite all odds.

Boy Erased

0b49eaf5-193d-4416-8723-f12b68f8039e-1

Balli Kaur Jaswal

Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club Pick A lively, sexy, and thought-provoking East-meets-West story about community, friendship, and women’s lives at all ages—a spicy and alluring mix of Together Tea and Calendar Girls. Every woman has a secret life . . . Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she’s spent most of her twenty-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father’s death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a "creative writing" course at the community center in the beating heart of London’s close-knit Punjabi community. Because of a miscommunication, the proper Sikh widows who show up are expecting to learn basic English literacy, not the art of short-story writing. When one of the widows finds a book of sexy stories in English and shares it with the class, Nikki realizes that beneath their white dupattas, her students have a wealth of fantasies and memories. Eager to liberate these modest women, she teaches them how to express their untold stories, unleashing creativity of the most unexpected—and exciting—kind. As more women are drawn to the class, Nikki warns her students to keep their work secret from the Brotherhood, a group of highly conservative young men who have appointed themselves the community’s "moral police." But when the widows’ gossip offers shocking insights into the death of a young wife—a modern woman like Nikki—and some of the class erotica is shared among friends, it sparks a scandal that threatens them all.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

2965e7bd-5288-4441-ad0f-008a3aee50fd-1

Louisa May Alcott

And Other Christmas Stories

One of six beloved Christmas classics in collectible hardcover editions A Merry Christmas collects the treasured holiday tales of Louisa May Alcott, from the dearly familiar Yuletide benevolence of Marmee and her “little women” to the timeless “What Love Can Do,” wherein the residents of a boarding house come together to make a lovely Christmas for two poor girls. Wildly popular at the time of their publication—readers deluged Alcott with letters demanding sequels—and drawing on Alcott’s family and experiences in the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements, these stories have the authentic texture and detail of Christmas in nineteenth-century America, while their emphasis on generosity and charity make them timeless embodiments of the Christmas spirit. Penguin Christmas Classics Give the gift of literature this Christmas. Penguin Christmas Classics honor the power of literature to keep on giving through the ages. The six volumes in the series are not only our most beloved Christmas tales, they also have given us much of what we love about the holiday itself. A Christmas Carol revived in Victorian England such Christmas hallmarks as the Christmas tree, holiday cards, and caroling. The Yuletide yarns of Anthony Trollope popularized throughout the British Empire and around the world the trappings of Christmas in London. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus created the origin story for the presiding spirit of Christmas as we know it. The holiday tales of Louisa May Alcott shaped the ideal of an American Christmas. The Night Before Christmas brought forth some of our earliest Christmas traditions as passed down through folk tales. And The Nutcracker inspired the most famous ballet in history, one seen by millions in the twilight of every year. Beautifully designed hardcovers—with foil-stamped jackets, decorative endpapers, and nameplates for personalization—in a small trim size that makes them perfect stocking stuffers, Penguin Christmas Classics embody the spirit of giving that is at the heart of our most time-honored stories about the holiday. Collect all six Penguin Christmas Classics: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Christmas at Thompson Hall: And Other Christmas Stories by Anthony Trollope The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum A Merry Christmas: And Other Christmas Stories by Louisa May Alcott The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol The Nutcracker by E. T. A. Hoffmann For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

A Merry Christmas

7ad70583-b3c1-4353-a533-23b8d39c10dc-1

Michelle Obama

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Becoming

46310047-12fd-4ad2-aacd-0a82a7a48342-1

Steve Martin

My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions

** New York Times Bestseller **

Number One Is Walking is Steve Martin's cinematic legacy--an illustrated memoir of his legendary acting career, with stories from his most popular films and artwork by New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss.

Steve Martin has never written about his career in the movies before. In Number One Is Walking, he shares anecdotes from the sets of his beloved films--Father of the Bride, Roxanne, The Jerk, Three Amigos, and many more--bringing readers directly into his world. He shares charming tales of antics, moments of inspiration, and exploits with the likes of Paul McCartney, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams, and Chevy Chase. Martin details his forty years in the movie biz, as well as his stand-up comedy, banjo playing, writing, and cartooning, all with his unparalleled wit.

With gorgeously illustrated cartoons and single-panel "diversions" in Steve and Harry's signature style, Number One Is Walking is full of the everyday moments that make up a movie star's life, capturing Steve Martin's singular humor and acclaimed career in film. The perfect gift from the team who brought you the #1 New York Times bestseller A Wealth of Pigeons.

Number One Is Walking

630036fb-1257-416f-b07e-37e1394cb52e-1

Zack Smedley

Nate never imagined that he would be attacked by his best friend, Cam. Now, Nate is being called to deliver a sworn statement that will get Cam convicted. The problem is, the real story isn’t that easy or convenient—just like Nate and Cam’s friendship. Cam challenged Nate on every level from the day the boys met. He pushed him to break the rules, to dream, and to accept himself. But Nate—armed with a fierce moral code and conflicted by his own beliefs—started to push back. With each push, Nate and Cam moved closer to each other—but also spiraled closer to their breaking points.

Deposing Nathan

d215178c-c9fc-4e6f-aa91-3d032859ab24-1

Jameson Fitzpatrick

Poems

These poem grapple with issues of how relationships are defined and what we gain or lose from them, including same-sex and opposite-sex relationships alike. The poem reflect on the experience not only of the poet, but also of wives throughout history, particularly as represented in classic literary texts from Geoffrey Chaucer to Joan Didion. For example, Fitzpatrick's "The Genius of Wives of Geniuses I Have Sat With" is inspired by a paragraph in Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. The fragments of the central poetry sequence, "Mr. &," draw their language, respectively, from the final chapters of Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontË, The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontË, Emma by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Summer by Edith Wharton, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion, How Should A Person Be? by Sheila Heti, Summer Rain by Marguerite Duras, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, The Lover by Marguerite Duras, and Asa, As I Knew Him by Susanna Kaysen. Fitzpatrick's "The Definition of" comprises various Google results for different manipulations of the phrase "marriage is," and his poem "Vow" draws its language from what is thought to be Anne Boleyn's last letter to her husband Henry VIII, written while she was awaiting execution at the Tower of London. Together, these poems constitute an extended meditation on what comes after the ampersand in the phrase that serves as the title of the book, "Mr. &."

Mr. &

33e47efc-c9c8-4ed7-822f-e4fdb3d1af5f-0

Sherman Alexie

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

ac9fbd7a-90f2-48d5-a081-b3da0b66ef5a-1

Cole Porter

Oversized Hardcover (4 to 6 lbs)

The first comprehensive collection of the letters of one of the most successful American songwriters of the twentieth century From Anything Goes to Kiss Me, Kate, Cole Porter left a lasting legacy of iconic songs including "You're the Top," "Love For Sale," and "Night and Day." Yet, alongside his professional success, Porter led an eclectic personal life which featured exuberant parties, scandalous affairs, and chronic health problems. This extensive collection of letters (most of which are published here for the first time) dates from the first decade of the twentieth century to the early 1960s and features correspondence with stars such as Irving Berlin, Ethel Merman, and Orson Welles, as well as his friends and lovers. Cliff Eisen and Dominic McHugh complement these letters with lively commentaries that draw together the loose threads of Porter's life and highlight the distinctions between Porter's public and private existence. This book reveals surprising insights into his attitudes toward Hollywood and Broadway, and toward money, love, and dazzling success.

The Letters of Cole Porter

3fe94eab-c43a-4302-9d9e-edcc8f36f1d0-0

Jennette McCurdy

A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor--including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother--and how she retook control of her life.

Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother's dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called "calorie restriction," eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, "Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn't tint hers?" She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail--just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi ("Hi Gale!"), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I'm Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.

I'm Glad My Mom Died

bbe3c95d-b243-4d23-9450-4fa0659da909-1

Brontez Purnell

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction and longlisted for the 2021 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize. One of Buzzfeed's Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2021, NBC's 10 Most Notable LGBTQ Books of 2021, and Pink News' Best LGBTQ Books of 2021.

"This hurricane of delirious, lonely, lewd tales is a taxonomy and grand unified theory of the boyfriend, in every tense." --Parul Sehgal, The New York Times

"I loved this book--raunchy, irreverent, deliberate, sexy, angry, and tender, in its own way." --Roxane Gay

An irrerverent, sensitive, and inimitable look at gay dysfunction through the eyes of a cult hero

Transgressive, foulmouthed, and brutally funny, Brontez Purnell's 100 Boyfriends is a revelatory spiral into the imperfect lives of queer men desperately fighting the urge to self-sabotage. As they tiptoe through minefields of romantic, substance-fueled misadventure--from dirty warehouses and gentrified bars in Oakland to desolate farm towns in Alabama--Purnell's characters strive for belonging in a world that dismisses them for being Black, broke, and queer. In spite of it--or perhaps because of it--they shine.

Armed with a deadpan wit, Purnell finds humor in even the darkest of nadirs with the peerless zeal, insight, and horniness of a gay punk messiah. Together, the slice-of-life tales that writhe within 100 Boyfriends are an inimitable tour of an unexposed queer underbelly. Holding them together is the vision of an iconoclastic storyteller, as fearless as he is human.

100 Boyfriends

81e8c668-b6cc-445d-b623-857e3fa67cd7-1

Joanna Hooper

Roya Ireland

Each of the clever conundrums found in the book has been rated according to its level of difficulty. If the reader can beat the clock to crack them within 60 seconds, they score the allocated number of points. The more lateral puzzles the reader tries, the better they will do.

Brain-Boosting Lateral Thinking Puzzles

7499901d-fef6-4e70-a1b3-78c3815140c8-1

Stephen Graham Jones

A USA TODAY BESTSELLER A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year In this latest novel from Stephen Graham Jones comes a “heartbreakingly beautiful story” (Library Journal, starred review) of revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition. Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians is “a masterpiece. Intimate, devastating, brutal, terrifying, warm, and heartbreaking in the best way” (Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts). This novel follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in violent, vengeful ways. Labeled “one of 2020’s buzziest horror novels” (Entertainment Weekly), this is a remarkable horror story “will give you nightmares—the good kind of course” (BuzzFeed).

The Only Good Indians

6ca990e2-7612-44cf-a77c-195d91c62b28-1

Beverly Daniel Tatum

And Other Conversations about Race

The classic, bestselling book on the psychology of racism-now fully revised and updated Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious. This fully revised edition is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of race in America. "An unusually sensitive work about the racial barriers that still divide us in so many areas of life."-Jonathan Kozol

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

32922644-4b84-4878-8ee3-86627965f444-1

Bill Konigsberg

From the award-winning author of Openly Straight, a story about two teens falling in love over a summer that throws everything possible to keep them apart.

The Music of What Happens

cd45dc67-dc9c-47ea-8a43-e3e6e644dd3c-1

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

6-Book Box Set

Myths & Legends

Julie Otsuka

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE WINNER * From the award-winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and When the Emperor Was Divine comes a novel that "starts as a catalogue of spoken and unspoken rules for swimmers at an aquatic center but unfolds into a powerful story of a mother's dementia and her daughter's love" (The Washington Post).

The swimmers are unknown to one another except through their private routines (slow lane, medium lane, fast lane) and the solace each takes in their morning or afternoon laps. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief.
 
One of these swimmers is Alice, who is slowly losing her memory. For Alice, the pool was a final stand against the darkness of her encroaching dementia. Without the fellowship of other swimmers and the routine of her daily laps she is plunged into dislocation and chaos, swept into memories of her childhood and the Japanese American incarceration camp in which she spent the war. Alice's estranged daughter, reentering her mother's life too late, witnesses her stark and devastating decline.

The Swimmers

86737312-3b08-4ca3-811b-491543d5c757-1

Matt Masino

Browse by categories