HSP x Barnes & Noble
BOOK PICKS


MARCH
NEW RELEASE/FICTION
This one is for the vampire story fans! A highly anticipated debut novel that's already receiving rave reviews.
"Collette LeSange has been hiding a dark truth: She is immortal. In 1834, Collette’s grandfather granted her the gift of eternal life and since then, she has endured centuries of turmoil and heartache.
Now, almost 150 years later, Collette is a lonely artist running an elite fine art school for children in upstate New York. But her life is suddenly upended by the arrival of a gifted child from a troubled home, the return of a stalking presence from her past, and her own mysteriously growing hunger for blood.
Combining brilliant prose with breathtaking suspense, The God of Endings serves as a larger exploration of the human condition in all its complexity, asking us the most fundamental question: is life in this world a gift or a curse?"
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Inspiration
A classic from one of our most prolific feminist writers, more relevant than ever for its contemplation of how we become a more loving and united society.
"A New York Times bestseller and enduring classic, All About Love is the acclaimed first volume in feminist icon bell hooks' "Love Song to the Nation" trilogy. All About Love reveals what causes a polarized society, and how to heal the divisions that cause suffering. Here is the truth about love, and inspiration to help us instill caring, compassion, and strength in our homes, schools, and workplaces.
'The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb,' writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society bereft with lovelessness—not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love.
As bell hooks uses her incisive mind to explore the question 'What is love?' her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Razing the cultural paradigm that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and for a nation. The Utne Reader declared bell hooks one of the “100 Visionaries Who Can Change Your Life.” All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly her revelations can change hearts and minds for the better."
AUTOBIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
A revolutionary memoir about domestic abuse by the award-winning author of Her Body and Other Parties. At one harrowing and playful, so compellingly told, you won't be able to put it down.
In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado’s engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming.
And it’s that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope—the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman—through which Machado holds the events up to the light and examines them from different angles. She looks back at her religious adolescence, unpacks the stereotype of lesbian relationships as safe and utopian, and widens the view with essayistic explorations of the history and reality of abuse in queer relationships.
Machado’s dire narrative is leavened with her characteristic wit, playfulness, and openness to inquiry. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek, and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction. The result is a wrenching, riveting book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be."
Feminism
A fun and fascinating deep dive into how and why women are so predominantly associated with the cat and its stereotypes.
"The cat: A sensual shapeshifter. A hearth keeper, aloof, tail aloft, stalking vermin. A satanic accomplice. A beloved familiar. A social media darling. A euphemism for reproductive parts. An epithet for the weak. A knitted—and contested—hat on millions of marchers, fists in the air, pink pointed ears poking skyward. Cats and cat references are ubiquitous in art, pop culture, politics, and the occult, and throughout history, they have most often been coded female.
From the “crazy cat lady” unbowed by patriarchal prescriptions to the coveted sex kitten to the dreadful crone and her yowling compatriot, feminine feline archetypes reveal the ways in which women have been revered and reviled around the world—in Greek and Egyptian mythology, the European witch trials, Japanese folklore, and contemporary film.
By combining historical research, pop culture, art analyses, and original interviews, Cat Call explores the cat and its indivisible connection to femininity and teases out how this connection can help us better understand the relationship between myth, history, magic, womanhood in the digital age, and our beloved, clawed companions."
TOP(L-R): R.F. Kuang, Ellen Marie Wiseman, Michaeleen Doucleff, Alessandra Olanow
BOTTOM (L-R): Lynne Marie, Tieghen Gerard, Bridget Thoreson, Moiya McTier
HEY there, HERsay Podcast book lovers! We know what's on the minds of women, and each month we're sharing the books we think women will LOVE. We partner with expert Barnes & Noble booksellers who scour their bookshelves for new and favorite titles by female authors, stories featuring female characters you'll love (or love to hate!), books that inspire us, teach us something new, or resources to help us face the challenges that uniquely arise for women each month.
Check out our picks below, order online (links provided) or - better yet! - stop into your closest Barnes & Noble store to experience IRL that incomparable smell of Starbucks + books and perusing book covers that we just can't get from shopping the 'net.
Proceeds from books purchased here this month will be donated to She Should Run, working to dramatically increase the number of women considering a run for public office. Listen to Caroline's conversation with Barnes & Noble's Brigette Meskell, and visit us on Instagram to share your comments, suggestions, or to just say "hi". Happy reading!