Donna Hayes had fortitude and smarts. At the top of her game, thriving in New York City no less, her career was soaring on Wall Street, and she was starring in her own one woman show off Broadway. To be scammed by a man she had met on a dating app shocked and shamed her. In Jamaica as a child, death had come for Hayes three times. Each time she survived it.

Laurel Braitman spent her childhood learning how to outfish grown men, keep bees, and fix carburetors from her larger-than-life dad. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, he went to spectacular lengths to teach her the skills she’d need to survive without him. But by her mid-30s she is a ship about to splinter on the rocks, exhausted by running from her own bad feelings. We follow as Laurel changes course, navigating multiple wildernesses—from northern New Mexico and western Alaska to her own Tinder app. She learns the hard way that no achievement, no matter how shiny, can protect her from pain.

Grammy Award-nominated artist Kem shares his life in this revealing and remarkable memoir tracing his transformative journey from homelessness to gold-selling artist.

Already a rising star in fashion and the first Black female designer to win a Council of Fashion Designers of America Award, Aurora James posted a revolutionary idea in the wake of George Floyd’s murder that connected economics to racial justice in a way that has forever changed the American economic landscape. With that Instagram post, she founded the Fifteen Percent Pledge, which challenges retailers to commit 15 percent of their shelf space and spending power to Black businesses and is one of the fastest-growing social justice nonprofits.

In Confessions of a Surgeon: A Deeper Cut, Dr. Ruggieri blows the operating room doors right off their hinges. It cuts deeper into a profession, even more mysterious then ever before. He candidly shares his thoughts on the patients that have impacted his life the most.

From humble beginnings as a schoolgirl and young violinist in Maywood, Illinois, Sheila Johnson rose to become one of the most accomplished businesswomen in America. A cofounder of Black Entertainment Television, she became an entrepreneur and philanthropist at the highest levels. But that success came at a painful personal cost. Filled with sharply drawn, emotionally powerful scenes, Walk Through Fire traces the hardships Sheila faced in her marriage and her professional life.

Bold. Audacious. Warm. Funny. Real. These are just a few words that describe Kim Gravel, entrepreneur, podcaster, TV personality, and host of several number-one hit shows on QVC. The minute she says, "Hey, ya'll," you can feel her authentic personality shining through—but she felt pressure to conform for a stretch of her life. She hid her light and lost her shine. In the aftermath of the pressures of the pageant scene and a toxic failed marriage, Kim found herself alone in a run-down apartment, and it was there that she started to grow closer to God.

Bert’s day starts with stubbing his toe on a toy. Ouch! His favorite shirt is in the wash, so he has to wear his second favorite. Ugh. Then his dog chews up his sneakers. And to make this Saturday even worse, Bert has to go to work with his dad all day.

Every ten years, for the past 30 years, a dozen clergymen are killed, brutally murdered in twisted scenes emulating the deaths of Jesus and his disciples. Now, "The Martyr Maker" has set his mark on New York City. 30 years. 36 priests butchered. His bloodiest masterpiece is yet to come.

A young boy's imagination takes off as he gazes at family photos, whisking him off on a fantastical journey. Along the way, the boy tries exciting and bold new things, ventures into unexplored worlds, and forms deep connections with his multicultural heritage and the ancestors who imbue him with the strength and courage to make a difference.

The truth is most people don’t actually need grueling, extreme workouts or aggressively limited diets to lose weight and feel proud to flaunt their bodies in bathing suits. What they need is a plan that is focused on efficiency—the best results for the least amount of time and effort—and one that is actually designed to be maintained for more than 30 days. In The Minimum Method, by nutrition expert and celebrity fitness trainer Joey Thurman, you’ll learn practical advice, simple nutrition truths, and how to exercise smarter, not harder.

From Mae West and Lenny Bruce to Richard Pryor and Howard Stern to Kathy Griffith and Kevin Hart, comedians have long been under fire for using provocative, often taboo subjects to challenge mores and get a laugh. But in the age of social media, comedians are at greater risk of being silenced, enduring shaming, threats, and damaged careers because of angry, censorious electronic mobs.

In medicine, every patient presents with a story. “Once upon a time I was well, and then . . . ” These patient narratives are the beating heart of medicine; through stories we strive to communicate, to understand, to empathize, and perhaps find healing. These Vital Signs is a poignant series of essays—deeply personal stories—inspired by nephrologist Sayed Tabatabai’s medical experience and based on a series of poems he posted on Twitter that began going viral at the height of the COVID pandemic.

Stephen A. Smith has never been handed anything, nor was he an overnight success. Growing up poor in Queens, the son of Caribbean immigrants and the youngest of six children, he was a sports-obsessed kid who faced struggles, from undiagnosed dyslexia to getting enough cereal to fill his bowl. As a basketball player at Winston-Salem State University, he got a glimmer of his true calling when he wrote a newspaper column arguing for the retirement of his own Hall of Fame coach, Clarence Gaines.

Born in 1945, Ruth J. Simmons grew up the twelfth child of sharecroppers. Her first home had no running water, no electricity, no books to read. Yet despite this—or, in her words, because of it—Simmons would become the first Black president of an Ivy League university. The former president of Smith College, Brown University, and Prairie View A&M, Texas’s oldest HBCU, Simmons has inspired generations of students as she herself made history.