Urofsky presents a history of affirmative action from its beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to the first use of the term in 1935 with the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act (the Wagner Act) to 1961 and John F. Kennedy’s Executive Order 10925, mandating that federal contractors take “affirmative action” to ensure that there be no discrimination by “race, creed, color, or national origin” down to today’s American society. In this important, ambitious, far-reaching book, readers will come to fully understand the societal impact of affirmative action: how and why it has helped, and inflamed, people of all walks of life; how it has evolved; and how, and why, it is still needed. Melvin Urofsky is a professor emeritus of history at Virginia Commonwealth University and was the chair of its history department. He is the editor (with David W. Levy) of the five-volume collection of Louis Brandeis’s letters, as well as the author of The Affirmative Action Puzzle, Dissent and the Supreme Court, and Louis D. Brandeis. He lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

In her chilling new novel, St. James takes readers alongside protagonist Carly Kirk as she attempts to solve the mysteries of her family's past.  Something hasn’t been right at the Sun Down Motel for a long time, and Carly is about to find out why. Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. But something isn’t right at the motel, something haunting and scary. Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv, who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born. She decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt.  Simone St. James is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls, Lost Among the Living, and The Haunting of Maddy Clare. She wrote her first ghost story, about a haunted library, when she was in high school, and spent twenty years behind the scenes in the television business before leaving to write full-time

Guillory is the New York Times bestselling author of THE WEDDING DATE  and  THE PROPOSAL.  Her new and exhilarating romance, THE WEDDING PARTY is fun, smart and entertaining read.   Maddie and Theo are Alexa's best friends and they hate each other. But they can't stop thinking about each other. With Alexa's wedding approaching, they find themselves sneaking off together, agreeing they would end it once the wedding is over. When it’s suddenly pushed up and they only have a few months left of secret rendezvouses, they find themselves regretting that the end is near. But as with any engagement with a nemesis, there are unspoken rules. First and foremost, don't fall in love. Martin, also the author of  INTERCEPTED and the upcoming BLITZED, continues The Playbook series with FUMBLED.  Poppy moved across the country when she was sixteen and pregnant to find a new normal. She's built a life she loves. T.K. Moore, the starting wide receiver for the Denver Mustangs, dreamt his entire life about being in the NFL. Maybe at one point he thought his future would play out with his high school sweetheart by his side, but Poppy is long gone and he's moved on. When Poppy and TK cross paths, emotions they've suppressed for years come rushing back. But with secrets they never told each other, they'll need more than a dating playbook to help them navigate their relationship. [caption id="attachment_139146" align="alignright" width="130"] Alexa Martin Photo: © Kristie Chadwick[/caption] Jasmine Guillory is the New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Date, The Proposal, and The Wedding Party. Her work has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Real Simple, Oprah Magazine.com, and Shondaland.com. She lives in Oakland, California. Alexa Martin is a writer and stay at home mom. She lives in Colorado with her husband, a former NFL player who now coaches at the high school where they met, their four children, and a German Shepherd. When she’s not telling her kids to put their shoes on…again, you can find her catching up with her latest book boyfriend or on Pinterest pinning meals she’ll probably never make.

THE BANKER’S WIFE plunges resders into the gripping world of financial intrigue. The mysterious disappearance of Matthew Werner, a banking insider at Swiss United, a powerful offshore bank, leaves Annabel widowed. She is determined to demystify the secrets he left in his wake, including a suspicious list of clients and an encrypted laptop. Annabel soon discovers that Matthew’s death was no accident, and her search for answers has entangled her in the crosshairs of his powerful enemies. Meanwhile, Marina Tourneau, an ambitious society journalist, is on the cusp of joining the very same high society she writes about. With her engagement to Grant Ellis, Marina decides to trade in her pen and paper for the upper echelons of New York’s social scene, but not before digging into one last story—the final investigation her mentor was working on before his sudden and untimely death. While looking into Swiss United, Marina uncovers information that implicates some of the most powerful figures in the financial world, including a few who are too close to home. This story can also be the answer to Annabel’s desperate search for answers, but only if Marina chooses to publish it. Cristina Alger is also the author of THE DARLINGS and THIS WAS NOT THE PLAN. She graduated from Harvard College and NYU Law School. Before becoming a writer, she worked as a financial analyst and a corporate attorney. Cristina lives in New York with her husband and children.

THERE THERE tells the tale of a nation and its people, shaped by violence and recovery, and memory and identity. The novel follows the paths of twelve individuals who share a common goal: to travel to the Big Oakland Powwow. While Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to reunite with the family she left behind in shame, Dene Oxendene is recovering from his uncle’s death and has come to work at the powwow in order to pay respect to his uncle’s memory. Through his gripping and visceral prose, Orange evokes an urgency regarding the plight of the urban Native American who faces a new kind of violence—one that takes the form of addiction, abuse, and suicide. Yet he also illustrates a coming to terms with a history of suffering and loss, and a remembrance of beauty and tradition. Tommy Orange was born and raised in Oakland, California, and is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He is a recent graduate from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, 2014 MacDowell Fellow, and 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow.