Community Houses

The housing crisis plaguing major urban centres has sent countless people into the streets. In spring 2022, some of them found their way to the yard beside the Anglican church in Toronto’s Kensington Market, where Maggie Helwig is the priest. They pitched tents, formed an encampment, and settled in. Known as an outspoken social justice activist, Helwig has spent the last three years getting to know the residents and fighting tooth and nail to allow them to stay, battling various authorities that want to clear the yard and keep the results of the housing crisis out of sight and out of mind.

MacArthur "genius" and Booker Prize winner George Saunders returns with a collection of short stories that make sense of our increasingly troubled world, his first since the New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist Tenth of December The “best short story writer in English”...

THE AWARD-WINNING INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER One town. Two crimes. Twenty years of silence. A “brooding and brilliant” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) murder mystery set in a rural Swedish town, where one community’s secrets will be laid bare over the next twenty years . . . “All the...

Three plucky women lift the spirits of home-front brides in wartime Britain, where clothes rationing leaves little opportunity for pomp or celebration—even at weddings—in this heartwarming novel based on true events, from the bestselling author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir. After renowned...

When the Blitz imperils the heart of a London neighborhood, three young women must use their fighting spirit to save the community’s beloved library in this novel based on true events from the author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir. When the new deputy librarian, Juliet Lansdown, finds that...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER A dedicated journalist unearths a generations-old family secret—and a connection to a string of missing girls that hits way too close to home—in this “nail-biting debut” (Booklist). “A well-written, emotionally wrenching tale.”—Associated Press A PUBLISHERS...

From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Gay Bar comes a rule-breaking, sweat-soaked, genre-busting story of outlaw love. It’s 1996, and Jeremy Atherton Lin has met the boy of his dreams — a mumbling, starry-eyed Brit — just as, amid a media frenzy, US Congress...

Our climate future is not yet written. What if we act as if we love the future? Sometimes the bravest thing we can do while facing an existential crisis is imagine life on the other side. This provocative and joyous book maps an inspiring landscape of possible climate futures. Through clear-eyed...

Become the perfect host and learn how to foster community as an adult with this modern guide to hosting every type of gathering. In a world that often feels disconnected and transactional, there's nothing more radically hospitable than welcoming people into your space, your table, and your life...

The Namesake follows the Ganguli family through its journey from Calcutta to Cambridge to the Boston suburbs. Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli arrive in America at the end of the 1960s, shortly after their arranged marriage in Calcutta, in order for Ashoke to finish his engineering degree at MIT...

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’ TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A sweeping history of one of the nation’s most important African American churches and a profound story of courage and grace amid the fight for racial justice—from Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Kevin Sack “A masterpiece...

“This important book reframes the way we think about sensitivity—our own or someone else’s—and shines a light on the great power in being highly attuned to the world.”—Susan Cain, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet and Quiet A paradigm-shifting look at a...

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project discovers a surprising path to a life of more energy, creativity, luck, and love: by tuning in to the five senses. “An inspiring and practical guide to living in the moment.”—Susan Cain, #1 New York Times bestselling author...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER From the founder of Wikipedia, a sweeping reflection on the global crisis of credibility and knowledge, revealing “the rules of trust” that transformed Wikipedia from a scrappy experiment into a global utility used by billions of people—and how those rules can help...

One of Canada’s most accomplished authors combines the best qualities of both the short story and the novel to create a lyrical evocation of the beauty, pain, and wonder of growing up. In eight interconnected, finely wrought stories, Margaret Laurence recreates the world of Vanessa MacLeod –...

After a near-stranger dies in their small town, a tightknit group of friends can no longer ignore their long-dormant desires and unfulfilled dreams—“a moving story of betrayal, grief and forgiveness” (People). “A loving sprawl of busy lives, the happy and sometimes messy web of friends...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER The author of The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South tells his own story this time. Of growing up in a house wrecked by violence and a South haunted by racism. And of how his search for home led him to find escape and belonging through food. Until he...

An acclaimed historian of science uncovers the hidden history of brainwashing—and its troubling implications for today. Because brainwashing affects both the world and our observation of the world, we often don’t recognize it while it’s happening—unless we know where to look. As Rebecca...

A LILLY’S LIBRARY BOOK CLUB PICK In this darkly humorous and wrenchingly sincere memoir, a young Indian American woman’s dreams of being a well-adjusted college student get wildly derailed when her struggles with mental health land her in the office of a charismatic alternative therapist...

“In this vulnerable and courageous memoir, Prachi Gupta takes the myth of the exceptional Indian American family to task.”—The Washington Post “I read it in one sitting. Wow. It aims right at the tender spot where racism, sexism, and family dynamics collide, and somehow manages to be...