Urban Violence

In Juliana Goodman's powerful young adult debut The Black Girls Left Standing, Beau Willet will stop at nothing to clear her sister's name. Sixteen-year-old Beau Willet has dreams of being an artist and one day leaving the Chicago projects she’s grown up in. But after her older sister, Katia...

Cross. Now streaming on Prime Video. Alex Cross faces two crazed killers in this chilling, suspenseful blockbuster from James Patterson, "the man who can't miss" (Time). Just when Alex thought his life was calming down into a routine of patients and therapy sessions, he finds himself back...

Sixteen-year-old Sarah can't draw. This is a problem, because as long as she can remember, she has "done the art." She thinks she's having an existential crisis. And she might be right; she does keep running into past and future versions of herself as she wanders the urban ruins of Philadelphia. Or maybe she's finally waking up to the tornado that is her family, the tornado that six years ago sent her once-beloved older brother flying across the country for a reason she can't quite recall.

When John Milton witnesses a suspicious altercation between a young man and two thugs in a car auction parking lot, he can't resist getting involved. Milton came to Kansas City hoping to find a way out of danger. His recent vendetta against a cartel hitman who killed his friend has made him enemies in high places. Now he needs to find the only man who can get him out of this mess. But, like a moth to a flame, Milton is drawn to anyone who needs his help. And this time, he's also drawing the attention of money laundering criminals who really mean business.

Chronicling Andrew Solomon's stint on the barricades in Moscow in 1991, when he joined artists in resisting the coup whose failure ended the Soviet Union; his 2002 account of the rebirth of culture in Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban; his insightful appraisal of a Myanmar steeped in contradictions as it slowly, fitfully pushes toward freedom; and many other stories of profound upheaval, this book provides a unique window onto the very idea of social change.

There may not be such a thing as a perfect city, but all great cities have moments of perfection - perfect streets or buildings, perfect places to raise a family or to relax with a coffee - and all of them strive for perfection when they undertake grand projects...Joe Berridge, one of the world's leading urban planners, takes us on an insider's tour of the world's largest and most diverse cities, from New York to London, Shanghai to Singapore, Toronto to Sydney, to examine what is working and not working, what is promising and what needs to be fixed in the contemporary megalopolis.

In the tradition of works like Random Family and Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Sudhir Venkatesh’s The Tomorrow Game is a deeply reported chronicle of families surviving in a Southside Chicago community. At the heart of the story are two teenagers: Marshall Mariot, an introverted video gamer and bike rider, and Frankie Paul, who leaves foster care to direct his cousin’s drug business while he’s in prison.

Iesha never dreamed of falling in love again after escaping her abusive relationship with Vaughn… until she meets Jamaica. The two of them start off strong and loving, but it doesn’t take long for their relationship to take a turn for the worse. Vowing to never let another man abuse her, Iesha decides to fight back. But when push comes to shove and they go their separate ways, one takes it better than the other and that’s when things really get interesting.

Urban survival focuses on keeping safe in your daily life as well as a crisis. It’s having a plan, and developing the skills needed to not just survive, but thrive in an urban environment. It is not a “prepper” mentality of waiting for a pending threat. It is accepting the fact that we live in turbulent times. Just watch the news. Every day there is a shooting, people being beaten, stabbed, pushed in front of oncoming subway trains, social unrest, and political threats. Forewarned is forearmed. Let’s get to that plan!

Nikki Turner, Queen of Hip-Hop Lit, is back with one of her gutsiest female characters yet, a glamorous chick with a high-end hustle that can rival any man’s game. As the respected, renowned concierge for a luxury hotel chain, Beijing Lee caters to the wealthy and famous. Whether it’s securing a dinner reservation, a fleet of limos, or a record deal, or protecting her clients from the paparazzi, there’s nothing Beijing can’t do. She’s stacked up an impressive pile of IOUs from the world’s elite - and one day she decides it’s time to start cashing in.

Deux jeunes gens se cherchent du regard dans un pub londonien, échangent quelques mots, se revoient. Lui tente de percer dans la photographie, elle est danseuse. Ils partagent la même ambition, les mêmes blessures et bientôt un amour aussi fusionnel que tendre. "Open Water" raconte ce que c'est d'être noir dans une ville qui tantôt vous acclame, tantôt vous rejette. Une ville où l'on vous regarde plutôt que l'on vous voit. Le racisme insidieux qui abîme et la peur qui étreint lorsqu'on sort de chez soi.

Enforcer and drug dealer Fernando has seen better days. On his way home from work, some heavily-tattooed gangsters throw him in the back of a car and take him to an abandoned house, where they saw off his friend's head and feed the kid's fingers to...something. Their message is clear: this is...

Eddie's father, two uncles, and best friend are all dead, and it's a struggle for him not to end up the same way. Violence makes Fresno wallow in tears, as if a huge onion were buried beneath the city. Making an effort to walk a straight line despite constant temptations and frustrations, Eddie searches for answers—and discovers that his closest friends may actually be his worst enemies.

A sweeping history of cities through the millennia - from Mesopotamia to Manhattan - and how they have propelled Homo sapiens to dominance.

Social scientists have long argued over the links between crime and place. The authors of Communities and Crime provide an intellectual history that traces how varying images of community have evolved over time and influenced criminological thinking and criminal justice policy.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, American cities experienced an astonishing drop in violent crime. By 2014, the United States was safer than it had been in 60 years. Sociologist Patrick Sharkey gathered data from across the country to understand why this happened. Sharkey puts forth an entirely new approach to confronting violence and urban poverty. At a time when inequality, complacency, and conflict all threaten a new rise in violent crime, and the old methods of policing are unacceptable, the ideas in this book are indispensable.

Cities and the Creative Class gathers in one place for the first time the research leading up to Richard Florida's theory on how the growth of the creative economy shapes the development of cities and regions. In a new introduction, Florida updates this theory and responds to the critics of his 2002 best seller, The Rise of the Creative Class.

Shortly after a dismembered torso was discovered by a pond outside Philadelphia in 1887, investigators homed in on two suspects: Hannah Mary Tabbs, a married, working-class Black woman, and George Wilson, a former neighbor whom Tabbs implicated after her arrest. As details surrounding the shocking case emerged, both the crime and ensuing trial - which spanned several months - were featured in the national press. The trial brought otherwise taboo subjects such as illicit sex, adultery, and domestic violence in the Black community to public attention.

Denim Mitchell is excited to learn that she’s been selected to tutor students after school. Not only will this earn her extra credit in her honors classes, but it will also look good on her college applications. Fourteen-year-old Julius Graham enjoys working with his new tutor, but when he becomes the only witness to a horrific crime in his neighborhood, Julius shuts down emotionally. He hasn’t told anyone what he saw, but with the detectives hanging around his house asking questions, he fears that it’s only a matter of time before the murderer comes looking for him.