Sixteen storytellers shed light on the darkness that lurks in the California city in this fun collection of crime tales.Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.With stories by: Barry Gifford, Jim Nisbet, Lexi Pandell, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Mara Faye Lethem, Thomas ...

Two estranged childhood friends find themselves on parallel paths to return to the site of the conversion therapy camp that tore them apart."Two conversion therapy survivors go back to the site of their trauma, hoping the truth will set them free . . . This satisfyingly nuanced story tackles sexuality and spiritual abuse, offering connection and redemption." — Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review"Award-winning author Lucy Jane B...

BJ's mother is short.Mom is an abstract painter who runs an arty cafe. BJ, however, takes after her missing father. Just twenty-one, she's a college basketball player who lives and breathes the game. High tops and hoops occupy her every waking moment. When she accidentally discovers her dad, a shadowy presence throughout her whole life, she suspects her best friends may actually be closer than she thinks--are they her sisters? Maybe there is more family she's never met! BJ just wants to ke...

After the death of her wife, retired marine biologist Sarah faces a startling set of choices in her pursuit of love, friendship, and harmony with the natural worldANTARCTICA, A LOCALE OF EXISTENTIAL RECKONING, was the crucible for Sarah’s two most defining moments: there, she conducted groundbreaking krill research with her wife, Kendra—work that could help save the planet; and she also shared a passionate, fleeting love affair with a marr...

BJ, a talented college basketball player, lives and breathes the game. For BJ, life means nothing without hoops. Her mother—an abstract painter—doesn’t get it. Or at least she pretends she doesn’t. Everything changes when BJ accidentally discovers her dad, a man who’s been a shadowy presence throughout her life. As if that’s not enough of a surprise, she begins to suspect that two of her teammates, and her best friends, may actually be her half-sisters. As BJ struggles to keep her eye on the ...

Finalist, Golden Poppy Award for Best Young Adult Fiction!“A timeless and triumphant story of courage in the face of opposition.” —Foreword Reviews (starred review)It’s 1974. Title IX has passed two years ago, but Louisa’s high school still refuses to fund an all girls’ basketball team. After hearing Gloria Steinem speak, Louisa learns an important lesson: “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” Now w...

Twelve-year-old Willa and her twin brothers have survived with their father in the Alaskan wilderness for five years. But Willa knows this can't go on--they must escape.Since their mother died five years ago, Willa, her younger brothers, and her father have lived in the wilderness, in a log cabin they built. They survive on food they grow and animals they hunt. Every year they have struggled a little bit more to survive.Now, with winter approaching and her ...

We’ve all heard the adage “finders, keepers.” But does that tenet apply when the found object is an abandoned baby on a bus stop bench, and the keepers two affluent gay men who have always wanted a child? Award-winning author Lucy Jane Bledsoe expertly blurs the lines between what’s right and what’s necessary, especially when it comes to two loving parents who want to do the right thing, but are also determined to protect their only child.

Two estranged childhood friends find themselves on parallel paths to return to the site of the conversion therapy camp that tore them apart.Delia Barnes and Ernest Wrangham met as teens at Celebration Camp, a church-supported conversion therapy program—a dubious, unscientific Christian practice meant to “change” a person’s sexuality. After witnessing a close friend suffer a devastating tragedy in the hands of the camp “counselors,” they escaped in the night, only to take separate r...

Gripping true adventure stories - from the Mojave to the Antarctic - reveal one woman's wild affair with the EarthFor Lucy Jane Bledsoe, wilderness had always been a source of peace. But during one disastrous solo trip in the wintry High Sierra she came face to face with a crisis: the wilderness no longer felt like home. The Ice Cave recounts Bledsoe's wilderness journeys as she recovers her connection with the wild and discovers the meanings of fear and g...