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For the love of food (cookbooks and memoirs)
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Savor : a chef's hunger for more
by Fatima Ali
"An aspiring young chef explores food and adventure, illness and mortality, coming of age and coming out in an inspiring memoir and family story that sweeps from Pakistan to New York City and beyond. Fatima Ali won the hearts of viewers as the season fifteen "Fan Favorite" of Bravo's Top Chef. After the taping wrapped and before the shows aired, Fati was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, which eventually became terminal. Not one to ever slow down or admit defeat, she vowed to spend her final year traveling the world, eating delicious food, and making memories with her loved ones. But when her condition abruptly worsened, her plans were sidelined. She pivoted, determined to make her final days count as she worked to tell the story of a queer brown girl chef who set out to make a name for herself, her food, and her culture. The result is this stunning and lyrical ode to the food, family, and countries Fatima loved so much. Written both during Fati's last weeks and posthumously, this deftly woven memoir integrates the perspectives of Fatima at its core, with supporting chapters from her mother Farazeh's perspective. Flashing between past and present, readers will be transported back to Fatima's childhood, unfurling alongside that of her mother, as both were deeply affected by the cultural barriers they faced, shaping the course of their lives. At the same time, food plays an important role throughout, from the rustic stalls of the outdoor markets of Lahore to the kitchen and dining room of Meadowood, the acclaimed 3-Michelin-Star restaurant where Fatima apprenticed. Fati reflects on her life and her identity--as a chef, a daughter, a queer woman--exploring and defining her sexuality, oftentimes butting up against the more conservative and traditional views of those in her native Pakistan. This triumphant memoir is at once an exploration into the sense of wonder that made Fatima so special, and a shining testament to the resilience of the human spirit. It is, at its core, an exploration into what itmeans to truly live, a profound and exquisite portrait of a life that will resonate for many years to come"
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Koshersoul : the faith and food journey of an African American Jew
by Michael Twitty
In this thought-provoking and profound book, the James Beard award-winning author of The Cooking Gene explores the creation of African-Jewish cooking through memory, identity and food, offering a rich background for inventive recipes and the people who create them. 75,000 first printing.
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Budmo! : recipes from a Ukrainian kitchen
by Anna Voloshyna
"Celebrate the rich culture of Ukrainian cuisine with these traditional Eastern European recipes infused with a fresh, contemporary approach for today's home kitchen, from one of today's most exciting young chefs of Ukrainian cuisine"
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Persiana Everyday
by Sabrina Ghayour
The all-new collection of more than 100 crowd-pleasing recipes for everyday eating from the author of the award-winning, Sunday Times bestselling cookbook Persiana. Designed to ensure maximum flavour with the greatest of ease - including no-cook, quick-prep, quick-cook and one-pot dishes, Persiana Everyday is full of generous, inviting and delicious recipes to cook again and again for family and friends.
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Mi Cocina / : Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in Mexico: a Cookbook
by Rick Martínez
In his first cookbook, a beloved food writer introduces the diverse culinary treasures of Mexico, taking readers on a journey through each of the seven regions to explore 100 unique dishes, which are accompanied by essays on various topics, such as migration and culinary influence from other countries. Illustrations.
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Ammu : Indian home-cooking to nourish your soul
by Asma Khan
"A new cookbook from the star of Netflix's Chef's Table and one of the world's most prominent female chefs. Ammu is a heart-warming cookbook of comforting aromatic Indian flavors: Indian food from home, cooked with heart. Ammu is a collection of recipes from Asma Khan's childhood, from her Indian family kitchen. It is a celebration of where she comes from, of home cooking, and the inextricable link between food and love. It is also a chance for Asma to honor her ammu - mother - and to share with us the recipes that made her and rooted her to home. This book is a joyful celebration of memories of food, and its power to heal, restore, and comfort. It includes her ammu's comfort food from childhood, the recipes with which she was taught to cook, celebratoryfood for special occasions, and slow-cooked recipes passed through the generations of her family. The recipes and the memories she shares all possess something that is universal: food is a way for us to have this conversation about how similar we all are- how it connects us and unites us beyond differing appearances, accents, races and backgrounds. With stunning food and family photos, this cookbook is a must-have for cooks and lovers of Indian food"
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My America : recipes from a young black chef
by Kwame Onwuachi
The acclaimed author of Notes from a Young Black Chef, in this celebration of the food of the African Diaspora, as handed down through her own family history, offers more than 125 recipes that show the true diversity of American Food. Illustrations.
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Snacks for dinner : small bites, full plates, can't lose
by Lukas Volger
Redefining dinner, the author of Start Simple transforms carefree noshing into nourishing meals that are both quick to make and deeply satisfying through 100 recipes that revolve around seven main components.
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Modern Jewish Comfort Food : 100 Fresh Recipes for Classic Dishes from Kugel to Kreplach
by Shannon Sarna
Comfort food varies from person to person, family to family, region to region. As the author of Modern Jewish Baker and editor of The Nosher, Shannon Sarna has always wanted to tell the story of the Jewish people through food and continues to do so here in her latest book. Modern Jewish Comfort Food showcases recipes and variations that have shaped Jewish cuisine from around the world?including immigration waves from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, New York City, and beyond.
Sarna shares many traditional dishes, and then provides exciting variations that will bring heartwarming comfort to the home kitchen. Her Basic Tomato & Pepper Shakshuka is cleverly interpreted into a deep-dish pizza; Classic Potato Latkes invite vegetable-focused variations such as Beet & Carrot and Summer Corn Zucchini; and a multitude of dumplings reflect the range of the Jewish diaspora. Sweets include two kinds of Israeli-Style Yeasted Rugelach, Funfetti Macaroons, and more?ready to complete the holiday dessert table. Modern Jewish Comfort Food will inspire home cooks to connect to Jewish foodways and explore the history of this diverse cuisine.
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The British Cookbook
by Ben Mervis
'Staggeringly comprehensive and deeply researched, it's a big, greedy, engrossing banquet of a book.' – Marina O'Loughlin, British journalist, writer and restaurant critic
Discover over 550 much-loved recipes celebrating the rich traditions of regional and seasonal British cooking
In The British Cookbook, author and food historian Ben Mervis takes readers on a mouth-watering culinary tour across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, revealing a cuisine as diverse as the landscape from which it originates.
Part cookbook, part cultural history, this deeply researched collection of 550 authentic recipes encompasses home-cooked classics, such as Shepherd's Pie, Welsh Rarebit, Scottish Crumpets, and Victoria Sponge; lesser-known and regional recipes, such as Bonfire Night Black Peas and Dublin Bay Prawns; dishes deeply steeped in British history, such as Haggis and Devils on Horseback; and iconic dishes with roots outside of the United Kingdom, such as Chicken Tikka Masala, Curry Goat, and Sesame Prawn Toast.
The recipes are fascinating to read and easy to follow, with lively descriptions of each dish's origins; clear, user-friendly instructions; and helpful notes on unique ingredients and techniques. Stunning photographs of food and local scenery complete this exciting ode to British cuisine.
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The cook you want to be : everyday recipes to impress
by Andy Baraghani
In his cookbook debut, one of Bon Appťits favorite talents, through 120 recipes, shows home cooks how to deliver beautiful meals with minimal fuss, along with essays sharing his convictions and key lessons. Illustrations.
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Vegan at home : recipes for a modern plant-based lifestyle
by Solla Eiríksdóttir
"For Solla Eiríksdóttir the key to successful vegan cooking is simple: easy-to-make recipes that are tasty and delicious. Here, she shows how to make great vegan food at home for all kinds of occasions, whether a quick work-day lunch or special dinnerswith friends. The 75 basic recipes for vegan staples such as nut milks and tofu provide the foundation for the 70 dishes that will take you from breakfast through to dinner"
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The Tucci table / : Cooking With Family and Friends
by Stanley Tucci
The Academy Award nominee builds on his associations with cooking while making such films as Big Night and Julie & Julia while sharing family-focused recipes for the homemade Italian meals of his childhood. 50,000 first printing.
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Bread head : baking for the road less traveled
by Greg Wade
"At Publican Quality Breads in Chicago, Greg Wade bakes rich, flavorful, naturally leavened breads with local organic flours. His philosophy draws from the music of the Grateful Dead, encouraging readers to "live no particular way but our own" (make the bread you want to make) and to "hang it up and see what tomorrow brings" (when things don't turn out perfectly). Wade, who is largely self-taught, presents a laid-back master class that any home cook can engage with: he explains what happens to your breadon a cellular level as it ferments and bakes, and walks readers through the different grains and the various forms they can take (i.e., cracked, sprouted, whole-grain, coarse-milled), describes their flavors, and sheds light on how they behave and what could be substituted with success. His recipes move from simple to more complex and include a delicious basic sandwich loaf, a ciabatta spiked with roasted garlic and mashed potato, as well as crispy, fluffy bagels and whole-wheat pretzels. Experienced bakers will enjoy endlessly riff-able bakes like Ethiopian Injera, White Wheat Tortillas, and Khachapuri (a Georgian egg and cheese bread). Bonuses include baker's percentages with all recipes and a template baking log to record each baking success (and failure). Tripped out with vibrant photographs and a groovy design, Bread Head is ideal for obsessive home bakers eager to craft breads that rival the best professional kitchens"
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The cookie bible
by Rose Levy Beranbaum
An award-winning author and legendary baker presents this ultimate cookie book, in which she offers foolproof recipes with detail-oriented instructions that eliminate guesswork for whipping up irresistible, crowd-pleasing cookies for any occasion.
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What's for dessert : simple recipes for dessert people
by Claire Saffitz
Filled with decadent delights to satisfy any sweet tooth, this all-new collection of straightforward and simple recipes for dessert people is filled with loads of troubleshooting advice that readers have come to count on. Illustrations.
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Evolutions in bread : artisan pan breads and dutch-oven loaves at home
by Ken Forkish
The New York Times best-selling author of Four Water Salt Yeast helps home bakers elevate their bread-making game with all-new recipes for same-day loaves, overnight cold-proof doughs and classic levains along with equipment lists, and important methods and techniques. Illustrations.
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Gâteau : the surprising simplicity of French cakes
by Aleksandra Crapanzano
James Beard Award-winning writer Aleksandra Crapanzano shares the secrets of the cakes Parisians bake at home, from the simplest yogurt cakes to a deceptively easy bûche de Noël, from yuzu madeleines to boozy flourless chocolate confections.
When we think of French desserts, we tend to imagine ornate creations and confections. Perhaps we envision a tarte Tatin , but rarely a homemade cake, whipped up on a weeknight with little fuss. But that is exactly what Parisians make and eat. Gâteaux are simple, delicious cakes, both sweet and savory, served to family and friends.
As food-columnist Aleksandra Crapanzano spent time in Parisian home kitchens, she realized that the real magic is a certain savoir-faire , that distinctly French know-how that blends style and functionality in every aspect of life. By and large, the French do not try to compete with their chefs, nor with their boulangeres and patissieres . But many Parisians are natural cooks, and most finish dinner with a little something sweet, effortlessly made and casually served. The trick is having an arsenal of recipes that, once mastered, become blueprints, allowing for myriad variations, depending on what's in season and what's in the cupboard. It is a practical approach, and the French are nothing if not practical. That is the savoir-faire --from tying a silk scarf just so to popping a gateau in the oven without anyone even noticing. When you know what you're doing, there's no need to overthink it. It looks easy because it is easy.
Practical, simple, and filled with over 100 rigorously tested recipes and charming illustrations, Gâteau celebrates every day and sometimes fanciful French cakes in all their glory Illustrations.
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Feeding the women of the Talmud, feeding ourselves : uplifting the voices of talmudic heroines, and honoring them with simple, vegan recipes
by Kenden Alfond
"Feeding the Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves produces true food for thought by retelling the stories of 69 women in the Talmud and honoring them with vegan or plant-based recipes. Enjoy 69 delicious, balanced recipes ideal for family meals, entertaining, and healthy snacks. Each recipe is accompanied by stunning photography and meditations on stories of women in the Talmud that draw new meaning from the text. This community cookbook is the co-creation of 129 Jewish women from around the world. 60 Rabbis, Rabbinical students, Jewish teachers, and emerging thought leaders contributed to the Talmudic narratives, and 60 female professional chefs and passionate homecooks contributed to the recipes. The addition of this female-focused point of view to these women's Talmudic stories-which were recorded and edited by men-is a bright and encouraging testament to a modern generation of women engaging in Jewish learning"
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Savory baking : recipes for breakfast, dinner, and everything in between
by Erin Jeanne McDowell
Filled with can-do encouragement, tips and techniques and Prep School features, a star food stylist and baking expert presents an abundance of recipes that offer inventive inspirations and variations for endless, out-of-the-box customizations and more flexibility. 40,000 first printing.
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Breaking bread : essays from New England on food, hunger, and family
by Deborah Joy Corey
"A collection of essays by top literary talents and food writers, Breaking Bread celebrates local foods, family, and community, while exploring how what's on our plates engages with what's off: grief, pleasure, love, ethics, race, and class"
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Books to Nurture Good Health
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Mind Food : Plant-Based Recipes for Positive Mental Health
by Lauren Lovatt
Mind Food is a delicious and revolutionary invitation to eating whole foods, with a mind-nourishing twist – inspired by years of research around how food can make us happy and boost our moods.
Founder of the Plant Academy and the woman behind Feed Your Mind Candy, plant-based chef and food educator Lauren Lovatt mindfully reconnects readers to the adage of ‘we are what we eat’ in this appetising new-wave cookbook.
Drawing on her own experiences of mental health, Lovatt presents an empowering approach to food and wellbeing which is nourishing, sustainable and good for both us and the planet.
Focusing on hero ingredients of plants, whole grains, healthy fats, legumes, and tonic herbs, vibrant vegan recipes offer emotional balance with a splash of creativity, and a sprinkle of magic!
With recipes presented by season in order to make the most of freshly-grown produce and to maximise the benefits according to our different needs at each time of year, ideas in this book include:
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Nurture your mental and physical health with Mind Food, a must-have cookbook for every kitchen library.
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The year of miracles : (recipes about love + grief + growing things)
by Ella Risbridger
"In Ella Risbridger's first book Midnight Chicken, she showed readers how food can serve as a light in our darkest days. Now, in The Year of Miracles, Ella shares her story of recovering from loss with the help of good food and good friends. The book celebrates making a fancy dinner even if you're just eating it with a spoon in front of the tv; having people over to dinner without overthinking it; finding late night snacks to ease you to sleep; and having seconds--of everything. Above all, it a powerful testament to how cooking can help us get up and start again in the face of unimaginable hurt"
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The Wellness Principles : Cooking for a Healthy Life
by Ph.D. Deng, Gary, M.D.
As featured in The Washington Post, Prevention, and MindBodyGreen
From a world-renowned and beloved doctor, an accessible guide with 100 delicious tried-and-tested recipes for healthy living - to eat well, live well, and stay well
For the first time, Gary Deng MD, PhD presents to a general readership his unique, highly respected wellness approach, which is supported by scientific evidence and beloved by his patients.
Taking into account his learnings after years in clinical medicine at the world's premier cancer center, combined with his passion for nourishing home cooking, Deng's authoritative guide to balanced and mindful eating and living includes both 100 recipes and expert advice beyond the plate.
It incorporates traditional and holistic medical philosophies as the path towards optimal health and is the ideal book for anyone who wants to eat healthier, enjoy fresh ingredients, be guided to a more holistic lifestyle, maintain health, or look for the ideal nutritional path to wellness.
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Forest + Home : Cultivating an Herbal Kitchen
by Spencre Mcgowan
Connect with nature through your kitchen, no matter the size or location. Food that feeds and heals the body; a book that inspires and nourishes the soul.
Forest + Home connects you with nature through your kitchen, no matter the size or location. This is a book that inspires and ignites the palette while nourishing the soul; it shares food that both feeds and heals the body. Discover the world of plants through food with cook and certified herbalist, Spencre McGowan, author of Blotto Botany: A Lesson in Healing Cordials and Plant Magic. Organized by season, the recipes are designed to meet the natural movement of time and the world we inhabit.
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The light we give : how Sikh wisdom can transform your life
by Simran Jeet Singh
A human rights activist shares a powerful approach to living a purposeful and rewarding life that is drawn from Sikh teachings, which show readers how to seek out the good in every situation and find positive ways to direct their energy and embrace this deeper form of living.
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Sit, stay, heal : what dogs teach us about living well
by Renee Alsarraf
In this moving and uplifting memoir filled with life lessons and metaphors, an esteemed veterinary oncologist, fighting her own battle with cancer, shows us why canines are the perfect guides to help us navigate traumatic and difficult experiences and how they are reminders of the power of the human spirit.
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Inciting joy : essays
by Ross Gay
Considering the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during lifes challenges, a prize-winning poet and author explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and, most importantly, how we expand it.
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The seven circles : indigenous teachings for living well
by Chelsey Luger
Drawing from traditions spanning multiple tribes, the Native American founders of an Indigenous wellness initiative reclaim ancient wisdom for health and wellbeing, developing a holistic model called the Seven Circles, a holistic approach for modern living rooted in timeless teachings from their ancestors. Illustrations.
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Boards & spreads : shareable, simple arrangements for every meal
by Yasmin Fahr
Provides over 65 recipes for creating epic spreads for family-friendly, sharing meals that go beyond the standard cheese or charcuterie board and include Italian Aperitivo Board with Crispy Prosciutto Caprese, Any-Night Tacos and Egg Pita Sandwich Board. Illustrations.
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Festive Cocktails & Canapes : Over 100 Recipes for Seasonal Drinks & Party Bites
by Ryland Peters & Small
Over 100 essential recipes for festive entertaining, with cocktails and accompanying canapés to serve and share with family and friends.
The holidays are indeed the most wonderful time of the year, but they can also be stressful when hosting and catering for a crowd. As family and friends come together to eat drink and be merry, let this collection of drinks and dishes guide you through advent right up to the new year. You’ll find everything you need to host a group, with recipes for everything from an elegant New Years Eve Soirée to a light Christmas morning brunch. Cocktails encompass everything from the Snowball to the Mimosa, with more unusual recipes to make your drinks very merry indeed. Simple recipes for bites and canapés, many of which can be prepared in advance, take the stress out of finding the perfect snack to accompany drinks and satisfy hungry.
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Twas the night : the art and history of the classic Christmas poem
by Pamela McColl
"The artwork and literary references presented in this publication were selected to demonstrate the way in which "The Poet of Christmas Eve" drew upon two centuries of winter cultural traditions and customs, as well as elements from the spiritual and secular sectors, in the creation of the work. Dozens of vintage illustrations were carefully chosen for this publication from the thousands of editions published over years, along with examples of works by both commercial illustrators and fine artist who were drawn to the poem's enchanting imagery"
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Black Mixcellence : A Comprehensive Guide to Black Mixology: a Cocktail Recipe Book, Classic Cocktails, and Mixed Drinks
by Tamika Hall
Bringing tasty drink recipes from some of the most renowned mixologists and stories of the historical impact of Black people in Mixology, Black Mixcellence is the go-to drink guide for any wine and spirits connoisseur.
Black Mixcellence: A Comprehensive Guide to Black Mixology is a tribute to the contributions of Black and Brown mixologists to the spirits and mixology industries. Many pivotal events in the history of mixology have been ushered in by the contributions of African-American men and women. These moments have opened doors and laid the foundation for brands and companies to flourish. This book features stories about some of the industry's most notable trailblazers. Whether it was entrepreneurship, education or a "famous first," the featured mixologists have all contributed to the industry to make an impact in their own ways. This collective of mixologists and their signature cocktails represent different parts of the globe. There will be connections to important inventions and milestone moments by African Americans in the bartending industry weaved in between their stories.
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The seasonal gardener : creative planting combinations
by Anna Pavord
"This classic book reveals how best to group plants in a garden to create a year-long display. Ranging from hydrangeas, salvias and ferns to dahlias, tulips and snowdrops, each star plant is paired with two partners, offering gardeners creative planting solutions to achieve stunning results, season by season"
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American Wildflowers : A Literary Field Guide
by Susan Barba
American Wildflowers: A Literary Field Guide collects poems, essays, and letters from the 1700s to the present that focus on wildflowers and their place in our culture and in the natural world. Editor Susan Barba has curated a selection of plants and texts that celebrate diversity: There are foreign-born writers writing about American plants and American writers on non-native plants. There are rural writers with deep regional knowledge and urban writers who are intimately acquainted with the nature in their neighborhoods. There are female writers, Black writers, gay writers, indigenous writers. There are botanists like William Bartram, George Washington Carver, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, and horticultural writers like Neltje Blanchan and Eleanor Perényi. There are prose pieces by Aldo Leopold, Lydia Davis, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil. And most of all, there are poems: from Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams and T. S. Eliot to Allen Ginsberg and Robert Creeley, Lucille Clifton and Louise Glück, Natalie Diaz and Jericho Brown.
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Wild : the naturalistic garden
by Noël Kingsbury
A stunning exploration of one of the hottest trends in garden design, nature-based planting with an eco-aware approach, featuring the work of leading designers such as Sean Hogan, Piet Oudolf, and Dan Pearson. Forget the mild, manicured gardens of the past: planting today is undergoing a revolution in taste and aesthetics. This is the first comprehensive overview of a new planting approach that is wild and natural by nature, reflecting the global turn towards sustainability and the current zeitgeist in garden design. Featuring over 40 gardens - from a perennial meadow in East Sussex, England to a private, drought-resistant garden in Australia - each garden in this stunning book is brought to life with beautiful photography and insightful text
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The Grove : A Nature Odyssey in 19 ½ Front Gardens
by Ben Dark
'The best gardening book of 2022.' The Telegraph
'A wonderful book.' Alexandra Shulman, Mail on Sunday
'Meet the millennial Monty Don.' The Sunday Times Style
Any walk is an odyssey when we connect with the plants around us. Each tree or flower tells a tale. Mundane 'suburban' shrubs speak of war and poetry, of money, fashion, love and failure. Every species in this book was seen from one pavement over twelve months and there is little here that could not be found on any road in any town, but they reveal stories of such weirdness, drama, passion and humour that, once discovered, familiar neighbourhoods will be changed forever.
There is a renewed interest in the nature on our doorsteps, as can be seen in the work of amateur botanists identifying wildflowers and chalking the names on the pavements.
But beyond the garden wall lies a wealth of cultivated plants, each with a unique tale to tell. In The Grove, award-winning writer and head gardener Ben Dark reveals the remarkable secrets of twenty commonly found species - including the rose, wisteria, buddleja, box and the tulip - encountered in the front gardens of one London street over the course of year.Book Annotation
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The View from Federal Twist : A New Way of Thinking About Gardens, Nature and Ourselves
by James Golden
Federal Twist is set on a ridge above the Delaware River in western New Jersey. It is a naturalistic garden that has no utilitarian or leisure uses and the site is not an obvious choice for a garden (heavy clay soil, poorly drained: quick death for any plants not ecologically suited to it).
The physical garden, its plants and its features, is of course an appealing and pleasant place to be but Federal Twist's real charm and significance lie in its intangible aspects: its changing qualities and views, the moods and emotions it evokes, and its distinctive character and sense of place.
This book charts the author's journey in making such a garden. How he made a conscious decision not to improve the land, planted competitive plants into rough grass, experimented with sustainable plant communities. And how he worked with light to provoke certain moods and allowed the energy of the place, chance, and randomness to have its say.
Part experimental horticulturist and part philosopher, James Golden has written an important book for ecological gardeners and anyone interested in exploring the relationship between gardens, nature, and ourselves.
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Wild new world : the epic story of animals and people in America
by Dan L. Flores
"A deep-time history of how humans engaged wildlife in North America, by the best-selling and award-winning author of Coyote America. In 1908, a cowboy discovered bones from an extinct giant bison near Folsom, New Mexico. When archeologists found handmade weapons embedded in the fossils, the discovery vastly expanded our continent's known human history, but also revealed the long-standing danger Homo sapiens have presented to their fellow animals. Dan Flores's ambitious new history tells the epic story of animals and humans in the "wild new world"-from the grand forces that shaped North American biology to Pleistocene mass extinctions; clashes between Euro-American belief systems and animals' learned behaviors; and the precipitous decline and miraculous rescue of species in recent centuries. In thrilling narrative style, informed by native religions, cutting-edge science, and environmental history, Flores celebrates the astonishing bestiary that arose on our continent and introduces the complex human characters who studied America's animals, hastened their eradication, and are working to recover them. Eons in scope, and continental in scale, Wild New World is an intimate yet sweeping re-examination of animal-human relations"
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Elderflora : a modern history of ancient trees
by Jared Farmer
Examines the complex history of the worlds oldest trees and the challenges they faced through imperial expansion and the industrial revolution, as well as the current threat of global climate change.
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The river you touch : making a life on moving water
by Chris Dombrowski
A heartfelt memoir of life and fatherhood in Big Sky country.
Born in Lansing, Michigan, Dombrowski, author of the acclaimed Body of Water, was “pointed the way west” when a teacher suggested he read A River Runs Through It. Seeking “the promise of a life less bound by convention, less dictated by status quo and occupational demands than by one’s passions,” he and his would-be wife, Mary, moved to Missoula, Montana. Dombrowski found work as a writer and fly-fishing guide, and Mary became a kindergarten teacher. Over time, they amassed a group of like-minded friends who shared their respect for the abundant flora and fauna in Montana. Through a collection of vignettes, the author shares his concerns for the environment, the effects of the appropriation of land from Native inhabitants, and the emotions the landscape stirs in him. “The angler standing in the river is not so much absolved of time as disburdened of it, able to shirk its weight—for some moments anyway—before with a dull thud a trout strikes his swinging fly, and he returns to pretending that he set himself in this cliff-shadowed stretch in search of a fish.”
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Sacred nature : how we can recover our bond with the natural world
by Karen Armstrong
A best-selling historian of religion, drawing on her vast knowledge of the worlds religious traditions, describes natures central place in spirituality across the centuries, showing modern readers how to rediscover natures potency and form a connection to something greater than ourselves.
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Six walks : in the footsteps of Henry David Thoreau
by Ben Shattuck
"On an autumn morning in 1849, Henry David Thoreau stepped out his front door to walk the beaches of Cape Cod. Over a century and a half later, Ben Shattuck does the same. With little more than a loaf of bread, brick of cheese, and a notebook, Shattuck sets out to retrace Thoreau's path through the Cape's outer beaches, from the elbow to Provincetown's fingertip. This is the first of six journeys taken by Shattuck, each one inspired by a walk once taken by Henry David Thoreau. After the Cape, Shattuck goes up Mount Katahdin and Mount Wachusett, down the coastline of his hometown, and then through the Allagash. Along the way, Shattuck encounters unexpected characters, landscapes, and stories, seeing for himself the restorative effects that walking can have on a dampened spirit. Over years of following Thoreau, Shattuck finds himself uncovering new insights about family, love, friendship, and fatherhood, and understanding more deeply the lessons walking can offer through life's changing seasons. Intimate, entertaining, and beautifully crafted, Six Walks is a resounding tribute to the ways walking in nature can inspire us all"
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The bald eagle : the improbable journey of America's bird
by Jack E. Davis
Featuring stories of Founding Fathers, rapacious hunters, heroic bird rescuers and the lives of bald eagles themselves, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Gulf presents a sweeping cultural and natural history of the bald eagle in America, demonstrating how this bird’s wondrous journey may provide inspiration today. Illustrations.
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The song of the cell : an exploration of medicine and the new human
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Presenting revelatory and exhilarating stories of scientists, doctors and the patients whose lives may be saved by their work, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, drawing on his own experience as a researcher, doctor and prolific reader, explores medicine and our radical new ability to manipulate cells. Illustrations.
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Starry messenger : cosmic perspectives on civilization
by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Bringing his cosmic perspective to civilization on Earth, an astrophysicist discusses the scientific palette that sees and paints the world differently, sharing insights on resolving global conflict to reminders of how precious it is to be alive in a universe stimulating a deeper sense of unity for us all.
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This is what it sounds like : what the music you love says about you
by Susan Rogers
One of the most successful female record producers of all time and an award-winning professor of cognitive neuroscience leads readers to musical self-awareness, explaining that we each possess a unique listener profile based on our brains natural response to seven key dimensions of any song. Illustrations.
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Ways of being : animals, plants, machines : the search for a planetary intelligence
by James Bridle
Exploring different kinds of intelligence, this brilliant and thought-provoking book shows how plants, animals and natural systems that surround us are slowly revealing their complexity, agency and knowledge, just as the technologies we've built to sustain ourselves are threatening to cause their extinction, and ours. Illustrations.
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The puzzler : one man's quest to solve the most baffling puzzles ever, from crosswords to jigsaws to the meaning of life
by A. J. Jacobs
"Even though I've never attempted the New York Times crossword puzzle or solved the Rubik's Cube, I couldn't put down The Puzzler."-Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before What makes puzzles-jigsaws, mazes, riddles, sudokus-so satisfying? Be it the formation of new cerebral pathways, their close link to insight and humor, or their community-building properties, they're among the fundamental elements that make us human. Convinced that puzzles have made him a better person, A.J. Jacobs-four-time New York Times bestselling author, master of immersion journalism, and nightly crossworder-set out to determine their myriad benefits. And maybe, in the process, solve the puzzle of our very existence. Well, almost. In The Puzzler, Jacobs meets the most zealous devotees, enters (sometimes with his family in tow) any puzzle competition that will have him, unpacks the history of the most popular puzzles, and aims to solve the most impossible head-scratchers, from a mutant Rubik's Cube, to the hardest corn maze in America, to the most sadistic jigsaw. Chock-full of unforgettable adventures and original examples from around the world-including new work by Greg Pliska, one of America's top puzzle-makers, and a hidden, super-challenging butsolvable puzzle that will earn the first reader to crack it a $10,000 prize*-The Puzzler will open readers' eyes to the power of flexible thinking and concentration. Whether you're puzzle obsessed or puzzle hesitant, you'll walk away with real problem-solving strategies and pathways toward becoming a better thinker and decision maker-for these are certainly puzzling times"
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Journey of the mind : how thinking emerged from chaos
by Ogi Ogas
"Why do minds exist? How did mud and stone develop into beings that can experience longing, regret, love, and compassion-beings that are aware of their own experience? Until recently, science offered few answers to these existential questions. Journey ofthe Mind is the first book to offer a unified account of the mind that explains how consciousness, language, the Self, and civilization emerged incrementally out of chaos. The journey begins three billion years ago with the emergence of the simplest possible mind, a nanoscopic archeon, then ascends through amoebas, worms, frogs, birds, monkeys, and AI, examining successively smarter ways of thinking. The authors explain the mathematical principles generating conscious experience and show how these principles led cities and democratic nations to develop new forms of consciousness-the self-aware "superminds." Journey of the Mind concludes by contemplating a higher stage of consciousness already emerging-and the ultimate fate of all minds in the universe"
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Tutankhamun's trumpet : ancient Egypt in 100 objects from the boy king's tomb
by Toby Wilkinson
"Marking the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun's spectacular tomb, its incredible treasures are revealed as never before. In 1922, after fifteen years of searching, archaeologists finally discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun. There, buried alongside the king's mummy, they found more than 5,000 unique objects, each with a story to tell about ancient life. Tutankhamun's spectacular gold mask is justifiably famous, but the rest of the treasures remain largely unknown. In this rich and beautifully illustrated work of history, renowned Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson examines a civilization through the lens of the objects it most prized, from the precious (a ceremonial sickle, an ostrich-feather fan, a gold-decorated chariot) to the everyday (shaving equipment, a first-aid kit, loaves of bread). And perhaps most poignant of all the objects in the tomb is one that conjures up a lost world of human experience: Tutankhamun's silver trumpet. Wilkinson tells the stories of 100 such artifacts, creating an indelible portrait not just of Tutankhamun, but of the history, culture, and people of Ancient Egypt"
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The white mosque : a memoir
by Sofia Samatar
Pursuing the curious history of The White Mosque, which was established a century ago in a small Christian village in the Muslim Khanate of Khiva, the author traces the porous and ever-expanding borders of identity as she discovers a variety of characters whose lives intersect around the ancient Silk Road.
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Botticelli's secret : the lost drawings and the rediscovery of the Renaissance
by Joseph Luzzi
""Brilliantly conceived and executed, Botticelli's Secret is a riveting search for buried treasure." -Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve. Some five hundred years ago, Sandro Botticelli, a painter of humble origin, created works of unearthly beauty.A star of Florence's art world, he was commissioned by a member of the city's powerful Medici family to execute a near-impossible project: to illustrate all one hundred cantos of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, the ultimate visual homage to that "divine" poet. This sparked a gripping encounter between poet and artist, between the religious and the secular, between the earthly and the evanescent, recorded in exquisite drawings by Botticelli that now enchant audiences worldwide. Yet after a lifetime of creating masterpieces including Primavera and The Birth of Venus, Botticelli declined into poverty and obscurity. His Dante project remained unfinished. Then the drawings vanished for over four hundred years. The once famous Botticelli himself was forgotten. The nineteenth-century rediscovery of Botticelli's Dante drawings brought scholars and art lovers to their knees: this work embodied everything the Renaissance had come to mean. From Botticelli's metaphorical rise from the dead in Victorian Englandto the emergence of eagle-eyed connoisseurs like Bernard Berenson and Herbert Horne in the early twentieth century, and even the rescue of precious art during World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the posthumous story of Botticelli's Dante drawings is, if anything, even more dramatic than their creation. A combination of artistic detective story and rich intellectual history, Botticelli's Secret shows not only how the Renaissance came to life, but also how Botticelli's art helped bring itabout-and, most important, why we need the Renaissance and all that it stands for today"
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And there was light : Abraham Lincoln and the American struggle
by Jon Meacham
The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer examines life and moral evolution of Abraham Lincoln and how he navigated the crises of slavery, secession and war by both marshaling the power of the presidency while recognizing its limitations. Illustrations.
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The dark queens : the bloody rivalry that forged the medieval world
by Shelley Puhak
"The remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to rule. Brunhild was a foreign princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet-in sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport-these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe. The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a decades-long civil war-against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft, and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne's empire. Yet after the queens' deaths-one gentle, the other horrific-their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend. In The Dark Queens, award-winning writer Shelley Puhak sets the record straight. She resurrects two very real women in all their complexity, painting a richly detailed portrait of an unfamiliar time and striking at the roots of some of our culture's stubbornest myths about female power. The Dark Queens offers proof that the relationships between women can transform the world"
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Half American : the epic story of African Americans fighting World War II at home and abroad
by Matthew F. Delmont
"The definitive history of World War II from the African American perspective, written by civil rights expert and Dartmouth history professor Matthew Delmont. Over one million Black men and women served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy, IwoJima, and the Battle of the Bulge, serving in segregated units and performing unheralded but vital support jobs, only to be denied housing and educational opportunities on their return home. Without their crucial contributions to the war effort, the United States could not have won the war. And yet the stories of these Black veterans have long been ignored, cast aside in favor of the myth of the "Good War" fought by the "Greatest Generation." Half American is American history as you've likely never read it before. In these pages are stories of Black heroes such as Thurgood Marshall, the chief lawyer for the NAACP, who investigated and publicized violence against Black troops and veterans; Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., leader of the Tuskegee Airmen, who was at the forefront of the years-long fight to open the Air Force to Black pilots; Ella Baker, the civil rights leader who advocated on the home front for Black soldiers, veterans, and their families; James Thompson, the 26-year-old whose letter to a newspaper laying bare the hypocrisy of fighting against fascism abroad when racism still reigned at home set in motion the Double Victory campaign; and poet Langston Hughes, who worked as a war correspondent for the Black press. Their bravery and patriotism in the face of unfathomable racism is both inspiring and galvanizing. In a time when the questions World War II raised regarding race and democracy in America remain troublingly relevant and still unanswered, this meticulously researched retelling makes for urgently necessary reading"
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The grandest stage : a history of the World Series
by Tyler Kepner
"From the New York Times bestselling author of K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, a highly-entertaining history of the World Series, based on years of archival research and interviews with hundreds of players and managers, filled with never-before-heard details of the most exciting and fascinating tales from 117 years of the Fall Classic. The World Series is baseball's greatest stage. From Babe Ruth's famous called shot, to Jackie Robinson stealing home, to Carlton Fisk hitting the foul pole, Kirk Gibson limping around the bases, to Blake Snell being pulled in the 2020 Series, the sport's most iconic moments have happened in October. There's no one better to bring this rich history to life than New York Times national baseball columnist Tyler Kepner, whose bestselling history of pitching, K, was lauded as "like Michelangelo explaining the brush strokes on the Sistine Chapel" by Newsday. In THE CLASSIC, Kepner talked to hundreds of people who've won - and lost - World Series, and looked deep into the records to present a vivid portrait of what it's like playing in the pressure cooker of the Series. He shows the human side of the game (the pitcher who gave up Ruth's called shot was still haunted by it on his deathbed), celebrates unlikely heroes suchas Don Larsen (a mediocre pitcher who threw the only perfect game in World Series history), writes of the goats with compassion (the Phillies' Mitch Williams shouldn't have pitched the last inning in 1993), and busts some long-time myths (the Reds would have beat the Black Sox anyway.) The result is a vivid portrait of baseball at its finest and most intense, filled with humor, lore, keen analysis and memorable anecdotes. For every fan who's ever felt their heart in their mouth in the bottom of the ninthin Game Seven, and a great gift for those who love them, THE CLASSIC is the ultimate history of the World Series"
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The last days of Roger Federer : and other endings
by Geoff Dyer
An award-winning author, in this mesmerizing meditation, sets his own encounter with late middle age against the last days and last works of writers, painters, footballers, musicians and tennis stars whove mattered to him throughout his life.
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Pandora's jar : women in Greek myths
by Natalie Haynes
"In Pandora's Jar, the broadcaster, writer, stand-up comedian, and passionate classicist turns the tables, putting the women of the Greek myths on an equal footing with the men. With wit, humor, and savvy, Haynes revolutionizes our understanding of epic poems, stories, and plays, resurrecting them from a woman's perspective and tracing the origins of their mythic female characters"
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Two wheels good : the history and mystery of the bicycle
by Jody Rosen
Reshaping our understanding of the bicycle, a writer and critic, combining history, reportage, travelogue and memoir, chronicles the bicycles saga, from its invention in 1817 to its present day renaissance as a green machine, and introduces unforgettable characters along the way. Illustrations.
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The come up / : An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-hop
by Jonathan P. D. Abrams
"The essential oral history of hip-hop, from its origins on the playgrounds of the Bronx to its reign as the most powerful force in pop culture-from the award-winning journalist behind All the Pieces Matter, the New York Times bestselling oral history ofThe Wire. The music that we would later know as hip-hop was born at a party in the Bronx in the summer of 1973. Now, fifty years later, it's the most popular genre in America and its electric impact on contemporary music is likened to that of jazz on thefirst half of the twentieth century. And yet, despite its tremendous influence, the voices of many of hip-hop's pioneers have never been thoroughly catalogued-and some are at risk of being lost forever. Now, in The Come Up, Jonathan Abrams offers the most comprehensive account so far of hip-hop's rise, told in the voices of the people who made it happen. Abrams traces how the genre grew out of the resourcefulness of an overlooked population amid the decay of the South Bronx, and from there how it overflowed into the other boroughs and then across the nation-from parks onto vinyl, below to the Mason-Dixon line, to the West Coast through gangster rap and G-funk, and then across generations. In more than 300 interviews conducted over three years, Abrams hascaptured the stories of the DJs, label executives, producers, and artists who both witnessed and made the history of hip-hop. He has on record Grandmaster Caz detailing hip-hop's infancy, Edward "Duke Bootee" Fletcher describing the origins of "The Message," DMC narrating his introduction of hip-hop to the mainstream, Ice Cube recounting N.W.A's breakthrough and breakup, Kool Moe Dee elaborating on his Grammys boycott, and many more key players. And he has conveyed with singular vividness the drive, the stakes, and the relentless creativity that ignited one of the greatest revolutions in modern music. The Come Up is an important contribution to the historical record and an exhilarating behind-the-scenes account of how hip-hop came to rule the world"
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Kaufmann's : The Family That Built Pittsburghs Famed Department Store
by Marylynne Pitz
In 1868, Jacob Kaufmann, the nineteen-year-old son of a German farmer, stepped off a ship onto the shores of New York. His brother Isaac soon followed, and together they joined an immigrant community of German Jews selling sewing items to the coal miners and mill workers of western Pennsylvania. After opening merchant tailor shops in Pittsburgh’s North and South sides, the Kaufmann brothers caught the wave of a new type of merchandising—the department store—and launched what would become their retail dynasty with a downtown storefront at Fifth Avenue and Smithfield Street. In just two decades, Jacob and his brothers had ascended Pittsburgh’s economic and social ladder, rising from hardscrabble salesmen into Gilded Age multimillionaires.
Generous and powerful philanthropists, the Kaufmanns left an indelible mark on the city and western Pennsylvania. From Edgar and Liliane’s famous residence, the Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece called Fallingwater, to the Kaufmann clock, a historic landmark that inspired the expression “meet me under the clock,” to countless fond memories for residents and shoppers, the Kaufmann family made important contributions to art, architecture, and culture. Far less known are the personal tragedies and fateful ambitions that forever shaped this family, their business, and the place they called home. Kaufmann’s recounts the story of one of Pittsburgh’s most beloved department stores, pulling back the curtain to reveal the hardships, triumphs, and complicated legacy of the prominent family behind its success.
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Last call at the Hotel Imperial : reporters of the lost generation
by Deborah Cohen
"Married foreign correspondents John and Frances Gunther intimately understood that it isn't only impersonal, economic forces that propel history, bringing readers so close to the front lines of history that they could feel how personal pathologies became the stuff of geopolitical crises. Together with other reporters of the Lost Generation--American journalists H.R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompson--the Gunthers slipped through knots of surveillance and ignored orders of expulsion in order to expose the mass executions in Badajoz during the Spanish Civil War, the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, the millions of dollars that Joseph Goebbels salted away abroad, and the sexual peccadillos of Hitler's brownshirts. They conjured what it was like to ride with Hitler in an airplane ("not a word did he say to any soul"); broke the inside story about Mussolini's claustrophobia and superstitions (he "took fright" at an Egyptian mummy that had been given to him); and verified the hypnotic impression Stalin made when he walked into a room ("You felt his antennae"). But just as they were transforming journalism, it was also transforming them: who they loved and betrayed, how they raised their children and coped with death. Over the course of theircareers they would popularize bringing the private life into public view, not only in their reporting on the outsized figures of their day, but in what they revealed about their own (and each other's) intimate experiences as well. What were intimate relationships, after all, but geopolitics writ small?"
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Born of lakes and plains : mixed-descent peoples and the making of the American West
by Anne Farrar Hyde
"A revealing history of the West that pivots on Native peoples and the mixed families they made with European settlers. There is mixed blood at the heart of America. And at the heart of Native life for centuries there were complex households using marriage to link communities and protect people within circles of kin. These family circles took in European newcomers who followed the fur trade into Indian Country from the Great Lakes to the Columbia River. Vividly combining the panoramic and the particular,Anne F. Hyde's pathbreaking history follows five mixed-descent families whose lives were inscribed by history: corporate battles over control of the fur trade, the extension of American power into the West, the ravages of imported disease, the violence triggered by Indian removal, the incessant battles for land with encroaching American settlement, and the mix of opportunity and disaster in post-Civil War reservations and allotment. Occupying a dangerous intermediate ground in a continent of conflict, mixed-descent families were pivotal in the events that made the West"
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The vanished collection
by Pauline Baer de Perignon
"It all started with a list of paintings. There, scribbled by a cousin she hadn't seen for years, were the names of the masters whose works once belonged to her great-grandfather, Jules Strauss: Renoir, Monet, Degas, Tiepolo, and more. Pauline Baer de Perignon knew little to nothing about Strauss, or about his vanished, precious art collection. But the list drove her on a frenzied trail of research in the archives of the Louvre and the Dresden museums, through Gestapo records, and to consult with Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano. What happened in 1942? And what became of the collection after Nazis seized her great-grandparents' elegant Parisian apartment? The quest takes Pauline Baer de Perignon from the Occupation of France to the present day as she breaks the silence around the wrenching experiences her family never fully transmitted, and asks what art itself is capable of conveying over time"
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The abyss : nuclear crisis Cuba 1962
by Max Hastings
An award-winning journalist reevaluates the Cuban Missile Crisis, one of the most gripping and tense international events in modern history, seeking to explain the attitudes and conduct of the Soviets, Cubans and Americans, and recreate the heightened fears of countless innocent bystanders whose lives hung in the balance.
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A Line in the World : A Year on the North Sea Coast
by Dorthe Nors
The first book of nonfiction from the iconoclastic Danish author.
In this graceful, lyrical text, Nors gathers 14 essays about the North Sea Coast of Denmark, which is, for her, both legacy and landscape. “That was where our kin came from; the coastline was our place of origin,” she writes in the first of the deft and offhand pieces. “My family had a little house tucked away in a deserted backwater out there all my life.” If this statement makes her efforts seem like a reclamation, there is plenty of disruption, as well. The author sees the coast as not only geographic, but also personal. “A landscape is beyond the telling, like the telling is beyond itself,” she writes. “It takes a person to take up the line somewhere, to open, look and make a cut.” That is her purpose in this luminous set of reflections, which she frames as something of an escape: “Me, my notebook, and my love of the wild and desolate. I wanted to do the opposite of what was expected of me. It’s a recurring pattern in my life.”
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Outlandish : Walking Europes Unlikely Landscapes
by Nick Hunt
In Outlandish, acclaimed travel writer Nick Hunt takes us across landscapes that should
not be there, wildernesses found in Europe yet seemingly belonging to far-off continents:
a patch of Arctic tundra in Scotland; the continent's largest surviving remnant of primeval
forest in Poland and Belarus; Europe's only true desert in Spain; and the fathomless
grassland steppes of Hungary.
From snow-capped mountain range to dense green forest, desert ravines to threadbare,
yellow open grassland, these anomalies transport us to faraway regions of the world.
More like pockets of Africa, Asia, the Poles or North America, they make our own
continent seem larger, stranger and more filled with secrets.
Against the rapid climate breakdown of deserts, steppes and primeval jungles across the
world, this book discovers the outlandish environments so much closer to home - along
with their abundant wildlife: reindeer; bison; ibex; wolves and herds of wild horses.
Blending sublime travel writing, nature writing and history - by way of Paleolithic cave art,
reindeer nomads, desert wanderers, shamans, Slavic forest gods, European bison, Wild
West fantasists, eco-activists, horseback archers, Big Grey Men and other unlikely spirits
of place - these desolate and rich environments show us that the strange has always been
near.
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Nomads : the wanderers who shaped our world
by Anthony Sattin
"The remarkable story of how nomads have fostered and refreshed civilization throughout our history. Moving across millennia, Nomads explores the transformative and often bloody relationship between settled and mobile societies. Often overlooked in history, the story of the umbilical connections between these two very different ways of living presents a radical new view of human civilization. From the Neolithic revolution to the twenty-first century via the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the great nomadic empires of the Arabs and Mongols, the Mughals and the development of the Silk Road, nomads have been a perpetual counterbalance to the empires created by the power of human cities. Exploring the evolutionary biology and psychology of restlessness that makes us human, Anthony Sattin's sweeping history charts the power of nomadism from before the Bible to its decline in the present day. Connecting us to mythology and the records of antiquity, Nomads explains why we leave home, and why we like to return again. This is the history of civilization as told through its outsiders"
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Adventurer : the life and times of Giacomo Casanova
by Leopold Damrosch
"This book aims to tell the quite sensational story of Casanova's life in greater depth, and with fuller use of his writings and modern commentaries, than has previously been done. It's not "new" in the sense of locating hitherto unknown material, and itdoesn't advance any theoretical agenda. Instead it is a comprehensive reconsideration of the issues involved in the story of someone who was not only a serial seducer--with disturbing implications at the present time that previous biographers have largely ignored--but also a gambler, con man, and practitioner of magic. Casanova's brilliant memoir, entitled The Story of My Life, needs to be carefully questioned at many points where he can be suspected of exaggeration or outright invention. Damrosch also places him fully in the multiple subcultures he inhabited, including libertinism in thought as well as action, and also his experience as an "adventurer," that need to be clarified for modern readers. The author has drawn much more extensively on Casanova's non-autobiographical writings than previous biographers have done"
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France : an adventure history
by Graham Robb
The author of the New York Times best-seller Parisians presents a unique journey through French history as told through his own experiences and discoveries while living, working and traveling in France. Illustrations.
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Otherlands : a journey through Earth's extinct worlds
by Thomas Halliday
Mining the most recent paleontological advances, a brilliant paleobiologist recreates 16 extinct worlds, rendered here with a novelists eye for detail and drama, bringing us up close to the intricate relationships of these ancient worlds, allowing us to discover the inner workingand the fragilityof our own. Illustrations.
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The artisans : a vanishing Chinese village
by Fuyu Shen
Weaving together his childhood memories and those of his ancestors with the stories of 15 artisans as their lives intersect over the course of a century, the author reflects on the changes of small-town life during the epic shift from agricultural to industrial civilization.
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The Catch Me If You Can : One Woman's Journey to Every Country in the World
by Jessica Nabongo
It was a daunting task, but Jessica Nabongo, the beloved voice behind the popular website The Catch Me if You Can, made it happen, completing her journey to all 195 UN-recognized countries in the world in October 2019. Now, in this one-of-a-kind memoir, she reveals her top 100 destinations from her global adventure.
Beautifully illustrated with many of Nabongo's own photographs, the book documents her remarkable experiences in each country.
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Papyrus : the invention of books in the ancient world
by Irene Vallejo Moreu
Weaving together interpretations of the classics, moving personal anecdotes of the authors own encounters with the written word and fascinating historical stories, this rich exploration of the books journey from oral tradition to scrolls to codices illuminates how ancient ideas about education, censorship, authority and identity still resonate today.
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How to read now : essays
by Elaine Castillo
"An exploration and manifesto investigating the power of reading--and our potential to become radically better readers in the world"
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In praise of good bookstores
by Jeff Deutsch
"Books, even obscure ones, are readily available online in the age of digital retail. As bookstores attempt to find their identity in a new era, some have survived by selling everything from toys to socks, coffee to stationery. In this short book, Jeff Deutsch, the director of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores in Chicago, aims to make the case for the value of spaces devoted to books and the value of the time spent browsing their stacks. It is a defense of serious bookstores, but more importantly it is a paean to the spaces that support them; the experience of readers as they engage with the books, the stacks, and each other; and the particular community created by the presence of such an institution. Drawing on his lifelong experience as a bookseller and his particular experience at Sem Co-op, Deutsch aims, in a series of brief essays, to consider how concepts like space, time, abundance, measure, community, and reverence find expression in a good bookstore, and to show some ways in which the importance of the bookstore is both urgent and enduring"
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Translating myself and others
by Jhumpa Lahiri
Drawing on Ovids myth of Echo and Narcissus to explore the distinction between writing and translating, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author talks broadly about writing, desire and freedom as she reflects on her emerging identity as a translator.
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Getting lost
by Annie Ernaux
"Getting Lost is the diary Annie Ernaux kept during the year and a half she had a secret love affair with a younger, married man, a Russian diplomat. Her novel, Simple Passion, was based on this affair, but here her writing is immediate, unfiltered. In these diaries it is 1989 and Annie is divorced with two grown sons, living outside of Paris and nearing fifty. Her lover escapes the city to see her there and Ernaux seems to survive only in expectation of these encounters, saying "his desire for me is theonly thing I can be sure of." She cannot write, she trudges distractedly through her various other commitments in the world, she awaits his next call; she lives only to feel desire and for the next rendezvous. When he is gone and the desire has faded, she feels that she is a step closer to death. Lauded for her spare prose, Ernaux here removes all artifice, her writing pared down to its most naked and vulnerable. Getting Lost is as strong a book as any that she has written, a haunting, desperate view of strong and successful woman who seduces a man only to lose herself in love and desire"
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Agatha Christie : an elusive woman
by Lucy Worsley
"Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was "just" an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn't? She was born in 1890 into a world that had its own rules about what women could and couldn't do. Lucy Worsley's biography is not justof a massively, internationally successful writer. It's also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman. With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsley's biography is both authoritative and entertaining and makes us realize what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie was--truly a woman who wrote the twentieth century"
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The game is afoot : the enduring world of Sherlock Holmes
by Jeremy Black
"Explores the parallel histories of Sherlock Holmes and England during the Victorian era. Black traces the evolution of Arthur Conan Doyle's plots and characters as culture and society changed dramatically in his lifetime"
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Read dangerously : the subversive power of literature in troubled times
by Azar Nafisi
Drawing on her experiences as a woman and voracious reader in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a multi-award-winning New York Times best-selling author explores the most probing questions of our time, arming readers with a resistance reading list that includes Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie and James Baldwin.
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Great Literary Friendships
by Janet Phillips
Close friendships are a heart-warming feature of many of our bestloved works of fiction. From Jane Eyre and Helen Burns’s poignant schoolgirl relationship to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn’s adventures on the Mississippi, fictional friends have supported, guided, comforted, nursed and at times betrayed the heroes and heroines of our popular and influential plays and novels. This book explores twenty-four literary friendships in succinct, structured entries and, together with character studies and publication history, describes how each key relationship influences character, determines plot, promotes or disguises romance, preserves a reputation, sometimes results in betrayal or underlines the theme of each literary work. It shows how authors from William Shakespeare to Elena Ferrante have by turns celebrated, lamented or transformed friendships throughout the ages, and how some friends – Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Holmes and Watson or even Bridget Jones and pals – have taken on creative lives beyond the bounds of their original narrative. Including a broad scope of literature spanning a period of 400 years from writers as diverse as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, John Steinbeck and Alice Walker, this book is the ideal gift for your literature-loving friend.
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The Cloisters : a novel
by Katy Hays
When Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, she expects to spend her summer working as a curatorial associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she finds herself assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval art collection and its group of enigmatic researchers studying the history of divination.
Desperate to escape her painful past, Ann is happy to indulge the researchers’ more outlandish theories about the history of fortune telling. But what begins as academic curiosity quickly turns into obsession when Ann discovers a hidden 15th-century deck of tarot cards that might hold the key to predicting the future. When the dangerous game of power, seduction, and ambition at The Cloisters turns deadly, Ann becomes locked in a race for answers as the line between the arcane and the modern blurs.
A haunting and magical blend of genres, The Cloisters is a gripping debut that will keep you on the edge of your seat..
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The maker of swans
by Paraic O'Donnell
"The world had forgotten Mr. Crowe and his mysterious gifts. Until he killed the poet. He lived a secluded life in the fading grandeur of his country estate. His companions were his faithful manservant and his ward, Clara, a silent, bookish girl who has gifts of her own. Now Dr Chastern, the leader of a secret society, arrives at the estate to call Crowe to account and keep his powers in check. But it is Clara's even greater gifts that he comes to covet most. She must learn to use them quickly, if she isto save them all"
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The wedding party
by Xinwu Liu
"On a December morning in 1982, the courtyard of a Beijing siheyuan-a lively quadrangle of homes-begins to stir. Auntie Xue's son Jiyue is getting married today, and she is determined to make the day a triumph. Despite Jiyue's woeful ignorance in mattersof the heart-and the body. Despite a chef in training tasked with the onerous responsibility of preparing the banquet. With a cross-generational multitude of guests, from anxious family members to a fretful bridal party-not to mention exasperating friends, interfering neighbors, and wedding crashers-what will the day ahead bring? Set at a pivotal point after the turmoil of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Liu Xinwu's tale weaves together a rich tapestry of characters, intertwined lives, and stories within stories. The Wedding Party is a touching, hilarious portrait of life in this singular city, all packed into a Beijing courtyard on a single day that manages to be both perfectly normal and utterly extraordinary at the same time"
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The marriage portrait
by Maggie O'Farrell
In Florence during the 1550s, captivating young duchess Lucrezia de Medici, having barely left girlhood behind, marries the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, and now, in an unfamiliar court where she has one dutyto provide an heirfights for her very survival.
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Lucy by the sea : a novel
by Elizabeth Strout
Former married couple now lifelong friends, New Yorkers Lucy Barton and William, as a panicked world goes into lockdown, hunker down in a little house in Maine on the edge of the sea where they are faced with fear, struggles and isolation as well as hope, peace and possibilities.
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The winter guest : a mystery
by W. C. Ryan
"January 1921. Though the Great War is over, in Ireland a new civil war is raging. The once-grand Kilcolgan House, a crumbling bastion shrouded in sea mist, lies half empty and filled with ghosts, both real and imagined, while it shelters the surviving members of the Prendeville family. Then, when an IRA ambush goes terribly wrong, Maud Prendeville, Lord Kilcolgan's eldest daughter, is killed, leaving the family reeling. Yet the IRA column behind the attack insists they left her alive, that someone else must be responsible for her terrible fate. Captain Tom Harkin, an IRA intelligence officer and Maud's former fiancé, is sent to investigate. He becomes an unwelcome guest in this strange, gloomy household. Working undercover, Harkin must delve into the house's secrets-and discover where, in this fractured, embattled town, allegiances truly lie. But Harkin too is haunted by the ghosts of the past and by his terrible experiences on the battlefields. Can he find the truth about Maud's death before the past-and his strange, unnerving surroundings-overwhelm him?"
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Liberation day : stories
by George Saunders
This brilliant collection of stories, written with the authors trademark prose, wickedly funny, unsentimental and perfectly tuned, encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.
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Better than fiction
by Alexa Martin
After inheriting her grandmas bookstore, an avowed book hater is in over her head when she meets a best-selling author and hopeless romantic who is determined to show her the beauty of reading.
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Haven : a novel
by Emma Donoghue
Two monks leave seventh-century Ireland in a boat searching for an isolated spot to found a new monastery, but instead drift out to sea and wind up on a bare, steep island inhabited by thousands of birds.
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Lessons
by Ian McEwan
With his life constantly in flux as he lives through many historic upheavals, Roland Baines, haunted by lost opportunities, searches for comfort through music, literature, friends, sex, politics and love, struggling against global events beyond his control that have shaped his existence and memories.
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The fall of Númenor : and other tales from the second age of Middle-Earth
by J. R. R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings on the Second Age of Middle-earth, collected for the first time in one volume complete with new illustrations in watercolor and pencil by renowned artist Alan Lee.
J.R.R. Tolkien famously described the Second Age of Middle-earth as a "dark age, and not very much of its history is (or need be) told." And for many years readers would need to be content with the tantalizing glimpses of it found within the pages of The Lord of the Rings and its appendices, including the forging of the Rings of Power, the building of the Barad-dûr and the rise of Sauron.
It was not until Christopher Tolkien published The Silmarillion after his father’s death that a fuller story could be told. Although much of the book’s content concerned the First Age of Middle-earth, there were at its close two key works that revealed the tumultuous events concerning the rise and fall of the island of Númenor. Raised out of the Great Sea and gifted to the Men of Middle-earth as a reward for aiding the angelic Valar and the Elves in the defeat and capture of the Dark Lord Morgoth, the kingdom became a seat of influence and wealth; but as the Númenóreans’ power increased, the seed of their downfall would inevitably be sown, culminating in the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.
Even greater insight into the Second Age would be revealed in subsequent publications, first in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, then expanded upon in Christopher Tolkien’s magisterial twelve-volume The History of Middle-earth, in which he presented and discussed a wealth of further tales written by his father, many in draft form.
Now, adhering to the timeline of "The Tale of Years" in the appendices to The Lord of the Rings, editor Brian Sibley has assembled into one comprehensive volume a new chronicle of the Second Age of Middle-earth, told substantially in the words of Tolkien from the various published texts, with new illustrations in watercolor and pencil by the doyen of Tolkien art, Alan Lee.
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Murder after Christmas
by Rupert Latimer
""A war's on and a murder has been committed and we sit here talking nonsense about almond whirls and mince pies!" First published in 1944, Murder After Christmas is a lively riot of murder, mince pies and misdirection, cleverly twisting the tropes of Golden Age detective fiction to create a pacey, light-hearted package admirably suited for the holiday season. Featuring an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger Award-winning author and series editor Martin Edwards. Good old Uncle Willie--rich, truculent and seemingly propped up by his fierce willpower alone--has come to stay with the Redpaths for the holidays. It is just their luck for him to be found dead in the snow on Boxing Day morning, dressed in his Santa Claus costume and seemingly poisoned by something in the Christmas confectionery. As the police flock to the house, Willie's descendants, past lovers and distant relatives are drawn into a perplexing investigation to find out how the old man met his fate, and who stands to gain by such an unseasonablecrime"
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Memphis : a novel
by Tara M. Stringfellow
Told over the course of 70 years, this spellbinding debut novel traces three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter, who, channeling her rage into art, discovers with the power of her paint brush, she can change her familys legacy.
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The night ship : a novel
by Jess Kidd
A historical novel, based on a real-life event, follows the lives of two characters, a newly orphaned girl in 1629 who was shipwrecked on an island off Western Australia, and a lonely boy in 1989 who, over three hundred years later, arrives on the same island, discovering the story of an infamous shipwreck.
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Foster
by Claire Keegan
An Irish child taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm finds the love and affection she never knew before and begins to thrive in the internationally best-selling novel now available as a standalone book.
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The Children of Gods and Fighting Men
by Shauna Lawless
The first in a gripping new historical fantasy series that intertwines Irish mythology with real-life history, The Children of Gods and Fighting Men is the thrilling debut novel by Shauna Lawless.
981 AD. The Viking King of Dublin is dead. His young widow, Gormflaith, has ambitions for her son – and herself – but Ireland is a dangerous place and kings tend not to stay kings for long. Gormflaith also has a secret. She is one of the Fomorians, an immortal race who can do fire-magic. She has kept her powers hidden at all costs, for there are other immortals in this world – like the Tuatha Dé Danann, a race of warriors who are sworn to kill Fomorians.
Fódla is one of the Tuatha Dé Danann with the gift of healing. Her kind dwell hidden in a fortress, forbidden to live amongst the mortals. Fódla agrees to help her kin by going to spy on Brian Boru, a powerful man who aims to be High King of Ireland. She finds a land on the brink of war – a war she is desperate to stop. However, preventing the loss of mortal lives is not easy with Ireland in turmoil and the Fomorians now on the rise...n
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Lavender House
by Lev AC Rosen
"A delicious story from an new voice in suspense, Lev AC Rosen's Lavender House is Knives Out with a queer historical twist. Lavender House, 1952: the family seat of recently deceased matriarch Irene Lamontaine, head of the famous Lamontaine soap empire.Irene's recipes for her signature scents are a well guarded secret-but it's not the only one behind these gates. This estate offers a unique freedom, where none of the residents or staff hide who they are. But to keep their secret, they've needed to keepothers out. And now they're worried they're keeping a murderer in. Irene's widow hires Evander Mills to uncover the truth behind her mysterious death. Andy, recently fired from the San Francisco police after being caught in a raid on a gay bar, is happy to accept-his calendar is wide open. And his secret is the kind of secret the Lamontaines understand. Andy had never imagined a world like Lavender House. He's seduced by the safety and freedom found behind its gates, where a queer family lives honestly and openly. But that honesty doesn't extend to everything, and he quickly finds himself a pawn in a family game of old money, subterfuge, and jealousy-and Irene's death is only the beginning. When your existence is a crime, everything you do is criminal, and the gates of Lavender House can't lock out the real world forever. Running a soap empire can be a dirty business"
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Shrines of gaiety : a novel
by Kate Atkinson
In London after the Great War, Nellie Carter, the notorious and ruthless queen of a dazzling, seductive and corrupt new world in the clubs of Soho, finds her success breeding enemies as she faces threats from without and within, revealing the dark underbelly beneath Soho's gaiety.
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The magic kingdom
by Russell Banks
In 1971, a property speculator records his life story, reflecting on his time in a community of Shakers in Florida, which saved his family from complete ruin, and meditating on youth, belief, betrayal, Floridas everchanging landscape and the search for an American utopia.
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Dr. No : a novel
by Percival Everett
The protagonist of Percival Everett’s puckish new novel is a brilliant professor of mathematics who goes by Wala Kitu. (Wala, he explains, means “nothing” in Tagalog, and Kitu is Swahili for “nothing.”) He is an expert on nothing. That is to say, he is an expert, and his area of study is nothing, and he does nothing about it. This makes him the perfect partner for the aspiring villain John Sill, who wants to break into Fort Knox to steal, well, not gold bars but a shoebox containing nothing. Once he controls nothing he’ll proceed with a dastardly plan to turn a Massachusetts town into nothing. Or so he thinks.
With the help of the brainy and brainwashed astrophysicist-turned-henchwoman Eigen Vector, our professor tries to foil the villain while remaining in his employ. In the process, Wala Kitu learns that Sill’s desire to become a literal Bond villain originated in some real all-American villainy related to the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. As Sill says, “Professor, think of it this way. This country has never given anything to us and it never will. We have given everything to it. I think it’s time we gave nothing back.”
Dr. No is a caper with teeth, a wildly mischievous novel from one of our most inventive, provocative, and productive writers. That it is about nothing isn’t to say that it’s not about anything. In fact, it’s about villains. Bond villains. And that’s not nothing.
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Secret lives
by Mark De Castrique
"Everybody has something to hide At 75-years-old, Ethel Fiona Crestwater is used to being underestimated. She looks like someone's grandma, though she's never married or had children; petite and a bit frail, she's not a threat to anyone. Or is she...? Ethel runs a boarding house for government agents, and when someone murders one of her boarders, she springs into action-much to the surprise of her distant cousin Jesse, who has recently come to stay with her while he attends university. As he watches her photograph the crime scene, conceal evidence, and speed-dial the Secret Service Director, Jesse realizes that there's much more to Ethel than appearances suggest. But when Jesse is assaulted and the gym bag full of cash Ethel had hidden is stolen from thebasement, the pair decides it's time to launch their own unofficial investigation. With no one to trust but each other, these double-first-cousins-twice-removed form an unlikely bond, and learn that the only thing truly worth risking your life for is family"
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