Reinaldo Arenas

Dolores M. Koch

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

California

A Memoir

"Any attempt to reckon with Cuba's torturous twentieth century will have to take into account Arenas's monumental work ... an essential human testimony, joyful and enraged, a triumph of conscience." -- Garth Greenwell


The acclaimed memoir of queer Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas chronicling his tumultuous yet luminary life, from his impoverished upbringing in Cuba to his imprisonment at the hands of a Communist regime


The astonishing memoir by visionary Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas "is a book above all about being free," said The New York Review of Books--sexually, politically, artistically. Arenas recounts a stunning odyssey from his poverty-stricken childhood in rural Cuba and his adolescence as a rebel fighting for Castro, through his supression as a writer, imprisonment as a homosexual, his flight from Cuba via the Mariel boat lift, and his subsequent life and the events leading to his death in New York. In what The Miami Herald calls his "deathbed ode to eroticism," Arenas breaks through the code of secrecy and silence that protects the privileged in a state where homosexuality is a political crime. Recorded in simple, straightforward prose, this is the true story of the Kafkaesque life and world re-created in the author's acclaimed novels.

Before Night Falls

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Isabel Allende

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Here, in an astonishing debut by a gifted storyteller, is the magnificent saga of proud and passionate men and women and the turbulent times through which they suffer and triumph. They are the Truebas. And theirs is a world you will not want to leave, and one you will not forget. Esteban -- The patriarch, a volatile and proud man whose lust for land is legendary and who is haunted by his tyrannical passion for the wife he can never completely possess. Clara -- The matriarch, elusive and mysterious, who foretells family tragedy and shapes the fortunes of the house of the Truebas. Blanca -- Their daughter, soft-spoken yet rebellious, whose shocking love for the son of her father's foreman fuels Esteban's everlasting contempt... even as it produces the grandchild he adores. Alba -- The fruit of Blanca's forbidden love, a luminous bearty, a fiery and willful woman... the family's break with the past and link to the future. "From the Paperback edition.

The House of the Spirits

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Bernie Sanders

Throughout the Presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders galvanized voters with his progressive platform and vision for America. In this book, Sanders shares his ideas for continuing a political revolution to fight for a progressive economic, environmental, racial and social justice agenda that create jobs, raises wages, protects the environment and provides health care for all. Geared toward teen readers, this is both a practical and inspiring guide to effecting change in today's world.

Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution

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Justin McElroy

Sydnee McElroy

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

The Hilarious, Horrifying Road to Modern Medicine

A compelling, often hilarious and occasionally horrifying exploration of how modern medicine came to be!

Wondering whether eating powdered mummies might be just the thing to cure your ills? Tempted by those vintage ads suggesting you wear radioactive underpants for virility? Ever considered drilling a hole in your head to deal with those pesky headaches? Probably not. But for thousands of years, people have done things like this--and things that make radioactive underpants seem downright sensible! In their hit podcast, Sawbones, Sydnee and Justin McElroy breakdown the weird and wonderful way we got to modern healthcare. And some of the terrifying detours along the way.

Every week, Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin amaze, amuse, and gross out (depending on the week) hundreds of thousands of avid listeners to their podcast, Sawbones. Consistently rated a top podcast on iTunes, with over 15 million total downloads, this rollicking journey through thousands of years of medical mishaps and miracles is not only hilarious but downright educational. While you may never even consider applying  boiled weasel to your forehead (once the height of sophistication when it came to headache cures), you will almost certainly face some questionable medical advice in your everyday life (we're looking at you, raw water!) and be better able to figure out if this is a miracle cure (it's not) or a scam.

Table of Contents:

Part 1: The Unnerving
The Resurrection Men
Opium
An Electrifying Experience
Weight Loss
Charcoal
The Black Plague
Pliny the Elder
Erectile Dysfunction
Spontaneous Combustion
The Doctor Is In 
Trepanation

Part II: The Gross
Mummy Medicine
Mercury
The Guthole Bromance
A Piece of Your Mind
The Unkillable Phineas Gage
Phrenology
The Man Who Drank Poop
Robert Liston
Urine Luck!
Radium
Humorism
The Doctor Is In
The Straight Poop

Part III: The Weird
The Dancing Plague
Curtis Howe Springer
Smoke 'Em if You Got ëEm
A Titanic Case of Nausea
Arsenic
Paracelsus
Honey
Self-Experimentation
Homeopathy
The Doctor Is In

Part IV: The Awesome
The Poison Squad
Bloodletting
Death by Chocolate
John Harvey Kellogg 
Parrot Fever
Detox
Vinegar
Polio Vaccine
The Doctor Is In

The Sawbones Book

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Joseph Matthews

Intimate story of Herschel Grynszpan "illuminates a swath of issues -- the desparate plight of refugees, the quicksands of 'identity,' the pernicious strictures of social class -- that ulcerated the 20th century and that continue to plague the 21st."--Back flap of dust jacket.

Everyone Has Their Reasons

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George R. R. Martin

Ten years ago, representatives from an interstellar collective of 314 alien species landed on Earth, inviting us to become number 315. Now, after seemingly endless delays, the Starport in Chicago is operational, a destination for diplomats, merchants, and tourists alike. Inside, visitors are governed by intergalactic treaty. Outside, the streets belong to Chicago's finest. Charlie Baker, newly promoted to the squad that oversees the Starport district, is eager to put to practical use his enthusiasm for all things extraterrestrial; he just never expected to arrive on his first day in the back of a police cruiser. Lieutenant Bobbi Kelleher is married to the job, which often puts her in conflict with Lyhanne Nhar-Lys, security champion of Starport and one of the galaxy's fiercest warriors. Undercover with a gang of anti-alien extremists, Detective Aaron Stein has no problem mixing business with pleasure--until he stumbles upon evidence of a plot to assassinate a controversial trade envoy with a cache of stolen ray guns. Now the Chicago PD must stop these nutjobs before they piss off the entire universe.

Starport (Graphic Novel)

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Anthony Loyd

Nothing can prepare you for Anthony Loyd's portrait of war. It is the story of the unspeakable terror and the visceral, ecstatic thrill of combat, and the lives and dreams laid to waste by the bloodiest conflict that Europe has witnessed since the Second World War.

My War Gone by, I Miss It So

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Una LaMarche

Misadventures of a Late Bloomer

Growing up, Una LaMarche was as smart as she was awkward. She was blessed with a precocious intellect, a love of all things pop-culture and a seriously bushy monobrow. Adversity (and plucking) made her stronger and funnier, and now Una has written a hilarious take on the coming-of-age genre by doling out all the advice she wishes her mother had given her. Described as the literary lovechild of Nora Ephron (who wrote When Harry Met Sally) and Jenny Lawson (infamous blogger at The Bloggess), LaMarche is sure to find a receptive audience in anyone who likes to laugh.

Unabrow

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James Weldon Johnson

Arna Bontemps

Influential fictional study of a Negro who decides to pass for white. First published, anonymously, in 1912.

The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man

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Diana Block

An Imaginary History

Radical activist Luba Gold goes underground to support the Puerto Rican independence movement. When Luba's collective is targeted by an FBI sting, she escapes with her baby but leaves behind an envelope to be safeguarded by a friend. When the FBI come looking for Luba, the friend must decide whether to cooperate in the search. Ten years later, when Luba emerges from hiding, she discovers that the FBI sting was orchestrated by an activist friend who became an FBI informant. In the changed era of the 1990s, Luba must decide whether to forgive her betrayer.

Clandestine Occupations

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Condomnauts

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Yoss

David Frye

With playfulness and ingenuity in the tradition of Douglas Adams, the Cuban science fiction master Yoss delivers a space opera of intergalactic proportions with Super Extra Grande, the winner of the 20th annual UPC Science Fiction Award in 2011. Set in a distant future, after the invention of faster-than-light space travel has propelled a still-immature mankind into the far corners of the Milky Way, the novel features creatures of immense variety. With his vast curiosity and wild imagination, Yoss brings us a rare specimen in the richly parodic tradition of Cuban science fiction.

Super Extra Grande

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Hugh Thomas

Revised Edition

“Mr. Thomas has understood [the Spanish Civil War] incredibly well and has written it superbly. A full, vivid and deeply serious treatment of a great subject.”—Vincent Sheean, The New York Times Book Review A masterpiece of the historian’s art, Hugh Thomas’s The Spanish Civil War remains the best, most engrossing narrative of one of the most emblematic and misunderstood wars of the twentieth century. Revised and updated with significant new material, including new revelations about atrocities perpetrated against civilians by both sides in this epic conflict, this “definitive work on the subject” (Richard Bernstein, The New York Times) has been given a fresh face forty years after its initial publication in 1961. In brilliant, moving detail, Thomas analyzes a devastating conflict in which the hopes, dreams, and dogmas of a century exploded onto the battlefield. Like no other account, The Spanish Civil War dramatically reassembles the events that led a European nation, in a continent on the brink of world war, to divide against itself, bringing into play the machinations of Franco and Hitler, the bloodshed of Guernica, and the deeply inspiring heroics of those who rallied to the side of democracy. Communists, anarchists, monarchists, fascists, socialists, democrats -- the various forces of the Spanish Civil War composed a fabric of the twentieth century itself, and Thomas masterfully weaves the diffuse and fascinating threads of the war together in a manner that has established the book as a genuine classic of modern history. “Stands without rivals as the most balanced and comprehensive book on the subject.”—American Historical Review

The Spanish Civil War

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Brené Brown

How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • When we deny our stories, they define us. When we own our stories, we get to write the ending. Look for Brené Brown’s new podcast, Dare to Lead, as well as her ongoing podcast Unlocking Us! Social scientist Brené Brown has ignited a global conversation on courage, vulnerability, shame, and worthiness. Her pioneering work uncovered a profound truth: Vulnerability—the willingness to show up and be seen with no guarantee of outcome—is the only path to more love, belonging, creativity, and joy. But living a brave life is not always easy: We are, inevitably, going to stumble and fall. It is the rise from falling that Brown takes as her subject in Rising Strong. As a grounded theory researcher, Brown has listened as a range of people—from leaders in Fortune 500 companies and the military to artists, couples in long-term relationships, teachers, and parents—shared their stories of being brave, falling, and getting back up. She asked herself, What do these people with strong and loving relationships, leaders nurturing creativity, artists pushing innovation, and clergy walking with people through faith and mystery have in common? The answer was clear: They recognize the power of emotion and they’re not afraid to lean in to discomfort. Walking into our stories of hurt can feel dangerous. But the process of regaining our footing in the midst of struggle is where our courage is tested and our values are forged. Our stories of struggle can be big ones, like the loss of a job or the end of a relationship, or smaller ones, like a conflict with a friend or colleague. Regardless of magnitude or circumstance, the rising strong process is the same: We reckon with our emotions and get curious about what we’re feeling; we rumble with our stories until we get to a place of truth; and we live this process, every day, until it becomes a practice and creates nothing short of a revolution in our lives. Rising strong after a fall is how we cultivate wholeheartedness. It’s the process, Brown writes, that teaches us the most about who we are. ONE OF GREATER GOOD’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR “[Brené Brown’s] research and work have given us a new vocabulary, a way to talk with each other about the ideas and feelings and fears we’ve all had but haven’t quite known how to articulate. . . . Brené empowers us each to be a little more courageous.”—The Huffington Post

Rising Strong

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Umberto Saba

Estelle Gilson

A coming of age story that is a classic of gay literature, now in English for the first time An NYRB Classics Original Ernesto is a classic of gay literature, a tender and complex tale of sexual awakening by one of Italy’s most admired poets. Ernesto is a sixteen-year-old boy from an educated family who lives with his mother in Trieste. His mother is eager for him to get ahead and has asked a local businessman to give him some workplace experience in his warehouse. One day a workingman makes advances to Ernesto, who responds with willing curiosity. A month of trysts ensues before the boy begins to tire of the relationship, finally escaping it altogether by engineering his own dismissal. And yet his experience has changed him, and as Umberto Saba’s unfinished, autobiographical story breaks off, Ernesto has struck up a new, oddly romantic attachment to a boy his own age.

Ernesto

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Brenda Ueland

2011 Reprint of 1938 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Ueland published two books during her life. The first was "If You Want to Write," first published in 1938. In this book, she shares her philosophies on writing and life in general. She stresses the idea that "Everyone is talented, original, and has something important to say." Drawing heavily on the work and influence of William Blake, she suggests that writers should "Try to discover your true, honest, un-theoretical self." She sums up her book with 12 points to keep in mind while writing. Carl Sandburg called "If You Want to Write" the best book ever written on how to write.

If You Want to Write

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Tim Grierson

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

With a twist on the practical moviemaking genre, This is How You Make a Movie brings the subject to life by explaining the terms through the films you know and love. Using key scenes from some of the best-loved movies of all time, Tim Grierson explores everything from cinematography through to the secrets of talking to camera. Depth of focus is explored through Citizen Kane, forced perspective through The Lord of the Rings, and slow motion through Reservoir Dogs. Elegant schematics describe the practical detail, and provide informative background to the highly readable and enjoyable text.

This Is How You Make a Movie

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Mindy Kaling

The writer and actress from "The Office" shares observations on topics ranging from favorite male archetypes and her hatred of dieting to her relationship with her mother and the haphazard creative process on the show.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and Other Concerns)

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Naomi Klein

America's Real Business in Iraq

Seeing the horrific scars inflicted on a country under stress, and the deeply shocking motives for it, no reader will be able to look at the Iraqi Invasion with same eyes as before.

No War

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Casey McQuiston

From the New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue comes a new romantic comedy that will stop readers in their tracks... "Dreamy, other worldly, smart, swoony, thoughtful, hilarious - all in all, exactly what you'd expect from Casey McQuiston!" - Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal and Party for Two Cynical twenty-three-year old August doesn’t believe in much. She doesn’t believe in psychics, or easily forged friendships, or finding the kind of love they make movies about. And she certainly doesn’t believe her ragtag band of new roommates, her night shifts at a 24-hour pancake diner, or her daily subway commute full of electrical outages are going to change that. But then, there’s Jane. Beautiful, impossible Jane. All hard edges with a soft smile and swoopy hair and saving August’s day when she needed it most. The person August looks forward to seeing on the train every day. The one who makes her forget about the cities she lived in that never seemed to fit, and her fear of what happens when she finally graduates, and even her cold-case obsessed mother who won’t quite let her go. And when August realizes her subway crush is impossible in more ways than one—namely, displaced in time from the 1970s—she thinks maybe it’s time to start believing. Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.

One Last Stop

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Kenneth Wishnia

Liz Martinez

When New York City private investigator Filomena Buscarsela takes her teenaged daughter, Antonia, to see their extended family in Ecuador, it's more than a homecoming. Filomena hasn't been back in years, and the trip brings back memories of her previous life as a revolutionary. Before she's even had time to adjust to her new surroundings, though, a priest is murdered--a man who, years ago, saved her life and helped her escape to the United States. Filomena owed him her life, and she vows to find his killer. It's an election year, and the dirty hands of politics seem to be everywhere, perhaps even in this senseless death. Filomena's investigation promises to lead her back to the very people she escaped all those years ago. As the country is wracked by natural and manmade disasters--landslides, floods, food shortages, protests, crackdowns--Filomena becomes a fugitive from the law, racing across the country toward a climactic confrontation in the Amazon jungle. This final installment in Kenneth Wishnia's acclaimed series is rich with the sights, sounds--and dangers--of Ecuador, and offers a compelling look at the provenance of one dynamic heroine.

Blood Lake

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Jewish Noir is a unique collection of all-new stories by Jewish and non-Jewish literary and genre writers. The stories explore such issues as the Holocaust and its long-term effects on later generations, anti-Semitism in the mid- and late-20th century United States and the dark side of the Diaspora (the decline of revolutionary fervour, the passing of generations, the Golden Ghetto, etc). The stories in this collection also include many teachable moments about the history of prejudice and the contradictions of ethnic identity and assimilation into American society.

Jewish Noir

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Diana Vreeland

“An evening with D.V. is almost as marvelous as an evening with D.V. [herself]—same magic, same spontaneity and, above all, never a boring moment.” —Bill Blass D.V. is the mesmerizing autobiography of one of the 20th century’s greatest fashion icons, Diana Vreeland, the one-time fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar and editor-in-chief of Vogue, whose incomparable style-sense, genius, and flair helped define the world of haute couture for fifty years. The incomparable D.V. proves herself a brilliant raconteur as she carries the reader along on her whirlwind life—from English palaces to the nightclubs of Paris in the 1930s to the heart of New York high society, hobnobbing with everyone who was anyone, from Queen Mary to Clark Gable to Coco Chanel.

D. V.

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Andrew C. Isenberg

An Ecological History

An environmental History of California during the Gold Rush Between 1849 and 1874 almost $1 billion in gold was mined in California. With little available capital or labor, here’s how: high-pressure water cannons washed hillsides into sluices that used mercury to trap gold but let the soil wash away; eventually more than three times the amount of earth moved to make way for the Panama Canal entered California’s rivers, leaving behind twenty tons of mercury every mile—rivers overflowed their banks and valleys were flooded, the land poisoned. In the rush to wealth, the same chain of foreseeable consequences reduced California’s forests and grasslands. Not since William Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis has a historian so skillfully applied John Muir’s insight—“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe”—to the telling of the history of the American West. Beautifully told, this is western environmental history at its finest.

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Reinaldo Arenas; Dolores M. Koch