![[]](/sites/all/modules/ubercart/uc_cart/images/bullet-arrow-up.gif "Expand cart block."){kind=icon}
There are no products in your shopping cart.
Remainders (Bargain Books)
What Are Remaindered Books?
Politics & Prose carries a fantastic variety of sale or bargain books. In publishers' terms these are "remainders," loosely defined as overstocked quantities of books that publishers make available at greatly reduced prices.
At Politics & Prose, we are particularly proud of the quality and selection of
our Remainder Room, located on the lower level of the store.
The unending flow of distinguished and unusual remainder books into Politics & Prose is an exciting dynamic. We are proud of these quality, diverse selections. Unfortunately, like significant but temporary apparitions, the books will quickly be consumed, and rarely can we get these titles again due to limited supply. Do make a point of browsing this section as often as possible -- we guarantee rich rewards!
These books are often only available for a short time,
and this online display is but a small sample of our current selection,
so visit us soon to find what you want!
$4.98
Model: x24498vagrantsSet in China
in 1979, Yiyun Li’s powerful and compelling first novel, THE VAGRANTS, charts the difficult life of
provincial Muddy River. The Cultural Revolution has
ended, a Democracy Wall is starting in Beijing,
but the privation and repression are going strong in the small town. Li’s cast of characters
ranges from the privileged party functionaries—awarded TV sets for cracking down on
counterrevolutionaries—to the disgraced parents of a recently executed
dissident, to a pair of itinerant ragpickers who also acquire abandoned infant
girls. The story concerns how the town divides around the recent execution.
Available in paperback.
$6.98
Model: x24698LittleManThe German novelist Hans Fallada was born
Rudolf Ditzen; he took his pseudonym from a Grimm Brothers story. Three of his
novels have recently been published in English translations. The best known of
them, LITTLE MAN, WHAT NOW?, was
written in 1932 during the difficult period that led to the rise of the Nazis.
It charts the economic and social uncertainties a young couple faces in the
waning days of the Weimar
Republic. Richly evoking
both the physical and psychic realities of the period, it was an international
bestseller in the early 1930s and was made into a film—which earned
Fallada the close attention of the Nazis. Available in paperback.
$10.98
Model: x24109EveryManDiesFallada’s last novel, EVERY MAN DIES ALONE, set in the dark days
of Nazi Germany, recounts the struggle of Otto and Anna Quangel to avenge their
son’s death after he’s killed in battle. Based on actual events,
Fallada’s fiction is a fast-paced, suspenseful look at wartime Berlin. Available in
hardcover.
$6.98
Model: x24698DrinkerFallada wrote fast, almost maniacally, and
THE DRINKER, composed at breakneck
speed between September 6 and September 21, 1944, is a compelling novel
that’s almost literally impossible to put down. Fallada himself suffered
from alcoholism and substance abuse. He was committed to a mental asylum near
the end of World War II, and this story of a man struggling against his private
demons plays out against an equally turbulent public background. Available in
paperback.
$5.98
Model: x24598TenDaysHillsFrom the multi-faceted Jane Smiley, TEN DAYS IN THE HILLS is both a
contemporary Hollywood novel and an imaginative
take on Boccaccio’s Decameron.
Max, a writer/director, and Elena, have a full house for the Academy Awards.
The various actors, producers, family, and hangers-on make up a rich cast, and
the discussions range from movies to gossip to politics. Available in
hardcover.
$4.98
Model: x24498HowFictionWksJames Wood, staff writer for The New Yorker, is one of the finest
literary critics at work today. In HOW FICTION WORKS he
explores the
many elements that go into the making of a novel—characterization,
detail, dialogue—along with that elusive, yet utterly unmistakable mark
of a master, the style. Wood focuses on realism, and draws on Flaubert
to illuminate our contemporary writers such as Updike and Le Carré. His
discussion is spirited and far-reaching. Available in hardcover.
$7.98
Model: x24798AtLargeBack in stock: Anne Fadiman's graceful collection, AT LARGE
AND AT SMALL: Familiar Essays. Here the impeccable author of Ex
Libris, that perennial favorite of booklovers, discusses topics
ranging from ice cream to Balzac's taste for coffee, from insomnia to
the insanity of moving. In her hands the essay is a flexible and dynamic
genre, suited to intellectual breadth and miniaturist focus. Available
in hardcover.
$14.98
Model: x24149FixingWorldWhat do Marc Chagall, Philip Guston, Ben Shahn, Ruth Mordecai, and
Alfred Stieglitz all have in common? These artists and dozens of others
are the subjects of Ori Z. Soltes's beautiful book, FIXING THE
WORLD: Jewish American Painters in the Twentieth Century. Soltes
argues that these diverse creative figures are all involved in tikkun
olam, or "fixing the world," whether they do it with realism or
abstraction, political or domestic themes. The argument is fascinating
and thought provoking, the images dazzling. Available in hardcover.
$5.98
Model: x24598SeaofPoppiesThe first in a projected trilogy of historical novels, SEA OF
POPPIES, by Amitav Ghosh, chronicles the
voyage of the Ibis, a former slave ship currently owned by a British
opium merchant. Bound for Canton with a cargo of coolies and opium, the
vessel is a microcosm of mid-nineteenth century social history. Ghosh's
diverse cast includes a fallen raja, half-Chinese convicts, a mulatto
mate passing for white, religious visionaries, and more. The writing is
as vibrant as the characters. Available in hardcover.
$19.98
Model: x24199LittleWashingtTHE INN AT LITTLE WASHINGTON COOKBOOK: A Consuming Passion is a
beautiful book about a picturesque place and a multi-stellar restaurant.
This oversize volume presents 110 recipes from Patrick O'Connell's
top-rated inn alongside glossy photos, by Tim Turner, of the Blue
Ridge
landscape, the fresh ingredients, and, of course, the finished dishes.
Available in hardcover.
$5.98
Model: x24598ToSiberiaTO
SIBERIA is another powerful,
evocative novel by Per Petterson, the author who
stole readers' hearts with Out Stealing Horses. Set
in a Danish town during the Second World War, the story centers on an
adolescent brother and sister. Neglected by their parents, they
feel doubly abandoned when their grandfather commits suicide. As her
brother becomes involved in resisting the Nazis, the sister dreams of going
somewhere else. Petterson again takes bleak material and makes literary magic of
it. Available in hardcover.
$6.98
Model: X24698BinLadensA rags-to-riches story that also encapsulates
the clash of traditional and modern ways, Steve
Coll’s THE BIN LADENS: An Arabian
Family in the American Century, recounts the rise of a poor Yemeni
immigrant to Saudi Arabia who works hard and becomes a multi-millionaire. Among
the members of his large family, of course, is Osama bin Laden, and Coll’s
profile of the clan—many of whose members live extravagant, reckless, and short
lives—helps put the radical fundamentalist into perspective. Available in
hardcover.
$5.98
Model: x24598SummerHummingbChristopher Benfey's A SUMMER OF HUMMINGBIRDS: Love, Art,
and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet
Beecher Stowe, & Martin Johnson Heade is, as the
subtitle hints, a wide-ranging exploration of 19th-century American arts and
letters, with some politics, humor, and whimsy thrown in. Benfey, a professor
of English at Mount
Holyoke College,
has been reading the works and studying the lives of his subjects for years.
His book interweaves an amazing amount of literary, historical, and
biographical information, all cohering around some surprising themes, such
as the hummingbird that repeatedly flits through the scenes. Available in
hardcover.
$4.98
Model: x24498CheatingCanastWilliam Trevor has been writing subtle, moving, psychologically-charged
fiction for decades, with no end in sight. His recent collection, CHEATING AT CANASTA: Stories, delves
into the intricacies of memory, aging, family, and small-town life. While the
action unfolds mainly in Ireland,
these stories are as universal as any classic literature, conveying an
emotional richness in even the most everyday occurences. Available in hardcover.
$4.98
Model: x24498FidelityGrace Paley’s straightforward, direct writing belies
the artistry of her fiction and poetry. Hers was an inimitable, instantly
recognizable voice, and it rings as strong as ever in FIDELITY, her last collection of poems
before her death in 2007. Here, as in much of her previous work, she writes
about the sights, sounds, and characters of her native New York City. A powerful blend of humor and
pathos flavors her work, whether she’s listening to a stranger tell a
story or updating the ghost of her sister on a new baby in the family.
Available in hardcover.
$4.98
Model: x24498DeepEconomyBack in Stock: DEEP ECONOMY: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. Since writing The End of Nature in 1989, Bill McKibben has been one of the most active environmental writers we have. He’s contributed dozens of introductions, prefaces, and editorial guidance to books on nature and sustainable living. Deep Economy is a cogent, clear, and eminently reasonable plea for more careful use of resources. McKibben argues that the drive for efficiency that fuels mass consumption is not the only way to live. Rather, we should slow down, take a look at our immediate surroundings, and value community more than we do. Available in hardcover.
$6.98
Model: x24698MyMistressSparFor Valentine’s Day, a rich sampler of great fiction: MY MISTRESS’S SPARROW IS DEAD: Great Love Stories, from Chekhov to Munro. Edited by Jeffrey Eugenides (author of Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides),
this anthology presents a wide range of authors—Faulkner, Nabokov,
Lorrie Moore—with diverse perspectives on love. Happy endings, unlovely
endings, surprises, it’s all here in a collection that, as Eugenides
says, allows us to “simultaneously partake of the ecstasy and agony of
being in love without paying a crippling emotional price.” Available in
hardcover
$5.98
Model: x24598NotSoBigLifeSarah Susanka is almost synonymous with “the not so big house.” In THE NOT SO BIG LIFE: Making Room for What Really Matters,
the architect and author concentrates on what goes on between the
well-proportioned and uncluttered walls. Some of Susanka’s suggestions
include: slow down, consider what really matters, and make time for it
- advice she bolsters with exercises and anecdotes. Available in
hardcover.
$7.98
Model: x24798ProspectorJ.M.G. Le Clézio was unknown to most American readers before he won the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 2008. Cited for an art of “poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy,”
Le Clézio delivers just that in his hauntingly lyrical novel, THE
PROSPECTOR. After his family suffers
financial ruin in 1910, Alexis sets out for Rodrigues Island to find the
Corsair’s treasure his father has often spoken about. He discovers a tropical
paradise and first love, but is forced to return to France when World War I
begins. Available in hardcover.
$19.98
Model: x24199LandmarkHerodoFor history buffs, the name
says it all: THE LANDMARK HERODOTUS: The Histories. Part of
the acclaimed series that also includes The Landmark Thucydides and The Landmark Xenophon’s Hellenika, this volume, edited by Robert B. Strassler, contains
the full text of Herodotus’s great Histories, translated by Andrea
L. Purvis, along with notes, annotations, essays, and, best of all, lots
of maps. Available in hardcover.
$9.98
Model: x24998ParadisoEach era updates the classics for its own tastes and needs, and in recent
years there have been several new translations of Dante’s masterpiece The Divine Comedy. The final book, PARADISO, charting the culmination of
Dante’s journey from hell and purgatory and into heaven, recently
appeared in an acclaimed rendering by Robert and Jean Hollander, a Dante
scholar and a poet, respectively. Paradiso offers
a luminous vision of divine truth and love, and whatever one’s religious
beliefs, is a wonderful and thought-provoking reading experience. The bilingual
edition, with commentaries on each canto, is available in hardcover
$4.98
Model: x24498ZoliColum McCann won this year’s National Book Award for
fiction, the judges noting “his generosity of spirit and lyrical
gifts” in Let the Great World Spin’s
“ecstatic vision of the human courage required to stay aloft above the
ever-yawning abyss.” Much the
same could be said for his earlier novel, ZOLI. Basing his title character on the
little known Papusza, a Romany poet and singer of the early and mid-20th
century, McCann tells the
story of a fiercely independent and vibrant culture. Peripatetic, musical,
insular, the Gypsies seemed
to be outsiders in Eastern Europe, yet they were nonetheless
caught up in the dominant culture’s
political turbulence.
Available in hardcover.
$5.98
Model: x24598StormingGatesRebecca
Solnit is a writer who refuses to be categorized. With books on Ireland;
getting lost; Muybridge, the movies, and railroads; and, most recently, the
unexpected community spirit that prevails in disasters, the
critically-acclaimed Paradise Built in Hell, she is an original and
penetrating thinker with a polished and accessible prose style. The forty
essays collected in STORMING THE GATES OF PARADISE: Landscapes for Politics
cover a broad range of Solnit’s concerns, from Native Americans and the West to
mining, prisons, feminism, the environment, and more. Available in hardcover.
$5.98
Model: x24598CometoThinkOne of the most familiar figures in the media,
first on TV and then on National Public Radio, Daniel Schorr has been an
incisive commentator for decades. COME TO THINK OF IT: Notes on the Turn of
the Millennium is a collection of his thoughts and observations on the
politics, wars, and major world events between1991 and 2007. From his piece
“The Mideast is a Mess and There is no New World Order,” to “The Truth is Hard
to Come by,” these essays remain as smart and relevant as when they were first
broadcast. Available in hardcover.
$75.98
Model: x24759NatGeoAtlasThe index alone is 134 pages and that’s only one indication of the size and range of the stunning NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ATLAS OF THE WORLD, Eighth edition. Here are maps of cities, countries, and continents; 75 color, digitally-enhanced satellite images cover the continents, and along with the more familiar political and physical maps, this volume contains thematic maps graphically illustrating environmental conditions, tectonics, oceanography, and the concentrations of natural resources. Originally selling for $165, this beautiful large-format volume is available at $75.98.
$14.98
Model: x24149ForeignFieldA CORNER OF A FOREIGN FIELD: The Illustrated
Poetry of the First World War is an unforgettable book. Edited by Fiona Waters, this anthology of verse and
photographs brings to life the raw realities of the Great War. As words and
images comment and expand on each other, general experiences become personal
and anonymous faces begin to convey thoughts. Poems by Siegfried Sassoon, W.B.
Yeats, Robert Graves, Wilfred Owen, and many others join photographs of
trenches, marches, munitions factories, and ruins from the Daily Mail archives.
Available in hardcover.
$6.98
Model: x24698HowIBecameFamoAs Pete Tarslaw tells it in Steve Hely’s warm-hearted satire, HOW I BECAME A FAMOUS NOVELIST, life on the best-seller list is good, very good. Forget the garret, the writer’s block, the angst—successful novels have a formula, and Tarslaw has cracked it. His rewards include fame, wealth, women, revenge, and a lot of fun for readers.
Available in paperback.
$7.98
Model: x24798TroublesomeTROUBLESOME YOUNG MEN: The Rebels who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England, Lynne Olson’s account of the end of Chamberlain’s government in 1940, has been hailed for its vivid narrative and keen insights into a period most historians have overlooked. Far from being uneventful, the months between September 1939 and May 1940 were full of strategizing and debate, as a group of Tory MP upstarts—Harold Macmillan, Robert Boothby, Leo Amery, Ronald Cartland among them—turned against Chamberlain and backed Churchill. (Note: Olson’s new book, Citizens of London, will be out in early February. She’ll be speaking at P&P on February 22.) Available in hardcover.
$6.98
Model: x24698RoadHomeAn excellent storyteller with a knack for taking a familiar plot,
dramatizing it with fully-realized characters, and coming up with
something new and affecting, Rose Tremain is at her best with THE ROAD HOME. The
story of a hard-working, lonely émigré to London from Eastern Europe,
the book explores questions of identity and alienation. Lev, a widower,
wants to help his mother and daughter but seemingly can do so only by
leaving them. Tremain makes a powerful narrative of his life of
homelessness, menial jobs, and tenuous connections to other immigrants.
Available in hardcover.
$8.98
Model: x24898BewarePityStefan Zweig was so popular a writer that during the 1920s and ‘30s he had to hide from his fans in Salzburg. Primarily remembered for his memoir of growing up in Vienna, The World of Yesterday, he also wrote some wonderful novels. Part of the New York Review Books Classics series, his BEWARE OF PITY is set on the eve of the First World War and focuses on a young soldier in the Austro-Hungarian cavalry. Unsure of himself socially, Anton unwittingly insults his host’s daughter. As he tries to do right by her, he mires himself more deeply in obligations he can’t fulfill, and mistakes pity for love. This deeply psychological novel is also a stirring evocation of a bygone era. With an introduction by Joan Acocella. Available in paperback.
$7.98
Model: x24798AyaofYopCityFor graphic novel fans, we have AYA OF YOP CITY. The second of three Aya books
written by Marguerite Abouet and illustrated by Clément Oubrerie, this
warm, colorful story is set in the Ivory Coast of the 1970s, when
post-colonialism was fresh and anything seemed possible. Aya’s friend
Adjoua has just had a baby, but questions arise about his paternity.
Meanwhile, there’s romance, nightlife, and the struggles of daily
existence. The book includes a glossary of Ivorian terms and an
interview with Abouet and Oubrerie. Available in hardcover.
$4.98
Model: x24498PlatoPlatypusBACK IN STOCK: Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein’s inimitable guide - the clever, compulsively readable PLATO AND A PLATYPUS WALK INTO A BAR: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes
- provides lessons in logic, metaphysics, existentialism, and more,
told with wit, quotes, and anecdotes. From the First Cause of the
universe (it involves turtles) to a succinct timeline beginning with the Buddha and
a knock-knock joke, this appealing volume will have you rethinking
basic principles.
$5.98
Model: x24598HomeMarilynne Robinson’s companion volume to Gilead, HOME
is a moving novel about family, faith, and the struggle to do right by
both your own values and those of the people you love. The Boughton
patriarch is dying, and his adult children, Glory and Jack, feel
duty-bound to come back - Glory to help cook and nurse, Jack, the ne’er
do well son, to try to ease a long rupture with his father. The novel
is built on the textures of everyday life: the meals, the chores, the
disappointments, and through these mundane events Robinson builds a
narrative of unnerving power. Available in hardcover.
$8.98
Model: x24898ShortcomingsThere are also some new graphic novels in the remainder section. Adrian Tomine’s SHORTCOMINGS is full of scene-stealing characters, sharp dialogue, and crisp black-and-white pictures. Set in San Francisco, it’s the story of the breakdown of Ben and Miko’s relationship. Underlying this plotline are questions of love and race; Tomine shows how love is both blind and not blind when it comes to social and ethnic distinctions. This book is a pleasure to read and it will keep you thinking long after you put it down. Available in hardcover.
$5.98
Model: x24598GivingUpGhostIf you’re one of the many admirers of this year’s Man Booker prize-winning Wolf Hall, you’ll be interested in Hilary Mantel’s memoir, GIVING UP THE GHOST.
Mantel’s was a somewhat unconventional upbringing, and she never quite
understood the adult relationships around her. Nor could she make sense
of the strange visions she had as a child. Later, after law school, a
misdiagnosed illness, experimental medications, marriage, and long
sojourns abroad, she started writing. Her story is fascinating,
unusual, and deftly told. Available in hardcover.
$5.98
Model: x24598DeathInterruptAmong the outstanding recent fiction arrivals: DEATH WITH INTERRUPTIONS, by the Portuguese Nobel laureate, José Saramago.
This novel begins from the unlikely premise that people stop dying, but
Saramago explores the conclusions with utmost logic and compassion.
Hospitals and nursing homes grow crowded. Belief in an afterlife
falters. Insurance companies fail. As his narrative turns to Death,
personified as a lonely woman, Saramago’s story becomes a moving
meditation on mortality and the meaning of life. Available in hardcover.
$4.98
Model: x24498MothersSonsColm Tóibín is one of Ireland’s greatest living writers, as he’s proven in his novels The Master and, most recently, Brooklyn. In his outstanding collection of short stories, MOTHERS AND SONS, he explores family relationships from a number of angles. His characters are often musicians, and the idea of performance in various guises colors the characters’ interactions. His stories are also notable for conveying information on how to do things - with the exception of how to be a mother, how to be a son, which are always works-in-progress. Available in hardcover.
$39.98
Model: x24399HiroshigeBirdsHIROSHIGE: BIRDS AND FLOWERS features 91 of the thousands of nature studies created by the great Japanese printmaker. Based on Chinese drawings and the miniaturist tradition, which Hiroshige (1797-1858) had been trained in, these large-scale prints are colorful, detailed images that reflect both the reality of the subject and the lyrical sensibility of the artist. Each image is accompanied by a poem in Japanese, translated into English, with a brief commentary by Israel Goldman.
$39.98
Model: x24399HiroshigeEisenThere's more of Hiroshige's wonderful work in THE SIXTY-NINE STATIONS OF THE KISOKAIDO. Dating from the mid-1830s, this collection of prints documenting life along the Kisokaido, a highway between Edo and Kyoto, was originally assigned to the artist and ribald poet Keisai Eisen. When Eisen abandoned the project after creating just 24 pictures, Hiroshige took over. This volume includes images by both artists, along with commentary on the men's different approaches and techniques by Sebastian Izzard.
$39.98
Model: x24399Hokusai100PoetHOKUSAI: ONE HUNDRED POETS is a collection of both color and black-and-white plates that Hokusai (1760-1849) created to go with the poetry anthology, One Hundred Poets. As close and careful a reader as he was a visual artist, Hokusai didn't merely illustrate the book but sought to capture the multi-layered nuances of the poetry's language and themes, as well as expressing his own feelings on the subjects. The poems and the images they inspired appear on facing pages, with brief commentary by Peter Morse.
These three books were published by Braziller in hardcover, all originally $80, and now are only $39.98.
$5.99
Model: x9780761152200I don’t know when teacher presents at
holiday time came into existence. I had never heard of them when I
was raising children in the ‘60s, but when Politics & Prose opened in
the mid 1980’s, a long parade of parents looking for just the right
gift for their children’s teachers became an annual phenomenon. This
year my suggestion for filling the teachers’ stockings without
breaking the bank is the 2010 Page-A-Day Book Lover’s Calendar featuring 365 days of good authors and good books, originally priced at $12.99, now $5.99.
$9.98
Model: x24998FridaKahloThe self-portraits of Frida Kahlo are among the most instantly recognizable images, but what about Kahlo's work in other genres? In FRIDA KAHLO: The Still Lifes, the art historian Salomon Grimberg discusses the 40 documented still lifes Kahlo painted, along with others that have recently come to light. He places these pictures in the context of the great Mexican painter's life and overall ouevre, illuminating both in the process. With full color reproductions and many black-and-white photos. Available in hardcover.
$7.98
Model: x24798ForeverWarIn THE FOREVER WAR the New York Times journalist Dexter Filkins recounts his experiences over the last decade in Afghanistan and Iraq. One hallmark of Filkins’s reporting is his effort to get as close to the people involved as possible. He doesn’t just observe events, he finds out what soldiers are thinking, spends time in the homes of suicide bombers, and walks the streets of occupied towns. This book has earned praise for its vivid prose and the immediacy of its chronicle of people and places. Available in hardcover.
$9.98
Model: x24998MakingItNewMAKING IT NEW: The Art and Style of
Sara and Gerald Murphy, edited by Deborah Rothschild, is the first
comprehensive history of the couple at the center of a circle of artists and
writers pivotal to the rise of Modernism. Counting Hemingway, Picasso, Man Ray, and Fitzgerald among their friends, the Murphys were collectors and
promotors of new art as well as being painters themselves. This oversize volume contains
essays by various critics on the Murphys, music, theatre, and literature -
and full color reproductions of the Murphys' works as well as those of Picasso,
Juan Gris, and Leger. Lots of great photos, too. Available in paperback.
$5.98
Model: x24598ChasingFlameSamantha Power won a Pulitizer for her book on genocide, “A Problem from Hell.” In her second book, CHASING THE FLAME: One Man’s Fight to Save the World, she tells the story of Sergio Vieira de Mello, chief of the United Nations mission to Iraq, who died in a bombing there in 2003. Part biography and part history of recent international crises, Power’s book takes us through the chaos of Iraq in the early years of the occupation, as well as looking back at the conflicts of Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, and Cambodia, all places where Vieira de Mello served. In each case, Power raises important questions about the nature and limits of intervention. Available in paperback.
$9.98
Model: x24998RepublicSufferThe Civil War is still debated and
scrutinized, and in her critically acclaimed THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING:
Death and the American Civil War, Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust looks at how the
conflict changed attitudes about mortality, religion, and the meaning of
citizenship, in addition to initiating certain practical measures, such as
dogtags for soldiers. She considers the experiences of both soldiers and
civilians in looking at new meanings of “a good death.” Available in hardcover.
$4.98
Model: x24498PenelopiadMargaret
Atwood’s most recent fiction speculates on the future, but this witty and
versatile writer is no less inspired by the mythic past. Her PENELOPIAD (which means “the matter of Penelope”) looks back
to Homer’s Odyssey, relating
events as Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, experienced them. She waited 20 years for
her husband’s return, spending the time raising their son, fending off suitors,
weaving, and unweaving. As Atwood fills in the details of Penelope’s daily life
and thoughts, this ancient figure becomes a smart, complex woman with a lot to
say. Available in hardcover.
$6.98
Model: x24698McKibbenEndIf it’s a book about nature or environmental matters, chances are it has at least a preface or a jacket blurb by Bill McKibben. McKibben’s own breakthrough book was THE END OF NATURE, an urgent call to action as well as a philosophical treatise on the meanings of nature, published in 1989; reissued in 2005 with the author providing a new introduction, this seminal look at what humans are doing to the planet marked a fundamental change in perceptions of how we live. Before popular movements to consume less, buy local, and recycle, McKibben laid the groundwork with this book. It’s a fascinating look at where we were in 1989, and how far we still have to go. Available in paperback.
$16.98
Model: x24169RothNovels
One of the few living writers to garner a berth in the Library of America series is Philip Roth. NOVELS AND OTHER NARRATIVES, 1986-1991 includes The Counterlife, The Facts, Deception, and Patrimony.
Together, these short novels show Roth’s inventiveness with character
and self, as fiction and autobiography mingle and change places.
Available in hardcover.
$7.98
Model: x24798PeoplesHistoryAdapted from Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States by Zinn himself, along with historian Paul Buhle and cartoonist Mike Konopacki, A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF AMERICAN EMPIRE: A Graphic Adaptation starts with the events of 9/11 and works back to tell the story of the United States on the world stage. Along with chronicles of U.S. expansion and intervention in Central America, Vietnam, and Iraq, the book recounts Zinn’s family’s history as Jewish immigrants. The political, the personal, text, and pictures—it’s all here. Available in paperback.
$5.98
Model: x24598SummerinBadenA rediscovered
classic, Leonid Tsypkin’s SUMMER
IN BADENBADEN is a reader’s
ambivalent love letter to Dostoyevsky. The dual narrative relates the thoughts
of a mid-twentieth-century man as he travels by train to Leningrad, reading
Dostoyevsky and musing over the author’s life and troubling anti-Semitic
leanings. Running parallel to this story is an account of Dostoyevsky’s
trip to Germany in 1867. He was newly married, desperate for money, and
addicted to gambling. Tsypkin’s brilliant portrayal of his literary elder and
his masterful prose, which seems to incorporate the rhythms of the train as he
rides and reads, make this a beautiful and thought-provoking novel. With
an introduction by Susan Sontag. Available in paperback.
$6.98
Model: x24698WayintheWorldV.S. Naipaul’s A WAY IN THE WORLD is
another intriguing historical fiction. With a sweep that ranges from Sir Walter
Raleigh’s search for El Dorado in the New World, to the experiences of a young
Trinidadian writer in the 20th century, Naipaul’s novel encompasses
dramatized recreations, autobiography, and meditations on history, colonialism,
and identity. Available in paperback.
$6.98
Model: x24698AvernoOne of this country’s
consistently strongest poets is Louise Glück, the former Poet Laureate. All her strengths are evident in AVERNO, a collection of linked lyrics that explore the myth of Persephone—and much else. While the
book has the weight of a spare narrative, each poem is a gem of perfectly
crafted lyricism. Glück weaves wit, humor, and poignancy tightly into the
language, making reading her work a rich, deeply rewarding experience. Available in
hardcover.
$5.98
Model: x24598RagtimeThe delicate art of
blending fact and fiction has few more accomplished practitioners than E.L.
Doctorow. Many got to know this fine writer from his popular RAGTIME, a novel of the 1920s. Doctorow sets his imagined characters—an immigrant
peddler, a Harlem ragtime pianist—among such luminaries of the period as Houdini,
Emma Goldman, Evelyn Nesbit, and many others, unforgettable in life as well as
in Doctorow’s art. Available in paperback.
$18.98
Model: x24189AmericanEarthAMERICAN EARTH: Environmental
Writing since Thoreau is a true treasure. Edited by Bill
McKibben and with a foreword by Al Gore, this important, comprehensive
anthology contains essays and excerpts from larger works by John Muir, Aldo
Leopold, Rachel Carson, and dozens of others. All the classic works and
thinkers about nature and conservation are here, along with pieces by people, such as P.T. Barnum and Alice Walker, whom you may not have associated with ecology. A chronology starting circa 15,000 BCE traces the effect homo sapiens have
had on America. Available in hardcover.
$4.98
Model: x24498PainOthersThe late Susan Sontag made her mark
in several areas of cultural criticism, among them photography with her early
book, On Photography. She returned to this subject late in her career with REGARDING THE
PAIN OF OTHERS, a
short and profound consideration of pictures that depict suffering. The
immediate impetus for this book was the imagery from Abu Ghraib, and Sontag
eloquently lays out the multi-layered meaning of those photos and videos, and
puts them within the larger context of visual representations from wars,
lynchings, and other atrocities. She goes on to consider more general questions
of the aestheticization of suffering, desensitization and alienation, and the
limits of sympathy. Available in paperback.
$4.98
Model: x24498PerfectSummerWhen life suddenly
changes, it’s impossible not to look back for the first signs you missed as
they were happening. THE PERFECT SUMMER: England 1911, Just before the Storm, takes readers to the
final years before World War I abruptly altered the fixed hierarchies and
expectations Europe had lived by. Juliet Nicolson (of the dynasty including
Vita Sackville-West, Harold, and Nigel Nicolson) recreates a golden season that
began with the coronation of George V and all the attendant pomp and spectacle,
and that ended with paralyzing strikes, food shortages, and the threat of
famine. Unrest was in the air. Available in hardcover.
$5.98
Model: x24598Afloat
Guy
de Maupassant is known as one of THE masters of the short story, and he learned much
of what he knew from his mentor, Flaubert. However, he was also a journalist,
playwright, and memoirist; he could do almost anything with language. In AFLOAT
he took it
on a Mediterranean cruise. The book is a travelogue, but much more. Weaving
humor, dreams, fact, fiction, meditations, reminiscences, Maupassant produced a
journal, an impressionist painting, a prose poem—just a wonderful reading
experience. It comes with an introduction by Douglas Parmée. Available in
paperback.
$5.98
Model: x24598EyeoftheStormAs amazing for the story
behind it as for the one it tells, EYE OF THE STORM: A Civil War Odyssey, documents the Civil War, its battles and prisoner of war camps,
as it was experienced by the Union private, Robert Knox Sneden. Sneden kept a
journal while he was on active duty and he also painted watercolors of what he
saw. A mapmaker, Sneden survived both the battlefield and Andersonville and
returned home to New York. He died in 1918, but the four scrapbooks in which
he’d kept his diary lay forgotten in a Connecticut bank vault until 1994. This
edition of Sneden’s wartime papers was edited by Charles Bryan, Jr., and Nelson
Lankford. Available in paperback.
$6.98
Model: x24698SamuelAdamsIn SAMUEL ADAMS: A Life, the journalist and newspaper editor Ira Stoll describes Adams as such
an integral player in the American revolution that he was one of two men (with
John Hancock) excepted from a general amnesty the British issued in 1775 to
rebels who would lay down their arms; these two were wanted, no matter what.
The source of Adams's fiery patriotism was religion;
he believed that God had intervened to establish a free nation, and that the
cause could not be lost as long as the
revolutionaries stayed true to their beliefs. Available in hardcover.
$4.98
Model: x24498WritingClassIn Jincy Willett’s third novel, THE WRITING CLASS, a routine adult-education course in fiction turns into an Agatha Christie whodunit. Amy Gallup, once a wunderkind novelist, and now a forgotten widow, instructs a group of the usual wannabes. She’s not expecting anything much, but then mysterious phone calls wake her at night, course evaluations offer threats rather than comments—and one of her students is murdered. Which class member is guilty? Available in hardcover.
$4.98
Model: x24498ISeeYouEverywhAnother compelling picture
of family, this time focused on two close, but very different sisters, is I
SEE YOU EVERYWHERE, the latest novel from Julia
Glass, author of the popular Three Junes. The elder sister, Louisa,
is conscientious and traditional, the younger, Clem, is a bit wilder, and
values her work more than she does her relationships with men. The novel lets
them both have their say, and through alternating chapters we get each sister's
view on their intertwining lives from 1980 through 2005. Available in paperback.
$6.98
Model: x24698NancyCunardThe riches to rags story of NANCY CUNARD: Heiress, Muse, Political Idealist charts the major social, political, and cultural events of Cunard’s lifetime. She lived from 1896 to 1965, and started out as the wealthy daughter of an English baronet with the Cunard shipping fortune behind him. But unsatisfied with the life of a socialite, Cunard became a journalist, her reporting taking her to the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War and the French concentration camps. She pursued her writing, was romantically involved with many of the great modernists, and married an African-American jazz pianist. After that she focused on racism, and edited an anthology of work by Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and W.E.B Dubois. And then…Lois Gordon’s biography is thoroughly researched and riveting. Available in hardcover.
$4.98
Model: x24498LightofEveningEdna O'Brien is one of the most accomplished and insightful of contemporary
novelists. From her early Country Girls Trilogy, she has been especially
sharp, at times outspoken, about the life of girls and women in traditional
Irish communities. Her recent novel, THE LIGHT OF EVENING, looks at a complex mother-daughter relationship. It opens as the
elderly mother lies ill, possibly dying, and her estranged daughter makes her
way back home. Both have their stories, and their sides of the same story; as
O'Brien fits the pieces together, she creates rich portrait of family life and
comments on the nature of storytelling. Available in paperback.