Oliver Sacks

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Wisconsin

And Other Clinical Tales

In his most extraordinary book, "one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century"(The New York Times)recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. Oliver Sacks'sThe Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hattells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents.If inconceivably strange, these brilliant tales remain, in Dr. Sacks's splendid and sympathetic telling, deeply human. They are studies of life struggling against incredible adversity, and they enable us to enter the world of the neurologically impaired, to imagine with our hearts what it must be to live and feel as they do. A great healer, Sacks never loses sight of medicine's ultimate responsibility: "the suffering, afflicted, fighting human subject."

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

31e51f16-a9dd-459e-9dcf-c695802f0f39-1

Les Standiford

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

P. T. Barnum, James Bailey, John Ringling, and the Death-Defying Saga of the American Circus

"Les Standiford takes us under the big top and behind the curtain in this richly researched and thoroughly engaging narrative that captures all of the entrepreneurial intrigue and spirit of the American circus." --Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove



Millions have sat under the "big top," watching as trapeze artists glide and clowns entertain, but few know the captivating stories behind the men whose creativity, ingenuity, and determination created one of our country's most beloved pastimes.



In Battle for the Big Top, New York Times-bestselling author Les Standiford brings to life a remarkable era when three circus kings--James Bailey, P. T. Barnum, and John Ringling--all vied for control of the vastly profitable and influential American Circus. Ultimately, the rivalry of these three men resulted in the creation of an institution that would surpass all intentions and, for 147 years, hold a nation spellbound.

 

Filled with details of their ever-evolving showmanship, business acumen, and personal magnetism, this Ragtime-like narrative will delight and enchant circus-lovers and anyone fascinated by the American experience.
 

Battle for the Big Top

9e450723-d9ac-495c-acf2-fc298f7bdeae-1

Candace Robinson

Sadie Hawkins wants nothing more than to find success as a screenplay writer. But when she discovers the love of her life hanging from their bedroom ceiling, Sadie gives up on her dreams. Until she receives an unexpected gift. Sadie has become the sole owner of the cabin in the woods she always adored. A secluded place where she can resurrect her dreams and drown her sorrows. Yet the woods are not the same. The days are still and lifeless. The shadows seem to follow Sadie. And the air holds the scent of her dead husband. As the days go by, Sadie will either have to accept that her sanity is in jeopardy or uncover the mysteries hidden deep within the past. Mysteries more terrifying than she ever imagined. And Then There Was Silence is a stand alone story and perfect for fans of V.E. Schwab, Holly Black, and Mexican Gothic.

And Then There Was Silence

76ab80f5-827e-4eb2-b0d1-5f5551aa8e1c-0

David Schneider

A History of Modern Medicine: from the Renaissance to the Implant Revolution

A fascinating history of the practice of surgery from one of the leading figures in the field, chronicling centuries of scientific breakthroughs by the discipline's most dynamic, pioneering doctors.

Written by an author with plenty of experience holding a scalpel, Dr. David Schneider's The Invention of Surgery is an in-depth biography of the practice that has leapt forward over the centuries from the dangerous guesswork of ancient Greek physicians through the world-changing "implant revolution" of the twentieth century.

The Invention of Surgery explains this dramatic progress and highlights the personalities of the discipline's most dynamic historical figures. It links together the lives of the pioneering scientists who first understood what causes disease, how organs become infected or cancerous, and how surgery could powerfully intercede in people's lives, and then shows how the rise of surgery intersected with many of the greatest medical breakthroughs of the last century, including the evolution of medical education, the transformation of the hospital from a place of dying to a habitation of healing, the development of antibiotics, and the rise of transistors and polymer science.

And as Schneider argues, surgery has not finished transforming; new technologies are constantly reinventing both the practice of surgery and the nature of the objects we are permanently implanting in our bodies. Schneider considers these latest developments, asking "What's next?" and analyzing how our conception of surgery has changed alongside our evolving ideas of medicine, technology, and our bodies.

The Invention of Surgery

bf23d44f-3576-4dfd-ab5b-e3f1ef9b1e3f-1

Zara Stone

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

The Forgotten History of Plastic Surgery in Prisons

Killer Looks is the definitive story about the long-forgotten practice of providing free nose jobs, face-lifts, breast implants, and other physical alterations to prisoners, the idea being that by remodeling the face you remake the man. In the beginning, this was a haphazard affair -- applied inconsistently and unfairly to inmates, but entering the 1960s, a movement to scientifically quantify the long-term effect of such programs took hold. And, strange as it may sound, the criminologists were right: recidivism rates plummeted. In this highly original and highly researched book, Zara Stone draws on the intersectionality of socioeconomic success, racial bias, the prison industry complex, and the fallacy of attractiveness to get to the heart of how appearance and societal approval creates self-worth, and uncovers deeper truths of beauty bias, inherited racism, effective recidivism programs, and inequality.

Killer Looks

6332b137-0ab2-4967-8880-6c93818ea9a3-0

Max Brooks

Complete Protection from the Living Dead

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, World War Z, The Zombie Survival Guide is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now.

Fully illustrated and exhaustively comprehensive, this book covers everything you need to know, including how to understand zombie physiology and behavior, the most effective defense tactics and weaponry, ways to outfit your home for a long siege, and how to survive and adapt in any territory or terrain.

Top 10 Lessons for Surviving a Zombie Attack

1. Organize before they rise!
2. They feel no fear, why should you?
3. Use your head: cut off theirs.
4. Blades don't need reloading.
5. Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair.
6. Get up the staircase, then destroy it.
7. Get out of the car, get onto the bike.
8. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!
9. No place is safe, only safer.
10. The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.

Don't be carefree and foolish with your most precious asset--life. This book is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now without your even knowing it. The Zombie Survival Guide offers complete protection through trusted, proven tips for safeguarding yourself and your loved ones against the living dead. It is a book that can save your life.

The Zombie Survival Guide

f6b1c211-de07-45f6-a779-3b6961f4b259-1

Rob Sacchetto

How to Identify the Living Dead and Survive the Coming Zombie Apocalypse

"The Zombie Handbook is a must-have for anyone who wants to make it home alive." --Jonathan Maberry, author ofPatient Zero

A few years ago, building an acid pit and stocking skull-splitting machetes would have been seen as an overreaction to the zombie threat. No longer! To survive the coming zombie apocalypse--and it is coming--you need to know everything about zombies and how to kill them.

Thoroughly illustrated, this book is the definitive guide to zombies and all their blood-soaked traits, from feeding habits and dietary needs to sexual practices and political activities.The Zombie Handbook lays out your step-by-step plan of attack to now only survive the zombies' assault, but to counter it and obliterate the army of the undead, including tips for:

*Zombie-proofing your home
*Setting lures and traps
*Choosing the best weapons
*Exploding their brains


The Zombie Handbook

ded2a549-de15-4b66-bb12-c7d4d47ff6e2-1

Hallgrimur Helgason

With some 66 hits under his belt, Tomislav Boksić, or Toxic, has a flawless record as hitman for the Croatian mafia in New York. That is, until he kills the wrong guy and is forced to flee the States, leaving behind the life he knows and loves. Suddenly, he finds himself on a plane hurtling toward Reykjavik, Iceland, borrowing the identity of an American televangelist named Father Friendly. With no means of escape from this island devoid of gun shops and contract killing, tragicomic hilarity ensues as he is forced to come to terms with his bloody past and reevaluate his future.

The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning

77e45658-5eaa-4f94-98d3-aeabd7cfdec7-1

Michael Capuzzo

The Terrifying Shark Attacks Of 1916

Describes how, in the summer of 1916, a lone great white shark headed for the New Jersey shoreline and a farming community eleven miles inland, attacking five people and igniting the most extensive shark hunt in history.

Close to Shore

4a15a056-7306-40a0-95d6-0f4ff86da40e-1

Voltaire

And Other Writings

Candide

6a041417-10f8-4e11-9a37-f78be77c3dd5-1

Barbara Kingsolver

Young, bright Taylor Greer leaves her poverty-stricken life in Kentucky and heads west, picking up an abandoned Native American baby girl whom she names Turtle and finds a new home in Tucson with Mattie, an old woman who takes in Central American refugees

The Bean Trees

10c121ee-7945-4181-b4b3-f103357ec7d6-1

Ellen Marie Wiseman

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

"In the fall of 1918, thirteen-year-old German immigrant Pia Lange longs to be far from Philadelphias overcrowded slums and the anti-immigrant sentiment that compelled her father to enlist in the U.S. Army. But as her city celebrates the end of war, an even more urgent threat arrives: the Spanish flu. Funeral crepe and quarantine signs appear on doors as victims drop dead in the streets and desperate survivors wear white masks to ward off illness. When food runs out in the cramped tenement she calls home, Pia must venture alone into the quarantined city in search of supplies, leaving her baby brothers behind. Bernice Groves has become lost in grief and bitterness since her baby died from the Spanish flu. Watching Pia leave her brothers alone, Bernice makes a shocking, life-altering decision. It becomes her sinister mission to tear families apart when theyre at their most vulnerable, planning to transform the citys orphans and immigrant children into what she feels are "true Americans." Waking in a makeshift hospital days after collapsing in the street, Pia is frantic to return home. Instead, she is taken to St. Vincents Orphan Asylum - the first step in a long and arduous journey. As Bernice plots to keep the truth hidden at any cost in the months and years that follow, Pia must confront her own shame and fear, risking everything to see justice--and love--triumph at last. Powerful, harrowing, and ultimately exultant, The Orphan Collector is a story of love, resilience, and the lengths we will go to protect those who need us most."--

The Orphan Collector

b0a6c01a-67bc-47eb-b4c1-2a742e8ac1e3-1

Cassie Chambers

Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains

After rising from poverty to earn two Ivy League degrees, an Appalachian lawyer pays tribute to the strong "hill women" who raised and inspired her, and whose values have the potential to rejuvenate a struggling region.

"Destined to be compared to Hillbilly Elegy and Educated."--BookPage (starred review)
"Poverty is enmeshed with pride in these stories of survival."--Associated Press

Nestled in the Appalachian mountains, Owsley County is one of the poorest counties in both Kentucky and the country. Buildings are crumbling and fields sit vacant, as tobacco farming and coal mining decline. But strong women are finding creative ways to subsist in their hollers in the hills.

Cassie Chambers grew up in these hollers and, through the women who raised her, she traces her own path out of and back into the Kentucky mountains. Chambers's Granny was a child bride who rose before dawn every morning to raise seven children. Despite her poverty, she wouldn't hesitate to give the last bite of pie or vegetables from her garden to a struggling neighbor. Her two daughters took very different paths: strong-willed Ruth--the hardest-working tobacco farmer in the county--stayed on the family farm, while spirited Wilma--the sixth child--became the first in the family to graduate from high school, then moved an hour away for college. Married at nineteen and pregnant with Cassie a few months later, Wilma beat the odds to finish school. She raised her daughter to think she could move mountains, like the ones that kept her safe but also isolated her from the larger world.

Cassie would spend much of her childhood with Granny and Ruth in the hills of Owsley County, both while Wilma was in college and after. With her "hill women" values guiding her, Cassie went on to graduate from Harvard Law. But while the Ivy League gave her knowledge and opportunities, its privileged world felt far from her reality, and she moved back home to help her fellow rural Kentucky women by providing free legal services.

Appalachian women face issues that are all too common: domestic violence, the opioid crisis, a world that seems more divided by the day. But they are also community leaders, keeping their towns together in the face of a system that continually fails them. With nuance and heart, Chambers uses these women's stories paired with her own journey to break down the myth of the hillbilly and illuminate a region whose poor communities, especially women, can lead it into the future.

Hill Women

8aef8f0d-4fbc-451e-9ddd-166afa7959f0-1

David J. Bodycombe

The Giant Book of IQ Puzzles

57830a6a-14ff-4adb-b817-d17a592a9390-1

Peter Gordon

Test Your Trivia Smarts

Calling all trivia buffs! Compare yourself to the cream of the crop as you field the same questions that were sent to members of American Mensa with an interest in trivia or puzzles. The percentage of members who got the question right is given along with the answers. Pit your IQ against theirs in five different categories: Movies and Television; Music, Arts, and Letters; Sports and Games; Places; and History and Science. Here's a sampling of the brain crunchers you'll tackle: Two Best Picture winners have had abbreviations in their titles. Name either. Who is third on the list of career home run leaders? Which planet has the most moons? You just might find out that you're a trivia genius. Answers: Mrs. Miniver and Kramer vs. Kramer; Willie Mays; Saturn.

Match Wits with Mensa

21adab49-7d31-41c5-a90a-5413fc7f03bf-0

Michael Gitter

Erika Glazer

The Book That Takes You Back

You will never forget the Brady Bunch double episode in Hawaii. But do you remember Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway? Can you recite the Oscar Mayer Wiener jingle or win at Name That Tune? Have you seen every Love Boat episode with Charo in it? Take a Technicolor journey back to the days when cable and satellite were science fiction and the boob tube had three channels that signed off at 1:00 am to the national anthem. Do You Remember TV? resuscitates the most vivid moments of our couch-potato youth with 144 pages crammed full of television tidbits from the late '50s, '60s, '70s, and early '80s. From Good morning, angels to Good night, John Boy, from the Oscar Night streaker to Oo! Oo! Mr. Kotter! this tiny tribute to the great days of TV brings back the favorite moments that are forever lodged in our collective TV unconscious.

Do You Remember T. V. ?

b73fd0df-b504-4b7b-ab2e-fa1a7c5ad583-0

Richard Siddoway

At the age of four, Will Martin lost his parents and went to live with his grandparents. The warm memories of life in a small town and the old-fashioned Christmas holidays he and his grandparents shared sustain him still as a young man making his way in the world. Years later, Will takes a leave of absence from his job in New York City to return home after his grandfather's death to help run the family real estate business. There he discovers something about his grandfather's past that shatters him and the memories of the life he so loved. At dinner one evening, his grandmother tells Will that she has been reading her husband's journals and learned that every Christmas Eve, when she and Will were out doing their traditional last-minute shopping, her husband was seeing a woman named Lillian. This year, his grandmother's Christmas wish is for Will to find out who Lillian is and why Will's grandfather, a seemingly devoted husband, saw Lillian every year for more than twenty-seven years and never mentioned her name. As Will struggles to salvage the family business and learn the truth about Lillian, he approaches a revelation that teaches him a lesson in the power of kindness, forgiveness, and love to uplift an entire community and touch each life within it. With an inspiring message wrapped in an irresistible mystery, this heartwarming Christmas tale will be cherished as a wonderful gift of the season by anyone who appreciates the magic of yuletide classics old and new.

The Christmas Wish

294db809-9a16-4395-9695-2ac01f1081bb-1

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Beers of the World 

Peter Straub

Seven Tales

No one tells a story like Peter Straub. He dazzles with the complexity of his plots. He delights with the sophistication and eloquence of his prose. He startles you into laughter in the face of events so dark you begin to question your own moral compass. Then he reduces you to jelly by spinning a tale so terrifying-and surprising-you wind up sleeping with the lights on.          With Magic Terror, the bestselling author of Ghost Story and The Talisman (with Stephen King) has given us one of the most imaginatively unsettling collections in years. The terrain of these extraordinary stories is marked by brutality, heart-break, despair, wonder, and an unexpected humor that allows empathy to blossom within the most unlikely contexts.          "Bunny Is Good Bread" takes us into the mind of a small boy trapped in grotesque circumstances to portray the creation of a serial killer in a manner that compels pity, sorrow, comprehension, and grief-as well as judgment. "Hunger, an Introduction," narrated by the ghost of a pompous, self-pitying murderer, evokes a profoundly beautiful vision of earthly life, one appreciated far more by the dead than the living. The award-winning novella "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff," a masterpiece of black comedy, draws upon Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" to create a revenge tale in which torture is a moral art and the revenger undergoes a transforming, albeit painful, education.          In the words of Mrs. Asch, the visionary narrator of "Ashputtle," "The main feature of adventure is that it goes forward into unknown country." Straub's devotees will be entranced by what their fearless guide has in store for them. Those as yet uninitiated are in for a harrowing literary journey. Enjoy the ride.

Magic Terror

f46f891e-844c-45cd-9094-9dd259afe57f-1

The Pictorial History of Outboard Motors 

Ever After 

The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette 

Some Weird People in American History 

The  Good,  the Bad, and the Mad

Lisa M. Matlin

A Novel

Most people wouldn’t buy an infamous murder house to renovate for fun . . . but Sarah Slade is not most people. “This debut novel deftly explores our shadows—the dark parts of ourselves we don’t want others to see. I couldn’t stop reading.”—Julia Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of The Writing Retreat A therapist and self-help writer with all the answers, Sarah Slade has just bought a gorgeous Victorian in the community of her dreams. Turns out, you can get a killer deal on a house where someone was murdered. Plus, renovating Black Wood House makes for great blog content and a decent distraction from her failing marriage. Good thing nobody knows that her past is just as filthy as the bloodstain on her bedroom floor. But the renovations are fast becoming a nightmare. Sarah imagined custom avocado wallpaper, massive profits, and an appreciative husband who wants to share her bed again. Instead, the neighbors hate her guts and her husband still sleeps on the couch. And though the builders attempt to cover up Black Wood’s horrifying past, a series of bizarre accidents, threatening notes, and unexplained footsteps in the attic only confirms for Sarah what the rest of the town already knew: Something is very wrong in that house. With every passing moment, Sarah’s life spirals further out of control—and with it, her sense of reality. But as she peels back the curling wallpaper and discovers the house’s secrets, she realizes that the deadly legacy of Black Wood House has only just begun.

The Stranger Upstairs

20923f96-2f48-4dd7-be8a-08888588d244-1

Linda

Browse by categories