George Saunders

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

New York

In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves—and our world today. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE • “[A] worship song to writers and readers.”—Oprah Daily For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?” He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

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Blake Crouch

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Wayward Pines: 1, 2, 3

The first book of the smash-hit Wayward Pines trilogy, from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter, Recursion, and Upgrade

One way in. No way out.

Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a mission: locate two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase.

As the days pass, Ethan's investigation turns up more questions than answers: Why can't he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn't anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out?

Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan farther from the world he knew, from the man he was, until he must face a horrifying fact--he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive.

The nail-bitingly suspenseful opening installment in Blake Crouch's blockbuster Wayward Pines trilogy, Pines is at once a brilliant mystery tale and the first step into a genre-bending saga of suspense, science fiction, and horror.

Pines, Wayward, The Last Town

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Christopher Buehlman

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Set in a world of goblin wars, stag-sized battle ravens, and assassins who kill with deadly tattoos, Christopher Buehlman's The Blacktongue Thief begins a 'dazzling' (Robin Hobb) fantasy adventure unlike any other.

Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is not limited to) lock-picking, knife-fighting, wall-scaling, fall-breaking, lie-weaving, trap-making, plus a few small magics. His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler that crosses his path.

But today, Kinch Na Shannack has picked the wrong mark.

Galva is a knight, a survivor of the brutal goblin wars, and handmaiden of the goddess of death. She is searching for her queen, missing since a distant northern city fell to giants.

Unsuccessful in his robbery and lucky to escape with his life, Kinch now finds his fate entangled with Galva's. Common enemies and uncommon dangers force thief and knight on an epic journey where goblins hunger for human flesh, krakens hunt in dark waters, and honor is a luxury few can afford.

"The Blacktongue Thief is fast and fun and filled with crazy magic. I can't wait to see what Christopher Buehlman does next." - Brent Weeks, New York Times bestselling author of the Lightbringer series

The Blacktongue Thief

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Cormac McCarthy

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

A man tells his sister that the child she bore him is dead, but learning it is alive, she searches the woods for her lost son

Outer Dark

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Elmore Leonard

A Novel

Mob-connected loan shark Chili Palmer is sick of the Miami grind—plus his “friends” have a bad habit of dying there. So when he chases a deadbeat client out to Hollywood, Chili figures he might like to stay. This town, with its dream-makers, glitter, hucksters, and liars—plus gorgeous, partially clad would-be starlets everywhere you look—seems ideal for an enterprising criminal with a taste for the cinematic. Besides, Chili’s got an idea for a killer movie, though it could very possibly kill him to get it made.

Get Shorty

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Lee Child

Without Fail

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Chuck Palahniuk

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Narrated by Mr. 72, Mr. 137, and Mr. 600 as they await their turn on camera, a novel about the role of pornography in contemporary life follows porn queen Cassie Wright, who plans to break the record for serial fornication with six hundred men on camera.

Snuff

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A collection of plays in hardback and paperback perfect for the stage actor building their library 

Oversized Paperback (4 to 6 lbs)

Nine plays by Eugene O’Neil(hardback), Four plays by Eugene Ionesco, Picnic by William Inge, The Lion in Winter by James Goldman, The Dazzle by Richard Greenberg, Caught by Christopher Chen

Pack of 17 plays

Tracy Letts

One of the most bracing and critically acclaimed plays in recent Broadway history, August: Osage County is a portrait of the dysfunctional American family at its finest - and absolute worst. When the patriarch of the Weston clan disappears one hot summer night, the family reunites at the Oklahoma homestead, where long-held secrets are unflinchingly and uprouriously revealed.

August: Osage County (TCG Edition)

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Arthur Miller

America's greatest playwright weaves "a vivid, crackling, idiomatic psychosexual horror tale." --Frank Rich, The New York Times

Winner of the 2016 Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Play and Best Direction of a Play: Ivo van Hove.

In A View from the Bridge Arthur Miller explores the intersection between one man's self-delusion and the brutal trajectory of fate. Eddie Carbone is a Brooklyn longshoreman, a hard-working man whose life has been soothingly predictable. He hasn't counted on the arrival of two of his wife's relatives, illegal immigrants from Italy; nor has he recognized his true feelings for his beautiful niece, Catherine. And in due course, what Eddie doesn't know--about her, about life, about his own heart--will have devastating consequences. 

"The play has moments of intense power. . . . Miller plays on the audience with the skill of a master." --Clive Barnes, New York Post

A View from the Bridge

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William Shakespeare

Stephen Orgel

A. R. Braunmuller

The acclaimed Pelican Shakespeare series edited by A. R. Braunmuller and Stephen Orgel
 
The legendary Pelican Shakespeare series features authoritative and meticulously researched texts paired with scholarship by renowned Shakespeareans. Each book includes an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare's time, an introduction to the individual play, and a detailed note on the text used. Updated by general editors Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller, these easy-to-read editions incorporate over thirty years of Shakespeare scholarship undertaken since the original series, edited by Alfred Harbage, appeared between 1956 and 1967. With definitive texts and illuminating essays, the Pelican Shakespeare will remain a valued resource for students, teachers, and theater professionals for many years to come.
 
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
 

Love's Labor's Lost

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Jez Butterworth

"An instant modern classic" - Daily Telegraph

"One of the most exciting new plays in ages" - New York Times

"Jez Butterowrth's gorgeous, expansive new play keeps coming at its audience in unpredictable gusts, rolling from comic to furious, from winsome to bawdy" - Observer

A Comic, contemporary vision of rural life in England's green and pleasant land.

On the morning of the local county fair, Johnny Byron is a wanted man. Local officials want to serve him an eviction notice, his son wants his full attention, and his motley crew of friends wants his ample supply of booze...

After its 2009 premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, Jerusalem won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play in 2009 and transferred to the West End in 2010. It opened on Broadway in April 2011 at the Music Box Theatre, with Mark Rylance reprising his award-winning performance as Byron.

Jez Butterworth is the author of The River, Mojo, The Night Heron, The Winterling, Parlour Song and Jerusalem. He has won numerous awards for his work, including the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Somerset, England.


Jerusalem

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Peter Shaffer

An explosive play that took critics and audiences by storm, Equus is Peter Shaffer's exploration of the way modern society has destroyed our ability to feel passion. Alan Strang is a disturbed youth whose dangerous obsession with horses leads him to commit an unspeakable act of violence. As psychiatrist Martin Dysart struggles to understand the motivation for Alan's brutality, he is increasingly drawn into Alan's web and eventually forced to question his own sanity. Equus is a timeless classic and a cornerstone of contemporary drama that delves into the darkest recesses of human existence.

Equus

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Martin McDonagh

These three plays are set in a town in Galway so blighted by rancor, ignorance, and spite that, as the local priest complains, God Himself seems to have no jurisdiction there.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane portrays ancient, manipulative Mag and her virginal daughter, Maureen, whose mutual loathing may be more durable than any love. In A Skull in Connnemara, Mick Dowd is hired to dig up the bones in the town churchyard, some of which belong to his late and oddly unlamented wife. And the brothers of The Lonesome West have no sooner buried their father than they are resuming the vicious and utterly trivial quarrel that has been the chief activity of their lives.

"[McDonagh is] the most wickedly funny, brilliantly abrasive young dramatist on either side of the Irish Sea.... He is a born storyteller."--New York Times

The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Other Plays

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SparkNotes

Art, music, drama/theater

Romeo and Juliet (No Fear Shakespeare)

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Robert Blumenfeld

A Manual for Acting

Provides actors with instructions and exercises to speak in a variety of different accents.

Accents

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McDougal-Littell Publishing Staff

A textbook reader for young adults features William Shakespeare's "A midsummer night's dream," plus short stories, poems, and essays designed to build reading comprehension.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Grade 10

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Susana Bloch

Pedro Sandor

Art, Music, Drama/Theater

Alba Emoting: a Scientific Method for Emotional Induction

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Henrik Ibsen

Here, in a single volume, are four major plays by the first modern playwright, Henrick Ibsen.

Ghosts--The startling portrayal of a family destroyed by disease and infidelity.
The Wild Duck--A poignant drama of lost illusions.
An Enemy Of The People--Ibsen's vigorous attack on public opinion.  
And A Doll's House--The play that scandalized the Victorian world with its unsparing views of love and marriage, featuring one of the most controversial heroines--and one of the most famous exists--in the literature of the stage.

Four Great Plays by Henrik Ibsen

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Rolf Fjelde

Joan Templeton

Dramatizes confrontations with family guilt, social hypocrisy, conventional morality, and material ethics in this collection of four plays--A Doll House, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler, and The Master Builder--that capture the author's brilliant contributions to the theater. Reissue.

Four Major Plays, Volume I

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Titus Andronicus is the earliest tragedy and the earliest Roman play attributed to Shakespeare. Titus, a model Roman, has led twenty-one of his twenty-five sons to death in Rome's wars; he stabs another son to death for what he views as disloyalty to Rome. Yet Rome has become "a wilderness of tigers." After a death sentence is imposed on two of his three remaining sons, and his daughter is raped and mutilated, Titus turns his loyalty toward his family.

Aaron the Moor, a magnificent villain and the empress's secret lover, makes a similar transition. After the empress bears him a child, Aaron devotes himself to preserving the baby. Retaining his thirst for evil, he shows great tenderness to his little family--a tenderness that also characterizes Titus before the terrifying conclusion.

The authoritative edition of Titus Andronicus from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes:

-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
-Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
-Scene-by-scene plot summaries
-A key to the play's famous lines and phrases
-An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language
-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books
-An annotated guide to further reading

Essay by Alexander Leggatt

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

Titus Andronicus

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Lyle Kessler

Harold, a slick mobster, enters the bleak world of two teenaged orphans. The boys are urban scavengers who steal and mug for a living, but when they kidnap Harold, the gangster, he turns the tables to become an unlikely parent who changes their lives forever.

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