Christopher de Bellaigue

This is a pre-loved former library book! There is some mild marking on the bottom edges and back cover, but it is in good condition otherwise! 

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Maryland

The Struggle Between Faith and Reason, 1798 to Modern Times

Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize Longlist for Non-Fiction Longlisted for the Cundill History Prize A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection A revelatory and game-changing narrative that rewrites everything we thought we knew about the modern history of the Islamic world. With majestic prose, Christopher de Bellaigue presents an absorbing account of the political and social reformations that transformed the lands of Islam in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Flying in the face of everything we thought we knew, The Islamic Enlightenment becomes an astonishing and revelatory history that offers a game-changing assessment of the Middle East since the Napoleonic Wars. Beginning his account in 1798, de Bellaigue demonstrates how Middle Eastern heartlands have long welcomed modern ideals and practices, including the adoption of modern medicine, the emergence of women from seclusion, and the development of democracy. With trenchant political and historical insight, de Bellaigue further shows how the violence of an infinitesimally small minority is in fact the tragic blowback from these modernizing processes. Structuring his groundbreaking history around Istanbul, Cairo, and Tehran, the three main loci of Islamic culture, de Bellaigue directly challenges ossified perceptions of a supposedly benighted Muslim world through the forgotten, and inspiring, stories of philosophers, anti-clerics, journalists, and feminists who opened up their societies to political and intellectual emancipation. His sweeping and vivid account includes remarkable men and women from across the Muslim world, including Ibrahim Sinasi, who brought newspapers to Istanbul; Mirza Saleh Shirzi, whose Persian memoirs describe how the Turkish harems were finally shuttered; and Qurrat al-Ayn, an Iranian noble woman, who defied her husband to become a charismatic prophet. What makes The Islamic Enlightenment particularly germane is that non-Muslim pundits in the post-9/11 era have repeatedly called for Islam to subject itself to the transformations that the West has already achieved since the Enlightenment—the absurd implication being that if Muslims do not stop reading or following the tenets of the Qur’an and other holy books, they will never emerge from a benighted state of backwardness. The Islamic Enlightenment, with its revolutionary argument, completely refutes this view and, in the process, reveals the folly of Westerners demanding modernity from those whose lives are already drenched in it.

The Islamic Enlightenment

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Emily Fridlund

This is a pre-loved former library book! There is some mild staining on the inside front cover, but is in great shape otherwise! 

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

"Fourteen-year-old Linda lives with her parents in the beautiful, austere woods of northern Minnesota, where their nearly abandoned commune stands as a last vestige of a lost counterculture world. Isolated at home and an outlander at school, Linda is drawn to the enigmatic, attractive Lily and new history teacher Mr. Grierson. When Mr. Grierson is charged with possessing child pornography, the implications of his arrest deeply affect Linda as she wrestles with her own fledgling desires and craving to belong"--

History of Wolves

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Anthony Marra

This is a pre-loved former library book! There is some mild marking on the inside front and back covers, but it is mild. The plastic jacket has a small hole on a right rear corner. Otherwise in good shape!

In December 2004 in a rural village in Chechnya, failed doctor Akhmed harbors the traumatized eight-year-old daughter of a man abducted by Russian forces and treats a series of wounded refugees while exploring the shared past that binds him to the child.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

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Jane Stevenson

There is some mild marking on the edges on the top and bottom. There are no annotations that I can find/see. Overall in great shape!

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

English

An Anthology

This anthology represents a re-examination of its field, based on extensive archival research. Each woman's work is accompanied by a headnote which combines biographic information with some guidance as to the context, intended audience and genre.

Early Modern Women Poets

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Jacqueline Carey

This is a pre-loved former library book! There is some mild staining on the edges but nothing else that I could see.

"Destined from birth to serve as protector of the princess Zariya, Khai is trained in the arts of killing and stealth by a warrior sect in the deep desert; yet there is one profound truth that has been withheld from him"--Book jacket.

Starless

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Roxane Gay

This is a pre-loved former library book! There is some mild staining on the top edges, but nothing major. 

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

"A collection of stories of ... hardscrabble lives, passionate loves, and quirky and vexed human connection"--

Difficult Women

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Joyce Carol Oates

This is a pre-loved former library book! It appears to be in great condition with no visibile stains or marks. 

Joyce Carol Oates is renowned for her rare ability to "illuminate the mind's most disturbing corners" (Seattle Times). That genius is on full display in her new collection of seven feverishly unsettling works, DIS MEM BER and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense.

In the title story, a precocious eleven-year-old named Jill is in thrall to an older male relative, the mysterious, attractive black sheep of the family. Without telling her parents Jill climbs into his sky-blue Chevy to be driven to an uncertain, and unforgettable, fate. In "The Drowned Girl," a university transfer student becomes increasingly obsessed with the drowning/murder of another female student, as her own sense of self begins to deteriorate. In "Great Blue Heron," a recent widow grieves inside the confines of her lakefront home and fantasizes about transforming into that great flying predator--unerring and pitiless in the hunt. And in the final story, "Welcome to Friendly Skies," a trusting group of bird-watchers is borne to a remote part of the globe, to a harrowing fate.

At the heart of this meticulously crafted, deeply disquieting collection are girls and women confronting the danger around them, and the danger hidden inside their turbulent selves.

DIS MEM BER and Other Stories

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Jason Hewitt

This is a pre-loved former library book!  There is some minor weakness in the binding and some nicks and dings on the exterior, but it's in good shape otherwise! 

A Novel

Accomplished, resonant and surprising (Guardian) -- a debut for fans of Summer of My German Soldier.

In July 1940, eleven-year-old Lydia escapes life as a child evacuee in Wales. She arrives home to her English village, gas mask in tow, only to find it abandoned. Her family's house is shuttered and empty. Lydia settles in though, determined to wait out the war.

Later that night he arrives: a wounded soldier, gun-wielding, heralding a full-blown German invasion. He says he won't hurt Lydia, but she cannot leave the house.

The unlikely pair coexists in their claustrophobic confines, becoming dependent on each other for survival. Lydia soon realizes that the soldier knows more than he should about her family -- and that he's plotting something for them both.

Eerie, gripping, and incredibly moving, The Dynamite Room brings an original and contemporary resonance to the great tradition of war classics.

The Dynamite Room

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Mohsin Hamid

This is a pre-loved former library book! There is a mild ink stain on the edges of the pages, but nothing marking or obscuring the text. Otherwise in great shape! 

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE SUMMER BY TIME, ELLE, USA TODAY, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY AND MORE

"Perhaps Hamid's most remarkable work yet ... an extraordinary vision of human possibility." -Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies

"Searing, exhilarating ... reimagines Kafka's iconic The Metamorphosis for our racially charged era." Hamilton Cain, Oprah Daily

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Exit West, a story of love, loss, and rediscovery in a time of unsettling change.

One morning, a man wakes up to find himself transformed. Overnight, Anders's skin has turned dark, and the reflection in the mirror seems a stranger to him. At first he shares his secret only with Oona, an old friend turned new lover. Soon, reports of similar events begin to surface. Across the land, people are awakening in new incarnations, uncertain how their neighbors, friends, and family will greet them.Some see the transformations as the long-dreaded overturning of the established order that must be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders's father and Oona's mother, a sense of profound loss and unease wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading: a chance at a kind of rebirth--an opportunity to see ourselves, face to face, anew.
 
In Mohsin Hamid's "lyrical and urgent" prose (O Magazine), The Last White Man powerfully uplifts our capacity for empathy and the transcendence over bigotry, fear, and anger it can achieve.

The Last White Man

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Julia Bartz

"Darkly satirical and action-packed....An absolutely splendid debut!" --Wendy Walker, nationally bestselling author of Don't Look for Me

The Plot meets Please Join Us in this psychological suspense debut about a young author at an exclusive writer's retreat that descends into a nightmare.

Alex has all but given up on her dreams of becoming a published author when she receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: attend an exclusive, month-long writing retreat at the estate of feminist horror writer Roza Vallo. Even the knowledge that Wren, her former best friend and current rival, is attending doesn't dampen her excitement.

But when the attendees arrive, Roza drops a bombshell--they must all complete an entire novel from scratch during the next month, and the author of the best one will receive a life-changing seven-figure publishing deal. Determined to win this seemingly impossible contest, Alex buckles down and tries to ignore the strange happenings at the estate, including Roza's erratic behavior, Wren's cruel mind games, and the alleged haunting of the mansion itself. But when one of the writers vanishes during a snowstorm, Alex realizes that something very sinister is afoot. With the clock running out, she's desperate to discover the truth and save herself.

A claustrophobic and propulsive thriller exploring the dark side of female friendships and fame, The Writing Retreat is the unputdownable debut novel from a compelling new talent.

The Writing Retreat

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Eleanor & Park 

This is a pre-loved former library book! Nothing remarkable to note condition-wise.

An ingenious, dystopian novel of one young woman's resistance against the constraints of an oppressive society, from the inventive imagination of Joyce Carol Oates

"Time travel" -- and its hazards--are made literal in this astonishing new novel in which a recklessly idealistic girl dares to test the perimeters of her tightly controlled (future) world and is punished by being sent back in time to a region of North America -- "Wainscotia, Wisconsin"--that existed eighty years before.  Cast adrift in time in this idyllic Midwestern town she is set upon a course of "rehabilitation"--but cannot resist falling in love with a fellow exile and questioning the constrains of the Wainscotia world with results that are both devastating and liberating.  

Arresting and visionary, Hazards of Time Travel  is both a novel of harrowing discovery and an exquisitely wrought love story that may be Joyce Carol Oates's most unexpected novel so far.

Hazards of Time Travel

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Adrian Tomine

A collection of six previously published graphic stories of life's bittersweet struggles, from illustrator/writer Tomine.

Killing and Dying

422ff937-1832-4f11-bda4-11e426ef3c25-1

Ahdaf Soueif

This is a pre-loved former library book! There is some mild staining on the page edges, but nothing that obscures the text; there is also a rough patch on the back cover where someone had taped something and then removed it. In good condition otherwise! 

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

At the end of the twentieth century, Isabel Parkman, a divorced American journalist, journeys to Egypt to unravel the truth behind her ancestor Anna Winterbourne, an English widow who, in 1901, falls in love with an Egyptian, Sharif Pasha al-Baroudi, a love affair that is echoed in her own turbulent relationship with a gifted Egyptian-American conductor. A Booker Prize finalist. Original. 50,000 first printing.

The Map of Love

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Cover is matte and mildly faded; in great condition otherwise!

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Cat Shaming

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Rick Riordan

There is some very minor staining and bending of the top page corners; otherwise it is in excellent condition! 

Oversized Hardcover (4 to 6 lbs)

Who cut off Medusa's head? Who was raised by a she-bear? Who tamed Pegasus? It takes a demigod to know, and Percy Jackson can fill you in on the all the daring deeds of Perseus, Atalanta, Bellerophon, and the rest of the major Greek heroes. Told in the funny, irreverent style readers have come to expect from Percy, (I've had some bad experiences in my time, but the heroes I'm going to tell you about were the original old school hard luck cases. They boldly screwed up where no one had screwed up before. . .) and enhanced with vibrant artwork by Caldecott Honoree John Rocco, this story collection will become the new must-have classic for Rick Riordan's legions of devoted fans--and for anyone who needs a hero. So get your flaming spear. Put on your lion skin cape. Polish your shield and make sure you've got arrows in your quiver. We're going back about four thousand years to decapitate monsters, save some kingdoms, shoot a few gods in the butt, raid the Underworld, and steal loot from evil people. Then, for dessert, we'll die painful tragic deaths. Ready? Sweet. Let's do this.

Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes

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Claire Heywood

For millennia, men have told the legend of the woman whose face launched a thousand ships—but now it's time to hear her side of the story. Daughters of Sparta is a tale of secrets, love, and tragedy from the women behind mythology's most devastating war, the infamous Helen and her sister Klytemnestra. As princesses of Sparta, Helen and Klytemnestra have known nothing but luxury and plenty. With their high birth and unrivaled beauty, they are the envy of all of Greece. But such privilege comes at a cost. While still only girls, the sisters are separated and married to foreign kings of their father's choosing—the powerful Agamemnon, and his brother Menelaos. Yet even as Queens, each is only expected to do two things: birth an heir and embody the meek, demure nature that is expected of women. But when the weight of their husbands' neglect, cruelty, and ambition becomes too heavy to bear, Helen and Klytemnestra must push against the constraints of their society to carve new lives for themselves, and in doing so, make waves that will ripple throughout the next three thousand years. Daughters of Sparta is a vivid and illuminating reimagining of the Siege of Troy, told through the perspectives of two women whose voices have been ignored for far too long. "Required reading for fans of Circe, and a remarkable, thrilling debut." —Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue “[A] gorgeous retelling of the classic Greek myth... Absolutely riveting!” —Alka Joshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Henna Artist

Daughters of Sparta

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Annalena McAfee

A lean, taut novel about an artist--a painter--at the height of her career, about the art world, about love, fidelity, fame, betrayal, and the large choices and prices paid in the quest for art for art's sake. By the much-admired author of The Spoiler ("cutting wit and razor-sharp writing"--NYTBR; "a dark, sparkly gem of a book"--Christopher Buckley) and Hame ("I couldn't put it down"--Patrick McGrath).

Eve Laing, celebrated artist, once the muse of legendary painter and "monstre sacré" Florian Kis, is a photorealist painter of flowers at the peak of her career, with her work in international galleries and museums.

Now Eve is embarking on her most ambitious work to date--seven enormous, elaborate panels of the world's deadliest plants. In psychic preparation, she has taken a wrecking ball to her opulent high-wire life, jettisoning her marriage for a beautiful young lover, a drifter half her age, who seems to share her single-minded artistic vision. As the novel opens out, Eve is on a late-night walk through London, setting out from her former family home in the well-heeled west of the city, back to her studio, a converted factory in the grittier east, where her recently completed masterpiece hangs and where a fatal reckoning may await. . . . Eve makes her way through the city and reflects on her life today and as it was years ago, and considers the large choices she has made and their repercussions. As she walks, she summons up her wild art college days in London; her New York years as a tyro artist; her vicious rivalry with her college roommate, now a celebrated figure on the international conceptual art scene whose full-blown success and recognition still infuriates and rankles Eve's sense of rightness with the world. And as she weighs what's been gained and what's been lost in pursuit of her art, a sense of dread settles over her, one she cannot shake, and as Nightshade moves to its dark, shocking end, it explores large questions--about ambition . . . artistic truth . . . betrayal . . . about bad people making good art . . . about the consequences of fame . . . and the devastating price of love.

Browse by categories

Christopher de Bellaigue

The Islamic Enlightenment

Emily Fridlund

History of Wolves

Anthony Marra

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Jane Stevenson

Early Modern Women Poets

Jacqueline Carey

Starless

Roxane Gay

Difficult Women

Joyce Carol Oates

DIS MEM BER and Other Stories

Jason Hewitt

The Dynamite Room

Mohsin Hamid

The Last White Man

Julia Bartz

The Writing Retreat

Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park

Joyce Carol Oates

Hazards of Time Travel

Adrian Tomine

Killing and Dying

Ahdaf Soueif

The Map of Love

Pedro Andrade

Cat Shaming

Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes

Claire Heywood

Daughters of Sparta

Annalena McAfee

Nightshade

Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch

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