Stephen Kinzer

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Nebraska

Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire

Recalls the forgotten political debate at the beginning of the twentieth century over America's role in the world, with the country's political and intellectual leaders advocating either imperial expansion or restraint.

The True Flag

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Born a Crime

Jasmine Warga

A gorgeously written, hopeful middle grade novel in verse about a young girl who must leave Syria to move to the United States, perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds and Aisha Saeed. Jude never thought she’d be leaving her beloved older brother and father behind, all the way across the ocean in Syria. But when things in her hometown start becoming volatile, Jude and her mother are sent to live in Cincinnati with relatives. At first, everything in America seems too fast and too loud. The American movies that Jude has always loved haven’t quite prepared her for starting school in the US—and her new label of “Middle Eastern,” an identity she’s never known before. But this life also brings unexpected surprises—there are new friends, a whole new family, and a school musical that Jude might just try out for. Maybe America, too, is a place where Jude can be seen as she really is. This lyrical, life-affirming story is about losing and finding home and, most importantly, finding yourself.

Other Words for Home

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Brando Skyhorse

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

A Memoir

The author traces his turbulent childhood under the shadow of his dynamic mother and five stepfathers, describing how his mother reinvented their pasts in ways that challenged his efforts to reconnect with his biological father.

Take This Man

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Cristina Henríquez

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Moving from Mexico to America when their daughter suffers a near-fatal accident, the Riveras confront cultural barriers, their daughter's difficult recovery and her developing relationship with a Panamanian boy.

The Book of Unknown Americans

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Sarah Smarsh

A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

*Finalist for the National Book Award* *Finalist for the Kirkus Prize* *Instant New York Times Bestseller* *Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, New York Post, BuzzFeed, Shelf Awareness, Bustle, and Publishers Weekly* An essential read for our times: an eye-opening memoir of working-class poverty in America that will deepen our understanding of the ways in which class shapes our country and “a deeply humane memoir that crackles with clarifying insight”.* Sarah Smarsh was born a fifth generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side, and the product of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side. Through her experiences growing up on a farm thirty miles west of Wichita, we are given a unique and essential look into the lives of poor and working class Americans living in the heartland. During Sarah’s turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, she enjoyed the freedom of a country childhood, but observed the painful challenges of the poverty around her; untreated medical conditions for lack of insurance or consistent care, unsafe job conditions, abusive relationships, and limited resources and information that would provide for the upward mobility that is the American Dream. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves with clarity and precision but without judgement, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country. Beautifully written, in a distinctive voice, Heartland combines personal narrative with powerful analysis and cultural commentary, challenging the myths about people thought to be less because they earn less. “Heartland is one of a growing number of important works—including Matthew Desmond’s Evicted and Amy Goldstein’s Janesville—that together merit their own section in nonfiction aisles across the country: America’s postindustrial decline...Smarsh shows how the false promise of the ‘American dream’ was used to subjugate the poor. It’s a powerful mantra” *(The New York Times Book Review).

Heartland

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Everything For A Dog

Paul Kalanithi

Abraham Verghese

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living? NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • The Washington Post • Slate • Harper’s Bazaar • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly • BookPage Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir. Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.

When Breath Becomes Air

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Steve McQueen

Solomon Northup

Ira Berlin

The official movie tie-in edition to the winner of the 2014 Academy Award for Best Picture, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, and Lupita Nyong’o, and directed by Steve McQueen New York Times bestseller “I could not believe that I had never heard of this book. It felt as important as Anne Frank’s Diary, only published nearly a hundred years before. . . . The book blew [my] mind: the epic range, the details, the adventure, the horror, and the humanity. . . . I hope my film can play a part in drawing attention to this important book of courage. Solomon’s bravery and life deserve nothing less.” —Steve McQueen, director of 12 Years a Slave, from the Foreword Perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation. After his rescue, Northup published this exceptionally vivid and detailed account of slave life. It became an immediate bestseller and today is recognized for its unusual insight and eloquence as one of the very few portraits of American slavery produced by someone as educated as Solomon Northup, or by someone with the dual perspective of having been both a free man and a slave.

12 Years a Slave (Movie Tie-In)

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Karl Marx

Frederick Engels

The Communist Manifesto

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The Autobiography of George W. Norris

Fighting Liberal

Gloria Steinem

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | ONE OF O: THE OPRAH MAGAZINE’S TEN FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR | NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Harper’s Bazaar • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Publishers Weekly Gloria Steinem—writer, activist, organizer, and inspiring leader—now tells a story she has never told before, a candid account of her life as a traveler, a listener, and a catalyst for change. Includes “Secrets,” a new chapter! When people ask me why I still have hope and energy after all these years, I always say: Because I travel. Taking to the road—by which I mean letting the road take you—changed who I thought I was. The road is messy in the way that real life is messy. It leads us out of denial and into reality, out of theory and into practice, out of caution and into action, out of statistics and into stories—in short, out of our heads and into our hearts. Gloria Steinem had an itinerant childhood. When she was a young girl, her father would pack the family in the car every fall and drive across country searching for adventure and trying to make a living. The seeds were planted: Gloria realized that growing up didn’t have to mean settling down. And so began a lifetime of travel, of activism and leadership, of listening to people whose voices and ideas would inspire change and revolution. My Life on the Road is the moving, funny, and profound story of Gloria’s growth and also the growth of a revolutionary movement for equality—and the story of how surprising encounters on the road shaped both. From her first experience of social activism among women in India to her work as a journalist in the 1960s; from the whirlwind of political campaigns to the founding of Ms. magazine; from the historic 1977 National Women’s Conference to her travels through Indian Country—a lifetime spent on the road allowed Gloria to listen and connect deeply with people, to understand that context is everything, and to become part of a movement that would change the world. In prose that is revealing and rich, Gloria reminds us that living in an open, observant, and “on the road” state of mind can make a difference in how we learn, what we do, and how we understand each other. Praise for My Life on the Road “Like Steinem herself, [My Life on the Road] is thoughtful and astonishingly humble. It is also filled with a sense of the momentous while offering deeply personal insights into what shaped her.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “A lyrical meditation on restlessness and the quest for equity . . . Part of the appeal of My Life is how Steinem, with evocative, melodic prose, conveys the air of discovery and wonder she felt during so many of her journeys. . . . The lessons imparted in Life on the Road offer more than a reminiscence. They are a beacon of hope for the future.”—USA Today “A warmly companionable look back at nearly five decades as itinerant feminist organizer and standard-bearer. If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to sit down with Ms. Steinem for a casual dinner, this disarmingly intimate book gives a pretty good idea, mixing hard-won pragmatic lessons with more inspirational insights.”—The New York Times “Steinem rocks. My Life on the Road abounds with fresh insights and is as populist as can be.”—The Boston Globe “In person and in her writing, Steinem exudes a rare combination of calm, humility and honesty about her weaknesses that explains all she has accomplished.”—Jezebel

My Life on the Road

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Nina Baym

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

History

Beginnings to 1820

The Norton Anthology of American Literature

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Patricia B. Wallace

1820-1865

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Jordan Kassalow

Jennifer Krause

The desire to make a difference in the world is something we all share. But most of us struggle with the where, when, and how. What if the answer was as clear as: here and now, in your own way? Dr. Jordan Kassalow, founder of VisionSpring, the global phenomenon that has helped millions stay focused on a positive future, shares his own story of connecting his real life financial responsibilities with his true sense of calling, while also offering readers the tools to map out their own path. Dare to Matter assures readers that doing good and doing well needn t be an either/or proposition; that they don't have to be a billionaire philanthropist or take a vow of poverty, be young and unencumbered, or retired, to give of themselves in the way that they, and only they, have been created to give. Dare to Matter will help readers put Jordan's unique blueprint to work in their own lives, locate their joy, and make a difference in the world.

Dare to Matter

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David Harvey

Government

A Theory of Uneven Geographical Development

Fiscal crises have cascaded across much of the developing world with devastating results, from Mexico to Indonesia, Russia and Argentina. The extreme volatility in contemporary political economic fortunes seems to mock our best efforts to understand the forces that drive development in the world economy. David Harvey is the single most important geographer writing today and a leading social theorist of our age, offering a comprehensive critique of contemporary capitalism. In this fascinating book, he shows the way forward for just such an understanding, enlarging upon the key themes in his recent work: the development of neoliberalism, the spread of inequalities across the globe, and ‘space’ as a key theoretical concept. Both a major declaration of a new research programme and a concise introduction to David Harvey’s central concerns, this book will be essential reading for scholars and students across the humanities and social sciences.

Spaces of Global Capitalism

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Sharon Flake

A collection of short stories about teenage girls and the issues they must deal with in their relationships with boys.

Who Am I Without Him?

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Cecilia Menjívar

Ladina Women's Lives in Guatemala

"A rare and groundbreaking contribution to the study of everyday violence. Richly textured by the experiences of Ladino women in eastern Guatemala, Enduring Violence is not only informed by, but serves to inform, cutting-edge theoretical debate which links multiple aspects of personal abuse and rights violations with broader structural and institutional factors. Menjívar's scholarly and sensitive monograph makes a profoundly persuasive case for an holistic conceptualisation of violence that positions women's human rights at the centre of development in 'post-conflict' and other developing states. A 'must read' for all interested in issues of gender, ethnic and other forms of social, economic and political injustice."—Sylvia Chant, London School of Economics and Political Science "Violence in Guatemala can be a mind-numbing, though urgent and necessary, topic of study. Horrific data mount—from state sponsored genocide in the 1980s, to feminicide, lynchings and shadow state violence today—but clarifying analysis does not always follow. This insightful and beautifully crafted monograph is a welcome exception. Rather than recognizable interpersonal or overtly political acts, Menjivar focuses on the mundane insults and indignities that women endure, violence so 'normalized' that it often fades from view; she then turns standard causal reasoning on its head, arguing that these 'misrecognized' processes of daily dehumanization are profoundly diagnostic, an unexamined key to why the horrific data keep mounting. Though somber in content, Menjivar's book offers inspiring confirmation that innovative, engaged scholarship on intractable social problems can make a difference."—Charles R. Hale, University of Texas at Austin "Enduring Violence is of great scholarly importance as it fills a gap in the literature about Guatemala and allows for a nuanced understanding of the ways that women live with violence in their everyday lives. Menjivar's focus on women's discourses of illness, surveillance and endurance is particularly insightful since these narratives symbolize the multiple levels of violence in women's lives and the often imperceptible practices through which a daily life with violence is mediated."—M. Gabriela Torres, Wheaton College "Menjivar's deep commitment to shedding light on the many forms of violence that women experience is evident throughout her book. She effectively shows how the violence faced by women goes beyond physical violence and has structural origins as well in various forms. This is a great and informative work that needs to be read to understand the structural causes that bring injury to Guatemalan women."—Nestor Rodriguez, University of Texas at Austin "In Enduring Violence, Cecilia Menjivar presents a perceptive and powerful account of the multiple and entwined layers of violence that permeate the lives of diverse women in Guatemala. The book offers both a valuable theoretical lens and a textured ethnographic analysis, which brings into sharp focus not only the most egregious forms of gender-based physical violence, but also a range of invisible injurious practices rooted in pervasive structures of inequality. Written with empathy, while retaining a critical edge, this accessible and insightful volume sheds light on complex political, economic, and social processes shaping the violent realities of many women in Latin America."—Barbara Sutton, author of Bodies in Crisis: Culture, Violence, and Women's Resistance in Neoliberal Argentina "So much has been written about the spectacular agony of Central America's recent history. In Enduring Violence, Cecilia Menjivar seeks to understand the structures that gird no only the publicly visible violence but also the unspectacular, slow, often silent suffering that defines so many lives in the region. Her moving ethnography may explore the painful particulars of gendered existence in eastern Guatemala, but it also does so in such a way that reveals how deeply embedded inequalities can contort all human relations."—Ellen Moodie, author of El Salvador in the Aftermath of Peace: Crime, Uncertainty, and the Transition to Democracy

Enduring Violence

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Trevor Noah

Stories from a South African Childhood

Noah's path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at the time such a union was punishable by five years in prison. As he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist, his mother is determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life. With an incisive wit and unflinching honesty, Noah weaves together a moving yet funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time.

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Yvette Manessis Corporon

A Story of Survival and Courage in the Face of Evil

In this "engrossing peek into a little-known chapter of World War II, and one family's harrowing tale of finding the lost pieces of its own history" (Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Liar Temptress Solider Spy), a woman sets out to track down the descendants of the Jewish family her grandmother helped hide seventy years earlier.

Yvette Manessis Corporon grew up listening to her grandmother's stories about how the people of the small Greek island Erikousa hid a Jewish family--a tailor named Savvas and his daughters--from the Nazis during World War II. Nearly 2,000 Jews from that area died in the concentration camps, but even though everyone on Erikousa knew Savvas and his family were hiding on the island, no one ever gave them up, and the family survived the war.

Years later, Yvette couldn't get the story of the Jewish tailor out of her head. She decided to track down the man's descendants--and eventually found them in Israel. Their tearful reunion was proof to her that evil doesn't always win. But just days after she made the connection, her cousin's child was gunned down in a parking lot in Kansas, a victim of a Neo-Nazi out to inflict as much harm as he could. Despite her best hopes, she was forced to confront the fact that seventy years after the Nazis were defeated, remainders of their hateful legacy still linger today.

As Yvette and her family wrestled with the tragedy in their own lives, the lessons she learned from the survivors of the Holocaust helped her confront and make sense of the present. In beautiful interweaving storylines, the past and present come together in a nuanced, heartfelt "story of compassion and collective resistance" with "undeniable emotional power" (Kirkus Reviews).

Something Beautiful Happened

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Michael Kulikowski

The Roman World from Hadrian to Constantine

“A genuinely bracing and innovative history of Rome.” —Times Literary Supplement The Triumph of Empire takes us into the political heart of imperial Rome and recounts the extraordinary challenges overcome by a flourishing empire. Roman politics could resemble a blood sport: rivals resorted to assassination as emperors rose and fell with bewildering speed, their reigns sometimes measured in weeks. Factionalism and intrigue sapped the empire from within, and imperial succession was never entirely assured. Michael Kulikowski begins with the reign of Hadrian, who visited the farthest reaches of his domain and created a stable frontier, and takes us through the rules of Marcus Aurelius and Diocletian to Constantine, who overhauled the government, introduced a new state religion, and founded a second Rome. Despite Rome’s political volatility, imperial forces managed to defeat successive attacks from Goths, Germans, Persians, and Parthians. “This is a wonderfully broad sweep of Roman history. It tells the fascinating story of imperial rule from the enigmatic Hadrian through the dozens of warlords and usurpers who fought for the throne in the third century AD to the Christian emperors of the fourth—after the biggest religious and cultural revolution the world has ever seen.” —Mary Beard, author of SPQR “This was an era of great change, and Kulikowski is an excellent and insightful guide.” —Adrian Goldsworthy, Wall Street Journal

The Triumph of Empire

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Suetonius

Catharine Edwards

The Lives of the Caesars include the biographies of Julius Caesar and the eleven subsequent emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitelius, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian. It was Robert Graves's primary reference source when he was writing I, Claudius. Suetonius composed his material from a variety of sources, without much concern for their reliability. His biographies consist the ancestry and career of each emperor in turn; however, his interest is not so much analytical or historical, but anecdotal and salacious which gives rise to a lively and provocative succession of portraits. The account of Julius Caesar does not simply mention his crossing of the Rubicon and his assassination, but draws attention to his dark piercing eyes and attempts to conceal his baldness. The life of Caligula presents a vivid picture of the emperor's grotesque appearance, his waywardness, and his insane cruelties. The format and style of Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars was to set the tone for biography throughout western literature--his work remains thoroughly readable and full of interest. Indeed, it was Robert Graves's primary reference source when he was writing I, Claudius, and those who have read his book will enjoy the original accounts as set down here.

Lives of the Caesars

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Jennifer Torres-Alvarado

Browse by categories

Stephen Kinzer

The True Flag

Trevor Noah

Born a Crime

Jasmine Warga

Other Words for Home

Brando Skyhorse

Take This Man

Cristina Henríquez

The Book of Unknown Americans

Sarah Smarsh

Heartland

Ann M. Martin

Everything For A Dog

Paul Kalanithi; Abraham Verghese

When Breath Becomes Air

Steve McQueen; Solomon Northup; Ira Berlin

12 Years a Slave (Movie Tie-In)

Steve McQueen; Solomon Northup; Ira Berlin

12 Years a Slave (Movie Tie-In)

Karl Marx; Frederick Engels

The Communist Manifesto

George W. Norris

Fighting Liberal

Gloria Steinem

My Life on the Road

Nina Baym

The Norton Anthology of American Literature

Patricia B. Wallace

The Norton Anthology of American Literature

Jordan Kassalow; Jennifer Krause

Dare to Matter

David Harvey

Spaces of Global Capitalism

Sharon Flake

Who Am I Without Him?

Cecilia Menjívar; Cecilia Menjívar

Enduring Violence

Trevor Noah

Born a Crime

Yvette Manessis Corporon

Something Beautiful Happened

Michael Kulikowski

The Triumph of Empire

Suetonius; Catharine Edwards

Lives of the Caesars

Ann M. Martin

Everything For A Dog

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