K. M. Walton

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

A girl tumbles into a downward spiral when a romantic encounter turns violent in this heartwrenching novel from the author of Cracked.

Dell is used to disappointment. Ever since her dad left, it's been one let down after another. But no one--not even her best friend--understands all the pain she's going through. So Dell hides behind self-deprecating jokes and forced smiles.

Then the one person she trusts betrays her. Dell is beyond devastated. Without anyone to turn to for comfort, her depression and self-loathing spin out of control. But just how far will she go to make all the heartbreak and the name-calling stop?

Empty

c9e20965-f91f-487f-bc91-1daea251fc6d-1

Lois Lowry

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

The Giver is a modern classic and one of the most influential books of our time.

 

Now in graphic novel format, Lois Lowry's Newbery Medal-winning classic story of a young boy discovering the dark secrets behind his seemingly ideal world is accompanied by renowned artist P. Craig Russell's beautifully haunting illustrations. 



Placed on countless reading lists, translated into more than forty languages, and made into a feature film, The Giveris the first book in The Giver Quartet that also includes Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son.



In this new graphic novel edition, readers experience the haunting story of twelve-year-old Jonas and his seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment, through the brilliant art of P. Craig Russell that truly brings The Giver to life.



Witness Jonas's assignment as the Receiver of Memory, watch as he begins to understand the dark secrets behind his fragile community, and follow the explosion of color into his world like never before. 

The Giver (graphic Novel)

c9a9f94f-f951-45b3-bbfa-38186b26bce4-1

David Mitchell

A Novel

By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas | Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Selected by Time as One of the Ten Best Books of the Year | A New York Times Notable Book | Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post Book World, The Christian Science Monitor, Rocky Mountain News, and Kirkus Reviews | A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist | Winner of the ALA Alex Award | Finalist for the Costa Novel Award From award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new. Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys’ games on a frozen lake; of “nightcreeping” through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason’s search to replace his dead grandfather’s irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher’s recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons. Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell’s subtlest and most effective achievement to date. Praise for Black Swan Green “[David Mitchell has created] one of the most endearing, smart, and funny young narrators ever to rise up from the pages of a novel. . . . The always fresh and brilliant writing will carry readers back to their own childhoods. . . . This enchanting novel makes us remember exactly what it was like.”—The Boston Globe “[David Mitchell is a] prodigiously daring and imaginative young writer. . . . As in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Herman Melville, one feels the roof of the narrative lifted off and oneself in thrall.”—Time

Black Swan Green

e4189bfe-4f98-4c10-9d58-1f68f7729f4e-1

Nico Walker

"Jesus' Son meets Reservoir Dogs in a breakneck-paced debut novel about love, war, bank robberies, and heroin. Cleveland, 2003. A young man is just a college freshman when he meets Emily. They share a passion for Edward Albee and ecstasy and fall hard and fast in love. But soon Emily has to move home to Elba, New York, and he flunks out of school and joins the army. Desperate to keep their relationship alive, they marry before he ships out to Iraq. But as an army medic, he is unprepared for the grisly reality that awaits him. His fellow soldiers smoke; they huff computer duster; they take painkillers; they watch porn. And many of them die. He and Emily try to make their long-distance marriage work, but when he returns from Iraq, his PTSD is profound, and the drugs on the street have changed. The opioid crisis is beginning to swallow up the Midwest. Soon he is hooked on heroin, and so is Emily. They attempt a normal life, but with their money drying up, he turns to the one thing he thinks he could be really good at--robbing banks. Hammered out on a typewriter, Cherry marks the arrival of a raw, bleakly hilarious, and surprisingly poignant voice straight from the dark heart of America"--

Cherry

4044f5c8-f83c-451d-99c9-ebeebdc2a85b-1

Juliet Grames

From Calabria to Connecticut: a sweeping family saga about sisterhood, secrets, Italian immigration, the American dream, and one woman's tenacious fight against her own fate For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella's childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents--moments where ordinary situations like cooking eggplant or feeding the pigs inexplicably take lethal turns. Even Stella's own mother is convinced that her daughter is cursed or haunted. In her rugged Italian village, Stella is considered an oddity--beautiful and smart, insolent and cold. Stella uses her peculiar toughness to protect her slower, plainer baby sister Tina from life's harshest realities. But she also provokes the ire of her father Antonio: a man who demands subservience from women and whose greatest gift to his family is his absence. When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and Tina must come of age side-by-side in a hostile new world with strict expectations for each of them. Soon Stella learns that her survival is worthless without the one thing her family will deny her at any cost: her independence. In present-day Connecticut, one family member tells this heartrending story, determined to understand the persisting rift between the now-elderly Stella and Tina. A richly told debut, The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna is a tale of family transgressions as ancient and twisted as the olive branch that could heal them. "Witty and deeply felt." --Entertainment Weekly (New and Notable) "The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna achieves what no sweeping history lesson about American immigrants could: It brings to life a woman that time and history would have ignored." --Washington Post

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

b042aed2-6594-4985-8103-795f929f0b83-1

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Mary Hartnett

Wendy W. Williams

The New York Times bestselling book from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—“a comprehensive look inside her brilliantly analytical, entertainingly wry mind, revealing the fascinating life of one of our generation's most influential voices in both law and public opinion” (Harper’s Bazaar). My Own Words “showcases Ruth Ginsburg’s astonishing intellectual range” (The New Republic). In this collection Justice Ginsburg discusses gender equality, the workings of the Supreme Court, being Jewish, law and lawyers in opera, and the value of looking beyond US shores when interpreting the US Constitution. Throughout her life Justice Ginsburg has been (and continues to be) a prolific writer and public speaker. This book’s sampling is selected by Justice Ginsburg and her authorized biographers Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams, who introduce each chapter and provide biographical context and quotes gleaned from hundreds of interviews they have conducted. Witty, engaging, serious, and playful, My Own Words is a fascinating glimpse into the life of one of America’s most influential women and “a tonic to the current national discourse” (The Washington Post).

My Own Words

dcfd8238-b816-4a61-b86c-31e2cb9d1943-1

Arthur Conan Doyle

Selected, Edited and Introduced by David Stuart Davies.

The Best of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twenty of the very best tales from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fifty-six short stories featuring the arch sleuth. Basing his selection around the author's own twelve personal favourites, David Stuart Davies has added a further eight sparkling stories to Conan Doyle's 'Baker Street Dozen', creating a unique volume which distils the pure essence of the world's most famous detective.

Within these pages the reader will encounter the greatest collection of villains and the weirdest and most puzzling mysteries ever seen in print. And there at the centre, in a London swathed in eddies of fog and illuminated by gaslight, is to be found the remarkable character of Sherlock Holmes and his staunch companion, Doctor John H. Watson. Few will be able to resist this invitation to step aboard the waiting hansom cab and rattle off along cobbled streets into unimagined dangers and intrigues.

The Best of Sherlock Holmes

e27784a9-76cc-4e61-a064-1ac6d207374a-1

Martin Duberman

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

The Definitive Story of the LGBTQ Rights Uprising That Changed America

On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, was raided by police. But instead of responding with the routine compliance the NYPD expected, patrons and a growing crowd decided to fight back. The five days of rioting that ensued changed forever the face of gay and lesbian life. In Stonewall, renowned historian and activist Martin Duberman tells the full story of this pivotal moment in history. With riveting narrative skill, he recreates those revolutionary, sweltering nights in vivid detail through the lives of six people who were drawn into the struggle for LGBTQ rights.

Stonewall

7450bc30-9b47-4fc7-ba1f-d0fb2abb9e74-1

Lisa McMann

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Wake; Fade; Gone

Stay up all night with this New York Times bestselling romantic suspense story from the “queen of supernatural thrillers” (Kirkus Reviews). Janie Hannagan lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn’t want and can’t control: She gets sucked into other people’s dreams. Things go from bad to worse when Janie is sucked into a chilling nightmare—and for the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else’s twisted psyche. She is a participant. Janie discovers that local burnout Cabel is the person having the nightmares—and that Cabel is hiding a few secrets of his own. As these two outsiders come together to learn more about how to harness Janie’s ability, they also find themselves growing ever closer...

Don't Close Your Eyes

56ce651c-1e15-446a-a3fe-ae7edc9d5b01-1

Natasha Preston

There may only be one killer, but no one is innocent in this new young adult thriller from Natasha Preston, author of The Cellar, a New York Times Bestseller, and Awake They think they're invincible. They think they can do and say whatever they want. They think there are no consequences. They've left me no choice. It's time for them to pay for their sins. A weekend partying at a remote cabin is just what Mackenzie needs. She can't wait to let loose with her friends. But a crazy night of fun leaves two of them dead-murdered. With no signs of a forced entry or struggle, suspicion turns to the five survivors. Someone isn't telling the truth. And Mackenzie's first mistake? Assuming the killing is over...

The Cabin

b9e6aa31-0d9b-47d5-bfac-a661083433b7-1

Siri Hustvedt

Essays on Art, Sex, and the Mind

A compelling, radical, "richly explored" (The New York Times Book Review), and "insightful" (Vanity Fair) collection of essays on art, feminism, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy from prize-winning novelist Siri Hustvedt, the acclaimed author of The Blazing World and What I Loved.

In a trilogy of works brought together in a single volume, Siri Hustvedt demonstrates the striking range and depth of her knowledge in both the humanities and the sciences. Armed with passionate curiosity, a sense of humor, and insights from many disciplines she repeatedly upends received ideas and cultural truisms.

"A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women" (which provided the title of this book) examines particular artworks but also human perception itself, including the biases that influence how we judge art, literature, and the world. Picasso, de Kooning, Louise Bourgeois, Anselm Kiefer, Susan Sontag, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Karl Ove Knausgaard all come under Hustvedt's intense scrutiny. "The Delusions of Certainty" exposes how the age-old, unresolved mind-body problem has shaped and often distorted and confused contemporary thought in neuroscience, psychiatry, genetics, artificial intelligence, and evolutionary psychology. "What Are We? Lectures on the Human Condition" includes a powerful reading of Kierkegaard, a trenchant analysis of suicide, and penetrating reflections on the mysteries of hysteria, synesthesia, memory and space, and the philosophical dilemmas of fiction.

A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women is an "erudite" (Booklist), "wide-ranging, irreverent, and absorbing meditation on thinking, knowing, and being" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women

a4e9022e-9c63-440e-b548-2ac2ca269fe3-1

Ken Liu

Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation

Science fiction readers the world over have recently become familiar with Ken Liu’s Chinese translation work via The Three-Body Problem, the bestselling and Hugo award-winning novel by acclaimed Chinese author Cixin Liu. Ken Liu has now assembled, translated, andedited an anthology of Chinese science fiction stories, the most comprehensive collection yet available in the English language, sure to thrill and gratify readers developing a taste and excitement for Chinese SF. Thethirteen stories in this collection, including two by Cixin Liu and the Hugoand Sturgeon Award-nominated “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang, add up to astrong and diverse representation of Chinese SF. Some have won awards, some have garnered serioius critical acclaim, some have been selected for Year’s Best anthologies, and some are simply Ken Liu’s personal favorites. To roundout the collection, there are several essays from Chinese scholars and authors, plus an illuminating introduction by Ken Liu. Anyone with an interest in international science fiction will find Invisible Planets an indispensable addition to their collection.

Invisible Planets

7da53b0f-d6ad-44c1-b6fd-7ec581f7ca33-1

Robert Fagles

Bruce M. King

Ennis Rees

Homer

The Iliad

cf4b4de4-57c5-4e66-8c33-90f26133ec82-1

Veronica Roth

Paperback features over fifty pages of bonus materials, including a sneak peek of Insurgent, an author Q&A, a discussion guide, a Divergent playlist, faction manifestos, and more! In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her. Veronica Roth is the New York Times bestselling author of Divergent, the first in a trilogy of dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

Divergent

f0c6ce60-19c7-4cf1-bb7b-61ca51a0e9e4-1

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Maurice Cranston

'Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains'

These are the famous opening words of a treatise that has not ceased to stir vigorous debate since its first publication in 1762. Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others, Rousseau argues instead for a pact, or 'social contract', that should exist between all the citizens of a state and that should be the source of sovereign power. From this fundamental premise, he goes on to consider issues of liberty and law, freedom and justice, arriving at a view of society that has seemed to some a blueprint for totalitarianism, to others a declaration of democratic principles.

The Social Contract

3837aea0-5325-413b-857d-9cf0cf570286-1

Linda Tuhiwai Smith

Social Studies

Research and Indigenous Peoples

After a long awaited 13 years, the new Second Edition of the best-selling methodology textbook is finally here. The Second Edition of Decolonizing Methodologies by Linda Tuhiwai Smith has been heavily updated with: * A brand NEW Foreword * Entire NEW Chapter 11 * Substantially revised chapter 5, 7, 8 and Conclusion The Second Edition of Decolonizing Methodologies will be the essential textbook for anyone involved in researching indigenous people, and a classic text in research methodology. To the colonized, the term "research" is conflated with colonialism; academic research steeped in imperialism remains a painful reality. This essential volume explores intersections of imperialism and research - specifically, the ways in which imperialism is embedded in disciplines of knowledge and tradition as "regimes of truth." Concepts such as "discovery" and "claiming" are discussed and an argument presented that the decolonization of research methods will help to reclaim control over indigenous ways of knowing and being. Now in its eagerly awaited second edition, this bestselling book has been substantially revised, with new case studies and examples and important additions on new indigenous literature and the role of research in indigenous struggles for social justice, which brings this essential volume urgently up-to-date.

Decolonizing Methodologies

af4a2cbe-598f-4f70-a421-a95dd58a0ee9-0

Joelle Wellington

Eighteen-year-old Adina Walker, a scholarship student at a prestigious academy, faces the consequences of a single mistake and competes in a high-stakes contest hosted by the wealthy Remington family, where she uncovers unsettling truths about the sponsors and the contest's high stakes.

Their Vicious Games

a1782114-220e-4529-affa-c6dbf4d70d40-1

Ibram X. Kendi

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a “groundbreaking” (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society—and in ourselves. “The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.”—The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • The Washington Post • Shelf Awareness • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly • Kirkus Reviews Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society. Praise for How to Be an Antiracist “Ibram X. Kendi’s new book, How to Be an Antiracist, couldn’t come at a better time. . . . Kendi has gifted us with a book that is not only an essential instruction manual but also a memoir of the author’s own path from anti-black racism to anti-white racism and, finally, to antiracism. . . . How to Be an Antiracist gives us a clear and compelling way to approach, as Kendi puts it in his introduction, ‘the basic struggle we’re all in, the struggle to be fully human and to see that others are fully human.’ ”—NPR “Kendi dissects why in a society where so few people consider themselves to be racist the divisions and inequalities of racism remain so prevalent. How to Be an Antiracist punctures the myths of a post-racial America, examining what racism really is—and what we should do about it.”—Time

How to Be an Antiracist

30422257-4017-4a44-850d-a45829021809-1

Beverly Daniel Tatum

And Other Conversations about Race

The classic, bestselling book on the psychology of racism-now fully revised and updated Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious. This fully revised edition is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of race in America. "An unusually sensitive work about the racial barriers that still divide us in so many areas of life."-Jonathan Kozol

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

32922644-4b84-4878-8ee3-86627965f444-1

Andrea Lawlor

"HOT" --Maggie Nelson "TIGHT" --Eileen Myles "DEEP" --Michelle Tea It's 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flaneur with a rich dating life. But Paul's also got a secret: he's a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Paul transforms his body and his gender at will as he crossed the country--a journey and adventure through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is a riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman whose hero/ine wends his/her way through a world gutted by loss, pulsing with music, and opening into an array of intimacy and connections.

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

e1a41b11-84ee-46e9-af24-6c98b165ee7f-1

Ned Vizzini

Jeremy Heere is your average high school dork. Day after day, he stares at beautiful Christine, the girl he can never have, and dryly notes the small humiliations that come his way. Until the day he learns about the "squip." A pill-sized supercomputer that you swallow, the squip is guaranteed to bring you whatever you most desire in life. By instructing him on everything from what to wear, to how to talk and walk, the squip transforms Jeremy from Supergeek to superchic.

Be More Chill

7c63686f-251c-4a01-963d-55c77f49c5fe-1

Ava Dellaira

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

When Laurel starts writing letters to dead people for a school assignment, she begins to spill about her sister's mysterious death, her mother's departure from the family, her new friends, and her first love.

Love Letters to the Dead

2a2c636a-d358-46a7-9779-a6d091b855d3-1

Jason Reynolds

“An intense snapshot of the chain reaction caused by pulling a trigger.” —Booklist (starred review) “Astonishing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A tour de force.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) A Newbery Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Honor Book A Printz Honor Book A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner for Young Adult Literature Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award An Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner An Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017 A Vulture Best YA Book of 2017 A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017 An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds’s electrifying novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother. A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer A tool for RULE Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES. And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if Will gets off that elevator. Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.

Long Way Down

a8eee71b-9f70-4047-8bde-43dcf16ca330-1

Sallust

Josiah Osgood

An Ancient Guide to Saving a Republic

"In 63 BC the corrupt aristocrat Lucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline in English) aimed to topple the Roman Republic. Catiline attracted a wide array of supporters: debt-ridden men and women from prominent families, youths looking for adventure, the less well-off tried of a political class that seemed only to look out for its own interests. Frustrated in his efforts to be elected consul, Catiline fled Rome while several of his associates stayed behind with secret plans to torch the city and murder its leading politicians. The story of Catiline and his conspiracy is recounted by the Roman historian Sallust in his short book, The War with Catiline Sallust's account culminates with the unmasking of these urban conspirators at a meeting of the Senate, followed by a stormy debate that led to their execution, and then the ultimate defeat of Catiline and his legions in battle. While Catiline is at the heart of the story, some of the most important figures of Roman history play key roles in the story: Cicero, the ambitious young senator who calculated how best to protect Rome; Julius Caesar, who delivers a memorable speech defending the conspirators against execution; and Cato, an ardent defender of the Republic. Catiline himself is a fascinating figure - a bitter and haunted man, determined to destroy Rome, yet sympathetic to the plight of struggling Romans. This book offers a new translation of Sallust's account of the thwarted conspiracy framed for a contemporary audience. As the translator Josiah Osgood notes in his introduction, Sallust's work is not limited to just recounting the conspiracy but engages with broader questions, still relevant today, about how republics flourish and how they break down. Sallust also poignantly describes how the corruption of Rome's leaders, worried less about the common good and more about their own advancement, spread like a disease through Roman society. Claims of conspiracy, across the political spectrum, have abounded in our time much as they did in Ancient Rome. While Catiline's plot was real and the charges of conspiracy well-founded, Osgood aims to show how Sallust's short work can help us to think about the allure of explaining the world through conspiracies, both real and imagined. This makes it a still useful source of wisdom for reflecting on a very real problem for contemporary republics"--

How to Stop a Conspiracy

4c52c7b9-b0a4-4f4c-bc03-7b5673f80aec-0

Ryleigh Anderson

Browse by categories