James Gleick

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

The Acceleration of Just about Everything

Synchronize your watches. We have reached the epoch of the nanosecond. This is the heyday of speed. If one quality defines our modern, technocratic age, it is acceleration. We are making haste. Our computers, our movies, our sex lives, our prayers -- they all run faster now than ever before. And the more we fill our lives with time-saving devices and time-saving strategies, the more rushed we feel. In Faster, James Gleick explores nothing less than the human condition at the turn of the millennium. He shines a light of enterprising and analytical reporting -- as well as sly wit -- on the newest paradoxes of time. His journey takes us through the bunkers and trenches of a war we barely knew we were fighting: to the atomic clocks of the Directorate of Time, to the waiting rooms that focus our impatience, to the film production studios that test the high-speed limits of our perception, to the air-traffic command centers that give time pressure new meaning. We have become a quick-reflexed, multitasking, channel-flipping, fast-forwarding species. We don't completely understand it, and we're not altogether happy about it. Faster is a mirror held up to our times -- and a mordant reminder of why some things take time.

Faster

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Helen Cooper

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

The Basic Guide to How to Read Music will teach you the principles of reading music in staff notation quickly and painlessly. If you could once read music but have forgotten how, it will refresh your memory. It contains all the terms and symbols you are likely to come across when studying music and explains them fully. Helen Cooper explains the written language of music in greater detail than you might get from your teacher. This book is ideal for the classroom, private lessons, and the home.

The Basic Guide to How to Read Music

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William Faulkner

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

In prose of biblical grandeur and feverish intensity, William Faulkner reconstructed the history of the American South as a tragic legend of courage and cruelty, gallantry and greed, futile nobility and obscene crimes. No single volume better conveys the scope of Faulkner's vision than The Portable Faulkner .

The Portable Faulkner

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Mark Singer

Under the Radar with Chicken Warriors, Left-Wing Patriots, Angry Nudists, and Others

A writer for The New Yorker introduces readers to a surreal, bizarre America, depicting the inside of a cockfighting ring, teenage reporters in a small Texas town, a meeting of obituary writers, the influence of a western Massachusetts diner on its community, and other colorful cultural dimensions of twenty-first-century America.

Somewhere in America

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Karen Armstrong

My Climb Out of Darkness

The author relates her decision to leave her convent after failing to find religious fulfillment, her struggles with depression and epilepsy, her realization of her calling, and her career working with sacred texts.

The Spiral Staircase

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Roberta Munroe

Art, Music, Drama/Theater

Secrets from a Sundance Programmer

Anyone can make a short film, right? Just grab some friends and your handheld and you can do it in a weekend or two before being accepted to a slew of film festivals, right?

Wrong.

Roberta Munroe screened short film submissions at Sundance for five years, and is an award-winning short filmmaker in her own right. So she knows a thing or two about how not to make a short film. From the first draft of your script to casting, production, editing, and distribution, this is your one-stop primer for breaking into the business. Featuring interviews with many of today's most talented writers, producers, and directors, as well as revealing stories (e.g., what to do when the skinhead crack addict next door begins screaming obscenities as soon as you call "action") from the sets of her own short films, Roberta walks you through the minefield of mistakes that an aspiring filmmaker can make--so that you don't have to make them yourself.

How Not to Make a Short Film

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Michael Korenblit

Kathleen Janger

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

A True Story of Love and Survival in the Holocaust

Until We Meet Again

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Jan Harold Brunvand

Did your cousin's wife's dentist's daughter go to the tanning parlor once too often and had her insides cooked? Has your husband's brother's nephew teacher try to make a dead rabbit look alive? If so, you've heard--or you yourself may have told--two of the seventy-plus legends in this collection.



Urban legends are "those bizarre but believable stories about batter-fried rats, spiders in hairdos, Cabbage Patch dolls that get funerals, and the like that pass by word of mouth as being the gospel truth." But of course, though often told as having happened to a FOAF (friend of a friend), they aren't true. Included in this collection are legends about sex, horror, cars, business, and academia. Among them are "The Bible Student's Exam," "The Pregnant Shoplifter," "The Ice Cream Cone Caper," "Don't Mess with Texas," and "Mrs. Fields' Cookie Recipe."

Curses! Broiled Again!

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Nancy Atherton

Penguin's popular Aunt Dimity series returns and "loyal fans will be thrilled by every new revelation"(Kirkus Reviews)

Everyone's favorite paranormal detective is back in Nancy Atherton's thirteenth Aunt Dimity mystery-but this time Lori's supernatural confidante may not be the only one who's not quite dead. Could the cloaked figure Lori's twins saw in the woods near the family's English country cottage really have been a vampire? Atherton's ever-growing legion of fans and all fans of cozy mysteries will find themselves curling up with a nice cup of garlic- er, tea-for the most spine-tingling Aunt Dimity mystery yet.

Watch out for Nancy Atherton's latest, Aunt Dimity and the Widow's Curse, coming in May 2017 from Viking!

Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter

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Jessica Hagy

(in 10 Simple Steps)

You want to leave a mark, not a blemish. Be a hero, not a spectator. You want to be interesting. (Who doesn’t?) But sometimes it takes a nudge, a wake-up call, an intervention!—and a little help. This is where Jessica Hagy comes in. A writer and illustrator of great economy, charm, and insight, she’s created How to Be Interesting, a uniquely inspirational how-to that combines fresh and pithy lessons with deceptively simple diagrams and charts. Ms. Hagy started on Forbes.com, where she’s a weekly blogger, by creating a “How to Be Interesting” post that went viral, attracting 1.4 million viewers so far, with tens of thousands of them liking, linking, and tweeting the article. Now she’s deeply explored the ideas that resonated with so many readers to create this small and quirky book with a large and universal message. It’s a book about exploring: Talk to strangers. About taking chances: Expose yourself to ridicule, to risk, to wild ideas. About being childlike, not childish: Remember how amazing the world was before you learned to be cynical. About being open: Never take in the welcome mat. About breaking routine: Take daily vaca- tions . . . if only for a few minutes. About taking ownership: Whatever you’re doing, enjoy it, embrace it, master it as well as you can. And about growing a pair: If you’re not courageous, you’re going to be hanging around the water cooler, talking about the guy that actually is.

How to Be Interesting

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Kai Bird

Martin J. Sherwin

The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

A portrait of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, discusses his role in the twentieth-century scientific world, as well as his roles as family man and head of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies.

American Prometheus

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Richard P. Feynman

The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a magnificent treasury of the best short works of Richard Feynman—from interviews and speeches to lectures and printed articles. A sweeping, wide-ranging collection, it presents an intimate and fascinating view of a life in science-a life like no other. From his ruminations on science in our culture to his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, this book will fascinate anyone interested in the world of ideas.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

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Chip Walter

And Other Traits That Make Us Human

The fascinating evolutionary links between six seemingly unremarkable traits that make us the very remarkable creatures we are.

Countless behaviors separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom, but all of them can be traced one way or another to six traits that are unique to the human race--our big toe, our opposable thumb, our oddly shaped pharynx, and our ability to laugh, kiss, and cry. At first glance these may not seem to be connected but they are. Each marks a fork in the evolutionary road where we went one way and the rest of the animal kingdom went another. Each opens small passageways on the peculiar geography of the human heart and mind.

Walter weaves together fascinating insights from complexity theory, the latest brain scanning techniques, anthropology, artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, and robotics to explore how the smallest of changes over the past six million years - all shaped by the forces of evolution -- have enabled a primate once on the brink of extinction to evolve into a creature that would one day create all of the grand and exuberant edifices of human culture.

As the story of each trait unfolds, Walter explains why our brains grew so large and complex, why we find one another sexually attractive, how toolmaking laid the mental groundwork for language, why we care about what others think, and how we became the creature that laughs and cries and falls in love. Thumbs, Toes and Tears is original, informative, and delightfully thought-provoking.

Thumbs, Toes, and Tears

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Bruce A. Hathaway

Here is a user-friendly supplementary text for organic chemistry students that can also serve as a review of coursework for advanced students preparing for standardized tests. The author introduces this complex subject with a clear presentation of important principles that underlie most of organic chemistry. Chapters that follow focus on the following topics: alkanes; stereochemistry; alkenes; alkynes; nucleophilic substitution and elimination reactions; free-radical reaction; alcohols and thiols; ethers, thioethers and epoxides; aromatic compounds; amines; aldehydes and ketones; carboxylic acids and derivatives; more chemistry of enols and enolates; and spectroscopy. Review questions and answers follow each chapter.

Organic Chemistry the Easy Way

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Brian Michael Bendis

Joe Quesada

The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels

Best-selling Marvel Comics writer Brian Michael Bendis reveals the comic book writing secrets behind his work on The Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, All-New X-Men, and more. One of the most popular writers in modern comics, Brian Michael Bendis reveals the tools and techniques he and other top creators use to create some of the most popular comic book and graphic novel stories of all time. Words for Pictures shows readers the creative methods of a writer at the very top of his field. Bendis guides aspiring creators through each step of the comics-making process—from idea to script to finished sequential art—for fan favorite comics like The Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men, and more. Along the way, tips and insights from other working writers, artists, and editors provide a rare, extensive look behind the creative curtain of the comics industry. With script samples, a glossary of must-know business terms for writers, and interactive comics-writing exercises, Words for Pictures provides the complete toolbox needed to jump start the next comics-writing success story.

Words for Pictures

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Kurt Vonnegut

A Novel

"A free-wheeling vehicle . . . an unforgettable ride!"--The New York Times 

Cat's Cradle is Kurt Vonnegut's satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet's ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist, a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer, and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny. A book that left an indelible mark on an entire generation of readers, Cat's Cradle is one of the twentieth century's most important works--and Vonnegut at his very best.

"[Vonnegut is] an unimitative and inimitable social satirist."--Harper's Magazine

"Our finest black-humorist . . . We laugh in self-defense."--Atlantic Monthly

Cat's Cradle

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Mark Thompson

An eye-opening and provocative tour of our solar system, from one of Britain’s celebrated astronomists. Have you ever dreamed of being an astronaut, traveling through the universe on your very own space mission? What would it be like to tour the solar system, visiting the sun and the planets, taking in everything from moons to asteroid belts along the way? What would you see, and how would you feel? What would you eat? How would you navigate and produce fuel? How would you survive? On this epic voyage of discovery, astronomer Mark Thompson takes you on that journey. From how to prepare for take-off and the experience of leaving Earth’s atmosphere, to the reality of living in the confines of a spaceship and the strange sensation of weightlessness, this is an adventure like no other. Suit up, strap in, and enjoy the ride!

A Space Traveler's Guide to the Solar System

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Jeff Campbell

The Rise and Fall of Earth's Most Dominant Species

Today, an ancient world is vanishing right before our eyes: the age of giant animals. Over 40,000 years ago, the earth was ruled by megafauna: mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed tigers and giant sloths. Of course, those creatures no longer exist, and there is only one likely reason for that: the evolution and arrival of the earth's only tool-wielding hunter, the wildly adaptive, comparatively pint-sized human species. Many more of the world's biggest and baddest creatures--including the black rhino, the dodo, giant tortoises, and the great auk--have vanished since our world became truly global. Last of the Giants chronicles those giant animals and apex predators pushed to extinction in the modern era. The book also highlights those giant species that remain--even though many barely survive, living in such low numbers that they are on the brink of leaving this world within the next few decades. However, there is hope, for many endangered species can still be saved. As it profiles each extinct and endangered animal, Last of the Giants focuses on the conservation efforts that are trying to preserve the world's remaining charismatic species before they are lost forever.

Last of the Giants

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Greil Marcus

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Greil Marcus delves into three distinct episodes in the history of American commonplace song and shows how each one manages to convey the uncanny sense that it was written by no one. In these seemingly anonymous productions, we discover three different ways of talking about the United States, and three separate nations within its borders.

Three Songs, Three Singers, Three Nations

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Christophe Galfard

A Journey Through Space, Time, and Beyond

"If Ms. Frizzle were a physics student of Stephen Hawking, she might have written THE UNIVERSE IN YOUR HAND, a wild tour through the reaches of time and space, from the interior of a proton to the Big Bang to the rough suburbs of a black hole. It's friendly, excitable, erudite, and cosmic."
--Jordan Ellenberg, New York Times besteselling author of How Not To Be Wrong

Quantum physics, black holes, string theory, the Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy, parallel universes: even if we are interested in these fundamental concepts of our world, their language is the language of math. Which means that despite our best intentions of finally grasping, say, Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, most of us are quickly brought up short by a snarl of nasty equations or an incomprehensible graph.

Christophe Galfard's mission in life is to spread modern scientific ideas to the general public in entertaining ways. Using his considerable skills as a brilliant theoretical physicist and successful young adult author, The Universe in Your Hand employs the immediacy of simple, direct language to show us, not explain to us, the theories that underpin everything we know about our universe. To understand what happens to a dying star, we are asked to picture ourselves floating in space in front of it. To get acquainted with the quantum world, we are shrunk to the size of an atom and then taken on a journey. Employing everyday similes and metaphors, addressing the reader directly, and writing stories rather than equations renders these astoundingly complex ideas in an immediate and visceral way.

Utterly captivating and entirely unique, The Universe in Your Hand will find its place among other classics in the field.

The Universe in Your Hand

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James L. Swanson

The Search for John Wikes Booth

Recounts the escape of John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin, and follows the intensive twelve-day search for him and his accomplices.

Chasing Lincoln's Killer

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Kenji Yoshino

What Shakespeare's Plays Teach Us about Justice

A provocative exploration of justice in our time through fresh readings of Shakespeare's greatest plays Celebrated legal scholar Kenji Yoshino's first book, Covering, was acclaimed–from the New York Times Book Review to O, The Oprah Magazine to the American Lawyer–for its elegant prose, its good humor, and its brilliant insights into civil rights and discrimination law. Now, in A Thousand Times More Fair, Yoshino turns his attention to the broad question of what makes a fair and just society, and he delves deep into a surprising source to answer it: Shakespeare's greatest plays. An enormously creative and provocative book, A Thousand Times More Fair addresses fundamental questions we ask about our world today: Why is the rule of law better than revenge? How much mercy should we show a wrongdoer? What does it mean to "prove" guilt or innocence? As Yoshino argues, a searching examination of Shakespeare's plays–and the many advocates, judges, criminals, and vigilantes who populate them–can elucidate some of the most troubling issues in contemporary life. With a great ear for Shakespeare and an eye trained steadily on current affairs, Yoshino considers how competing models of judging presented in Measure for Measure resurfaced around the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor; how the revenge cycle of Titus Andronicus illuminates the "war on terror" and our military engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq; how the white handkerchief in Othello and the black glove in the O. J. Simpson trial reflect forms of proof that overwhelm all other evidence; and how the spectacle of an omnipotent ruler voluntarily surrendering power in The Tempest, as Cincinnatus did before him and George Washington did after him, informs regime change in our own time. A Thousand Times More Fair is an altogether original book about Shakespeare and the law, and an ideal starting point to explore the nature of a just society–and our own.

A Thousand Times More Fair

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Ken Follett

Two centuries after the building of the elaborate Gothic cathedral in Kingsbridge, its prior finds himself at the center of a web of ambition and revenge that places the city at a crossroad of commerce, medicine, and architecture.

World Without End

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Richard B. Lyttle

The Man and the Image

Surveys the life of an artist who had a major influence on 20th century art.

Pablo Picasso

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