Ji-Li Jiang

2013. Unpaginated.

This book is a tale of father and son separated during China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and the hope they carry in flying kites, like they once did together, until they are reunited.

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Delaware

When Tai Shan and his father, Baba, fly kites from their roof and look down at the crowded city streets below, they feel free, like the kites. Baba loves telling Tai Shan stories while the kites--one red, and one blue--rise, dip, and soar together. Then, a bad time comes. People wearing red armbands shut down the schools, smash store signs, and search houses. Baba is sent away, and Tai Shan goes to live with Granny Wang. Though father and son are far apart, they have a secret way of staying close. Every day they greet each other by flying their kites—one red, and one blue—until Baba can be free again, like the kites. Inspired by the dark time of the Cultural Revolution in China, this is a soaring tale of hope that will resonate with anyone who has ever had to love from a distance.

Red Kite, Blue Kite

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Helen Prejean

2019. 294 pgs.

Sister Helen Prejean tells her story that led up to Dead Man Walking, the account of her fight against the death penalty. 


Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

My Spiritual Journey

“River of Fire is Sister Helen’s story leading up to her acclaimed book Dead Man Walking—it is thought-provoking, informative, and inspiring. Read it and it will set your heart ablaze!”—Mark Shriver, author of Pilgrimage: My Search for the Real Pope Francis The nation’s foremost leader in efforts to abolish the death penalty shares the story of her growth as a spiritual leader, speaks out about the challenges of the Catholic Church, and shows that joy and religion are not mutually exclusive. Sister Helen Prejean’s work as an activist nun, campaigning to educate Americans about the inhumanity of the death penalty, is known to millions worldwide. Less widely known is the evolution of her spiritual journey from praying for God to solve the world’s problems to engaging full-tilt in working to transform societal injustices. Sister Helen grew up in a well-off Baton Rouge family that still employed black servants. She joined the Sisters of St. Joseph at the age of eighteen and was in her forties when she had an awakening that her life’s work was to immerse herself in the struggle of poor people forced to live on the margins of society. Sister Helen writes about the relationships with friends, fellow nuns, and mentors who have shaped her over the years. In this honest and fiercely open account, she writes about her close friendship with a priest, intent on marrying her, that challenged her vocation in the “new territory of the heart.” The final page of River of Fire ends with the opening page of Dead Man Walking, when she was first invited to correspond with a man on Louisiana’s death row. River of Fire is a book for anyone interested in journeys of faith and spirituality, doubt and belief, and “catching on fire” to purpose and passion. It is a book, written in accessible, luminous prose, about how to live a spiritual life that is wide awake to the sufferings and creative opportunities of our world. “Prejean chronicles the compelling, sometimes-difficult journey to the heart of her soul and faith with wit, honesty, and intelligence. A refreshingly intimate memoir of a life in faith.”—Kirkus Reviews

River of Fire

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Zadie Smith

2018. 452 pgs. 
National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. 
By the author of White Teeth (fiction), this book tackles cultural and political issues. 

Ex-library book (see photos). Unmarked with a few smudges and very good binding. Dust jacket is covered in Mylar. 


Essays

Winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Notable Book From Zadie Smith, one of the most beloved authors of her generation, a new collection of essays Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the world's preeminent fiction writers, but also a brilliant and singular essayist. She contributes regularly to The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books on a range of subjects, and each piece of hers is a literary event in its own right. Arranged into five sections--In the World, In the Audience, In the Gallery, On the Bookshelf, and Feel Free--this new collection poses questions we immediately recognize. What is The Social Network--and Facebook itself--really about? "It's a cruel portrait of us: 500 million sentient people entrapped in the recent careless thoughts of a Harvard sophomore." Why do we love libraries? "Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay." What will we tell our granddaughters about our collective failure to address global warming? "So I might say to her, look: the thing you have to appreciate is that we'd just been through a century of relativism and deconstruction, in which we were informed that most of our fondest-held principles were either uncertain or simple wishful thinking, and in many areas of our lives we had already been asked to accept that nothing is essential and everything changes--and this had taken the fight out of us somewhat." Gathering in one place for the first time previously unpublished work, as well as already classic essays, such as, "Joy," and, "Find Your Beach," Feel Free offers a survey of important recent events in culture and politics, as well as Smith's own life. Equally at home in the world of good books and bad politics, Brooklyn-born rappers and the work of Swiss novelists, she is by turns wry, heartfelt, indignant, and incisive--and never any less than perfect company. This is literary journalism at its zenith. Zadie Smith's new book, Grand Union, is on sale 10/8/2019.

Feel Free

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e. e. cummings

1996. 188 pgs. 

Originally published in 1923, this volume indicates that the editor “has gone back to the poet’s original manuscripts to ensure the absolute accuracy of the transcriptions.” As we know with cummings, every space and line reflect conscious decisions made as he developed his revolutionary form. 

Clean, unmarked volume with tight binding. Note the covers are slightly scuffed. 

This edition was published by Liveright. A later edition was published in 2022 by a different publisher with 120 pages. Whether it contains the same number of poems, along with this volume’s excellent intro, I do not know. 

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Fresh and candid, by turns earthy, tender, defiant, and romantic, Cummings's poems celebrate the uniqueness of each individual, the need to protest the dehumanizing force of organizations, and the exuberant power of love.

Tulips and Chimneys

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W. G. Sebald

Anthea Bell

2001. 298 pgs. 

First-person fictional account follows a man named Jacques Austerlitz as he roams Central Europe in search of his heritage, having been sent alone as a child to England at the onset of World War Two. Interesting photos and illustrations appear throughout. 

The title page has an embossed stamp of the former owner. The dust jacket is covered in Mylar. The interior is clean and the binding is tight. 

Over the course of a thirty-year conversation unfolding in train stations and travelers’ stops across England and Europe, W.G. Sebald’s unnamed narrator and Jacques Austerlitz discuss Austerlitz’s ongoing efforts to understand who he is. An orphan who came to England alone in the summer of 1939 and was raised by a Welsh Methodist minister and his wife as their own, Austerlitz grew up with no conscious memory of where he came from. W.G. Sebald embodies in Austerlitz the universal human search for identity, the struggle to impose coherence on memory, a struggle complicated by the mind’s defenses against trauma. Along the way, this novel of many riches dwells magically on a variety of subjects -- railway architecture, military fortifications; insets, plants, and animals; the constellations; works of art; the strange contents of the museum of a veterinary school; a small circus; and the three capital cities that loom over the book, London, Paris, and Prague -- in the service of its astounding vision.

Austerlitz

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Sharon Salzberg

Joseph Goldstein

2001. 

Boxed course on meditation includes a 240 page spiral-bound workbook, two CDs (70 minutes each), and 12 study cards. 

Nine lessons. 

Clean condition without marks. 

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Insight Meditation: A Step-by-Step Course on How to Meditate 

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Mary Roach

2021. 308 pgs. 

Mary Roach is known for her idiosyncratic topics, and once again she does not disappoint us. Here she finds humans are problematic in relation to wildlife—this after roaming the globe. Chapters have subjects like Maul Cops, The Monkey Fix, Mercurial Cougars, and The Gulls of St. Peter’s. 

Clean, like new paperback except for clipped corner on the title page (see above photo).

What's to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.

Roach tags along with animal-attack forensics investigators, human-elephant conflict specialists, bear managers, and "danger tree" faller blasters. Intrepid as ever, she travels from leopard-terrorized hamlets in the Indian Himalaya to St. Peter's Square in the early hours before the pope arrives for Easter Mass, when vandal gulls swoop in to destroy the elaborate floral display. She taste-tests rat bait, learns how to install a vulture effigy, and gets mugged by a macaque.

Combining little-known forensic science and conservation genetics with a motley cast of laser scarecrows, langur impersonators, and trespassing squirrels, Roach reveals as much about humanity as about nature's lawbreakers. When it comes to "problem" wildlife, she finds, humans are more often the problem--and the solution. Fascinating, witty, and humane, Fuzz offers hope for compassionate coexistence in our ever-expanding human habitat.

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law

205beb2f-539d-4cbe-9232-059e0a7d1c8f

Daniel Pool

1993. 416 pgs. 

Rituals, customs, culture: dive into 19th century England and its private life, grim circumstances, and public worlds. Extensive glossary (shire? prog? nullifidian?)

Clean, unmarked, tightly bound. Outer edges of pages lightly sunned (yellowed).

From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England

Essays provide a view of British life during the nineteenth century

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew

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Jack Kornfield

2008. 93 pgs. Includes unopened CD. 

Sections address why one might meditate, the benefits of meditation, and how to begin a meditation practice. The author has a Ph.D. In clinical psychology and founded the Insight Meditation Society as well as Spirit Rock Center. He trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma, and India. 

While the binding is tight and pages clean and unmarked, the outer edges of pages are sunned (yellowed). 

Offers a straightforward, step-by-step method for bringing the fruits of meditation into one's life, enabling readers to create tranquility and lovingkindness every day. Original.

Meditation for Beginners

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Anita Clair Fellman

2008. 343 pgs. 
University of Missouri Press

Laura Ingalls Wilder, together with her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, created a series of books present in nearly every school library in the U.S. Within those books are deep political and cultural influences about which we may not be aware and Fellman brings them to the forefront.

Clean. One small red dot on the bottom pages’ edge. Binding is in good condition. Dust jacket in Mylar cover. 

Laura Ingalls Wilder's Impact on American Culture

Beyond their status as classic children’s stories, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books play a significant role in American culture that most people cannot begin to appreciate. Millions of children have sampled the books in school; played out the roles of Laura and Mary; or visited Wilder homesites with their parents, who may be fans themselves. Yet, as Anita Clair Fellman shows, there is even more to this magical series with its clear emotional appeal: a covert political message that made many readers comfortable with the resurgence of conservatism in the Reagan years and beyond. In Little House, Long Shadow, a leading Wilder scholar offers a fresh interpretation of the Little House books that examines how this beloved body of children’s literature found its way into many facets of our culture and consciousness—even influencing the responsiveness of Americans to particular political views. Because both Wilder and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, opposed the New Deal programs being implemented during the period in which they wrote, their books reflect their use of family history as an argument against the state’s protection of individuals from economic uncertainty. Their writing emphasized the isolation of the Ingalls family and the family’s resilience in the face of crises and consistently equated self-sufficiency with family acceptance, security, and warmth. Fellman argues that the popularity of these books—abetted by Lane’s overtly libertarian views—helped lay the groundwork for a negative response to big government and a positive view of political individualism, contributing to the acceptance of contemporary conservatism while perpetuating a mythic West. Beyond tracing the emergence of this influence in the relationship between Wilder and her daughter, Fellman explores the continuing presence of the books—and their message—in modern cultural institutions from classrooms to tourism, newspaper editorials to Internet message boards. Little House, Long Shadow shows how ostensibly apolitical artifacts of popular culture can help explain shifts in political assumptions. It is a pioneering look at the dissemination of books in our culture that expands the discussion of recent political transformations—and suggests that sources other than political rhetoric have contributed to Americans’ renewed appreciation of individualist ideals.

Little House, Long Shadow

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A. N. Wilson

2002. 724 pgs. 

Organized chronologically, the many topics include the famine in Ireland, the Crimean War, Kipling’s India, the Boer War—with the historical figures of those eras. 

Clean, tightly bound, unmarked.

A revisionist panorama of the nineteenth century examines the era's material and spiritual changes in the wake of emerging British capitalism and imperialism.

The Victorians

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William Kittredge

ADVANCED READING COPY

1997. 595 pgs. 

This edition lists at $20 in the trade paperback edition. 

Sections include the following: 
—Ancient Stories (Native American writing) with pieces by Joy Harjo, James Welch, and Linda Hogan.
—Transcending the Western with writers like Walt Whitman, Jack London, Theodore Roethke, and Ivan Doig.
—Our Own Stories with Ken Kesey, Edward Abbey, and Tess Gallagher.
—Brilliant Possibilities featuring Robert Hass, Leslie Mormon Silko, Jimmy Santiago Baca, and Terry Tempest Williams. 

Not exclusively fiction but also poetry and nonfiction.

Clean, unmarked, tight binding.

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

A collection of Western stories, poems, essays, and excerpts from more than seventy authors.

The Portable Western Reader

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Aaron James

2012. 221 pgs.

What does a Ph.D. from Harvard have to tell us about assholes? Quite a lot, actually—chapters include “Newer Asshole Styles,” “Asshole Management,” “Asshole Capitalism,” and my favorite, “Naming Names” (in which Obama is declared an antiasshole and folks as various as Dick Cheney and Naomi Campbell are considered). 

Clean, crisp, unmarked with dust jacket in Mylar. 

A Theory

A philosophy professor describes the elements that can combine to make someone behave in an unbelievably disturbing and stress-causing manner and offers practical concepts to help develop constructive ways of dealing with these people and the problems they pose. 40,000 first printing.

Assholes

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Rick Hanson

2011. 224 pgs. 

Sections include the following:
—Be good to yourself 
—Enjoy life 
—Build strengths
—Engage the world 
—Be at peace

Each section has numerous practices within it.

Tightly bound as well as clean and unmarked.

Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time

A follow-up to Buddha's Brain outlines dozens of accessible meditative practices involving techniques that range from promoting relaxation to experiencing gratitude, explaining the neuroscience and psychology behind specific practices and how they can reduce stress and promote inner peace. Original.

Just One Thing

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Lawrence LeShan

1974. 226 pgs.

Chapters range from why one meditates to psychological and physiological effects to social significance . . . as well as how to meditate.

While unmarked, the pages are sunned (yellowed). 

A Guide to Self-Discovery

How to Meditate

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Clifton E. Marsh

2000. 223 pgs. 

Excellent bibliography. Chapters include the following:
—Black Nationalism as a Social Movement 
—Social Conditions, 1914-1930
—The Moorish Science Temple, 1913-1959
—Minister Malcolm X Shabazz, 1925-1965
—The Nation of Islam and the World Community of Al-Islam in the West, 1965-1980
—Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam: Continuation of the African Nationalist Legacy, 1815-1994
—Historical and Philosophical Analysis on the Ideological Dispute between Imam Warith Deen Muhammad and Minister Louis Farrakhan, 1974-1980
—Growth, Development, and Change of the American Muslim Mission and the Nation of Islam, 1980-1990
—The Nation of Islam from the Halls of the U.S. Congress to the Black Star Square in Accra, Ghana, 1990-1994

Interviews with Imam Wallace D. Muhammad and Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad 

Clean, unmarked, with tight binding.

This book sheds light on The Nation of Islam and Minister Louis Farrakhan, from the ideological splits in the Nation of Islam during the 1970s, to the growth and expanding influence in the 1990s.

The Lost-Found Nation of Islam in America

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Colson Whitehead

2016. 306 pgs. 

The weaving of time—past and present—results in an undeniable masterpiece portraying the horrors of slavery and the unmet promises of the United States today.

Dust jacket in Mylar cover. Tightly bound, clean, unmarked. 

A Novel

"Oprah's Book Club 2016 selection"--Sticker on jacket.

The Underground Railroad

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Donna Tartt

2013. 771 pgs. 

Tartt’s dazzling writing tells the story of a suddenly orphaned boy in New York City. 

Clean, unmarked, with tight binding. Dust jacket in Mylar cover. 

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

The Goldfinch

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Richard Mendius

2009. 251 pgs. 

While Buddhism is often considered under the umbrella of religion, this book demonstrates its neuroscientific underpinnings to show how meditation changes our brains for us to experience happiness.

Clean, tightly bound, unmarked.

The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

Blending modern neuroscience with ancient Buddhist teaching, explains how elements of psychological well-being and spiritual awareness are based in the core functions of the brain and offers exercises to help rewire the brain to achieve peace, happiness,and wisdom.

Buddha's Brain

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Ta-Nehisi Coates

Stan Lee

2016. Unpaginated.

The beginning of the new era—T’Challa leads Wakanda in a time of threat and unrest. 

Clean, unmarked, tight binding.

A Nation under Our Feet: Book 1

A new era begins for the Black Panther! MacArthur Genius and National Book Award-winning writer T-Nehisi Coates (BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME) takes the helm, confronting T'Challa with a dramatic upheaval in Wakanda that will make leading the African nation tougher than ever before. When a superhuman terrorist group that calls itself The People sparks a violent uprising, the land famed for its incredible technology and proud warrior traditions will be thrown into turmoil. If Wakanda is to survive, it must adapt--but can its monarch, one in a long line of Black Panthers, survive the necessary change? Heavy lies the head that wears the cowl! COLLECTING: Black Panther 1-4, Fantastic Four (1961) 52

Black Panther

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Philip Wilkinson

Caroline Stone

2002. 64 pgs. 

Part of the excellent D.K. Eyewitness book series often found in elementary classrooms. Highly illustrated with photos. Contents include sections on the prophet Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islamic culture and society. 

Clean, unmarked, tightly bound copy. Currently offered for $35 on Amazon.

Describes Islam including its beliefs, history, and civilization.

Islam

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William Kamkwamba

Bryan Mealer

2012. Unpaginated.

This is the picture book edition of the true story of a boy who saved his village through ingenuity. 

While new—unmarked with a tight binding—the interior lower right of pages are slightly warped.

When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba's Malawi village was hit by a drought, everyone's crops began to fail. Without enough money for food, let alone school, William spent his days in the library . . . and figured out how to bring electricity to his village. Persevering against the odds, William built a functioning windmill out of junkyard scraps, and thus became the local hero who harnessed the wind. Lyrically told and gloriously illustrated, this story will inspire many as it shows how - even in the worst of times - a great idea and a lot of hard work can still rock the world.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Picture Book Edition 

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Marie Kondo

2014. 213 pgs.

If it doesn’t bring you joy, get rid of it, recommends Kondo. And yet—this guide is much, much more supporting a search for a peaceful, organized environment.

Clean, tight binding, unmarked.

The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

Presents a guide to cleaning and organizing a living space, discussing best methods for decluttering and the impact that an organized home can have on mood and physical and mental health.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

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Michael Patrick Hearn

1988. 385 pgs.

Excellent introduction by Michael Patrick Hearn, and part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale & Folklore Library series, this book contains works by such authors as J.M.Barrie (excerpt from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens), Oscar Wilde (The Selfish Giant), George MacDonald (The Golden Key), Christina Rossetti (Goblin Market), and others from the age.

Nearly every story is illustrated by the artists from the original editions, such as Maxfield Parrish and Arthur Rackham. Reproduced in black and white.

Clean, unmarked, tight binding. 

From Robert Browning’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin and William Makepeace Thackeray’s The Rose and the Ring to Kenneth Grahme’s The Reluctant Dragon and J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, here are seventeen classic stories and poems from the golden age of the English fairy tale. Some of them amuse, some enchant, some satirize and criticize, but each one is an expression of the joy of living. Accompanied by illustrations from the original editions of these works this collection will delight readers both young and old. Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

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Ji-Li Jiang; illustrated by Greg Ruth