Stephen Nissenbaum

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Indiana

A Cultural History of America's Most Cherished Holiday

Anyone who laments the excesses of Christmas might consider the Puritans of colonial Massachusetts: they simply outlawed the holiday. The Puritans had their reasons, since Christmas was once an occasion for drunkenness and riot, when poor "wassailers extorted food and drink from the well-to-do. In this intriguing and innovative work of social history, Stephen Nissenbaum rediscovers Christmas's carnival origins and shows how it was transformed, during the nineteenth century, into a festival of domesticity and consumerism. Drawing on a wealth of period documents and illustrations, Nissenbaum charts the invention of our current Yuletide traditions, from St. Nicholas to the Christmas tree and, perhaps most radically, the practice of giving gifts to children. Bursting with detail, filled with subversive readings of such seasonal classics as "A Visit from St. Nicholas” and A Christmas Carol, The Battle for Christmas captures the glorious strangeness of the past even as it helps us better understand our present.

The Battle for Christmas

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#paperback #men #XY #gender #culturewars #fascinating #assertiveness #women #feminism

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

New York

Why do men need to feel important? It's their manliness. But is manliness obsolete? Is it even a virtue?

This book invites--no, demands--a response from its readers. It is impossible not to be drawn in to the provocative (often contentious) discussion that Harvey Mansfield sets before us. This is the first comprehensive study of manliness, a quality both bad and good, mostly male, often intolerant, irrational, and ambitious. Our "gender-neutral society" does not like it but cannot get rid of it. Drawing from science, literature, and philosophy, Mansfield examines the layers of manliness, from vulgar aggression, to assertive manliness, to manliness as virtue, and to philosophical manliness. He shows that manliness seeks and welcomes drama, prefers times of war, conflict, and risk, and brings change or restores order at crucial moments. Manly men in their assertiveness raise issues, bring them to the fore, and make them public and political--as for example, the manliness of the women's movement. After a wide-ranging tour from stereotypes to Hemingway and Achilles, to Nietzsche, to feminism, and to Plato, the author returns to today's problem of "unemployed manliness." Formulating a reasoned defense of a quality hardly obedient to reason, he urges men, and especially women, to understand and accept manliness, and to give it honest and honorable employment.

Manliness

7790cc60-b3a6-43c4-bb4a-184982b890a0-1

Missouri

A Manor Cat Mystery 

Lady Rights a Wrong 

A Paris Apartment: April Vogt, Sorheby’s continental furniture specialist, is speechless when a Paris apartment shuttered for 70 years is discovered. Beneath the cobwebs and stale perfumed air is a gold mine, and not because of the actual gold. There are letters and journals, written by the very woman in a famous painting. These documents revealed that she was more than a renowned courtesan. Suddenly April’s quest is no longer about the bureaux plats and Louis-style armchairs that will fetch millions at auction. It’s about discovering the story behind this charismatic woman.
I’ll see you in Paris: Gladys Spencer-Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, was a woman whose life was so rich in story it could fill several books. Nearly a century after Gladys‘s heyday, a young woman’s quest to understand the legendary Duchess takes her from a charming Hamlet in the English countryside, to a dilapidated manse kept behind barbed wire, and ultimately to Paris, where answers will be found at last. In the end, she not only solves the riddle of the Duchess, but also uncovers the missing pieces in her own life.

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Arkansas

A Paris Apartment/I’ll See You in Paris

New York Times Bestseller, The Real Story Behind The Crown

The Life of a Modern Monarch 

Elizabeth The Queen 

Dan Brown

Texas

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon and French cryptologist Sophie Neveu work to solve the murder of an elderly curator of the Louvre, a case which leads to clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci and a centuries-old secret society.

The Da Vinci Code

eae474b9-55ba-418e-9a88-5b8c7e8b4e46-1

North Carolina

Connecticut

A smart, witty, accessible, and laugh-out-loud funny reflection on human nature brilliantly describes all that science has to tell us about the uniquely human ability to envision the future, and how likely we are to enjoy it when we get there. Reprint.

Stumbling on Happiness

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Rachel Kadish

Illinois

An intellectual and emotional jigsaw puzzle of a novel for readers of A. S. Byatt's Possession and Geraldine Brooks's The People of the Book

The Weight of Ink

5d6305ad-f83f-40c8-ae96-953b503d5fad-1

Virginia

Colorado

A Novel

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A pair of sisters find themselves at a crossroads in this dazzling new novel from the author of Something Borrowed, Where We Belong, and The One & Only. First Comes Love is a story about family, friendship, and the courage to follow your own heart--wherever that may lead. Growing up, Josie and Meredith Garland shared a loving, if sometimes contentious, relationship. Josie was impulsive, spirited, and outgoing, Meredith hardworking, thoughtful, and reserved. When tragedy strikes, their delicate bond splinters. Fifteen years later, Josie and Meredith are in their late thirties, following very different paths. Josie, a first grade teacher, is single--and this close to swearing off dating for good. What she wants more than the right guy, however, is to become a mother--a feeling that is heightened when her ex-boyfriend's daughter is assigned to her class. Determined to have the future she's always wanted, Josie decides to take matters into her own hands. On the outside, Meredith is the model daughter with the perfect life. A successful attorney, she's married to a wonderful man, and together they're raising a beautiful four-year-old daughter. Yet lately Meredith feels dissatisfied and restless, secretly wondering if she chose the life that was expected of her rather than the one she truly desired. As the anniversary of their tragedy looms, and painful secrets from the past begin to surface, Josie and Meredith must not only confront the issues that divide them but also come to terms with their own choices. In their journey toward understanding and forgiveness, both sisters discover that they need each other more than they knew--and that in the search for true happiness, love always comes first. Praise for First Comes Love "An engaging story of sisterly love . . . Illuminating and engrossing."--People "[Emily] Giffin delivers another emotionally honest work. . . . First Comes Love is a heart-stirring novel about the many layers of sibling rivalry."--Associated Press "First Comes Love brings [Giffin] back with a vengeance. Tales of sisters have been at the core of other great novels, but Giffin turns that relationship upside down and makes her view a fascinating one."--Huffington Post "Moving and complex, [First Comes Love] proves [that Emily Giffin is] still at the top of her game."--Booklist "Giffin juggles Josie's quest for motherhood and Meredith's internal conflicts deftly. . . . Giffin paints a realistic portrait of the troubled and complex relationship between a pair of sisters."--Kirkus Reviews "This is Giffin at her finest--a fantastic, memorable story."--Publishers Weekly "First Comes Love is an un-put-down-able, smart, and thoughtful novel that will make you think about the nature of family and how our past informs our present."--PopSugar "Giffin's talent is pretty much unparalleled when it comes to the modern woman's story about life, love and family."--Redbook "[A] well-written family drama."--Real Simple "Fans will be entertained by the author's humor and satisfied by her storytelling"--Atlanta Journal-Constitution From the Hardcover edition.

First Comes Love

71a61195-3154-4403-b286-748937ae310d-1

Washington

Jonathan Fenby

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

A Great Civilization Faces the New Century

This Major Reference series brings together a wide range of key international articles in law and legal theory. Many of these essays are not readily accessible, and their presentation in these volumes will provide a vital new resource for both research and teaching. Each volume is edited by leading international authorities who explain the significance and context of articles in an informative and complete introduction.

France on the Brink

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Now for the first time here is the real fascinating story of the human oddities. Since the middle ages, people have flopped to see them, the strange curious Wonders of Our planet.

Very special people 

A story inspired by the marriage between Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh traces the romance between a handsome young aviator and a shy ambassador's daughter whose relationship is marked by wild international acclaim, history-making flights and the world-shocking abduction of their child. 30,000 first printing.

The Aviator's Wife

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Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

A retired New York professor's life is thrown into chaos when he takes a young great-nephew to the French Riviera, in hopes of uncovering his own mother's wartime secrets in the next masterpiece from New York Times bestselling author Emma Donoghue. Noah Selvaggio is a retired chemistry professor and widower living on the Upper West Side, but born in the South of France. He is days away from his first visit back to Nice since he was a child, bringing with him a handful of puzzling photos he's discovered from his mother's wartime years. But he receives a call from social services: Noah is the closest available relative of an eleven-year-old great-nephew he's never met, who urgently needs someone to look after him. Out of a feeling of obligation, Noah agrees to take Michael along on his trip. Much has changed in this famously charming seaside mecca, still haunted by memories of the Nazi occupation. The unlikely duo, suffering from jet lag and culture shock, bicker about everything from steak frites to screen time. But Noah gradually comes to appreciate the boy's truculent wit, and Michael's ease with tech and sharp eye help Noah unearth troubling details about their family's past. Both come to grasp the risks people in all eras have run for their loved ones, and find they are more akin than they knew. Written with all the tenderness and psychological intensity that made Room an international bestseller, Akin is a funny, heart-wrenching tale of an old man and a boy, born two generations apart, who unpick their painful story and start to write a new one together.

Akin

a5cf5274-df9b-4172-b182-7e1e5612299a-1

New Hampshire

North Dakota

David Casarett

Adventures in Bringing Back the Recently Dead

A physician, researcher and professor describes the recent developments on the cutting edge of cryonics, hibernation and suspended animation, discussing real laboratories and other facilities that are investing in and investigating extending life and keeping death at bay.

Shocked

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Massachusetts

A Festival of Poets

"Poets live the lives all of us live," says Bill Moyers, "with one big difference. They have the power--the power of the word--to create a world of thoughts and emotions other can share. We only have to learn to listen." In a series of fascinating conversations with thirty-four American poets, The Language Of Life celebrates language in its "most exalted, wrenching, delighted, and concentrated form," and its unique power to re-create the human experience: falling in love, facing death, leaving home, playing basketball, losing faith, finding God. Listening to Linda McCarriston's award-winning poems about a child trapped in a violent home, or to Jimmy Santiago Baca explaining how words changed his life in prison, or to David Mura describing his Japanese American grandfather's experience in relocation camps, or to Sekou Sundiata stitching the magic of his childhood church in Harlem to the African tradition of storytelling, or to Gary Snyder invoking the natural wonder of mountains and rivers, or to Adrienne Rich calling for honesty in human relations, all testify to the necessity and clarity of the poet's voice, and all give hope that from such a wide variety of racial, ethnic, and religious threads we might yet weave a new American fabric. "'Listen,' said the storytellers of old, 'listen and you shall hear,'" explains Bill Moyers. The Language Of Life is a joyous, life-affirming invitation to listen, learn, and experience the exhilarating power of the spoken word.

The Language of Life***

1898a404-89c1-4a96-ae6b-2025a5e87f8a-1

California

Brand new, no damage, excellent condition.  

Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus

In the tradition of The Professor and the Madman, a "brisk and vivid"( Los Angeles Times) account of an obsessive scholar.

Polymath, eccentric, and synonym aficionado, Peter Mark Roget had a host of female admirers, was one of the first to test the effects of laughing gas, invented the slide rule, and narrowly escaped jail in Napoleon's France. But Roget is best known for making lists.

After the tragic turmoil of his early life (both his mother and sister were institutionalized), Roget longed for order in his chaotic world. At the age of eight, he began his quest to put everything in its rightful place, one word at a time. This is the fascinating story of a driven man and a brilliant scholar-and the legacy he has left for generations.

The Man Who Made Lists

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The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

From the author of Mayflower, Valiant Ambition, and In the Hurricane's Eye--the riveting bestseller tells the story of the true events that inspired Melville's Moby-Dick. Winner of the National Book Award, Nathaniel Philbrick's book is a fantastic saga of survival and adventure, steeped in the lore of whaling, with deep resonance in American literature and history. In 1820, the whaleship Essex was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale, leaving the desperate crew to drift for more than ninety days in three tiny boats. Nathaniel Philbrick uses little-known documents and vivid details about the Nantucket whaling tradition to reveal the chilling facts of this infamous maritime disaster. In the Heart of the Sea, recently adapted into a major feature film starring Chris Hemsworth, is a book for the ages.

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Stephen Nissenbaum

The Battle for Christmas

Harvey C. Mansfield; Harvey C. Mansfield

Manliness

Eliza Casey

Lady Rights a Wrong

Michelle Gable

A Paris Apartment/I’ll See You in Paris

Sally Bedell Smith

Elizabeth The Queen

Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code

Daniel Gilbert

Stumbling on Happiness

Rachel Kadish

The Weight of Ink

Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code

Emily Giffin

First Comes Love

Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code

Jonathan Fenby

France on the Brink

Frederick drimmer

Very special people

Melanie Benjamin

The Aviator's Wife

Emma Donoghue

Akin

Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code

David Casarett

Shocked

Bill Moyers

The Language of Life***

Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code

Rachel Kadish

The Weight of Ink

Joshua Kendall

The Man Who Made Lists

Nathaniel Philbrick

In the Heart of the Sea