In the Beginning


Chaim Potok - 1975
    He must fight for his place against the bullies in his Depression-shadowed Bronx neighborhood and his own frail health. As a young man, he must start anew and define his own path of personal belief that diverges sharply with his devout father and everything he has been taught...

Sexus


Henry Miller - 1949
    His searing fictionalized autobiography of this time of liberation was banned for nearly twenty years. Sexus, the first volume in The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, looks back to his early sexual escapades in Brooklyn, and his growing infatuation with the playful, teasing dance hall hostess who will become the great obsession of his life.

A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism


John A. Buehrens - 1997
    In this new edition of the classic introductory text on Unitarian Universalism, which includes a revealing, entertaining foreword by best-selling author Robert Fulghum (All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It), a new preface by UU moderator Denise Davidoff, and two new chapters by the authors, John Buehrens and Forrest Church explore the many sources of the living tradition of their chosen faith.

Genesis: The Story Of Apollo 8, The First Manned Flight To Another World


Robert Zimmerman - 1998
    Unseen but listening intently was an audience of more than a billion people.It was Christmas Eve, 1968. And the astronauts of Apollo 8 -- Commander Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders -- were participants in a mission that took them farther (500,000 miles) and faster (24,000 miles an hour) than any human had ever traveled. Of the 27 previous manned launches, none had ever ventured higher than 850 miles in altitude. Apollo 8 was the first manned vehicle to leave the earth's orbit and the first craft to orbit the moon.Confined within a tiny 11 x 13-foot capsule -- the size of the interior of a 15-passenger van -- the astronauts were aided in their journey by a computer less powerful than one of today's least sophisticated handheld calculators. The mission was not only a triumph of engineering, but also an enduring moment in history. It was a triumph for America and its space agency, and assured the public's continued interest in exploring space.

Cartamandua Legacy


Carol Berg - 2009
    Yet not all pureblood accept such lives. For 12 years, Valen, the son of cartographers and diviners, had escaped what had been ordained for him . . . only to wind up half-dead in an obscure sanctuary, addicted to a spell that turns pain to pleasure, and possessing only a stolen book of maps. It is that book—rumored to lead men into the realm of angels—that will thrust Valen into a world of conspirators, monks, princes and madmen . . . and the secrets of his own past.Breath and Bone: Everyone in Navronne seems to be after Valen. There's the mad Harrower priestess, Sila Diaglou, intent on restoring the world to a primeval state. The Bastard Prince Osriel, who steals dead men's eyes. And the Registry, determined to keep every pureblood sorcerer in thrall. Even the Danae guardians, beings out of myth whose dancing nurtures the earth, may be stalking him. Yet no one is who he seems, and Valen's search for healing grace leads him from Harrower dungeons to a land of legend, where he discovers the truth of the coming dark age and the astonishing price of the land's redemption . . . and his own.

Sweet Liberty: Travels in Irish America


Joseph O'Connor - 1996
    Beginning in Boston, he visits the Dublins of New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and Texas, Las Vegas and California — to name a few. Interspersed with his travels are vivid accounts of the Irish immigrant experience and a rich exploration of the intertwined roots of American music, from Irish ballads to jazz, country, blues and gospel.Sweet Liberty is a hilarious, poignant and unforgettable coast-to-coast tour which celebrates the breathtaking diversity of the Irish influence on America — and discovers along the way a town called Dublin that does not have one single pub within its limits.

Via Mala


John Knittel - 1936
    He seems to be painting landscapes with words. The hardship of humble people in the Grisons area in the 30's is highly evocative. The plot and suspense are well written and will keep you engrossed for hours...

Love Songs


Lawrence Sanders - 1972
    A world where passions flow as freely as alcohol and drugs. Where scandals lurk, beneath every act of violence or perversion. And where love is the dirtiest four-letter word of them all ...

Night in Bombay


Louis Bromfield - 1940
    Set in Bombay during the 1930s, it looks at the lives of ex-pats and Indian royals--and the Indians who work for them.

A Texas Cowboy: or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony


Charles A. Siringo - 1885
    He "rid the Chisholm trail," driving 2,500 heads of cattle from Austin to Kansas; knew Tascosa—now a historic monument—when it was home to raucous saloons, red light districts, and a fair share of violence; and led a posse of cowboys in pursuit of Billy the Kid and his gang.First published in 1885, Siringo's chronicle of his life as a itchy-footed boy, cowhand, range detective, and adventurer was one the first classics about the Old West and helped to romanticize the West and its myth of the American cowboy. Will Rogers declared, "That was the Cowboy's Bible when I was growing up."For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Pyramid


Ismail Kadare - 1992
    It is 2600 BC. The Pharaoh Cheops is inclined to forgo the construction of a pyramid in his honor, but his court sages hasten to persuade him otherwise. The pyramid, they tell him, is not a tomb but a paradox: it keeps the Egyptian people content by oppressing them utterly. The pyramid is the pillar that holds power aloft. If it wavers, everything collapses.And so the greatest pyramid ever begins to rise. It is a monument that crushes dozens of men with the placing of each of its tens of thousands of stones. It is the subject of real and imaginary conspiracies that necessitate ruthless purges and fantastic tortures. It is a monster that will consume all Egypt before it swallows the body of Cheops himself. As told by Ismail Kadare, The Pyramid is a tour de force of Kafkaesque paranoia and Orwellian political prophecy. "A haunting meditation on the matter-of-fact brutality of political despotism." - The New York Times Book Review"Kadare's prose glimmers with the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez." - Los Angeles Times Book Review"One of the most compelling novelists now writing in any language." - Wall Street Journal

A Rift in the Earth: Art, Memory and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial


James Reston Jr. - 2017
    The story intertwines art, politics, historical memory, patriotism, racism, and a fascinating set of characters, from those who fought in the conflict and those who resisted it to politicians at the highest level. At its center are two enduring figures: a young, Asian-American architecture student at Yale whose abstract design won the international competition but triggered a fierce backlash among powerful figures; and Frederick Hart, an innovative sculptor of humble origins on the cusp of stardom. James Reston, Jr., a veteran who lost a close friend in the war and has written incisively about the conflict's bitter aftermath, explores how the debate reignited passions around Vietnam long after the war's end and raised questions about how best to honor those who fought and sacrificed in an ill-advised war. Richly illustrated with photographs from the era and design entries from the memorial competition, A Rift in the Earth is timed to appear alongside Ken Burns's eagerly anticipated PBS documentary, The Vietnam War.

Captain Maximus


Barry Hannah - 1985
    hard drinkers, passionate lovers, good haters, living on the edge, hurling fury at a complacent world."

Coltan


Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa - 2008
    The board members of the American company Dall & Houston receive a death threat from an alleged Islamic terrorist called Aarohum Al Rashid: unless they return the 1,000 million dollars that they got from its direct involvement with the Iraq war, they will be killed one by one.

Complete Poems of Stephen Crane


Stephen Crane - 1899
    This is the definitive edition of his poetry, including all 135 poems, published and unpublished during his lifetime, as well as a substantial introduction by Joseph Katz.