Science meets geopolitics meets religious fanaticism in Alpert's breathless sequel to Final Theory. Science historian David Swift and his physicist wife, Monique Reynolds, go in search of their autistic adopted son, 19-year-old Michael Gupta, who, savantlike, has memorized Einstein's unified field theory, after members of a religious cult kidnap Michael from the Upper Manhattan Autism Center. The kidnapping occurs on the same day that Iran tests a nuclear device that does more than generate a seismic rumble. According to a Columbia colleague of Swift's, it "severed the continuity of our universe." Accompanied by FBI special agent Lucille Parker, Swift and Reynolds embark on a tiring (and sometimes tiresome) quest that takes them to Jerusalem and Turkmenistan. Those who can identify with characters who are little more than plot devices or mouthpieces for exposition—the good guys rant about advanced physics, the bad ones about the necessity of the coming apocalypse—will be most rewarded. (Feb.)

Welcome to not-so-happily-ever-after. Soon-to-be-40 Izzy just lost her Wall Street job, has a husband who runs a struggling publishing operation from their apartment, a year-old son, and a growing suspicion she's living life in captivity. “It's not that you get a seven-year itch,” divorced pal Joy confides. “It's that they turn you into a seven-year bitch.” And so Izzy goes all in, railing at hubby Russell; becoming involved in her son's nanny's quest to get pregnant; lusting after the rich, handsome guy who got away; and discovering her own heart thanks to her uncommon new job: judging promotional contest essays for 25 cents each. Belle's (Little Stalker) smart and hilariously ridiculous paean to love, marriage, and a baby carriage proves you can't always get what you want and you rarely get what you need, but you always get to choose. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments that come uncomfortably close to the truth about less-than-perfect relationships, which helps salvage an ending wrapped just a little too tight. Still, style and wit count, and on that, Belle doesn't disappoint. (May)

When Steve Friedman was a child growing up in the suburbs of St. Louis, the game of golf was, to him, mysterious and dark. His father’s passion for it caused friction in his marriage and eluded the interest of his youngest son, who was devoted instead to basketball. For that and many other reasons, the two failed to bond, ultimately leading to an awkward and unhappy relationship. But Friedman never forgot the love his father had for golf, and after many years, when he was in his forties, he reached out and asked his dad to teach him the game. He thought that perhaps he could learn something about his old man’s view of life and thereby find a way to communicate with him. This small volume is the sweet yet unsentimental story of that experience—the tale of two men using the game of golf to find a way to connect with each other across decades of disagreement and misunderstanding. For anyone who is a golfer, a father, or a son, this book will be a treasure.

“Friedman has the rare ability to write effortless prose that is funny, touching and . . . profound.”—The Washington Post When Midwesterner Steve Friedman arrived in Manhattan, the land of the quick and the mean, raring to go and ready to conquer, he soon found pitfalls and pratfalls more numerous and perilous than he had ever imagined. Here is his utterly honest, often hilarious, self-deprecating account of those fateful years, starting with his first job at GQ and his awkward efforts to impress his boss, Art Cooper, and including real and imagined love affairs, disasters at work and play, growing self-awareness with its inevitable bouts of depression and subsequent therapies—all of which fail—and in the end, a wisdom that promises better things to come. In the tradition of Bright Lights, Big City and The Devil Wears Prada, Lost on Treasure Island is a witty rendition of the perils of growing up and being thrown into the real world. With sharp humor and unexpected sincerity, Friedman crafts a inviting portrait of the best of times and the worst of times. For all those who have confronted the endless opportunities of the Big Apple, only to discover how hard it is to succeed in this—or any—big city, this boisterous and often enlightening memoir will prove irresistible.

Siegel, CEO of a sports and music media platform company, shares nine principles for personal and professional advancement centered on figuring out what makes someone else "tick," what motivates them, and what they value, need, and want. To really succeed at negotiation, according to Siegal, it is necessary to determine how the other players define success. This principle lays the foundation for his subsequent maxims-appreciating coworkers and competitors, using your outsider advantage, and "gathering your inner circle." By peppering each tip with multiple stories from his long and varied career and challenging personal life, Siegel follows through on his eighth rule-remember who you are and how you got to where you are. He freely admits his mistakes and pulls no punches in this lucid and very readable guide to winning at home and at work. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Family in tow, Perrottet (Pagan Holiday) explores the vice palaces of earlier eras, from Scottish sex clubs to the buried brothels of Pompeii and the marquis de Sade's castle in Provence. Perrottet also tries to track down various infamous objects, including the lost sex chair of King Edward VII and a hidden room in the Vatican that contains legendary erotic paintings by Raphael. Along the way, Perrottet provides history, scenic descriptions, and a narrative of his attempt to keep two small children happy as they're dragged across Europe. The narrative works best as a scattershot pop history of the sexual antics of (mostly) wealthy Europeans over the centuries. There are fascinating anecdotes about everything from chastity belts to Mary Shelley's nipples. However, as a contemporary travelogue, the book falls short. Perrottet tries to drum up enthusiasm for his antiquarian encounters, but there's only so much excitement in describing a day in the stacks or a look at a few faded tiles of chubby nymphs. (May)

Schnurnberger (The Botox Diaries, with Janice Kaplan) goes solo for a middle-age crazy tale of Tru--a stay-at-her-Park-Avenue-home-mom of twin teens whose husband loses his job in the financial meltdown--and glam sidekick Sienna, a TV anchor kicked to the curb for a younger face. The resourceful gals cook up a wacky plan to keep themselves in lipstick and lingerie: an escort agency specializing in well-bred over-40 "courtesans." It's a hit, and along the way, Tru competes to keep her husband; deals with her irrepressible mom, Naomi (a former Miss New York Subway), after her life-changing heart attack; and discovers her daughters are competing for the same wicked eighth-grade heartthrob. The multigenerational antics of this light, enjoyable romp are safely PG, as is the message: true love (or is it Tru's loves?) conquers all. (Jan.) (c) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

The coauthors of The Botox Diaries reprise their flighty, feel-good formula for women's fiction with their second novel, about affluent divorced women friends living in a Westchester-style suburb of New York City. Sara, a caterer in her early 40s whose first husband, James, ran off to Patagonia eight years ago, has moved into her fianc Bradford's house in Hadley Farms with her young son, Dylan. Sara's best friend, Kate, a fancy Manhattan dermatologist, is having an affair with a wealthy married man, Owen, while their other friend Berni, pregnant with twins, has relocated from the West Coast, having left her job as a successful Hollywood agent to embrace motherhood. Complications ensue for all: Bradford's snide ex-wife drops in, and their rude 14-year-old daughter, Skylar, makes hell for Sara, just when James reappears to win Sara back. However, Sara's catering career takes off after a cable TV appearance, while Owen decides to leave his blond trophy wife. Predictably, Sara and Skylar become friends, Bradford and Sara prove a lasting match and even Kate makes a sage decision regarding Owen. "Getting older and smarter and more confident isn't that bad," the ladies collectively decide. This is a cotton-candy read-sweet, if a bit stale-for a day at the beach. Agent, Jane Gelfman. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

In 1987, Unferth set off to Central America with her idealistic boyfriend, George, determined to join "the revolution." Any revolution would do. In her deft account, Unferth retraces their journey, beginning in Guatemala and working north. Though the duo weren't able to play an active role until they reached violent El Salvador, where they cared for children literally caught in the middle of a civil war, took part in protests, and interviewed priests about assassinations, the couple also wrestled with an inner revolution—their relationship. Bonded by frequent interrogations from soldiers, ever-present illnesses, heat, and gigantic, "evil" spiders, the two grew close, only to find their bond dissolve as time wore on and they made their way home. Though her journey was certainly dramatic, Unferth avoids melodrama and doesn't dwell on particularly nasty aspects; her focus is on the story, and in that arena, she excels with a wry, self-deprecating voice that propels the tale forward. Though her emotional economy (she never fully explores her complicated relationship with her family) gives the book an unfinished quality that can be frustrating, Unferth's prose is a pleasure to read. (Feb.)

In her first YA novel, Suma creates a surreal and dreamy world where magical thinking is carried to a chilling extreme. Fourteen-year-old Chloe idolizes her older sister, Ruby, a boy magnet who runs wild in their New York upstate town and is denied nothing. At a drunken party, Chloe accepts Ruby's challenge to swim across the local reservoir and finds a drifting rowboat holding the body of London, a girl from school. Afterward, Chloe is forced to move in with her father in another state; two years later, Ruby fetches Chloe back, and everything's different. Or nothing is. Chloe can't tell for sure. Ruby still has the run of the town, but there's London, alive and well. Chloe begins to recognize that things work differently in her sister's world; events bend to accommodate Ruby, and reality itself seems to take its shape from her desires. Suma (Dani Noir) uses the story's supernatural, horror movie ready elements in the best of ways; beneath all the strangeness lies beauty, along with a powerful statement about the devotion between sisters. Not your average paranormal novel. Ages 14 up. (June)

Fifteen years and an Oscar-nominated movie adaptation have passed by since Push, and, with Precious long dead, Sapphire unfurls the story of her son, Jamal Abdul Louis Jones. Orphan Jamal winds up at a foster home where he's mocked and beaten to the point of having to be hospitalized. Fast forward, and Abdul, going by the name J.J., is at the St. Ailanthus School for boys, where he's sexually abused by priests and in turn sexually abuses a couple of boys at the school. When J.J. is thrown out of the school, he struggles to handle his own conflicting desires and the rigors of getting by in a tough world by himself, often with very little comprehension of consequences. J.J. is a great creation, if a sometimes frustrating one: Sapphire excels at getting readers into the head of a frightened, enraged, and frustrated wild child, but that isn't always the best vantage point from which to watch this heartbreaking story unfold. This is a sobering and unflinching study of the legacy of abuse, and while the narration can leave readers more puzzled than piqued, it's a harrowing story. (July)

Since the days of the first primitive tribes, we have tried to determine why one man is good and another evil. Mark Matousek arrives at the answer in Ethical Wisdom. Contrary to what we've been taught in our reason-obsessed culture, emotions are the bedrock of ethical life; without them, human beings cannot be empathic, moral, or good. But how do we make the judgment call between self-interest and caring for others? What does being good really mean? Which parts of morality are biological, which ethical? When should instinct be trusted and when does it lead us into trouble? How can we know ourselves to be good amidst the hypocrisy, fears, and sabotaging appetites that pervade our two-sided natures? Drawing on the latest scientific research and interviews with social scientists, spiritual leaders, ex-cons, altruists, and philosophers, Matousek examines morality from a scientific, sociological, and anthropological standpoint. Each chapter features a series of questions, readings, interviews, parables, and anecdotes that zoom in on a particular niche of moral inquiry, making this book both utilitarian and fun. Ethical Wisdom is an insightful and important book for readers crisscrossing their own murky moral terrain.

Sergio Chejfec, trans. from the Spanish by Margaret B. Carson, intro. by Enrique Vila-Matas. Lean, thoughtful, and keenly observed, the Argentinean Chejfec's first work translated into English packs a great deal of insight into 102 pages. The narrator, an unnamed Argentinean writer, wanders a city in the south of Brazil. He is a great enthusiast of walking, going so far as to claim that it saved him, although from what he's uncertain: "maybe from the danger of not being myself... because to walk is to enact the illusion of autonomy and above all the myth of authenticity." Recently, however, the act has become less meaningful--or perhaps less mysterious--to him. He seeks out a park "too large not to have the air of abandonment which so appeals" to him. He is self-conscious, worried about being ignored, and sure he's being judged; that the judgment of others remains opaque bothers him. Of ultimate concern, finally, is that walking has stopped giving him real insights. The book he's brought with him doesn't interest him nearly as much as boats shaped like swans, the meaning of time, or any number of other observations rendered in fascinating detail. Carson's magnificent translation of Chejfec's latest work should be treated as a significant event. (Aug.)

Expecting a conventional basketball book? Look elsewhere. Although the central focus is ten members of a biracial boys basketball team, freelance journalist Merlino, in his first book, is writing about race relations and the changing socioeconomic experiences and expectations of five black and five white kids who came together in 1986 to form an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball team in Seattle. The book provides remarkable insight into the fortunes and misfortunes of the ten kids who shared a court but never a dream. For Merlino, who was on the team, the titular hustle is the drive to achieve in today's competitive economy. Readers will witness the omnipresent racial divide in Seattle and the nation, in the workplace, and in a secondary school setting. The chapter on Seattle's Lakeside School, a private K-12 institution, is compelling reading for today's parents and educators. The former teammates whom Merlino traced up to the present include a prosecutor, a financial manager, a preacher/teacher, a writer, a street hustler—and a murder victim. VERDICT This book, both memoir and social analysis, is an essential read as a recent social history and personal story of America.—Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Libs., AL

In this heartfelt tribute, Evanier (who has written biographies of Bobby Darin and Jimmy Roselli) bemoans that the accomplishments of legendary crooner Tony Bennett are inadequately known despite his fame and popularity. From interviews, archival materials, and his own listening to Bennett's music, Evanier chronicles Bennett's life and work, from a 10-year-old Bennett leading a throng of people, along with Mayor La Guardia, across the newly opened Triborough Bridge, singing "Marching Along Together," through his drug addiction and loss of his record label up to his present success. Evanier passes lightly over Bennett's shortcomings, but in the end Evanier's passion for Bennett shines through. (July)

The rich are very different from you and me. Blessed by great wealth, they can get what they want, even what they shouldn’t have. Cursed by great wealth, they become the targets of others who will risk everything to become affluent. In THE RICH AND THE DEAD, bestselling author Nelson DeMille introduces twenty original tales by today’s most elite mystery writers who explore the life (and death) styles of the rich and infamous. In Ted Bell’s “The Pirate of Palm Beach,” an arrogant society columnist feels the unsociable — and deadly — backlash from his poison pen. In Lee Child’s “Addicted to Sweetness,” a swaggering drug lord plots a nasty payback against a thieving underling. In David Morrell’s “The Controller,” a seasoned protection specialist may need to be protected from the mercurial finance titan who purchases his services... and tests his loyalties. From multinational boardrooms to palatial mansions to exotic playlands, these suspenseful, gold-standard tales reveal in scary, funny, and riveting ways just how much trouble money can buy. Featuring stories by Nelson DeMille, Ted Bell, Peter Blauner, Karen Catalona, Tim Chapman, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Frank Cook, David DeLee, Joseph Goodrich, Daniel J. Hale, Roberta Isleib, Harley Jane Kozak, David Morrell, Carolyn Mullen, Twist Phelan, S. J. Rozan, Jonathan Santlofer, Elaine Togneri, and Angela Zeman.

An aspiring writer and reporter, Karol Nielsen went trekking through the Peruvian Andes at the height of the Shining Path terror, looking for adventure and a good story. She found Aviv, an Israeli traveler fresh out of his mandatory military service—a war-weary veteran of the first intifada—dreaming about peace. Black Elephants follows this idealistic pair as they explore the Americas, until Aviv, inexorably drawn to his homeland, asks Karol to come with him to Israel. There, the couple’s lovingly laid plans—for Aviv to attend university, and for Karol to work on a kibbutz, study Hebrew, and get to know his family—are suddenly tested by the eruption of the first Gulf War. Nielsen’s memoir paints a poignant and harrowing picture of love during wartime. Against a backdrop of bursting bombs and air-raid sirens, gas masks and sealed rooms, relationships are frayed, and romance becomes a distant memory. This story, so candidly and clearly told, powerfully illustrates the terror, loneliness, and absurdity of war and its invisible casualties.

While Levy's (Erotomania: A Romance) comedy is about sex, it's not a sex comedy. Rather, it's a hilarious and absurdist romp that turns the cultural fascination with sex on its head. Kenny Cantor is a New York CPA vacationing in a Brazil where sex seems to be everywhere. He wants a long-term relationship with a prostitute, and calls all prostitutes "Tiffany," his pet name. Most of the women (and some of the men) he meets are Tiffanys; "I decided that the best thing I could do was to keep in motion until I found the Tiffany I was looking for." Women are quick to reveal their genitalia to Kenny (though he falls in love often, he actually has little sex) and flaunt their advanced liberal arts degrees. One conducts a business call to China while on the clock with him. Stumbling upon an international psychiatrists' convention, Kenny wants to complete years of therapy via back-to-back one-minute sessions. A slim, swift novel without chapter breaks, Levy's latest is neither sexy nor sexist, despite its obsessions. This riotous look inside the mind of a sexually preoccupied, ambitious American male is as intellectually provocative as it is ridiculous. (Aug.)

For more than 20 years, Degraff (Leading Innovation) has taught innovation and creativity to students at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and has consulted on the same topics to global powerhouses like American Airlines, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Pfizer, and Toyota, earning the moniker "Dean of Innovation." He aims his message at the general reader who wishes to change something in his or her life. Sharing proven techniques for thinking imaginatively, Degraff divides the book into four sections designed to help the reader see how to inject creativity into his or her life, to learn helpful approaches to innovation, how to test and experiment, and how to understand the long-term cycles that drive innovation. Throughout, Degraff illustrates his points with useful illustrations ranging from the companies he's worked with to individuals he has taught, observed, or known in his personal life. At heart a self-help book, this work uses business thinking to help the reader take the emotion out of the problem, consider how to identify his or her style of innovation as well as the best ways to consider the desired change. A useful guide to thinking about career changes, entrepreneurial leaps, or general self-improvement, Degraff's newest work is a must-read for those contemplating change and wanting to make more creative decisions. (Aug.)

In this biography, historian and social analyst Tom Shachtman offers the clearest and most detailed examination to date of one of America's most influential thinkers. Known as the "longshoreman philosopher," Eric Hoffer was a beloved and controversial figure with veiled origins. Using Hoffer's never-before-seen archives, Shachtman uncovers the steps by which this unschooled migrant field hand and dockworker created himself as an artist and thinker, and how his background and occupations were reflected in his published books.

Written and edited by legendary performance art historian RoseLee Goldberg, Performa 09: Back to Futurism is the definitive document of the unforgettable Performa 2009 biennial. It is the third volume to draw content and inspiration from the world-renowned Performa biennials, and features creative documentation by the 150 artists who made Performa 09 so extraordinary--among them Guy Ben-Ner, Candice Breitz, Omer Fast, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Mike Kelley, Arto Lindsay, Wangechi Mutu, Christian Tomaszewski and Yeondoo Jung (all of whom presented special Performa Commissions) and Keren Cytter, Tacita Dean, Alicia Framis, Loris Greaud, William Kentridge and Joan Jonas (who brought US premieres to the biennial). Photographs of each artist's performance and texts contributed by curators and critics provide accounts of every show, as well as an understanding of the importance of each work within the artist's individual career and in relation to larger artistic trends. Taking place at over 80 of New York's most exciting art and cultural venues, Performa 09 was created as a collaboration between all of these moving parts, so a portrait of the city's remarkable history of cultural innovation also emerges from these pages. Performa 09: Back to Futurism is not only a gorgeous document of a remarkable biennial, but also an invaluable reference guide to the most significant artists of our time, for art historians and fans alike.

"In this memoir, University of Michigan graduate John L. Tishman recounts the experiences and rationale that led him to create the entirely new profession now recognized and practiced as Construction Management. It evolved from his work as the construction lead of the "owner/builder" firm Tishman Realty and Construction, and his personal role as hands-on Construction Manager in the building of an astonishing array of what were at the time the world's tallest and most complex projects. These include • The world's first three 100-story towers—-the original "twin towers" of the World Trade Center in Manhattan and the Hancock Tower in Chicago. • The Epcot Center at Disney World. • The Renaissance Center in Detroit. • New York's Madison Square Garden. Tishman interweaves the stories behind the construction of these and many other important buildings and projects with personal reminiscences of his dealings with Henry Ford, Jr., Disney's Michael Eisner, casino magnate Steve Wynn, and many others into a practical history of the field of Construction Management, which he pioneered. This book will be of interest not only to a general public interested in the stories and personalities behind many of the most iconic construction projects of the post–World War II period in the United States but to students of engineering and architecture and members of the new field of Construction Management.

Who killed Dr. Harvey Burdell in his opulent Manhattan town house? At once a gripping mystery and a richly detailed excavation of a lost age, 31 Bond Street is a spellbinding tale of murder, sex, greed, and politics in 1857 New York. Author Ellen Horan interweaves fact and fiction—reimagining the sensational nineteenth-century crime that rocked the city a few short years before the Civil War ripped through the fabric of the nation, while transporting readers back to a time that eerily echoes our own. Though there are no clues to the brutal slaying of wealthy Dr. Burdell, suspicion quickly falls on Emma Cunningham, the refined, pale-skinned widow who managed his house and servants. An ambitious district attorney seeks a swift conviction, but defense attorney Henry Clinton is a formidable obstacle—a man firmly committed to justice and the law, and to the cause of a frightened, vulnerable woman desperately trying to save herself from the gallows.

Only in America. Only in America can a young boy come to this country from a German displacement camp and find his life to be more unsettling than the one he left. Only in America can you lose everything while pursuing your dream. Only in America can Aryeh Pyatiegorskia grow to become Eddie Parker, a small-time bookie who uses his son, a High School basketball star, to fix games for the Mob. That's the outer story. The inner story is about fathers and sons, what pulls them together and rips them apart. "The language sings, the dialogue sizzles, and the author plays words, rhythm and cadence like a finely-tuned instrument." This is the story of a man coming to terms with himself, a compelling work of introspection and humor. Beneath the linguistic playfulness and witty banter, the author's true compassion for his characters shines through. The result is an edgy, hard-driven tale seeking the answer to Eddie Parker's perennial question: "Who am I and how did I get here?"

This book is one of the first collections on a neglected field in American literature: that written by and about the working-class. Examining literature from the 1850s to the present, contributors use a wide variety of critical approaches, expanding readers’ understanding of the critical lenses that can be applied to working-class literature. Drawing upon theories of media studies, postcolonial studies, cultural geography, and masculinity studies, the essays consider slave narratives, contemporary poetry and fiction, Depression-era newspaper plays, and ethnic American literature. Depicting the ways that working-class writers render the lives, the volume explores the question of what difference class makes, and how it intersects with gender, race, ethnicity, and geographical location.

From D. H. Lawrence to Philip Roth, acclaimed male writers have depicted sex from the perspective of female characters. Now, women writers from Aimee Bender to Jennifer Egan engage in provocative fictional cross-dressing, exploring sexuality from the male point of view. With a foreword by Steve Almond, this provocative collection includes work from twenty-six women in all, including Bender, Egan, Susan Minot, Elizabeth Benedict, Alicia Erian, and Diane Williams. Edited by Gina Frangello, Stacy Bierlein, Cris Mazza and Kat Meads—four women with a great deal of experience as editors (Other Voices Magazine, OV Books, anthologies) and authors.

"The excellent 15th edition of this "best of" series, edited by myster maven Otto Penzler, contains 20 winning short stories, many by relative unknowns. Among the standouts are Brendan DuBois’s "Ride-Along," in which a veteran cop and a freelance reporter get involved in a robbery, and Beth Ann Fennelly and Tom Franklin’s "What His Hands Had Been Waiting For," in which the struggle for survival in the Mississippi Delta during the terrible 1927 flood takes a strange turn. In Ed Gorman’s memorable "Flying Solo," two old men dying of cancer make the most of their last days. As in previous volumes, it’s hard to find lighter fare, but S.J. Rozan’s clever "Chin Yong-Yun Takes a Case" is a beautifully crafted and satisfying tale of amateur detection. Other contributors include such pros as Lawrence Block, Loren D. Estleman, and Mickey Spillane and Max Collins. --STARRED Publishers Weekly

As the title implies, this fourth collection of poetry by Neil Shepard is about travel and stasis, journeying to and sojourning in such far-flung places as French Polynesia, Indonesia, and China, as well as in more familiar environs such as England, France, and Spain. As the parentheses of the title suggest, it's also about the unraveling of identity as a traveler crosses boundaries, tries to make sense of new languages and lifestyles, and loses his cultural bearings, Finally, it's about the reintegration (or raveling) of identity, as the traveler stops long enough in some foreign place to regain his bearings, integrate new cultural information, and make it feel like some semblance of 'home.'

"The girls' uide to predators is everything you need to know about the predatory man: why they do what they do, why you'll like them, warning sins and red flags and how to get out. With countless case studies and real life examples, and based on years of research, this is the guidebook that no girl can afford NOT to read

"What comes out of Tina's Mouth? A completely charming voice, guiding us through a classic and satisfying story of growing up. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read, and will delight fans of Sartre and Salinger alike." —Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake "Keshni Kashyap perfectly captures the universal angst of high school and puts her own unique, wickedly smart spin on it. Charming, funny and touching at the same time, Tina's Mouth is a pleasure to both read and behold." —Janelle Brown, author of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and This Is Where We Live

"Erica Wright, author of Instructions for Killing the Jackal, writes: “Wendy Barnes’ poetry is relentless and powerful. She pins her readers down and makes them squirm with equal parts pleasure and pain. While only one god, Epiphany, speaks in these poems, the voice is always omniscient, flying from that impaled creature under the magnifying glass (you) to cities and whole other continents. So-Called Mettle begins with this accusation: ‘Maybe you don’t know your own / ragged history, squawk and shards of glass.’ What follows terrifies but ultimately enlightens, and awe is an appropriate response.”

Dylan Ratigan is mad as hell. Infuriated by government corruption and corporate communism, incensed by banksters shaking down taxpayers, and despairing of an ailing health care system, an age-old dependency on foreign oil, and a failing educational system, Ratigan sees an America that has allowed itself to be swindled and robbed. In this book, his first, he rips the lid off our deeply crooked system—and offers a way out. This country, now more than ever, needs passionate debate and smart policy, a brazen willingness to scrap what doesn’t work, and the entrepreneurial spirit to try what does. Ratigan has compiled brash and fresh solutions for building a new and better America, and with this book he has started the debate America deserves. With you, he wants to take back the country from the six vampires sucking this nation dry: • A political system in which lobbyists write legislation, lawmakers place “secret holds” to create more pork for their districts, and money drives the whole process. • A banking system that uses capital for speculation and debt creation, rather than productive investment. • A “master-slave” relationship with our Chinese bankers, making our corporations and politicians complicit in a system that rigs our currency and leaves us with permanent joblessness and massive trade deficits. • A health care system that is among the priciest and least sustainable in the industrialized world. • An educational system that prizes prestige but produces mediocrity. • An addiction to foreign oil that has sapped us of our willingness to innovate, made us reliant on inefficient technologies, and left us supportive of corrupt governments. To combat these vampires and to isolate the systematic ways in which our once productive industries and our government have been breached, Ratigan does not offer a grab bag of flimsy suggestions or useless hot air. Instead he provides readers with a set of values that together form the answer for how each of us can not only understand what has gone wrong—but join together to make it right.

One of the most beloved characters in all of comics, Tintin won an enormous international following. Translated into dozens of languages, Tintin's adventures have sold millions of copies. Yet, despite Tintin's enduring popularity, Americans know almost nothing about his gifted creator, Georges Remi--better known as Hergé. Timed to coincide with Steven Spielberg's long-awaited film The Adventures of Tin Tin: Secret of the Unicorn, here is the first full biography of Hergé available for an English-speaking audience, offering a captivating portrait of a man who revolutionized the art of comics. Granted unprecedented access to thousands of the cartoonist's unpublished letters, Assouline gets behind the genial public mask to take full measure of Hergé's life and art and the fascinating ways in which the two intertwine. Neither sugarcoating nor sensationalizing his subject, he weighs such controversial issues as Hergé's support for Belgian imperialism in the Congo and his alleged collaboration with the Nazis. He also analyzes the underpinnings of Tintin--how the conception of the character as an asexual adventurer reflected Hergé's love for the Boy Scouts as well as his Catholic mentor's anti-Soviet ideology--and relates the comic strip to Hergé's own place within the Belgian middle class. For all his huge success--achieved with almost no formal training--Hergé would say unassumingly of his art, "I was just happy drawing little guys, that's all." A profound influence on a generation of artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, the elusive figure of Hergé comes to life in this illuminating biography--a deeply nuanced account that unveils the man and his career as never before. "Highlights yet again that all-too-common divide between the flawed private man and the admirable creative genius.... Those fascinated by the strange lives of creative geniuses may want to read Assouline's fine, if somewhat disillusioning, biography." --Michael Dirda, Washington Post "Will inform and edify America's Tintin devotees." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Another mammoth compilation from Downtown New York's "drinking group with a writing problem," the previous authors of The Worst Book I Ever Read, Crimes of the Beats, and Help Yourself! among other innumerable assaults on decency and good taste. Now they finally turn themselves to their most likely subject matter ever (even if it's frequently as much a matter of fantasy and theory as deviant practice). Contributors include Jonatham Lethem, Samuel Delany, Penny Arcade, Peter Lamborn Wilson, Bob Holman, Chavisa Woods, Tsaurah Litzky, Gerard Malanga, Jordan Zinovich, Jennifer Blowdryer, Susan Scutti, and scores more.