Books
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Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly's Truths from Jim Crow's Lies
Known worldwide as Lead Belly, Huddie Ledbetter (1889-1949) is an American icon whose influence on modern music was tremendous - as was, according to legend, the temper that landed him in two of the South's most brutal prisons, while his immense talent twice won him pardons. But, as this deeply researched book shows, these stories were shaped by the white folklorists who 'discovered' Lead Belly and, along with reporters, recording executives, and radio and film producers, introduced him to audiences beyond the South. Through a revelatory examination of arrest, trial, and prison records; sharecropping reports; oral histories; newspaper articles; and more, author Sheila Curran Bernard replaces myth with fact, offering a stunning indictment of systemic racism in the Jim Crow era of the United States and the power of narrative to erase and distort the past.
$32.95 $27.95
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Efficient Womanhood: Women and the Making of the Universal Negro Improvement Association
From its Kingston, Jamaica, inception in 1914, women helped define and shape the Black Nationalist and Pan-Africanist aims of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Their efforts, made possible in part by UNIA cofounder Amy Ashwood Garvey, helped sustain the largest social justice organization of the twentieth century. In this deeply researched collective biography, Natanya Duncan documents the complexities of UNIA women as active participants in Black nation-building. Women from both sides of the Atlantic joined the UNIA in pursuit of gender and racial equality, developing a three-tiered activist strategy that Duncan calls "efficient womanhood" seek equitable partnerships with like-minded persons and organizations, work as peer and intergenerational mentors, and serve as bridge builders between the organization and resources and people in service to their immediate communities and the race at large.Through an impressive and original archive of their self-determination, Duncan presents the stories of Henrietta Vinton Davis, Maymie de Mena, and Laura Kofey, as well as groups of UNIA women like the Black Cross Nurses, the Universal African Motor Corp, and the Lucy 9 Club, who circumvented the ideals of their era and created a brand of independent female leadership. The book demonstrates how UNIA women orchestrated and activated the organization from the bottom up while influencing and informing men and each other. By focusing on how women of the UNIA created an activist framework, Duncan reveals a model of organizing that has endured into the present day.
$34.95 $29.95
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Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
A New York Times bestseller - A New York Times Notable Book "The tale of how Konnikova followed a story about poker players and wound up becoming a story herself will have you riveted, first as you learn about her big winnings, and then as she conveys the lessons she learned both about human nature and herself." --The Washington PostIt's true that Maria Konnikova had never actually played poker before and didn't even know the rules when she approached Erik Seidel, Poker Hall of Fame inductee and winner of tens of millions of dollars in earnings, and convinced him to be her mentor. But she knew her man: a famously thoughtful and broad-minded player, he was intrigued by her pitch that she wasn't interested in making money so much as learning about life. She had faced a stretch of personal bad luck, and her reflections on the role of chance had led her to a giant of game theory, who pointed her to poker as the ultimate master class in learning to distinguish between what can be controlled and what can't. And she certainly brought something to the table, including a Ph.D. in psychology and an acclaimed and growing body of work on human behavior and how to hack it. So Seidel was in, and soon she was down the rabbit hole with him, into the wild, fiercely competitive, overwhelmingly masculine world of high-stakes Texas Hold'em, their initial end point the following year's World Series of Poker. But then something extraordinary happened. Under Seidel's guidance, Konnikova did have many epiphanies about life that derived from her new pursuit, including how to better read, not just her opponents but far more importantly herself; how to identify what tilted her into an emotional state that got in the way of good decisions; and how to get to a place where she could accept luck for what it was, and what it wasn't. But she also began to win. And win. In a little over a year, she began making earnest money from tournaments, ultimately totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. She won a major title, got a sponsor, and got used to being on television, and to headlines like "How one writer's book deal turned her into a professional poker player." She even learned to like Las Vegas. But in the end, Maria Konnikova is a writer and student of human behavior, and ultimately the point was to render her incredible journey into a container for its invaluable lessons. The biggest bluff of all, she learned, is that skill is enough. Bad cards will come our way, but keeping our focus on how we play them and not on the outcome will keep us moving through many a dark patch, until the luck once again breaks our way.
$23.00 $18.00
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Jewish Appendix: a memoir
Known for his smart, lively baseball writing, his acclaimed biography of the rock music legend Chrissie Hynde, and his erudite literary essays, Adam Sobsey returns with a powerful, passionate, deeply personal memoir of reckoning with his Jewish identity. In October of 2018, the day after a gunman walked into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and killed eleven Jews, Adam Sobsey woke up with acute stomach pain. The next morning, he was in surgery to remove his appendix. A nonpracticing Jew, he made no connection between these two events. But six months later, when he arrives in Romania to visit the homeland of his great-grandparents, who had immigrated a century earlier - to Pittsburgh, where they helped found a synagogue-he is besieged by a mysterious illness that responds to no treatment and just as mysteriously vanishes the day he leaves the country, three weeks later. Through the upheaval in his body and his encounters with the ravaged ruins of Jewish life in Romania-and flooded by memories of his own past-Sobsey is forced to confront his Jewish identity and roots. Once at home again, he bonds to his heritage by immersing himself in the power of words: a forgotten corner of the Hebrew Bible, the legendary travel writing of Patrick Leigh Fermor, and Jewish writers and artists ranging from the seminal Romanian existentialist poet Benjamin Fondane, who perished at Auschwitz, to Bob Dylan himself. Finally, he goes to Pittsburgh, in search of last clues about his family origins.
$30.00 $25.00
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Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden
"From Washington to Jefferson, Lincoln to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Kennedy to Nixon, Reagan to Obama and Biden, the 45 United States presidents have left lasting impacts on our nation. Some of their legacies continue today, some are justly forgotten, and some have changed as America has changed. ... The authors' ... research has uncovered never before seen historical facts based on private correspondence and newly discovered documentation, such as George Washington's troubled relationship with his mother. In [their book], O'Reilly and Dugard present 45 ... entertaining and insightful portraits of each president, with no-spin commentary on their achievements--or lack thereof. Who best served America, and who undermined the founding ideals? Who were the first ladies, and what were their surprising roles in making history? Which presidents were the best, which the worst, and which didn't have much impact?"--
$42.99 $37.99
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Grass
Appeared on best of the year lists from The New York Times, The Guardian, and more! Winner of The Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of the Year! Grass is a powerful antiwar graphic novel, telling the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War--a disputed chapter in twentieth-century Asian history. Beginning in Lee's childhood, Grass shows the lead-up to the war from a child's vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Koreans. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim emphasizes Lee's strength in overcoming the many forms of adversity she experienced. Grass is painted in a black ink that flows with lavish details of the beautiful fields and farmland of Korea and uses heavy brushwork on the somber interiors of Lee's memories. The cartoonist Gendry-Kim's interviews with Lee become an integral part of Grass, forming the heart and architecture of this powerful nonfiction graphic novel and offering a holistic view of how Lee's wartime suffering changed her. Grass is a landmark graphic novel that makes personal the desperate cost of war and the importance of peace.
$34.95 $29.95
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King Kong Theory
Out of print in the U.S. for far too long, writer and filmmaker Virginie Despentes's autobiographical feminist manifesto is back--in an improved English translation--"blistering with anger, and so precisely phrased that it feels an injustice to summarize it" (Nadja Spiegelman, New York Review of Books). I write from the realms of the ugly, for the ugly, the old, the bull dykes, the frigid, the unfucked, the unfuckable, the hysterics, the freaks, all those excluded from the great meat market of female flesh. And if I'm starting here it's because I want to be crystal clear: I'm not here to make excuses, I'm not here to bitch. I wouldn't swap places with anyone because being Virginie Despentes seems to me a more interesting gig than anything else out there. Powerful, provocative, and personal, King Kong Theory is a candid account of how the author of Baise-Moi and Vernon Subutex came to be Virginie Despentes. Drawing from personal experience, Despentes shatters received ideas about rape and prostitution, and explodes common attitudes about sex and gender. An autobiography, a call for revolt, a manifesto for a new punk feminism, King Kong Theory is Despentes's most beloved and reviled work, and is here made available again in a brilliant new translation by Frank Wynne.
$23.00 $18.00
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Bulge and Beyond: The Things Our Fathers Saw-The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation-Volume VI
THE NEW BOOK from MATTHEW ROZELL in the best-selling 'THE THINGS OUR FATHERS SAW' World War II oral history series.In THE BULGE AND BEYOND, you will be with the soldiers going into the heart of the bloodiest single battle fought by the US Army in American history, the so-called 'Battle of the Bulge'.VOLUME 6 OF THE BEST SELLING 'THE THINGS OUR FATHERS SAW' SERIESFrom the Great Depression to Pearl Harbor, from high school to the combat zone, from boot camp to the end of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan, here are more of the stories that we can't afford not to hear, from a vanishing generation speaking to America today.In 'THE BULGE AND BEYOND', you will be among the columns of young, tired men slogging it out in the malevolent forest, cold, dark, and medieval. You will walk the with the scout to his targeted outpost. You will lay in a freezing minefield by day, hoping to elude the sniper's bullet, and forever experience the complete inability to ever again feel warm. Nineteen thousand American GIs never saw their mothers again; tens of thousands more were wounded or taken prisoner in Hitler's last great counter-offensive that shocked the world. In 'THE BULGE AND BEYOND', our veterans sit down and speak to you directly about what they experienced. World War II brought out the worst in humanity, but it also brought out the best; in these narratives you will draw your own lessons. Here are the stories that a special generation of Americans told us for the future when we took the time to be still, to listen, and to draw strength.19,000 American GIs never saw their mothers again.- "Hell came in like a freight train. I heard an explosion and went back to where my friend was. His legs were blown off-he bled to death in my arms."Maybe our veterans did not volunteer to tell us their stories; perhaps we were too busy with our own lives to ask. But they opened up to a younger generation, when a history teacher taught his students to engage.As we forge ahead as a nation, do we owe it to ourselves to become reacquainted with a generation that is fast leaving us, who asked for nothing but gave everything, to attune ourselves as Americans to a broader appreciation of what we stand for?This is the sixth book in the masterful WWII oral history series, but you can read them in any order.It's time to listen to them. REMEMBER how a generation of young Americans truly saved the world.Or maybe it was all for nothing?Dying for freedom isn't the worst that could happen. Being forgotten is.- "A must-read in every high school in America. It is a very poignant look back at our greatest generation; maybe it will inspire the next one."Reviewer, Vol. I
$39.99 $34.99
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Jesus: A Theography
Introducing a new kind of Jesus biography: Transform the tired and familiar way you have read the Bible into an electrifying journey of rediscovering Christ. In this compelling work, authors Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola reclaim the entire Bible as a gripping narrative about Jesus Christ.Jesus says, "The Scriptures point to me!" (John 5:39 NLT). But what does that mean exactly?Virtually every other "Jesus biography" begins with the nativity account in Bethlehem. In this innovative book, Sweet and Viola begin before time, in the Triune God, and tell the complete interconnected story of Jesus from Genesis to Revelation.Jesus: A Theography is the first book ever written to combine historical Jesus studies with biblical theology, crafting together one breathtaking saga that tells the Jesus story in both Old and New Testaments. This groundbreaking book clearly demonstrates that every bit of Scripture is part of the same stunning drama - what the authors refer to as the theography of Jesus Christ.Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola (authors of Jesus Manifesto and Jesus Speaks) unfold the greatest story ever told in a fresh and invigorating way. Whether you are a seasoned Christian scholar, a new believer, or someone who is intrigued by Jesus, this book unveils the discoveries of a lifetime, transforming the tired and familiar way we have read the Bible into an electrifying journey of rediscovering Christ.Jesus: A Theography: Tells the complete and interconnected story of Jesus, from Genesis to Revelation Combines historical Jesus studies with biblical theology Proves that the main subject of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ Second, standalone volume in the JESUS trilogy Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola set out on a journey of discovery with one goal: to help restore the sovereignty of Jesus Christ above all else. This led to their national bestseller, Jesus Manifesto. Two years later, they released Jesus: A Theography, beautifully establishing that all Scripture unveils a person--the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2016 they released the final volume in the trilogy: Jesus Speaks. All three volumes of the JESUS trilogy will lead the reader to a deeper understanding of Christ.
$24.99 $19.99
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Healing Path: A Memoir and an Invitation
This is a contemplative reflection on the spirituality of healing, the fruit of the author's lifetime in conducting spiritual direction and psychotherapy, drawing on his lessons from Thomas Merton and study of the mystical path. It is largely written in the form of a memoir of his own recovery from the traumatic wounds of his early life (abusive father, abuse by his confessor in the monastery, a dysfunctional marriage, and his road to healing and wholeness. But it is not just about his story--it is an invitation to the reader to reflect and resonate with the lessons that apply to their own stories.
$27.00 $22.00
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I'm Just a Kid with an IEP
Jordan Toma is A Motivational Speaker, Financial Advisor and a real estate investor "But it hasn't always been this easy" My life has been a roller-coaster with this "Learning Disability" and I let it control my confidence and outlook on life for the first 18 years. I let it define me - it became a permanent label stuck to my shirt every day. I will give you an idea of what I mean. You know when you are attending a conference and they give you a name tag to pin to your shirt? As far as I was concerned I had a permanent name tag. But mine said "You're not as smart as everyone else. You can't do this". This happened to me because of my experience in school and it grew roots into everything I did. I would feel helpless in class. I struggled to understand why I couldn't just pick up information like everyone else. I remember sitting in class telling myself I am going to try really hard to understand everything in class today just like everyone else and be a normal student, but I just couldn't grasp it! I was made fun of because sometimes I had to have special lessons. Other students, even so called "friends" called me dumb. I let this problem control me until I graduated in 2008. I was accepted into a life changing program called The Step Ahead.I remember moving in filled with fear and anxiety. I went into the bathroom looked at myself in the mirror and promised myself I was going to change. I knew I couldn't let this label last forever. After that I started building a foundation of confidence and belief in myself brick by brick. It has brought me to where I am today. This journey has just started for me but now I believe it's time to help young students that can relate to my story. My objective is to create the foundations of the belief, the confidence, the work ethic and everything that you need to become the best you can be now and not let anything ever get in your way. Now it's time to make up for lost time.
$19.99 $14.99
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Deep & Wild: On Mountains, Opossums & Finding Your Way in West Virginia
Winner of the 2023 Autumn House Nonfiction Prize, the essays in Laura Jackson's debut, Deep & Wild, chronicle the beauty and awe of Appalachia through the eyes of a lifelong West Virginian.Jackson employs her knowledge of and curiosity for the region to describe life in West Virginia as it actually is while dismantling stereotypes portrayed in popular media with humor and tenderness. Jackson works to describe what is special about her home, looking head-on at all the ways life in West Virginia may be wonderful and terrible, beautiful and ugly. Moving beyond all-too-common Appalachian stories of hardship and poverty, Jackson's collection revels in joy, family, and nature.Through her essays, Jackson invites readers to peer under creek rocks for crawfish, look a little more fondly at opossums, a road trip to an annual ramp festival, and learn why not to trust a GPS along West Virginia's rugged roads. From her living room to Appalachian hollows, Jackson approaches the sublime, seeking truths in the removal of a stump from her backyard and in John Denver's famous song, "Take Me Home, Country Roads."
$24.95 $19.95
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