Through an unfolding series of raw moods and memories, author Backus transports himself back to 1983, when, as a young man out of college, he’d just arrived in Manhattan from Indiana, driving his dead grandmother’s 1968 Chevy Caprice to work at a pork-packing company with dreams of becoming a writer. His mundane work of meat […]
This sing-along picture book adaptation takes “Giant Steps” by John Coltrane and fashions it into “Baby Steps,” adding lyrics that encourage little ones to move “first your right, then your left” to start their journey through life on their feet. Most of the pages feature a baby or toddler alongside parents, grandparents, and other trusted […]
In 2017, several years after her first suicide attempt, Rebolini became so tormented by a desire to die that she checked herself into a psychiatric ward. In the years since that stay, she has performed sweeping literary, sociological, historical, and psychological research on the topic of suicidality, in an “effort to stake a claim in […]
The German philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) remains famous today for his Marxist critiques of popular culture as well as for a prose style as intricately knotty as a macrame vest. Among his most characteristically memorable pronouncements was this: “The critique of culture is confronted with the last stage in the dialectic of culture […]
The Hellas Station is a trailblazing Mars colony staffed by only a handful of international, highly competent astronauts. One of these exceptional colonists is extra-special: Adam Flynn is the first human born on Mars (sadly, his mother died from cancer in the radiation-rich environment). Seventeen-year-old Adam has matured to be a survival-hardened and resourceful youth […]
A young child spends the day on the beach and receives advice on how to build the perfect sandcastle. The child is first encouraged to ask a friend to help. The pair then builds a solid base by forming a crater in a sand hill and packing it down. The book offers different options for […]
A married man (generously called Adonis) engages in various sexual escapades with a parade of different women. Readers begin the story knowing that Adonis has died, and the author uses a variety of different formats to tell the story of his downfall. These include poetry, short prose, quotes (some of which are in French), and […]
After Crawford Cope hits his father with a baseball bat, he’s sentenced to 300 hours of community service—working to revamp a baseball diamond that will be named Cope Field after his famous pops, a hometown hero who played in the major leagues. Craw, who’s white, is paired with Hannah Flores, a brown-skinned, bisexual punk rocker […]
This timely book delves into a host of issues connected to nuclear weapons, with conclusions that are, to say the least, disturbing. Panda, who has extensive experience as a writer and government adviser specializing in military geopolitics, brings a great deal of research material to the task, combining historical information with novel insights. He notes […]
As soon as Daniel Brooker turns 18 years old, he heads to the Department of Designated Dates to find out when he will die of natural causes; in this peculiar alternate reality provocatively conjured by the author, anyone can procure this information (a technological instrument called a “gizmotron” makes this possible) if they so choose. […]