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"A superb account of a pilgrimage. . . . Characteristically beautiful, though uncharacteristically haunted." --Pico Iyer, New York Review of Books"Thubron walks for the dead and writes for the living, and I can't remember when I have been so thoroughly and deeply moved by an author's outward journey inward." --Bob Shacochis, Boston GlobeNew York Times bestselling author Colin Thubron returns with a moving, intimate, and exquisitely crafted travel memoir recounting his pilgrimage to the Hindu and Buddhist holy mountain of Kailas--whose peak represents the most sacred place on Earth to roughly a quarter the global population. With echoes of Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, Peter Hessler's Country Driving, and Paul Theoroux's Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Thubron's follow up to his bestselling Shadow of the Silk Road will illuminate, interest, and inspire anyone interested in traveling the world or journeying into the soul.

"Richard Horan has brought us a welcome view of America to defy the prevailing political and financial nastiness. This is a timely and important book."--Ted Morgan, author of Wilderness at Dawn"A lively visit with the dauntless men and women who operate America's family farms and help provide our miraculous annual bounty. Richard Horan writes with energy and passion."--Hannah Nordhaus, author of The Beekeeper's Lament"Horan's new book evocatively describes the peril and promise of family farms in America. I loved joining him on this journey, and so will you."--T.A. Barron, author of The Great Tree of AvalonIn Seeds, novelist and nature writer Richard Horan sought out the trees that inspired the work of great American writers like Faulkner, Kerouac, Welty, Wharton, and Harper Lee. In Harvest, Horan embarks upon a serendipitous journey across America to work the harvests of more than a dozen essential or unusual food crops--and, in the process, forms powerful connections with the farmers, the soil, and the seasons.

After her father's death, twenty-six-year-old Gray Lachmann findsherself compulsively eating. Desperate to stop bingeing, she abandonsher life in New York City for a job at a southern weight-losscamp. There, caught among the warring egos of her devious co-counselor,Sheena; the self-aggrandizing camp director, Lewis; his attractive assistant,Bennett; and a throng of combative teenage campers, she is confronted by acaptivating mystery: her teenage half-sister, Eden, whom Gray never knewexisted. Now, while unraveling her father's lies, Gray must tackle her ownself-deceptions and take control of her body and her life.Visceral, poignant, and often wickedly funny, Skinny illuminates a youngwoman's struggle to make sense of the link between hunger and emotion, andto make peace with her demons, her body, and herself.

Young Tutankhamun is ready to claim his birthright?a vast, powerful, and opulent empire troubled by foreign wars, corruption, and court conspiracies. He plans to return tolerance and enlightenment to Egypt. But when horrific ?gifts? begin appearing in the royal palace, he commands Rahotep, chief detective of the Thebes division, to investigate. Rahotep realizes the sinister objects have much in common with a series of cryptically mutilated young murder victims discovered across the city. Rahotep vows to protect the young king from the dark forces that threaten the future of the empire, but what he discovers will put everything he loves in terrible danger.

New York Times Bestseller"Dan Ariely is a genius at understanding human behavior: no economist does a better job of uncovering and explaining the hidden reasons for the weird ways we act." -- James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds Behavioral economist and New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational Dan Ariely offers a much-needed take on the irrational decisions that influence our dating lives, our workplace experiences, and our temptation to cheat in any and all areas. Fans of Freakonomics, Survival of the Sickest, and Malcolm Gladwell's Blink and The Tipping Point will find many thought-provoking insights in The Upside of Irrationality.How can large bonuses sometimes make CEOs less productive?Why is revenge so important to us?How can confusing directions actually help us?Why is there a difference between what we think will make us happy and what really makes us happy?In his groundbreaking book, Predictably Irrational, Ariely revealed the multiple biases that lead us to make unwise decisions. Now, in The Upside of Irrationality, he exposes the surprising negative and positive effects irrationality can have on our lives. Focusing on our behaviors at work and in relationships, he offers new insights and eye-opening truths about what really motivates us on the job, how one unwise action can become a long-term bad habit, how we learn to love the ones we're with, and more. The Upside of Irrationality will change the way we see ourselves at work and at home--and cast our irrational behaviors in a more nuanced light.

The award-winning author of Voice of America paints a vivid, fully imagined portrait of an extraordinary African family and the house that holds them together.A powerful tale of family and community, This House Is Not for Sale brings to life an African neighborhood and one remarkable house, seen through the eyes of a young member of the household. The house lies in a town seemingly lost in time, full of colorful, larger-than-life characters; at the narrative's heart are Grandpa, the family patriarch whose occasional cruelty is balanced by his willingness to open his doors to those in need, and the house itself, which becomes a character in its own right and takes on the scale of legend.From the decades-long rivalry between owners of two competing convenience stores to the man who convinces his neighbors to give up their earthly possessions to prepare for the end of the world, Osondu's story captures a place beyond the reach of the outside world, full of superstitions and myths that sustain its people.Osondu's prose has the lightness and magic of fable, but his themes--poverty, disease, the arrival of civilization in an isolated community--are timeless and profound. At once full of joyful energy and quiet heartbreak, This House Is Not for Sale is an utterly original novel from a master storyteller.

Finished in 1947, House of Earth is Woody Guthrie's only fully realized novel?a powerful portrait of Dust Bowl America, filled with the homespun lyricism and authenticity that have made his songs a part of our national consciousness.Tike and Ella May Hamlin struggle to plant roots in the arid land of the Texas Panhandle. The husband and wife live in a precarious wooden farm shack, but Tike yearns for a sturdy house that will protect them from the treacherous elements. Thanks to a five-cent government pamphlet, Tike has the know-how to build a simple adobe dwelling, a structure made from the land itself?fireproof, windproof, Dust Bowl?proof. A house of earth.Though they are one with the farm and with each other, the land on which Tike and Ella May live and work is not theirs. Due to larger forces beyond their control?including ranching conglomerates and banks?their adobe house remains painfully out of reach.A story of rural realism, and in many ways a companion piece to Guthrie's folk anthem "This Land Is Your Land," House of Earth is a searing portrait of hardship and hope set against a ravaged landscape.

From #1 international bestselling author Ami McKay comes The Virgin Cure, the story of a young girl abandoned and forced to fend for herself in the poverty and treachery of post-Civil War New York City.McKay, whose debut novel The Birth House made headlines around the world, returns with a resonant tale inspired by her own great-great-grandmother's experiences as a pioneer of women's medicine in nineteenth-century New York.One summer night in Lower Manhattan in 1871, twelve-year-old Moth is pulled from her bed and sold as a servant to a finely dressed woman. Knowing that her mother is so close while she is locked away in servitude, Moth bides her time until she can escape, only to find her old home deserted and her mother gone without a trace. Moth must struggle to survive alone in the murky world of the Bowery, a wild and lawless enclave filled with thieves, beggars, sideshow freaks, and prostitutes.She eventually meets Miss Everett, the proprietress of an "Infant School," a brothel that caters to gentlemen who pay dearly for "willing and clean" companions--desirable young virgins like Moth. She also finds friendship with Dr. Sadie, a female physician struggling against the powerful forces of injustice. The doctor hopes to protect Moth from falling prey to a terrible myth known as the "virgin cure"--the tragic belief that deflowering a "fresh maid" can cleanse the blood and heal men afflicted with syphilis--which has destroyed the lives of other Bowery girls.Ignored by society and unprotected by the law, Moth dreams of independence. But there's a high price to pay for freedom, and no one knows that better than a girl from Chrystie Street.In a powerful novel that recalls the evocative fiction of Anita Shreve, Annie Proulx, and Joanne Harris, Ami McKay brings to light the story of early, forward-thinking social warriors, creating a narrative that readers will find inspiring, poignant, adventure-filled, and utterly unforgettable.

One man's odyssey into the brutal hive of the National Football LeagueAs an unsigned free agent who rose through the practice squad to the starting lineup of the Denver Broncos, Nate Jackson took the path of thousands of unknowns before him to carve out a professional football career twice as long as the average player. Through his story recounted here?from scouting combines to preseason cuts to byzantine film studies to glorious touchdown catches?even knowledgeable football fans will glean a new, starkly humanized understanding of the NFL's workweek. Fast-paced, lyrical, dirty, and hilariously unvarnished, Slow Getting Up is an unforgettable look at the real lives of America's best athletes putting their bodies and minds through hell.

One of the most eminent scholars and writers on men and masculinity and the author of the critically acclaimed Manhood in America turns his attention to the culture of guys, aged 16 to 26: their attitudes, their relationships, their rules, and their rituals."Kimmel is our seasoned guide into a world that, unless we are guys, we barely know exists. As he walks with us through dark territories, he points out the significant and reflects on its meaning."--Mary Pipher, Ph.D., author of Reviving OpheliaThe passage from adolescence to adulthood was once clear. Today, growing up has become more complex and confusing, as young men drift casually through college and beyond--hanging out, partying, playing with tech toys, watching sports. But beneath the appearance of a simple extended boyhood, a more dangerous social world has developed, far away from the traditional signposts and cultural signals that once helped boys navigate their way to manhood--a territory Michael Kimmel has identified as "Guyland."In mapping the troubling social world where men are now made, Kimmel offers a view into the minds and times of America's sons, brothers, and boyfriends, and he works toward redefining what it means to be a man today--and tomorrow. Only by understanding this world and this life stage can we enable young men to chart their own paths, stay true to themselves, and emerge safely from Guyland as responsible and fully formed male adults.

For centuries, people around the world have prayed for good luck and warded against bad. Every language features a good luck greeting. Sailors have long looked for an albatross on the horizon as an auspicious symbol. Jade, clovers, rabbits' feet, wishbones: these items have lined the pockets of those seeking good fortune. For some, it's bad luck to walk under a ladder, to enter and leave a home through different doors, or to say ?Macbeth? in a theatre. But is there such a thing as luck, or does luck often simply explain common sense? Don't walk under a ladder because, well, that's just dangerous. You won the lottery not because of any supernatural force but because a random number generator selected the same numbers that you picked out at the corner store. You run into a neighbour from your street on the other side of the world: chance or pure fate? (Or does it depend on how much you like your neighbour?)Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, author of the bestseller Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities, was born on a Friday the Thirteenth, a fact that he discovered long after he had become one of the world's preeminent statisticians. Had he been living ignorantly and innocently under an unlucky cloud for all those years? Or is thirteen just another number? As a scientist and a man of reason, Rosenthal has long considered the value of luck, good and bad, seeking to measure chance and hope in formulas scratched out on chalkboards. In Knock on Wood, Rosenthal, with great humour and irreverence, divines the world of luck, fate, and chance, putting his considerable scientific acumen to the test in deducing whether luck is real or the mere stuff of superstition.

In time for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing comes this edition of journalist Andrew Smith's Moondust, now updated with a new Afterword, that tells the fascinating story of twelve astronauts who ventured to space, and his interviews with nine of the surviving men.The Apollo lunar missions of the 1960s and 1970s have been called the last optimistic acts of the twentieth century. Twelve astronauts made this greatest of all journeys and were indelibly marked by it, for better or for worse. Journalist Andrew Smith tracks down the nine surviving members of this elite group to find their answers to the question "Where do you go after you've been to the Moon?"A thrilling blend of history, reportage, and memoir, Moondust rekindles the hopeful excitement of an incandescent hour in America's past when anything seemed possible as it captures the bittersweet heroism of those who risked everything to hurl themselves out of the known world--and who were never again quite able to accept its familiar bounds.

The Marbled Swarm is Dennis Cooper's most haunting work to date. In secret passageways, hidden rooms, and the troubled mind of our narrator, a mystery perpetually takes shape?and the most compelling clue to its final nature is ?the marbled swarm? itself, a complex amalgam of language passed down from father to son.Cooper ensnares the reader in a world of appearances, where the trappings of high art, old money, and haute cuisine obscure an unspeakable system of coercion and surrender. And as the narrator stalks an elusive truth, traveling from the French countryside to Paris and back again, the reader will be seduced by a voice only Dennis Cooper could create.

In the southern Kalahari area of Botswana?an arid landscape of legends that speak of lost cities, hidden wealth, and ancient gods?a fractious ranger named Monzo is found dying from a severe head wound in a dry ravine. Three Bushmen surround the doomed man, but are they his killers or there to help? Detective David ?Kubu? Bengu is on the case, an investigation that his old school friend Khumanego claims is motivated by racist antagonism on the part of the local police. But when a second bizarre murder, and then a third, seem to point also to the nomadic tribe, the intrepid Kubu must journey into the depths of the Kalahari to uncover the truth. What he discovers there will test all his powers of detection . . . and his ability to remain alive.

An indelible story of one woman's life, revealed in a series of beautifully sculpted episodes that illuminate an era, moving from the 1960s to today, from one of Britain's leading literary lights--Tessa Hadley."Clever Girl is...what could be called a 'sensibility' novel--a story that doesn't overreach, about a character who feels real, told in prose that isn't ornate yet is startlingly exact. The effect is a fine and well-chosen pileup of experiences that gather meaning and power."--Meg Wolitzer, New York Times Book ReviewClever Girl is a powerful exploration of family relationships and class in modern life, witnessed through the experiences of an Englishwoman named Stella. Unfolding in a series of snapshots, Tessa Hadley's involving and moving novel follows Stella from childhood, growing up with her single mother in a Bristol bedsit, into the murky waters of middle age. It is a story vivid in its immediacy and rich in drama--violent deaths, failed affairs, broken dreams, missed chances. Yet it is Hadley's observations of everyday life, her keen skill at capturing the ways men and women think and feel and relate to one another that elevate this tale into "a beautiful and precisely drawn portrait of an everywoman, both extraordinary and ordinary" (Minneapolis Star Tribune).

Priscilla Gilman, a teacher of romantic poetry who embraced Wordsworth's vision of childhood's spontaneous wonder, eagerly anticipated the birth of her first child, certain that he would come "trailing clouds of glory." But as Benjamin grew, his remarkable precocity was associated with a developmental disorder that would dramatically alter the course of Priscilla's dreams. In The Anti-Romantic Child, a memoir full of lyricism and light, Gilman explores our hopes and expectations for our children, our families, and ourselves?and the ways in which experience may lead us to re-imagine them. Using literature as a touchstone, Gilman reveals her journey through crisis to joy, illuminating the flourishing of life that occurs when we embrace the unexpected. The Anti-Romantic Child is a profoundly moving and compellingly universal book about family, parenthood, and love. The Anti-Romantic Child, Gilman's first book, was excerpted in Newsweek magazine and featured on the cover of its international edition in April 2011. It was an NPR Morning Edition Must-Read, Slate's Book of the Week, selected as one the Best Books of 2011 by the Leonard Lopate Show, and chosen as a Best Book of 2011 by The Chicago Tribune. The Anti-Romantic Child was one of five nominees for a Books for a Better Life Award for Best First Book.

Milan Kundera's brilliant new collection of essays is a passionate defense of art in an era that, he argues, no longer values art or beauty. With the same dazzling mix of emotion and ideas that characterizes his bestselling novels, the internationally acclaimed author revisits the artists whose works help us better understand what it means to be human. Elegant, startlingly original, and provocative, Encounter combines many of the author's signature themes with personal reflections and stories.

On August 19, 1953, the American and British intelligence agencies launched a desperate coup in Iran against Muhammad Mossadegh, a bedridden seventy-two-year-old man. His crimes had been to flirt with communism and to nationalize his country's oil industry, which for forty years had been in British hands. But the countries that overthrew Mossadegh would, in time, deeply regret siding with his great foe, Shah Muhammad-Reza Pahlavi. Mossadegh was one of the first liberals of the Middle East, a man who wanted friendship with the West?but not slavish dependence.Who was this political guerrilla of noble blood, so adored in the Middle East and so reviled in the West? Schooled in Europe and pitted against dictatorship at home, Mossadegh had become the nation's conscience by the time of the Shah's ascension. Written by our foremost observer of Iran, Patriot of Persia reveals a man who embodied his nation's struggle for freedom and whose life serves as a warning to the White House and Downing Street as they commit to further intervention in a volatile and unpredictable region.

At eighty-five, Teo is ready to retire from the bombast and romance of life as one of the world's most influential choreographers. But when he meets Vivi, a fortyish waitress at a Tel Aviv café, the fires of his youth flare back to life?his passion for a woman's touch, his long-buried anguish at his wartime experiences, and his complex engagement with dance. Vivi's life will change, too, as the warmth of Teo's affection counterbalances her harrowing time as an Israeli soldier in an illicit relationship. For both, their investment in art, and indeed in life itself, will reawaken as the ghosts of their suppressed pasts?from Warsaw to Copenhagen, Berlin to Tel Aviv?cry out for forgiveness and healing.With lustrous prose capturing the grit and fury of history and the breathtaking power of passion, When We Danced on Water is a compelling novel of intimacy and identity, art and ambition, and how love can truly transcend tragedy.

Heighten your intuition, connect with deceased loved ones, and surpass the psychological roadblocks holding you back with psychic medium Rebecca Rosen's fresh and hip prescriptive program, a unique and refreshing blend of self-help wisdom and psychic insight.In Spirited, readers can learn how to dig into their past to identify the root of the "damage" that's keeping them from living their best lives. In her colorful and youthfully vibrant voice, medium-to-the-stars Rebecca Rosen shows us how to draw on the power of our intuitive gifts to connect with spirit energy?loved ones who have passed?to provide the clarity necessary to master real-life issues, including relationships, job fulfillment, finances, and body image.

Rebecca is young, lost, and beautiful. A gifted artist, she seeks solace and inspiration in the Mediterranean heat of Athens?trying to understand who she is and how she can love without fear. George has come to Athens to learn ancient languages after growing up in New England boarding schools and Ivy League colleges. He has no close relationships with anyone and spends his days hunched over books or wandering the city in a drunken stupor.Henry is in Athens to dig. An accomplished young archaeologist, he devotedly uncovers the city's past as a way to escape his own, which holds a secret that not even his doting parents can talk about....And then, with a series of chance meetings, Rebecca, George, and Henry are suddenly in flight, their lives brighter and clearer than ever, as they fall headlong into a summer that will forever define them in the decades to come.

What does it mean to be authentic?The demand for authenticity?the honest or the real?is one of the most powerful movements in contempo-rary life, influencing our moral outlook, political views, and consumer behavior. Yet according to Andrew Potter, when examined closely, our fetish for ?authentic? lifestyles or experiences is actually a form of exclusionary status seeking. The result, he argues, is modernity's malaise: a competitive, self-absorbed individualism that ultimately erodes genuine relationships and true community.Weaving together threads of pop culture, history, and philosophy, The Authenticity Hoax reveals how our misguided pursuit of the authentic merely exacerbates the artificiality of contemporary life that we decry. In his defiant, brilliant critique, Andrew Potter offers a way forward to a meaningful individualism that makes peace with the modern world.

Winner of the 2016 Alex AwardBest Book of 2015 --Kansas City StarIn this intricate novel of psychological suspense, a fatal discovery near the high school ignites a witch-hunt in a Southeast Texas refinery town, unearthing communal and family secrets that threaten the lives of the town's girls.In Port Sabine, the air is thick with oil, superstition reigns, and dreams hang on making a winning play. All eyes are on Mercy Louis, the star of the championship girls' basketball team. Mercy seems destined for greatness, but the road out of town is riddled with obstacles. There is her grandmother, Evelia, a strict evangelical who has visions of an imminent Rapture and sees herself as the keeper of Mercy's virtue. There are the cryptic letters from Charmaine, the mother who abandoned Mercy at birth. And then there's Travis, the boy who shakes the foundation of her faith.At the periphery of Mercy's world floats team manager Illa Stark, a lonely wallflower whose days are spent caring for a depressed mother crippled in a refinery accident. Like the rest of the town, Illa is spellbound by Mercy's beauty and talent, but a note discovered in Mercy's gym locker reveals that her life may not be as perfect as it appears.The last day of school brings the disturbing discovery, and as summer unfolds and the police investigate, every girl becomes a suspect. When Mercy collapses on the opening night of the season, Evelia prophesies that she is only the first to fall, and soon, other girls are afflicted by the mysterious condition, sending the town into a tailspin, and bringing Illa and Mercy together in an unexpected way.Evocative and unsettling, The Unraveling of Mercy Louis charts the downfall of one town's golden girl while exploring the brutality and anxieties of girlhood in America.

In this electric and provocative debut novel, Amber Tamblyn blends genres of poetry and prose with elements of suspense to give shape to the shocking narratives of victims of sexual violence, and maps the destructive ways in which society perpetuates rape culture.A violent serial rapist, who goes by the name Maude, is on the loose. She hunts for men at bars and online?the place doesn't matter, neither does the man. Her victims then must grapple with the aftermath of their assault?doubts from the police, feelings of shame and alienation from their friends and family, and the haunting of a horrible woman who becomes the phantom on which society pro-jects its greatest fears, fascinations, and even misogyny. All the while, the police are without leads, and the media hounds the victims, publicly dissecting the details of their attack.As the years pass, these men learn to heal by banding together and finding a space to raise their voices. Told in alternating viewpoints, signature to each voice and experience of the victim, these pages crackle with emotion ranging from horror to breathtaking empathy.As bold as it is timely, Any Man is a tribute to those who have lived through the nightmare of sexual assault and asserts how the power of speaking out can change not only the life of survivors, but so too the world around them.