Search results for ""Farrar, Straus Giroux Inc""

For years, Teresa has meandered from one job to the next, settling into long stretches of time, unable to move ahead in any field or career, the dreaded move from one gig to another starting to feel unbearable. When a recruiter connects her with a contract position at AllOver, it appears to check all her prerequisites for a “good” job. It’s a fintech corporation with progressive hiring policies and a social justice-minded mission statement. Their new service for premium members: a functional fleet of driverless cars. The future of transportation. As her new-hire orientation reveals, the distance between AllOver’s claims and its actions is wide, but the lure of financial stability and a flexible schedule is enough to keep Teresa driving forward. Joanne McNeil, who often reports on how the human experience intersects with tech, brings all of her compassion and criticism about labor and technology to Wrong Way. In this thought-provoking, fresh, and humane novel, she captures the existential perils imposed by a nonstop, full-service gig economy, and exposes the toll of corporate calculations on the human spirit.

Read more less

A celebration of the beauty and mystery of language and how it shapes our lives, our loves, and our world.If there is one feature that defines the human condition, it is language: written, spoken, signed, understood, and misunderstood, in all its infinite glory. In this ingenious, lyrical exploration, Julie Sedivy draws on years of experience in the lab and a lifetime of linguistic love to bring the discoveries of linguistics home, to the place language itself lives: within the yearnings of the human heart and amid the complex social bonds that it makes possible.Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love follows the path that language takes through a human lifefrom an infant's first attempts at sense-making to the vulnerabilities and losses that accompany aging. As Sedivy shows, however, language and life are inextricable, and here she offers them together: a childish misunderstanding of her mother's meaning reveals the difficulty of relating to other minds;

Read more less

In the summer of 1966, crammed into a DC hotel suite and passing paper cups of liquor, twenty-eight women hatched a revolutionary plan. Betty Friedan, the well-known author of The Feminine Mystique, and Pauli Murray, a lawyer at the front lines of the civil rights movement, had quietly pulled away attendees from the State Womens’ Commissions annual conference. Frustrated with government inertia, they laid out a vision for an organisation to unite and advocate for all women. Inspired, challenged, skeptical, they debated the idea late into the night and the next day. By the end of the conference, the National Organisation for Women was born. In The Women of NOW, the historian Katherine Turk chronicles the growth and influence of this foundational group through three relatively unknown core members: Aileen Hernandez, a federal official of Jamaican-American heritage; Mary Jean Collins, a working-class union organiser and Chicago Catholic; and Patricia Hill Burnett, a Michigan Republican and former beauty queen. From its inception in 1966 through the tumultuous training ground of the 1970s, NOW's feminism flooded the nation, shifted American culture and politics, and clashed with conservative forces, presaging our fractured national landscape. These women built an organisation that was radical in its time, and built it to last. This is the first time anyone has told their story.

Read more less

Dawn breaksnew dayhearts lightsisters play.In this lyrical and spare picture book with beautiful illustrations from Fanny Liem, author Jyoti Rajan Gopal tells the story of two sisters who are excited to go on a backyard adventure. But when their make-believe meets with disaster, the sisters take some time apart. They learn to forgive each other's mistakes, and soon the sisters are combining their ideas to make the most beautiful backyard kingdom of all. Because now they know:Sister spiritsister strongsister heartsister strong.

Read more less

WARNING! This is a VERY scary story. It is the most spine chilling story anyone has ever read. It takes place in a horrifying haunted house (okay, not that terrifying) . . . with a creepy creature (well, maybe not that creepy) . . . and its frightening friends (but are they that frightening?). Seriously. Kids are going to be scared right out of their underpants by these guys! There's no way they're the cutest little critters anyone has ever seen . . . right? The Scariest Kitten in the World is a great read aloud all year long, but especially during Halloween. Packed with humour and heart, with laugh-out-loud illustrations, this not-quite-scary story will keep readers laughing until the very last page.

Read more less

Jiordan’s family was never quite like everyone else’s, with her father’s mood swings, her mother’s attempts at normalcy, and her two sisters with a different last name. But on the surface, they fit in. Until the day the FBI came knocking. After that, her father’s mood plunged to a dangerous low. After that, there was an investigation and a sentencing in court. After that, her family changed forever. Reckoning with her father’s incarceration, Jiordan navigated friends who couldn’t quite understand what she was going through, along with the highs and lows of first love. But if her father was gone, why did Jiordan feel like the one disappearing? Recounting her own experiences, poet Jiordan Castle creates a searing YA true-story-in-verse about the challenge to be free when a parent is behind bars.

Read more less

Deborah Diesen and Dan Hanna''s Meet the Baby, Pout-Pout Fish is a short and sweet mini-adventure created to introduce the youngest guppies to the New York Times bestselling Pout-Pout Fish series.There''s a new little one under the sealet''s say hello! Swim along with Mr. Fish as he meets a new guppy in his life in this next original illustrated board book from New York Times bestselling creators Deborah Diesen and Dan Hanna.

Read more less

Mr. Fish helps his friend Willa Whale overcome her social anxiety in the next installment of the New York Timesbestselling Pout-Pout Fish series from Deborah Diesen and Dan Hanna now available in board book!Willa Whale is full of worries! Will the party be too loud?Will she find someone to talk to? Will she get lost in the crowd?Mr. Fish is Willa''s friend, and he''d like to help her out.Can some of his suggestions help Willa with her doubt?Swim along with the Pout-Pout Fish and Willa Whale as they explore the world of worry. Together, they might just learn that when worry swims inside us, there are things that we can do!

Read more less

Miles is a Vietnam vet who’s worried he’s going to lose his job and his tenuous grasp on a stable life because of a fight he had with a co-worker over some steroids. His PTSD and struggles to control his steroid-fuelled violent tendencies complicate life with his girlfriend, Shelby, a stripper who only occasionally seems to have the proverbial heart of gold. She certainly seems to possess more kindness and generosity than her brother, Wylie, who’s currently on the run after being implicated in the deaths of two local oxycodone dealers and has their relatives on his tail. When Wylie kidnaps his sister and holes up in Miles's country lair, it is, frankly, threatening to become a bit too much for steroid-addled Miles to handle. Frank Bill’s world is as wild and rollicking as ever, punctuated with uproarious event after uproarious event. But in Back to the Dirt, he goes deeper than wall-to-wall brawl—with Miles, he takes us back to the experiences overseas that stripped the innocence and optimism from the heartland dream; with Shelby, he shows us that you didn’t have to travel to Vietnam to see real darkness. But still, even in this benighted state, there’s the dirt to come back to. And maybe, just maybe, Bill shows, that can be enough.

Read more less

It's Moscow, 2028. A scream, a moan, and a death rattle slowly pull Andrei Danilovich Komiaga out of his drunken stupor. But wait - that's just his ringtone. So begins another day in the life of an oprichnik, one of the czar's most trusted courtiers - and one of the country's most feared men. In this new New Russia, where futuristic technology and the draconian codes of Ivan the Terrible are in perfect synergy, Komiaga will attend extravagant parties, partake in brutal executions, and consume an arsenal of drugs. Vladimir Sorokin has imagined a near future both too disturbing to contemplate and too realistic to dismiss. But like all of his best work, Sorokin's new novel explodes with invention and dark humour. A startling, relentless portrait of a troubled and troubling empire, "Day of the Oprichnik" is at once a richly imagined vision of the future and a razor-sharp diagnosis of a country in crisis.

Read more less

With this groundbreaking collection, translated and edited by the renowned poet and translator David Hinton, a new generation will be introduced to the work that riveted Ezra Pound and transformed modern poetry. The Chinese poetic tradition is the largest and longest continuous tradition in world literature, and this rich and far-reaching anthology of nearly five hundred poems provides a comprehensive account of its first three millennia (1500 BCE-1200 CE), the period during which virtually all of its landmark developments took place. Unlike earlier anthologies of Chinese poetry, Hinton's book focuses on a relatively small number of poets, providing selections that are large enough to recreate each one as a fully realized and unique voice. From the classic, deeply poetic texts of Chinese philosophy to intensely personal lyrics, from love poems to startling and strange perspectives on the natural world, Hinton has collected an entire world of beauty and insight. And in his eye-opening translations, these ancient poems feel remarkably fresh and contemporary.Without ever reaching for anachronistic effects or colloquialisms, Hinton presents a literary tradition both radically new and entirely resonant.

Read more less

Cousins Coral and Isa are so close that they're practically siblings; their mothers are sisters, and the two girls grew up on the same small island. When Coral and her parents leave on a months-long sea voyage amid the islands of Indonesia, Isa is devastated that they'll be kept apart, and the two vow to write to each other no matter what. Then the unthinkable happens, and Coral's boat capsizes at sea, where her parents and the rest of the crew vanish. Washed up on a deserted island, alone and wracked by grief, she must find the strength within to survive and find her way back home. Meanwhile, Isa is still on Pebble Island, the only one holding out hope that her beloved cousin is still alive. It's a powerful story of loss and hope, love and family, and the unexpected resilience of the human spirit.

Read more less

On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom-a moment often revered as the culmination of this Black-led protest. But at its core, the March on Washington was not a beautiful dream of future integration; it was a mass outcry for jobs and freedom NOW-not at some undetermined point in the future. It was a revolutionary march with its own controversies and problems, the themes of which still resonate to this day. Without diminishing the words of Dr. King, More Than a Dream looks at the march through a wider lens, using Black newspaper reports from the period as a primary resource, recognizing the overlooked work of socialist organizers and Black women protesters, and repositioning this momentous day as radical in its roots, methods, demands, and results. From the acclaimed authors of Call Him Jack comes a classic-in-the-making that will transform our modern understanding of this legendary event in the fight for racial justice and civil rights.

Read more less

Brown is beautiful. On a hike with her grandparents, a young Indian American girl makes note of all the things in the wilderness that are brown, too. From a nurturing mother bear, to the steadiness of deep twisting roots, to the beauty of a wild mustang, brown is everywhere! On her way, the girl collects the beautiful brown things she encounters as mementos for a scrap book to share with a very special new addition to her family - a baby brother. Brown is you. Brown is me. Here is an uplifting, tender exploration of beauty, joy, and self-love, with playful illustrations by rising star and South Asian illustrator Noor Sofi.

Read more less

Lets you swim along with the pout-pout fish as he discovers that being glum and spreading "dreary-wearies" isn't really his destiny. In this title, bright ocean colours and playful rhyme come together to turn even the poutiest of frowns upside down.

Read more less

Anders does not seem like himself. He and his friend Jeff are headed out for a picnic, but no matter how much Anders insists that he’s feeling just fine, Jeff gets the sense that his best friend isn’t being totally honest. Should he check in on Anders, or give him space? Should he help him out, or just be by his side? How can he be a good friend if he doesn’t know what his friend might need?

Read more less

Fall in love with this laugh-out-loud third picture book in the bestselling Escargot series about a cute French snail who attends a Valentine's Day partythe perfect gift for Valentine's Day or celebrating love all year round.Bonjour! Today is Snailentine''s Day, and Escargot is on his way to a party. Will his Snailentine be there? When he arrives, Escargot is a bit nervous and wants to hide in his shell. But in the end, he makes a surprising new friend in a fellow party guest. From New York Timesbestselling author Dashka Slater and former Pixar animator Sydney Hanson, Love, Escargot is an irresistibly sweet and charming story about unexpected friendship, dealing with social anxiety, and Valentine's Day fun. This hilarious and interactive addition to the award-winning Escargot series is the ideal read aloud for story time and animal lovers alike. Love, Escargot is also available in as a board book for babies and toddlers u

Read more less

Travis's dad is a DJ, spinning silky jazz tunes at parties all over the neighbourhood. The two of them have always enjoyed debating the great question: Which Black music tradition is the best - Travis's boppin' hip-hop or Dad's beloved jazz? But Travis's parents have divorced, and Dad lives on his own now. He's only a few miles away, but for Travis, the distance between jazz and hip-hop feels greater than ever. Music doesn't sound the same. Mum says they just need to find a new groove. But how? Maybe through a little hip-hoppin', not-stoppin', tunes-boppin' DJing. Based in part on Brown's experience as a single father, this picture book deftly depicts modern divorce in a Black family, and is a heartwarming ode to how music can bring a father and son closer together.

Read more less

Before Picasso became Picasso-the artist now celebrated as one of France's leading figures-he was surveilled by the police. Amid political tensions in the spring of 1901, he was flagged as an anarchist by the security services. Picasso's art was largely excluded from public collections in France for the next four decades. And the genius who conceived Guernica as a visceral statement against fascism in 1937 was even denied French citizenship on the eve of the Nazi occupation. Picasso faced a triple stigma-as a foreigner, a political radical, and an avant-garde artist. Annie Cohen-Solal's prizewinning Picasso the Foreigner approaches the artist's career and art from an entirely new angle, making extensive use of long-understudied archival sources. Picasso emerges as an artist ahead of his time not only aesthetically but politically, one who ignored national modes in favor of cosmopolitan forms. Eventually he chose the south over the north, the provinces over the capital, while simultaneously achieving widespread fame. The artist never became a citizen of France, yet he enriched and dynamized its culture like few other figures in history. This book, for the first time, explains how.

Read more less

Christmas, Kentucky, is a summer tourist destination for its holiday-themed shops, ornament-sprouting potted palms, giant snow globe display, and its cheerful residents - including the mayor's daughter, fifteen-year-old Darby Peacher. But as Darby stumbles her way into a job at the town's rundown amusement park, Holly Jolly Land, her summer quickly goes from merry to miserable: a boy of Christmas present is absent, a boy of Christmas past is her supervisor, and the town seems to be losing its cheer as it strives to become more commercial. As she tries to sort out her love life, Darby grows positively Scroogey until she gets wrapped up in reinventing Holly Jolly Land - and the town - as the wonderland it once was. Before long she finds romance and rediscovers the magic of Christmas in this funny feel good story celebrating a small town where the holiday season runs year-round.

Read more less

Just like the fourteen brothers that came before her, Khutulun learned from an early age how to ride horseback, shoot arrows at full gallop and, most importantly, to wrestle. But as she grew older, her people wondered why their beloved princess had not yet married. So, she vowed to marry any man that could defeat her at wrestling. Though she remained undefeated, Khutulun felt duty bound to throw a match to end the rumours and restore honour to her family. But when the day arrives, Khutulun's heart is torn. In the heat of battle, would she - could she - make the decision to become a wife and not a warrior? A story based on the life and legend of Khutulun, Warrior Princess is an inspiring tale of a princess who realizes that sometimes the best way to serve one’s community is to stay true to oneself.

Read more less

"A wonderful book about figuring out who we are and who we want to be when we grow up. It's also about being an American-especially a first-generation American." -Roz Chast This graphic-novel debut from an acclaimed picture book creator is a powerfully moving memoir of the author's experiences with family, religion, and coming of age in the aftermath of World War II, and the childhood struggles and family secrets that shaped her. It's 1950s New York, and Marisabina Russo is being raised Catholic and attending a Catholic school that she loves-but when she finds out that she's Jewish by blood, and that her family members are Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, her childhood is thrown into turmoil. To make matters more complicated, her father is out of the picture, her mother is ambitious and demanding, and her older half-brothers have troubles, too. Following the author's young life into the tumultuous, liberating 1960s, this heartfelt, unexpectedly humorous, and meticulously illustrated graphic-novel memoir explores the childhood burdens of memory and guilt, and Marisabina's struggle and success in forming an identity entirely her own.

Read more less

Peterson unfurls the quotidian fabric of our lives, patterned with the difficulties of language and this moment. Confusion frames the human predicament. In Katie Peterson's Fog and Smoke, confusion is, literally, our climate. Writing to and from the California landscape, Peterson sees fog and smoke as literal-one a habitual, natural weather event, the other an increasingly common aftereffect of the West's drought-caused fires. But they are also metaphysical. Fog and smoke reflect the true conditions (and frustrations) of our ability to perceive and to connect. Peterson writes, "I've been speaking about it at a distance. / Now I want to talk about its thickness. / A person could get killed in here." The collection moves through three sections: First, the poet follows her local fog's cyclical journey of descent and dispersion. Second, in a sort of pastoral interlude, she travels widely, almost erratically, to the California desert, the greater world, and ancient history. Finally, she descends into the enclosed space of the household, and the increased confinement and intimacy of raising a child during the pandemic. Peterson unfolds the small moments that make up our lives and reveals the truths contained within them, and her poems capture the lyricism of our daily rhythms-the interruptions, dialogues, and epiphanies.

Read more less

In Evil Flowers, a precise but madcap collection of short stories, Gunnhild Øyehaug extracts the bizarre from the mundane and reveals the strange, startling brilliance of everyday life. Across twenty-five stories, Øyehaug renovates the form again and again, confirming Lydia Davis's observation that her every story is "a formal surprise, smart and droll." The stories converse with, contradict, and expand on one another; birds, hagfish, and wild beasts reappear, gnawing at the fringes. A section of a woman's brain slips into the toilet bowl, removing her ability to remember or recognize types of birds (particularly problematic because she is an ornithologist). Medicinal leeches ingest information from fiberoptic cables; a new museum sinks into the ground. Inspired by Charles Baudelaire, a dreamer and romantic in the era of realism, Øyehaug revolts against the ordinary, reaching instead for the wonder to be found in fantasy and absurdity. Brimming with wit, ingenuity, and irrepressible joy, these stories mark another triumph from a dazzling international writer.

Read more less

In those days I began to see light under every bushel basket, light nearly splitting the sides of the bushel basket. Light came through the rafters of the dairy where the grackles congregated like well-taxed citizens untransfigured even by hope. Understand I was the one underneath the basket. I was certain I had nothing to say. When I grew restless in the interior, the exterior gave. -"Autobiographical Fragment" Dense, rich, and challenging, Katie Peterson's A Piece of Good News explores interior and exterior landscapes, exposure, and shelter. Imbued with a hallucinatory poetic logic where desire, anger, and sorrow supplant intelligence and reason, these poems are powerful meditations of mourning, love, doubt, political citizenship, and happiness. Learned, wise, and witty, Peterson explodes the possibilities of the poetic voice in this remarkable and deeply felt collection.

Read more less

To the amazement of the public, pundits, and even the policy-makers themselves, the ideological and political conflict that endangered the world for half a century came to an end in 1990. How did that happen? What had caused the cold war in the first place, and why did it last as long as it did? To answer these questions, Melvyn P. Leffler homes in on four crucial episodes when American and Soviet Leaders considered modulating, avoiding, or ending hostilities and asks why they failed. He then illuminates how Reagan, Bush, and, above all, Gorbachev finally extricated themselves from the policies and mind-sets that had imprisoned their predecessors, and were able to reconfigure Soviet-American relations after decades of confrontation.

Read more less