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Games figured prominently in the myths of North American Indian tribes, and also in their ceremonies for bringing rain and fertility and combating misfortune. In his classic study, originally published in 1907 as a report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Stewart Culin divided the games played by Indian men and women into two general types. Volume 1 of this Bison Books edition takes up games of chance, involving guessing and throwing dice. Culin was able to show that the games of North American tribes were remarkably similar in method and purpose. He found that games using dice of various materials—wood, cane, bone, animal teeth, fruit stones—existed among 130 tribes belonging to 30 linguistic groups. The games are described in detail in this volume, and so are the popular guessing games drawing on sticks and wooden disks and involving hidden objects. Volume 2 is just as absorbing in its elaboration of skills like archery and games like snow-snake, in which darts or javelins were hurled over snow or ice. Played throughout the continent north of Mexico were the hoop and pole game and its miniature, solitaire form called ring and pin, here illustrated. With equal authority Culin discusses ball games: racket, shinny, football, and hot ball. He includes accounts of "minor amusements": shuttlecock, tipcat, quoits, popgun, bean shooter, and cat's cradle.Originally published in 1907, Stewart Culin's comprehensive work reveals a side of American Indian culture still only rarely shown. An experienced observer, Culin was curator of ethnology at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and the author of books about games in other cultures.

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A compelling account of how a group of Hasidic Jews established its own local government on American soilSettled in the mid-1970s by a small contingent of Hasidic families, Kiryas Joel is an American town with few parallels in Jewish history—but many precedents among religious communities in the United States. This book tells the story of how this group of pious, Yiddish-speaking Jews has grown to become a thriving insular enclave and a powerful local government in upstate New York. While rejecting the norms of mainstream American society, Kiryas Joel has been stunningly successful in creating a world apart by using the very instruments of secular political and legal power that it disavows.Nomi Stolzenberg and David Myers paint a richly textured portrait of daily life in Kiryas Joel, exploring the community's guiding religious, social, and economic norms. They delve into the roots of Satmar Hasidism and its charismatic founder, Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, following his journey from nineteenth-century Hungary to post–World War II Brooklyn, where he dreamed of founding an ideal Jewish town modeled on the shtetls of eastern Europe. Stolzenberg and Myers chart the rise of Kiryas Joel as an official municipality with its own elected local government. They show how constant legal and political battles defined and even bolstered the community, whose very success has coincided with the rise of political conservatism and multiculturalism in American society over the past forty years.Timely and accessible, American Shtetl unravels the strands of cultural and legal conflict that gave rise to one of the most vibrant religious communities in America, and reveals a way of life shaped by both self-segregation and unwitting assimilation.

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By day, Kim Reed was a social worker to the homebound elderly in Brooklyn Heights. By night, she scrambled into Manhattan to hostess at Babbo, where even the Pope would have had trouble scoring a reservation, and A-list celebrities squeezed through the jam-packed entryway like everyone else. Despite her whirlwind fifteen-hour workdays, Kim remained up to her eyeballs in grad school debt. Her training-problem solving, crisis intervention, dealing with unpredictable people and random situations-made her the ideal assistant for the volatile Joe Bastianich, a hard-partying, "What's next?" food and wine entrepreneur. He rose to fame in Italy as a TV star while Kim planned parties, fielded calls, and negotiated deals from two phones on the go.Decadent food, summers in Milan, and a reservation racket that paid in designer bags and champagne were fun only inasmuch as they filled the void left by being always on call and on edge. In a blink, the years passed, and one day Kim looked up and realized that everything she wanted beyond her job-friends, a relationship, a family, a weekend without twenty ominous emails dropping into her inbox-was out of reach. Workhorse is a deep-dive into coming of age in the chaos of New York City's foodie craze and an all-too-relatable look at what happens when your job takes over your identity, and when a scandal upends your understanding of where you work and what you do.. After spending years making the impossible possible for someone else, Kim realized she had to do the same for herself.

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For more than 75 years, television shows have used their fictional or real settings as major characters. When you think of shows like Seinfeld, E.R., The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Golden Girls you can t not think of New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Miami (to say nothing of shows like Chicago Hope, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hot in Cleveland, L.A. Law, It s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The King of Queens, LA to Vegas, Sex and the City, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Middle, or even Gilligan s Island. From comedies to dramedies to dramas, every state in the union (and Washington, D.C.) can claim a show (or two or dozens) as their own. TV USA is the first ever fully illustrated atlas of the in-world restaurants, businesses, and notable locations featured in everyone s favourite television shows. In TV USA, readers will embark on a fully illustrated pop culture road trip from sea to televised sea (check local listings for times). Having a medical emergency in Seattle? Rush over to Gray Sloan Memorial Hospital. Owned and operated by its staff of top-notch doctors, this Level-1 Trauma Center is nationally recognized as a top healthcare provider. (Gray s Anatomy); Looking for a cozy inn in Vermont? You can t go wrong with Dick and Joanna Louden s Stratford Inn. (Newhart); Visiting New York? You must stop by Rockefeller Plaza to catch a free taping of TGS with Tracy Jordan. There s never a line, so seats are always available (30 Rock). TV USA is the perfect guided tour for the whole family, without the trauma of having your dad threaten to turn the car around.

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With a vast selection of works from the last two decades and Polaroids of the artist's studio, this mid-career catalog provides unique perspective on Schutz's oeuvre and methods Dana Schutz is one of the great figurative painters of our time—an eminent storyteller who depicts people in complex and often gigantic compositions. For two decades now, Schutz has distinguished herself with her tremendous narrative power, vigorous sense of color and ability to merge the gruesome, grotesque, absurd and comic. This richly illustrated catalog presents paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture, providing an overview of Schutz's entire career to date. Alongside a thorough analysis of Schutz's work by curator Anaël Pigeat, it presents a studio visit described in detail by art critic (and friend of the artist) Jarrett Earnest, whose text is accompanied by Polaroids of the studio that unfold Schutz’s working methods. Also featured is a conversation between curator Anders Kold and the artist, and a poetic essay by award-winning author Lauren Groff. Dana Schutz was born in 1976 in Livonia, Michigan, and received her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art, Ohio, and her MFA from Columbia University, New York. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Recent solo museum exhibitions include Dana Schutz: Eating Atom Bombs held at the Transformer Station, Cleveland, Ohio (2018), which debuted a series of paintings by the artist; an exhibition of new work at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2017); a career survey at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2015); and a solo exhibition at the Hepworth Wakefield, England (2013), which traveled to the kestnergesellschaft, Hanover, Germany (2014).

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This series of pet bios and accompanying portraits tells the stories of the animals that serve on duty at New York's firehouses. In this book, Emmy Park has combined her love for dogs and cats and her passion for documenting the relationship between pets and their families in this unique journey with the firefighters who serve New Yorkers and the companions that serve them unconditionally. Meet beloved canines, felines, and even a pig of New York’s firehouses—in all five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island) and Long Island. You will be able to experience the kinship between the firefighters and their precious furry members. Through the photographs and the stories in this book, you can feel the camaraderie and therapy provided by these animals to the firefighters at their firehouse, which is truly their home away from home. The firefighters never know what kind of emergency runs will come to them during their shifts, but the one thing that they can count on is that their loyal member with paws will always be there when they return from their run. The firehouse animals in this book all have different stories about how they came to be there—some were rescued and had a rough start, some were dropped off because their owners could no longer care for them, and some were donated to help firefighters cope with the stress of the job. No matter the way in which they arrived, they all are special companions that provide support to the brave firefighters and offer them comfort after a tough run.

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'A powerfully beautiful novel' New York Times'Intoxicating. . . . Imbued with mystery and danger' Emma Straub'Pochoda's premise is inspired, the novel that unfolds even more so. Rich characters, surprising shifts of plot and mood. I loved it.' Lionel ShriverAs the hot summer rolls on in Red Hook, Brooklyn, bored and listless fifteen-year-olds June and Val are looking for some fun. Forget the boys, the bottles, the coded whistles, Val wants to take a raft out onto the bay.But out on the water, as the bright light of day gives way to darkness, the girls disappear, and only Val returns, washed ashore semi-conscious in the weeds.June's shocking disappearance will reverberate in the lives of many of Red Hook's residents. Fadi, the Lebanese bodega owner, trolls for information about the crime. Cree, just beginning to pull it together after his father's murder, unwittingly makes himself the chief suspect. And as Val emerges from the shadow of her missing friend, her teacher Jonathan will be forced to confront a past riddled with tragic sins of omission.Combining intensely vivid prose with breathtaking psychological insight, Visitation explores a cast of solitary souls, pulled by family, love, and betrayal, who yearn for a chance to escape, no matter the cost.'Gritty and magical, filled with mystery, poetry and pain, Ivy Pochoda's voice recalls Richard Price, Junot Diaz, and even Alice Sebold, yet it's indelibly her own' Dennis Lehane'Explores a community's response to tragedy with crystalline prose, a dose of the uncanny, and an unblinking eye for both human frailty and resilience . . . Marvellous' Deborah Harkness

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A hilarious retelling of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka.You may think you know the story of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf - but only one person knows the real story. And that person is A. Wolf. His tale starts with a birthday cake for his dear old granny, a bad head cold and a bad reputation. The rest (as they say) is history.A hilariously inventive retelling of the popular story which Publishers Weekly called the 'Funniest book of the year'.Jon Scieszka began to train as a doctor but left to take a course in fiction writing at Columbia University and to become a teacher. He lives in Brooklyn and spends his time writing and talking about books. Lane Smith, an acclaimed author/illustrator, has achieved major success in his collaborations with Jon Scieszka. He also provided the original concept and illustrations for the hit film James and the Giant Peach. He lives in New York.Also by Jon Scieszka:The True Story of the Three Little Pigs; The Frog Prince, COntinued; The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales; The Book that Jack Wrote; Math Curse; Squids will be Squids; Baloney; Science Verse; Seen Art?; Cowboy and Octopus; Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland; Robot Zot; Knights of the Kitchen Table; The Not-so-Jolly Roger; The Good, the Bad, and the Goofy; Your Mother was a Neanderthal; 2095; Tut Tut; Summer Reading s Killing Me; It's all Greek to Me; See You Later, Gladiator; Sam Samurai; Hey Kid, Want to Buy a Bridge?; Viking it and Liking it; Me oh Maya; Da Wild, Da Crazy, Da Vinci; Marco? Polo!

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Praise for John Dermot Woods: Electric Literature 25 Best Novels of 2014 "Poignant and unsettling, and much like a good short story collection these tales resonate long after the book is closed."--Largehearted Boy "An accomplished artist and writer, in addition to being an entertaining and often an electrifying one. John Woods does something very original in his combining of the arts in this collection, and my hat's off to him in his two-hat achievement."--Stephen Dixon "Like a lost season of The Wire directed by Richard Linklater, The Baltimore Atrocities beguiles, bemuses, often horrifies, and never fails to impress. John Woods renders small moments of intimacy and violence with remarkable compression and eerie calm; together they form a rich disturbing portrait of the city-as-zonked-out-slaughterhouse, its denizens both the butchers and the butchered." --Justin Taylor, author of Flings The Baltimore Atrocities is a mordant, deadpan collection of more than one hundred murders, betrayals, heartbreaks, suicides, and bureaucratic snafus--each with a half-page illustration by the author--that tells the story of a couple who spends a year in Baltimore in search of their respective siblings, who were abducted decades earlier as young children. John Dermot Woods is a writer and cartoonist living in Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of a collection of comics, Activities (Publishing Genius, 2013), and two previous illustrated novels, No One Told Me I Was Going to Disappear (with J.A. Tyler) and The Complete Collection of people, places & things. He and Lincoln Michel created the funny comic strip Animals in Midlife Crises for the Rumpus. He is a professor of English at Nassau Community College.

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In this remarkable pseudo-documentary and biography, Sara Macel followed her father, a traveling salesman, on his trips across the United States. May the Road Rise Up To Meet You evokes "a feeling of loneliness that is tangible throughout the empty hallways, car parks and airports," says The Telegraph. On a larger scale, this project explores the changing nature of "the road" in American culture. Sara Macel (b.1981, Houston TX) received her MFA in Photography, Video & Related Media at the School of Visual Arts in 2011 and her BFA in Photography + Imaging from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2003. Her work has been internationally exhibited and is in various private collections. Her recent honors include Magenta Foundation's Flash Forward, Top 50 Photographer's in Photolucida's Critical Mass Award, and she was named a winner in the New York Photo Festival. In 2012, Sara received the Individual Photographer's Fellowship Grant from the Aaron Siskind Foundation. [Her first monograph, May the Road Rise to Meet You, was published by Daylight Books in 2013, and a traveling exhibition of that work was shown in solo shows in 2014 at the Center for Photography in Woodstock and the Houston Center for Photography and Silver Eye Center for Photography in 2015.] In addition to her freelance work, Sara currently teaches photography at SUNY Rockland and was an artist-in-residence at The Wassaic Project in upstate New York. Sara is co-director of the Brooklyn chapter of the photo non-profit Crusade for Art. [Her work was recently featured in The New Yorker, Wired Magazine, Fraction Magazine, and Lenscratch among others.]

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'Shows the ways in which we are all, always, having to reimagine the story of our lives' Refinery29'Really smart and exceptionally good' Curtis Sittenfeld'A moving investigation of love, loss and parenthood' Esquire'Mind-blowing . . . brilliant and fearless' Elif BatumanThe perfect song. The biggest dream. The love of her life. It’s the early days of the new millennium, and Laura has arrived in New York City’s East Village in the hopes of recording her first album. A songwriter with a one-of-a-kind talent, she’s just beginning to book gigs with her beautiful best friend when she falls hard for a troubled but magnetic musician whose star is on the rise. Their time together is stormy and short-lived – but will reverberate for the rest of Laura’s life. Fifteen years later, Laura’s teenage daughter is asking questions about her father, questions Laura does not want to answer. Laura has built a stable life in Brooklyn that bears little resemblance to the one she envisioned all those years ago, and she’s taken pains to close the door on what was and what might have been. When her best friend – now a famous musician – comes to town, opportunity knocks for Laura for a second time. Has growing older changed who she is and what she most wants? After all the sacrifices and compromises she’s made along the way, how much is she still that girl from Ohio, with big talent and big dreams?Funny, wise and tender-hearted, Perfect Tunes explores the fault lines in our most important relationships, and asks whether dreams deferred can ever be reclaimed.

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In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, just a block or two up from the East River on Division Avenue, Surie Eckstein is soon to be a great-grandmother. Her ten children range in age from thirteen to thirty-nine. Her in-laws, postwar immigrants from Romania, live on the first floor of their house. Her daughter Tzila Ruchel lives on the second. She and Yidel, a scribe in such demand that he makes only a few Torah scrolls a year, live on the third. Wed when Surie was sixteen, they have a happy marriage and a full life, and, at the ages of fifty-seven and sixty-two, they are looking forward to some quiet time together. Into this life of counted blessings comes a surprise. Surie is pregnant. Pregnant at fifty-seven. It is a shock. And at her age, at this stage, it is an aberration, a shift in the proper order of things, and a public display of private life. She feels exposed, ashamed. She is unable to share the news, even with her husband. And so for the first time in her life, she has a secret - a secret that slowly separates her from the community. Goldie Goldbloom‘s On Division is an excavation of one woman's life, a story of awakening at middle age, and a thoughtful examination of the dynamics of self and collective identity. It is a steady-eyed look inside insular communities that also celebrates their comforts. It is a rare portrait of a long, happy marriage. And it is an unforgettable new novel from a writer whose imagination is matched only by the depth of her humanity.

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Enormous Smallness is a nonfiction picture book about the poet E.E. cummings. Here E.E.'s life is presented in a way that will make children curious about him and will lead them to play with words and ask plenty of questions as well. Lively and informative, the book also presents some of Cummings's most wonderful poems, integrating them seamlessly into the story to give the reader the music of his voice and a spirited, sensitive introduction to his poetry.In keeping with the epigraph of the book -- "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are," Matthew Burgess's narrative emphasizes the bravery it takes to follow one's own vision and the encouragement E.E. received to do just that.Matthew Burgess teaches creative writing and composition at Brooklyn College. He is also a writer-in-residence with Teachers & Writers Collaborative, leading poetry workshops in early elementary classrooms since 2001. He was awarded a MacArthur Scholarship while working on his MFA, and he received a grant from The Fund for Poetry. Matthew's poems and essays have appeared in various journals, and his debut collection, Slippers for Elsewhere, was published by UpSet Press. His doctoral dissertation explores childhood spaces in twentieth century autobiography, and he completed his PhD at the CUNY Graduate Center in June 2014.Kris Di Giacomo is an American who has lived in France since childhood. She has illustrated over twenty-five books for French publishers, which have been translated into many languages. This is her sixth book to be published by Enchanted Lion Books. The others are My Dad Is Big And Strong, But . . . , Brief Thief, Me First!, The Day I Lost My Superpowers, and

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Life in the United States today is shot through with uncertainty: about our jobs, our mortgaged houses, our retirement accounts, our health, our marriages, and the future that awaits our children. For many, our lives, public and private, have come to feel like the discomfort and unease you experience the day or two before you get really sick. Our life is a scratchy throat. John Marsh offers an unlikely remedy for this widespread malaise: the poetry of Walt Whitman. Mired in personal and political depression, Marsh turned to Whitman--and it saved his life. In Walt We Trust: How a Queer Socialist Poet Can Save America from Itself is a book about how Walt Whitman can save America's life, too. Marsh identifies four sources for our contemporary malaise (death, money, sex, democracy) and then looks to a particular Whitman poem for relief from it. He makes plain what, exactly, Whitman wrote and what he believed by showing how they emerged from Whitman's life and times, and by recreating the places and incidents (crossing Brooklyn ferry, visiting wounded soldiers in hospitals) that inspired Whitman to write the poems. Whitman, Marsh argues, can show us how to die, how to accept and even celebrate our (relatively speaking) imminent death. Just as important, though, he can show us how to live: how to have better sex, what to do about money, and, best of all, how to survive our fetid democracy without coming away stinking ourselves. The result is a mix of biography, literary criticism, manifesto, and a kind of self-help you're unlikely to encounter anywhere else.

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What if Babe Ruth had not been sold to the Yankees in 1920 and instead played his entire career in Boston? What if Muhammad Ali had lost or quit in his first fight against Sonny Liston? What if the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants had never moved to the West Coast? What if Vince Lombardi had become head coach of his hometown Giants instead of heading to Green Bay? How would sports history, and our perception of it, be different today? These are some of the questions asked and answered in this entertaining book of alternate history, the first book of its kind in the field of sports. It is sure to appeal to every thoughtful sports fan.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team.Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

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"I'm so starry-eyed for this wise, romantic gem of a book." - Becky Albertalli, bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda In this smart, heart-warming YA debut perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera, two teens find love when their lives are uprooted for their parents’ involvement in a NASA mission to Mars. Cal wants to be a journalist, and he’s already well underway with almost half a million followers on his FlashFame app and an upcoming internship at Buzzfeed. But his plans are derailed when his pilot father is selected for a highly-publicized NASA mission to Mars. Within days, Cal and his parents leave Brooklyn for hot and humid Houston. With the entire nation desperate for any new information about the astronauts, Cal finds himself thrust in the middle of a media circus. Suddenly his life is more like a reality TV show, with his constantly bickering parents struggling with their roles as the "perfect American family." And then Cal meets Leon, whose mother is another astronaut on the mission, and he finds himself falling head over heels--and fast. They become an oasis for each other amid the craziness of this whole experience. As their relationship grows, so does the frenzy surrounding the Mars mission, and when secrets are revealed about ulterior motives of the program, Cal must find a way to get to the truth without hurting the people who have become most important to him. An IndieBound YA Bestseller! An IndieNext List Pick! An Amazon Best Book! A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist! A Cosmopolitan Best Young Adult Book of the Year! Recommended on the TODAY Show!

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First comprehensive account of the origins and early history of the Chewa as revealed by oral tradition and archaeology that allows a more accurate picture of a pre-literate society. The Chewa are the largest ethnic group in Malawi, representing a third of the population of approximately 19 million, and their language - Chichewa - is Malawi's national language. Yet the last book on the history of this group was published in 1944, and was based on oral history, or tradition. As with much African history, oral history started to be recorded only in the late 19th century. This is the first book to use not only oral history, but also documents written by early Portuguese explorers, traders and government officials, as well as archaeology, to piece together the early history of the Chewa. The author is an archaeologist, who discovered the first major Chewa settlement, Mankhamba, near the southern part of Lake Malawi. His excavations have enabled a more scientific chronology of the migrations of the Chewa into what is today Malawi and have provided physical proof of their early history as well as their material and spiritual culture and way of life. Professor Yusuf Juwayeyi has written and documented a very readable history and description of archaeology, which reveals the value of combining oral tradition together with archaeology to arrive at a more accurate picture of the history of a pre-literate society. This book will be of value not only to historians, archaeologists and anthropologists, but also the general reader interested in Africanhistory. YUSUF M. JUWAYEYI is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York. South Africa: UCT Press

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A Nation is Born Lexington, Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Washington, Hamilton, Benedict Arnold. All familiar names, but how did they all fit together? How did merchants, lawyers, farmers, and cobblers come together to defeat the British Empire, its powerful navy, and its Hessian auxiliaries? For that matter, who were the Hessians, and what is an auxiliary? Bringing together ten eminent Revolutionary War experts, editor Ed Lengel presents their stirring narratives of the military campaigns that changed history and gave birth to a new nation. These historians guide you through the fateful decade of the 1770s in British America. In 1776, you battle in Brooklyn Heights, then cross the Delaware with Washington. In the late summer and fall of ’77, you bushwhack down the Champlain Valley with Johnny Burgoyne. You struggle through winter with Washington and his beleaguered troops in Valley Forge. When the spring of ’78 turns to summer, you endure the oppressive heat and the massive battle on New Jersey farmland at Monmouth Courthouse. In 1780 your journey takes you south into a bloody civil war—Tory versus patriot, neighbor versus neighbor in Georgia and the Carolinas. Finally, in ’81, you join the patriots as they maneuver north into Virginia, whereWashington and the French navy can trap the British on the Yorktown Peninsula. Complete with maps and suggested further reading, The 10 Key Campaigns of the American Revolution is a short course in one of history’s most consequential wars, explaining how citizens became soldiers and how their dedication, determination, and force of will defeated the world’s greatest power and launched a nation like no other.

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Pathbreaking essays on the power of local activism on the broader Civil Rights movement Over the last several years, the traditional narrative of the civil rights movement as largely a southern phenomenon, organized primarily by male leaders, that roughly began with the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and ended with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has been complicated by studies that root the movement in smaller communities across the country. These local movements had varying agendas and organizational development, geared to the particular circumstances, resources, and regions in which they operated. Local civil rights activists frequently worked in tandem with the national civil rights movement but often functioned autonomously from—and sometimes even at odds with—the national movement. Together, the pathbreaking essays in Groundwork teach us that local civil rights activity was a vibrant component of the larger civil rights movement, and contributed greatly to its national successes. Individually, the pieces offer dramatic new insights about the civil rights movement, such as the fact that a militant black youth organization in Milwaukee was led by a white Catholic priest and in Cambridge, Maryland, by a middle-aged black woman; that a group of middle-class, professional black women spearheaded Jackson, Mississippi's movement for racial justice and made possible the continuation of the Freedom Rides, and that, despite protests from national headquarters, the Brooklyn chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality staged a dramatic act of civil disobedience at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. No previous volume has enabled readers to examine several different local movements together, and in so doing, Groundwork forges a far more comprehensive vision of the black freedom movement.

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Communications between amateur radio (AKA ham radio) operators and citizen band stations have been crowding the world’s electromagnetic spectrum since its invention in the early 20th century. Millions of operators formed what could be almost be described as an early internet — projecting their voices, ideas, and humanity around the earth’s surface using various techniques and frequencies to bounce their waves around the earth’s surface, off of the ionosphere, and even the moon. Any communication network needs a way of identifying individuals. A QSL card is a written confirmation of prior communication between two amateur radio or citizens band stations—postcard sized and mailed between users. Do You Confirm Receipt of My Transmission is derived from the Q code. A Q code message can stand for a statement or a question (when the code is followed by a question mark). In this case, ‘QSL?’ (note the question mark) means “Do you confirm receipt of my transmission?” while ‘QSL’ (without a question mark) means “I confirm receipt of your transmission.” Just like today’s internet avatars, operators had their own style and often projected their personality using their QSL cards. Collecting cards was popular, and a source of pride to operators. Published by Brooklyn-based design imprint, Standards Manual, Do You Confirm Receipt of My Transmission is a visual history of these cards, spanning from approximately 1960–1990. Over 190 cards are included, front and back, with high resolution details. The collection forms a visual history of early global communication — something we now take for granted but was once a marvel. Today, there are over 3 million licensed radio operators worldwide.

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Ringgold's most formative and influential political works are gathered in this beautifully designed clothbound volume Alongside reproductions of key works made between 1967 and 1981, Faith Ringgold: Politics / Power provides an overview of Ringgold's seminal artistic and activist work, and its historical context during these years, including accounts by the artist herself. During the 1960s and 1970s, Ringgold, a dedicated and impassioned civil rights advocate, established her voice as a feminist and within the Black Arts Movement. Her influential work expressed her in-depth knowledge of art history and contemporary art, as well as her activism. Spanning mediums such as painting, cut paper works, posters, collage and textile art, the works presented in this publication foreground the artist’s explicitly political pieces, for which she deployed new material and formal processes, and developed a radical aesthetics and vocabulary. Organized chronologically, the book allows readers to retrace the artist’s foundational creative approaches to contemporaneous social, political and artistic questions. It includes illustrations of individual artworks together with previously unpublished work and archival materials. Faith Ringgold (born 1930) is a painter, mixed-media sculptor, performance artist, teacher and writer best known for her narrative quilts. In 2020, the New York Times described her as an artist “who has confronted race relations in this country from every angle, led protests to diversify museums decades ago, and even went to jail for an exhibition she organized.” Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Brooklyn Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art, among others. Ringgold lives and works in Englewood, New Jersey.

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In 1968, two remarkable pitchers would dominate the game as well as the broadsheets. One was black, the other white. Bob Gibson, together with the St. Louis Cardinals, embodied an entire generation's hope for integration at a heated moment in American history. Denny McLain, his adversary, was a crass self-promoter who eschewed the team charter and his Detroit Tigers teammates to zip cross-country in his own plane. For one season, the nation watched as these two men and their teams swept their respective league championships to meet at the World Series. Gibson set a major league record that year with a 1.12 ERA. McLain won more than thirty games in 1968, a feat that hadn't been achieved since 1934 and has been untouched since. Together, the two have come to stand as iconic symbols, giving the fans "The Year of the Pitcher" and changing the game. Evoking a nostalgic season and its incredible characters, this is the story of one of the great rivalries in sports, and an indelible portrait of the national pastime during a turbulent year - and the two men who electrified fans from all walks of life. AUTHOR: Sridhar Pappu writes "The Male Animal" column forthe New York Times. He began his award-winning career as a feature writer for the Chicago Reader and has served as a columnist at The New York Observer and as a correspondent for The Atlantic. In addition he worked as a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and The Washington Post. A native of Oxford, Ohio, and graduate of Northwestern University, he currently lives in Brooklyn.

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Ouyang Jianghe belongs to the "third generation" of twentieth-century Chinese literature and the so-called "five masters from Sichuan"—poets who consciously distance themselves from the "Misty" (obscure) poets such as Bei Dao and Yang Lian. His writing advocates an intellectual model that is based on reflection and the expression of mature recognition rather than inspiration, sudden impulse, or spontaneous illumination, and is concerned with everyday themes, the insignificant, and the private. From "Handgun": you can take a- part a handgun, break it in two, into a hand a gun paint the hand black, you've got a faction— put the gun on a boat: that's a means of persuasion you can take apart a faction into further partitions parties ambitions you can break it into act, or action— the world divides in infinite fissions one eye you aim at love; the other you ram into the barrel of a gun the bullets ogle you level your nose at your enemies' Critics consider Ouyang Jianghe's poetry some of the most challenging avant-garde verse written in China over the past few decades. His poems, which have the intricate, sculpted quality of fugues, are concerned with dissecting the layers of meaning that underlie everyday objects and notions like "doubled shadows." He is a prominent art critic and chief editor of the literary magazine Jintian; he lives in Beijing. Austin Woerner graduated from Yale University in East Asian studies. In September 2009 he took part in a joint residency with Ouyang Jianghe at the Vermont Studio Center, where they were the first writer-translator pair in the literature in translation program. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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First comprehensive account of the origins and early history of the Chewa as revealed by oral tradition and archaeology that allows a more accurate picture of a pre-literate society. The Chewa are the largest ethnic group in Malawi, representing a third of the population of approximately 19 million, and their language - Chichewa - is Malawi's national language. Yet the last book on the history of this group was published in 1944, and was based on oral history, or tradition. As with much African history, oral history started to be recorded only in the late 19th century. This is the first book to use not only oral history, but also documents written by early Portuguese explorers, traders and government officials, as well as archaeology, to piece together the early history of the Chewa. The author is an archaeologist, who discovered the first major Chewa settlement, Mankhamba, near the southern part of Lake Malawi. His excavations have enabled a more scientific chronology of the migrations of the Chewa into what is today Malawi and have provided physical proof of their early history as well as their material and spiritual culture and way of life. Professor Yusuf Juwayeyi has written and documented a very readable history and description of archaeology, which reveals the value of combining oral tradition together with archaeology to arrive at a more accurate picture of the history of a pre-literate society. This book will be of value not only to historians, archaeologists and anthropologists, but also the general reader interested in African history. YUSUF M. JUWAYEYI is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York. South Africa: UCT Press

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Games figured prominently in the myths of North American Indian tribes, and also in their ceremonies for bringing rain and fertility and combating misfortune. In his classic study, originally published in 1907 as a report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Stewart Culin divided the games played by Indian men and women into two general types. Volume 1 of this Bison Books edition takes up games of chance, involving guessing and throwing dice. Culin was able to show that the games of North American tribes were remarkably similar in method and purpose. He found that games using dice of various materials—wood, cane, bone, animal teeth, fruit stones—existed among 130 tribes belonging to 30 linguistic groups. The games are described in detail in this volume, and so are the popular guessing games drawing on sticks and wooden disks and involving hidden objects. Volume 2 is just as absorbing in its elaboration of skills like archery and games like snow-snake, in which darts or javelins were hurled over snow or ice. Played throughout the continent north of Mexico were the hoop and pole game and its miniature, solitaire form called ring and pin, here illustrated. With equal authority Culin discusses ball games: racket, shinny, football, and hot ball. He includes accounts of "minor amusements": shuttlecock, tipcat, quoits, popgun, bean shooter, and cat's cradle.Originally published in 1907, Stewart Culin's comprehensive work reveals a side of American Indian culture still only rarely shown. An experienced observer, Culin was curator of ethnology at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and the author of books about games in other cultures.

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If you love Jo Watson, Zara Stoneley and Sophie Ranald, you'll LOVE Hannah Orenstein!'A good read for the holidays (or lockdown)' 5* reader reviewLove at First Like is the perfect rom-com for anyone who's ever looked for love online!'Such a perfect book for this digital age' 5* reader review'The perfect vacation read!' 5* reader review'I inhaled this book' 5* reader reviewWHAT DOES IT TAKE TO FAKE THE PERFECT LOVE LIFE?Eliza Roth and her sister Sophie co-own a jewelry shop in Brooklyn. One night, after learning of an ex's engagement, Eliza accidentally posts a photo of herself wearing a diamond ring on that finger to her Instagram account beloved by 100,000 followers. Sales skyrocket, press rolls in, and Eliza learns that her personal life is good for business. So she has a choice: continue the ruse or clear up the misunderstanding. With mounting financial pressure, Eliza sets off to find a fake fiancé. Fellow entrepreneur Blake seems like the perfect match on paper, and in real life he shows promise too - if only Eliza didn't feel also drawn to someone else. But Blake doesn't know Eliza is 'engaged'; Sophie asks Eliza for an impossible sum of money; and Eliza's lies start to spiral out of control. Now she can either stay engaged online - or fall in love in real life.Written with singular charm and style, Love at First Like is for anyone growing up and settling down in the digital age.'This glittering gem of a novel is a wise and witty take on family, ambition, and modern love' Andrea Dunlop, author of We Came to Forget

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From the Sunday Times bestselling author of An Italian Girl in Brooklyn comes a captivating new novel of enduring love and devastating secrets, based on a true story.'Nobody does epic romance like Santa Montefiore' JOJO MOYESRupert promised he was going to come back. All Florence had to do was wait. Cornwall, 1944 When Rupert Dash is declared missing, presumed dead during the Battle of Arnhem, his wife, Florence, is devastated. She can’t accept that he has gone from her life forever, and so when she finds a poem called ‘Wait for Me’ hidden in an old book, she believes it’s a sign from her husband. A promise that he will return to her. London, 1988 Since childhood Max has suffered from a recurring nightmare. Surrounded by the horrific chaos of World War Two, he has an urgent mission he knows he must complete. But time after time, the dream ends with him awaking in terror, his heart pounding from the horror of the battlefield. Desperate to understand why he is haunted by such terrible visions, Max embarks on a journey that leads him to Cornwall and a man named Rupert Dash. Australia, 1995 Florence receives a letter from someone she has never met, who lives on the other side of the world. This stranger says he remembers a life that belonged to another before him. Could this be the one person Florence has waited over fifty years to meet again?'Based on a true story this gorgeous sweeping romance crossing time and continents is completely captivating as Florence epitomises the enduring power of love' My Weekly

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Want to know the secret to growing gorgeous hair or how your favourite celebrities have such flawless skin? Introducing the power of food into your beauty routine in a whole new way, you'll uncover the recipes that promote beauty from within (with beauty-boosting foods you'll salivate for!) as well as topical DIY beauty recipes (for facial masks, body scrubs, and more that are, well, good enough to eat,literally!). Dubbed the Female Beauty MacGyver" by Access Hollywood, Alexis Wolfer shares with you 131 easy, all-natural, affordable, and effective recipes that feed your beauty. Combining the best recipes from her personal archives with DIY beauty secrets and food recipes shared with her by chefs, beauty editors, and celebrities (including Kristen Chenoweth, Brooklyn Decker, Vanessa Williams, Molly Sims, Byrdie Bell, Donna Karan, and more), The Recipe For Radiance will take you into your kitchen to discover the food-based beauty secrets even the most well-pampered women rely on to look their best. Each chapter in The Recipe for Radiance addresses a different beauty concern,acne, fine lines and wrinkles, brittle nails, lackluster hair, sun spots, cellulite, chapped lips, under-eye circles, and more,giving you the inside scoop on the causes and symptoms of the most common beauty concerns along with their food-based solutions. Sample recipes include:Strawberry + champagne serum to fight wrinklesAvocado + oatmeal revival mask to heal dry skinSweet potato chips + cumin dip to even skin toneCreamy kale and walnut salad to reduce under-eye circlesSweet watermelon serum to soothe sunburn Be prepared to cook yourself beautiful, all the while saving money on products and keeping your beauty routine chemical free.

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Do the Right Thing meets The Bonfire of the Vanities, in this “thrilling debut novel about marriage, gentrification, parenthood, race, and the dangerous bargains we make with ourselves” (Ann Packer, New York Times bestselling author) set over the course of one cataclysmic day when riots erupt in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood.Aaron, a disgraced rabbi turned Wall Street banker, and Amelia, his journalist girlfriend, live with their newborn in Bedford-Stuyvesant, one of the most dynamic, historical, and volatile neighborhoods in New York City. The infusion of upwardly mobile professionals into Bed-Stuy’s historic brownstones belies the tension simmering on the streets below. But after a cop shoots a boy in a nearby park, conflict escalates to rioting—with Aaron and his family at its center. Pulled into the riot’s vortex are Antoinette, devout nanny to Aaron and Amelia’s son; Jupiter, the single father who lives on their block with his son, Derek; Daniel, Aaron’s unhinged tenant in their basement unit; and Sara, a smart high school dropout broiling with confusion and rage. As the day unfolds, these diverse characters are forced to reckon with who they are and what truly matters to them. Through the lens of one catastrophic day emerges a nuanced portrait of a changing neighborhood and its residents as they struggle to raise children, establish careers, and find love, fulfillment, and meaning in their lives. Sharp-eyed, fast-paced, and “sure to get people talking” (Vanity Fair), Bed-Stuy Is Burning offers a window into an array of complex lives and deftly wrestles with the most pressing issues of our time.

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A New York Times Best Children's Book of 2020Nominated for a 2021 Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator AwardFeatured in 2021 Society of Illustrators Original Art ExhibitionA 2022 Book All Young Georgians Should Read2020 Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Honor AwardI intend to stand firm and let the peacocks multiply, for I am sure that, in the end, the last word will be theirs. -- Flannery O'ConnorWhen she was young, the writer Flannery O'Connor was captivated by the chickens in her yard. She would watch their wings flap, their beaks peck, and their eyes glint. At age six, her life was forever changed when she and a chicken she had been training to walk forwards and backwards were featured in the local news, and she realized that people want to see what is odd and strange in life. But while she loved birds of all varieties and kept several species around the house, it was the peacocks that came to dominate her life. Written by Amy Alznauer with devotional attention to all things odd and illustrated in radiant paint by Ping Zhu, The Strange Birds of Flannery O'Connor explores the beginnings of one author's lifelong obsession. Amy Alznauer lives in Chicago with her husband, two children, a dog, a parakeet, sometimes chicks, and a part-time fish, but, as of today, no elephants or peacocks.Ping Zhu is a freelance illustrator who has worked with clients big and small, won some awards based on the work she did for aforementioned clients, attracted new clients with shiny awards, and is hoping to maintain her livelihood in Brooklyn by repeating that cycle.

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The figure of the young American poet living in Paris is familiar from Paul Auster's celebrated novels; here that character is realised in Auster's own stunningly accomplished verse. His penetrating and charged poetry resembles little else in recent American literature. This collection of his poems, translations, and composition notes from early in his career furnish yet further evidence of his literary mastery.Taut, densely lyrical and everywhere informed by a powerful and subtle music, this selection begins with the compact verse fragments of Spokes (written when Auster was in his early twenties) and Unearth, continues on through the more ample meditations of Wall Writing, Disappearances, Effigies, Fragments From the Cold, Facing the Music, and White Spaces, then moves further back in time to include Auster's revealing translations of many of the French poets who influenced his own writing - including Paul Eluard, André Breton, Tristan Tzara, Philippe Soupault, Robert Desnos and René Char - as well as the provocative and previously unpublished 'Notes From A Composition Book' (1967). An introduction by Norman Finkelstein connects biographical elements to a consideration of the work, and takes in Auster's early literary and philosophical influences. For those interested in Paul Auster's novels - the now-classic New York Trilogy or The Brooklyn Follies - this book is an invaluable opportunity to witness his early development. Powerful, sometimes haunting, cool, precise and limpid, this view from the past to the present will appeal to those unfamiliar with this aspect of Auster's work, as well as those already acquainted with his poetry. Readers will agree that Auster's grasp on language and the world around him is not only questioning, but mysterious and very human, perceptive, and deeply compelling

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Hailed as "extraordinarily learned" (New York Times), "blithe in spirit and unerring in vision," (New York Magazine), and the "definitive record of New York's architectural heritage" (Municipal Art Society), Norval White and Elliot Willensky's book is an essential reference for everyone with an interest in architecture and those who simply want to know more about New York City. First published in 1968, the AIA Guide to New York City has long been the definitive guide to the city's architecture. Moving through all five boroughs, neighborhood by neighborhood, it offers the most complete overview of New York's significant places, past and present. The Fifth Edition continues to include places of historical importance--including extensive coverage of the World Trade Center site--while also taking full account of the construction boom of the past 10 years, a boom that has given rise to an unprecedented number of new buildings by such architects as Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, and Renzo Piano. All of the buildings included in the Fourth Edition have been revisited and re-photographed and much of the commentary has been re-written, and coverage of the outer boroughs--particularly Brooklyn--has been expanded. Famed skyscrapers and historic landmarks are detailed, but so, too, are firehouses, parks, churches, parking garages, monuments, and bridges. Boasting more than 3000 new photographs, 100 enhanced maps, and thousands of short and spirited entries, the guide is arranged geographically by borough, with each borough divided into sectors and then into neighborhood. Extensive commentaries describe the character of the divisions. Knowledgeable, playful, and beautifully illustrated, here is the ultimate guided tour of New York's architectural treasures.

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The first book on Alison Elizabeth Taylor, known for her daring fusion of wood inlay technique with gritty, dystopian scenes of deserts, casinos and cocktail lounges Repudiating distinctions between craft and high art, and transcending both marquetry (wood inlay) and painting, the meticulously crafted works of Alison Elizabeth Taylor are as much about seeing as they are about making. Juxtaposing the over-the-top connotations of this ancient craft with dystopian images of blighted desert landscapes, anonymous subdivisions, glitzy casinos and seedy cocktail lounges, Taylor creates a tension between surface and subject, appearance and reality. The splendor of the shellacked wood invites us to consider the innate humanity of marginalized subjects we might otherwise overlook as well as the often-ignored impact of a boom-and-bust economy on American life and culture. Featuring insightful essays by leading curators and writers, this fully illustrated publication traces the evolution of the artist’s work from early paintings that explore space, line, color and form within the limited palette afforded by the grains and tones of natural woods to vividly colored “hybrids” that layer marquetry, paint and photographic imagery, to brand-new and increasingly complex works inspired by the resilience of the artist’s urban neighborhood and community during the pandemic. Raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, Alison Elizabeth Taylor (born 1972) received her MFA from the Graduate School of the Arts, Columbia University in 2005. Her work has been exhibited widely throughout the world. In 2009, she received a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award and the Smithsonian's Artist Research Fellowship Program Award. Taylor lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

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Orphaned young, Ming Tsu, the son of Chinese immigrants, is raised by the notorious leader of a California crime syndicate, who trains him to be his deadly enforcer. But when Ming falls in love with Ada, the daughter of a powerful railroad magnate, and the two elope, he seizes the opportunity to escape to a different life. Soon after, in a violent raid, the tycoon's henchmen kidnap Ada and conscript Ming into service for the Central Pacific Railroad.Battered, heartbroken, and yet defiant, Ming partners with a blind clairvoyant known only as the prophet. Together the two set out to rescue his wife and to exact revenge on the men who destroyed Ming, aided by a troupe of magic-show performers, some with supernatural powers, whom they meet on the journey. Ming blazes his way across the West, settling old scores with a single-minded devotion that culminates in an explosive and unexpected finale.Written with the violent ardor of Cormac McCarthy and the otherworldly inventiveness of Ted Chiang, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu is at once a thriller, a romance, and a story of one man's quest for redemption in the face of a distinctly American brutality."In Tom Lin's novel, the atmosphere of Cormac McCarthy's West, or that of the Coen Brothers' True Grit, gives way to the phantasmagorical shades of Ray Bradbury, Charles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao, and Katherine Dunn's Geek Love. Yet The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu has a velocity and perspective all its own, and is a fierce new version of the Westward Dream." -Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn

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The Mallet Ranch, from its founding to the present, has followed the arc of most Texas ranches. It has experienced booms and busts, and its owners have fretted over droughts and floods as well as fights in courtrooms. Despite hardships that may have outnumbered successes, the Mallet, headquartered in Hockley County, Texas, perseveres to this day.But More Than Running Cattle is more than just a ranch tale. It is the story of a family both unique and conventional among Texas stock raisers. David M. DeVitt, like many before him, was not "born" to be a Texas cattleman. DeVitt began his career as a reporter in Brooklyn, New York, before he decided to leave that path behind to try his luck on the wide-open ranges of West Texas.David DeVitt passed down his hardy, independent spirit to his two daughters. Although Christine and Helen were raised in Fort Worth, both from a young age learned the lesson that the West Texas land—and the Mallet Ranch—were part of their souls. When their father died, the two sisters fought to retain control of the Mallet for the family.The discovery in 1938 of oil on the ranch, and the subsequent drilling of more than a thousand oil wells over the next few decades, transformed the Mallet from a struggling enterprise into one of the most profitable such entities in the nation. From that financial windfall sprung from the land, Christine and Helen generously reinvested back into the region. The two non-profit organizations founded by the DeVitt sisters have distributed more than $200 million.The story of the Mallet Ranch told within these pages illuminates and delves into this remarkable story of a family, their operation, and the land that made it all possible.

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"The First 7 is an imaginative, sophisticated science fiction trip for young adults." —ForewordIn this thrilling conclusion to The Last 8 duology, the Last Teenagers on Earth return to their now-hostile planet to respond to a distress signal—but who—or what—is waiting for them there?Clover Martinez and the Last Teenagers on Earth are busy exploring the galaxy after leaving earth behind...even if they can't help but be a little homesick.So when their ship receives a distress signal from their former planet, they hope against hope that it means other survivors. But as soon as they arrive, they realize something's deeply wrong: strange crystal formations have popped up everywhere and there's some sort of barrier keeping them from leaving. Seeking the origin of the formations and the reason for the barrier, the group discovers a colony of survivors hidden in the mountains. But the survivors aren't who they seem...The First 7 is perfect for readers looking for:LGBT YA booksgay and lesbian scifi Latinx teen booksheart-pounding young adult survival storiesrelatable, funny, diverse charactersPraise for The Last 8:"The Walking Dead meets Alien in this expertly plotted debut. Teens will want to follow Clover on her next adventure!" — Zoraida Cordova, author of the Brooklyn Brujas series"The Last 8 is diverse and immersive science fiction...With its powerful world building and emotional twists, The Last 8 is a beautifully fresh take on the idea of an alien apocalypse." — Foreword Reviews"A sci-fi romp with ample intergalactic twists to keep readers satisfied." — Kirkus Reviews"This debut is, at times, both joyful and heartbreaking ... Pohl's characters are tough, funny, and brave as they manage to persevere despite the debilitating weight of grief." — Booklist

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In a single generation, Tibetan Buddhism developed from the faith of a remote mountain people, associated with bizarre, almost medieval, superstitions, to perhaps the most rapidly growing and celebrity-studded religion in the West. Disaffected with other religious traditions yet searching for meaning, huge numbers of Americans have found their way to the wisdom of Tibetan lamas in exile. Earthy, humorous, commonsensical, and eccentric, these flamboyant teachers—larger-than-life characters like Lama Yeshe and Chogyma Trungpa—proved to be charismatic and gifted ambassadors for their ancient religion. So did two Western women, born in Brooklyn and London's East End, whose homegrown religious intuitions turned out to be identical with the most sophisticated Tibetan teachings, revealing them to be reincarnated lamas. With great flair for both the sublime and the human, Jeffrey Paine narrates in page-turning, richly informative fashion how Tibetan Buddhism—rarefied and sensual, mystical and commonsensical—became the ideal religion for a "post-religious" age. "By far the best of the recent popular books exploring the amazing impact of Tibetan Buddhism. Paine's witty, erudite, flowing prose creates a memorable album of many characters—saints, rascals, and ordinary folks. He glosses over nothing, is ruthlessly critical where it is deserved, but is also secure enough to appreciate the beauty and the power of the 'magic and mystery': the profound practical wisdom and compassion of Tibetan civilization gone global."—Robert Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Columbia University "Riveting....Recounts elegantly, yet without fuss, stories of human transformation that consistently incite our capacity for wonder."—Askold Melnyczuk, Boston Globe "Memorable anecdotes, great storytelling and keen observations mark this cogent exploration of the explosive growth of Tibetan Buddhism in the West."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

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THE NEW YORK OBSERVER: ONE OF THE TOP 10 BOOKS FOR FALL It’s no wonder that New York has always been a magnet city for writers. Manhattan is one of the most walkable cities in the world. While many novelists, poets, and essayists have enjoyed long walks in New York, not all of them have had favorable impressions. Addressing an endlessly appealing subject, Walking New York is a study of twelve American writers and several British writers who walked the streets of New York and wrote about their impressions of the city in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Seen through the eyes of Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, William Dean Howells, Jacob Riis, Henry James, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, James Weldon Johnson, Alfred Kazin, Elizabeth Hardwick, Colson Whitehead, and Teju Cole, almost all the works in Walking New York are about Manhattan, with only Whitman and Kazin writing about Brooklyn. Though the writers were often irritated, disturbed, and occasionally shocked by what they saw on their walks, they were still fascinated by the city William Dean Howells called “splendidly and sordidly commercial” and Cynthia Ozick called “faithfully inconstant, magnetic, man-made, unnatural—the synthetic sublime.” In this idiosyncratic guidebook to New York, celebrated writers ruminate on questions that are still hotly debated to this day: the pros and cons of capitalism and the impact of immigration. Many imply that New York is a bewildering text that is hard to make sense of. Returning to New York after an absence of two decades, Henry James loathed many things about “bristling” New York, while native New Yorker Walt Whitman both celebrated and criticized “Mannahatta” in his writings. Combining literary scholarship with urban studies, Walking New York reveals how this crowded, dirty, noisy, and sometimes ugly city gave these “restless analysts” plenty of fodder for their craft.

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Winner of the Carnegie Medal for ExcellenceFinalist for the Young Lions Fiction AwardOrphaned young, Ming Tsu, the son of Chinese immigrants, is raised by the notorious leader of a California crime syndicate, who trains him to be his deadly enforcer. But when Ming falls in love with Ada, the daughter of a powerful railroad magnate, and the two elope, he seizes the opportunity to escape to a different life. Soon after, in a violent raid, the tycoon's henchmen kidnap Ada and conscript Ming into service for the Central Pacific Railroad.Battered, heartbroken, and yet defiant, Ming partners with a blind clairvoyant known only as the prophet. Together the two set out to rescue his wife and to exact revenge on the men who destroyed Ming, aided by a troupe of magic-show performers, some with supernatural powers, whom they meet on the journey. Ming blazes his way across the West, settling old scores with a single-minded devotion that culminates in an explosive and unexpected finale.Written with the violent ardor of Cormac McCarthy and the otherworldly inventiveness of Ted Chiang, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu is at once a thriller, a romance, and a story of one man's quest for redemption in the face of a distinctly American brutality."In Tom Lin's novel, the atmosphere of Cormac McCarthy's West, or that of the Coen Brothers' True Grit, gives way to the phantasmagorical shades of Ray Bradbury, Charles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao, and Katherine Dunn's Geek Love. Yet The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu has a velocity and perspective all its own, and is a fierce new version of the Westward Dream." -Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn

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When the American journalist told me he hoped to report the truth about the Kashmir uprising, I decided to help. "The government people won't let you see what is really happening," I said. "Why not let me take you around?" It was foolish of me to make such an offer. I knew I was risking retribution by the security forces. But I was a headstrong, independent young man. I wanted the truth to get out, and I would do what I could to help that happen. Farooq Kathwari's extraordinary life began in politically divided Kashmir, where his family was separated by government decree. He had to leave home as a refugee, helped his mother survive shock therapy, joined student activists in street demonstrations, and faced down a gun-wielding security officer--all by the age of seventeen. Forced to become self-reliant, Kathwari journeyed to the United States, talked his way into a bookkeeping job, and earned a degree from NYU graduate school. He launched his first entrepreneurial venture selling Kashmiri crafts out of his Brooklyn apartment. When Kathwari's best customer, the iconic furniture maker Ethan Allen, needed fresh leadership, he was asked to become its president. He transformed the company and become one of America's most successful--and admired--CEOs. Meanwhile, spurred by the tragic loss of his teenaged son in war, Kathwari dedicated himself to the cause of peace in Kashmir and around the world. He hosted meetings with diplomats, shuttled messages between heads of state, and worked with global leaders on issues from human rights to refugee resettlement. Brimming with drama, insight, and unexpected humor, Trailblazer recounts a unique life story, offering readers not just an engrossing journey but also the wisdom of an exceptional leader.

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Selected research projects and architecture exploring the role of design within complex social, political and environmental conditions Toshiko Mori is a New York-based architect and Professor in the Practice of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design for many years. As a long-time member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities, Mori led research and inquiry into sustainable architecture, enhancing cities’ livability, and creating efficient urban services. Mori is also on the board of Dassault Systems, a company connecting technology to environment and life science. And she has founded the platform VisionArc, a think tank dedicated to exploring the role of design within complex social and environmental issues. This book will focus on TMA’s projects based on research, and the impact of socially valuable projects to society. The book will illustrate how the observation of the architect operates as opposed to how the imagination of the architect manifests itself. Different chapters in the book are describing various ways of approaching the task of observation. Seven chapters are divided into specific projects and provide a look at the hidden thought processes that can take place behind the ideas, solutions, and physical manifestations or architecture. Presented projects include the Portable Concert Hall, called Paracoustica, which is an ongoing nonprofit work to come up with an affordable and sharable concert hall among many constituents in remote and underserved community; the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research focusing on socialization among scientists as a new model of work that promotes further discovery and teamwork. And i.e. the research on the role of libraries in the future using the example of the Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch. Another chapter is dedicated to the vernacular typology development in Senegal with the Albers Foundation, and the research on social spaces for collaborative educational environments.

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Stroll through neighborhoods, choose from dozens of world-class museums, visit iconic landmarks, or take in a Broadway show. Go shopping, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and ride a skyscraper’s elevator to the top. Michelin Short-Stays Guides are a handy pocket guide with a detachable map to help you get around and explore the city or country that you are visiting. Presenting the top attractions for a 24-hour visit, a weekend or longer. You'll find a choice of restaurants for any budget. This pocket-size guide helps you do it all with its detailed maps, recommended places to eat and stay, and Michelin's respected star-rating system. A detachable map is included to help you plan and navigate your trip with ease. Each guide has an introductory welcome to section with how to get there, Must Sees, Top Picks, Favourites and a Suggested Itinarary. Use the Discovering section to plan your own visit to sights and attractions, each attraction is listed with one to three stars,* Interesting, ** Recommended, and *** Highly Recommended. A comprehensive addresses section with Where to Eat, Where to Drink, Shopping, Nightlife and finally Where to Stay. The Find Out More Section will give you a little history of the city the guide covers,along with information about Architecture, Activities for Kids, Sports and other special activities or specialities of the city or region you are visiting. Finally the Planning your Trip Section, has practical information, Know before you go. Basic Information, driving, cycling, public transportation, tax's, sports, taxi's and telephones. There is also a festivals and events calendar lisiting annual events and other exhibitions. * Detachable Map of the local area * Coloured sections to use the guide, colour photographs * Unmissable must see sights and attractionsand places to visit * Star selections ***, **, * * Address lists of restaurants, hotels, cafes, and bars. * Shopping and Nighlife information * A recommended Itinerary * Practical tips

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“Diane DeSanders writes the sort of prose that gives that telltale tingle down the spine, prose that paints vivid pictures in the mind and presents an entire, unique world: the Lone Star State, the state of America, the state of childhood, the state of a traumatized father, and the state of being a girl, of being wonderfully and truly alive.” —Sheila Kohler, author of Becoming Jane Eyre and Once We Were Sisters For Dick and Jane, Dallas after World War II is a place of promise and prosperity: the first home air conditioners are making summertime bearable and Dick’s position at his father’s business, the Cadillac dealership, is assured. Jane has help with the house and the children, and garden parties and holiday celebrations are spirited social affairs. For the oldest of their three daughters, however, life is full of frustrating mysteries. The stories the adults tell her don’t make sense. Too curious for comfort, she finds her questions only seem to annoy them. Why won’t they tell the truth about Santa? What is that Holy Spirit business, and what is the difference between an angel and a ghost? Why is her mother often so tense and sad? And why does her father keep flying into violent rages? Hap and Hazard and the End of the World is an intimate, finely crafted novel about the innocence and vulnerability of childhood and the dangers posed by adults who cannot cope with life’s complexities. It is also about the ingenuity born of loneliness and neglect, and the surprising, strange beauty of the world. A fifth-generation Texan, Diane DeSanders is a history buff, theater lover, poet, mother, and grandmother. Between careers as a history teacher and antiques dealer, she has worked in regional theater in almost every capacity. She now writes, gardens, and sings in Brooklyn, New York. This is her first novel.

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In Vitagraph, Andrew A. Erish provides a comprehensive examination and reassessment of the company most responsible for defining and popularizing the American movie. This history challenges long-accepted Hollywood mythology that simply isn't true: that Paramount and Fox invented the feature film, that Universal created the star system, and that these companies, along with MGM and Warner Bros., developed motion pictures into a multi-million-dollar business. In fact, the truth about Vitagraph is far more interesting than the myths that later moguls propagated about themselves.Established in 1897 by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith, Vitagraph was the leading producer of motion pictures for much of the silent era. Vitagraph established America's studio system, a division of labor utilizing specialized craftspeople and artists, including a surprising number of women and minorities, whose aesthetic innovations have long been incorporated into virtually all commercial cinema. They developed fundamental aspects of the form and content of American movies, encompassing everything from framing, lighting, and performance style to emphasizing character-driven comedy and drama in stories that respected and sometimes poked fun at every demographic of Vitagraph's vast audience. The company overcame resistance to multi-reel motion pictures by establishing a national distribution network for its feature films. Vitagraph's international distribution was even more successful, cultivating a worldwide preference for American movies that endures to the present. For most of its existence America's most influential studio was headquartered in Brooklyn, New York before relocating to Hollywood.A historically rigorous and thorough account of the most influential producer of American motion pictures during the silent era, Erish draws on valuable primary material long overlooked by other historians to introduce readers to the fascinating, forgotten pioneers of Vitagraph.

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As the definitive resource on the architectural history of New York City, The Landmarks of New York documents and illustrates the 1,352 individual landmarks and 135 historic districts that have been accorded landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission since its establishment in 1965. Arranged chronologically by date of construction, the book offers a sequential overview of the city’s architectural history and richness, presenting a broad range of styles and building types: colonial farmhouses, Gilded Age mansions, churches, schools, libraries, museums, and the great twentieth-century skyscrapers that are recognized throughout the world. That so many of these structures have endured is due, in large measure, to the efforts of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and hundreds of private sector preservation organizations, large and small. Since the commission was established, New York City has become the leader of the preservation movement in the United States, with more buildings and districts designated and protected than in any other city. The Landmarks of New York includes such iconic structures as Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Carnegie Hall, as well as those that may be less well known but are of significant historical and architectural value: the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House in Brooklyn, the oldest structure in New York City; the Bowne House in Queens, the birthplace of American religious freedom; the Watchtower in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem; the New York Botanical Garden in The Bronx; and Sailors Snug Harbor on Staten Island. The sixth edition adds 106 new individual landmarks, two special addenda on the hotly-contested “back-log” and resultant 30 pending designations, over 150 new photographs, and new historic district maps.

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A playdate is an organized meeting where parents come together with their children at a public or private location to interact socially or “play.” Children no longer simply “go out and play,” rather, play is arranged, scheduled, and parentally-approved and supervised. How do these playdates happen? Who gets asked and who doesn’t? What is acceptable play behavior? In The Playdate, Tamara R. Mose focuses on the parents of young children in New York City to explore how the shift from spontaneous and child-directed play to managed and adult-arranged playdates reveals the structures of modern parenting and the new realities of childhood. Mose argues that with the rise of moral panics surrounding child abuse, pedophilia, and fears about safety in the city, as well as helicopter parenting, and over-scheduling, the playdate has emerged as not just a necessity in terms of security and scheduling, but as the very hallmark of good parenting. Based on interviews with parents, teachers, childcare directors, and nannies from Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Long Island, the book provides a first-hand account of the strategies used by middle-class parents of young children to navigate social relationships—their own and those of their children. Mose shows how parents use playdates to improve their own experiences of raising children in New York City while at the same time carefully managing and ensuring their own social and cultural capital. Mose illustrates how the organization of playdates influences parents’ work lives, friendships, and public childrearing performances, and demonstrates how this may potentially influence the social development of both children and parents. Ultimately, this captivating and well-researched book shows that the playdate is much more than just “child’s play.” Tamara Mose on The Brian Lehrer Show

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An important center of dancehall reggae performance, sound clashes are contests between rival sound systems: groups of emcees, tune selectors, and sound engineers. In World Clash 1999, held in Brooklyn, Mighty Crown, a Japanese sound system and the only non-Jamaican competitor, stunned the international dancehall community by winning the event. In 2002, the Japanese dancer Junko Kudo became the first non-Jamaican to win Jamaica’s National Dancehall Queen Contest. High-profile victories such as these affirmed and invigorated Japan’s enthusiasm for dancehall reggae. In Babylon East, the anthropologist Marvin D. Sterling traces the history of the Japanese embrace of dancehall reggae and other elements of Jamaican culture, including Rastafari, roots reggae, and dub music. Sterling provides a nuanced ethnographic analysis of the ways that many Japanese involved in reggae as musicians and dancers, and those deeply engaged with Rastafari as a spiritual practice, seek to reimagine their lives through Jamaican culture. He considers Japanese performances and representations of Jamaican culture in clubs, competitions, and festivals; on websites; and in song lyrics, music videos, reggae magazines, travel writing, and fiction. He illuminates issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class as he discusses topics ranging from the cultural capital that Japanese dancehall artists amass by immersing themselves in dancehall culture in Jamaica, New York, and England, to the use of Rastafari as a means of critiquing class difference, consumerism, and the colonial pasts of the West and Japan. Encompassing the reactions of Jamaica’s artists to Japanese appropriations of Jamaican culture, as well as the relative positions of Jamaica and Japan in the world economy, Babylon East is a rare ethnographic account of Afro-Asian cultural exchange and global discourses of blackness beyond the African diaspora.

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Every year, many thousands of acres of woodlands, deserts, meadowlands, and coastal scrub are turned into home or commercial sites. Ironically, by the time these structures are complete, bulldozers have scraped the land clean of its natural vegetation and character, the very features that attracted buyers in the first place. In Building within Nature, Andy and Sally Wasowski introduce new and exciting techniques for preserving the natural land on which we build new homes, offices, or even shopping centers. Building within Nature stresses that the unnatural landscapes so common in America literally exist on artificial life support. A natural landscape, on the other hand, is filled with native flora and can exist on rainfall alone. A structure built within nature looks as if it has been gently set down into a mature and established landscape—the easiest kind of landscape to maintain. The Wasowskis illustrate this new concept in construction through profiles of sites in California, Arizona, South Carolina, Minnesota, and other locations in North America. They also highlight useful techniques for revegetation, discuss the importance of soils, and argue for the preservation and maintenance of natural habitats. Building within Nature offers a practical blueprint for creating communities where both wildlife and human life thrive in a harmonious relationship. "For offering workable alternatives in nontechnical terms to ecologically minded home owners, contractors, and architects, the Wasowskis' book is highly recommended." —Library JournalAndy and Sally Wasowski are the authors of nine books about gardening and landscaping with native plants, including Gardening with Prairie Plants: How to Create Beautiful Native Landscapes (Minnesota, 2002). Their work has appeared in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens handbooks, Country America, National Gardening, Sierra, Audubon, American Gardener, and Fine Gardening. Darrel G. Morrison, FASLA, is one of the nation’s most respected native plant landscape architects.

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