Browse Fiction

Browse Nonfiction

Featured Books

Quick view Add to Cart

Thomas Keneally

Bring Larks and Heroes (First US Edition)

$20.00
Quick view Add to Cart

Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway

MSRP: $14.99

$7.99
Quick view Add to Cart

Severin Schroeder

Wittgenstein

MSRP: $30.00

$24.99
Quick view Add to Cart

Martin Kemp

Leonardo

MSRP: $26.00

$16.00

Newly Added Books

An early example of American realism, McTeague was considered truly shocking when first published in 1899.

This searing portrait of the downfall of a slow-witted dentist and his avaricious wife embodies Frank Norris's powerful insights into conflicting forces of heredity and social conditioning. It is a novel of compelling narrative force, resounding with a sense of life as epic.

As Kevin Starr points out in his introduction, McTeague continues to be regarded as a central statement of evolutionary awareness in late nineteenth-century America and as representative of the best work of a school of writers that included Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser.

Edited and With an Introduction by Kevin Starr — Quick view Add to Cart

Frank Norris

McTeague: A Story of San Francisco

$6.99

The Edge of the Unknown — Quick view Add to Cart

Arthur Conan Doyle

The Edge of the Unknown

$18.00

Paul Dirac was among the greatest scientific geniuses of the modern age. An admired colleague of Albert Einstein and one of the discoverers of quantum mechanics, the most revolutionary theory of the past century physics--and was the youngest theoretician ever to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. Like Dirac's achievements, his personality is legendary. An extraordinarily reserved loner, relentlessly literal-minded and seemingly devoid of empathy, Dirac was nevertheless an intensely loyal family man, with tastes in the arts that ranged from Beethoven to Cher, from Rembrandt to Mickey Mouse. Based on previously undiscovered archives, The Strangest Man reveals the many facets of Dirac's brilliantly original mind, while also charting one of the most spectacularly exciting ears in scientific history. — Quick view Add to Cart

Graham Farmelo

The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom

MSRP: $24.99

$19.99

"I am no specialist in the study of Lucretius; I am not a Dante scholar nor a Goethe scholar. I can report no facts and propose no hypotheses about these men which are not at hand in their familiar works, or in well-known commentaries upon them. My excuse for writing about them, notwithstanding, is merely the human excuse which every new poet has for writing about the spring. They have attracted me; they have moved me to reflection; they have revealed to me certain aspects of nature and of philosophy which I am prompted by mere sincerity to express, if anybody seems interested or willing to listen."

The modesty exhibited in the above disclaimer--from Santayana's preface to Three Philosophical Poets--should be viewed in the context of the author's extraordinary impact as a philosopher and teacher. The Sense of Beauty has claim to being the first major work on aesthetics written in the United States; the multivolume The Life of Reason is arguably the first extended analysis of pragmatism anywhere. Among Santayana’s many well-known Harvard students, Wallace Stevens has acknowledged a clear debt to his work.

Based on a course Santayana taught at Harvard, Three Philosophical Poets was first delivered to the public as a series of lectures at Columbia University in 1910. Santayana’s lifelong, learned meditation on the relationship between philosophy and art is apparent. (Santayana’s own prose style has long been considered among the most eloquent in all of philosophy.) Here, he discusses the chief phases of European philosophy—naturalism, supernaturalism, and romanticism—as they are set forth and epitomized by the works of Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe, respectively.

Foreword by Michael Dirda — Quick view Add to Cart

George Santayana

Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius ∙ Dante ∙ Goethe ∙

$8.99

Combining detailed physical description with perceptive psychological insight, Leo Tolstoy realistically sweeps aside the sham of surface appearances to lay bare man's intimate gestures, acts, and thoughts. Murder and sacrifice...greed and devotion...lust and affection...vanity and love--one by one, in this volume of great stories, Tolstoy dissects the basic drives, emotions and motives of average people searching for self-knowledge and spiritual perfection. Chekhov said, "Of authors my favorite is Tolstoy." And Turgenev "marveled at the strength of his huge talent....It sends a cold shudder even down my back, though you know my back has become thick and course. He is a master, a master."

Other Stories: Family Happiness, The Kreutzer Sonata, Master and Man

Translated by Aylmer Maude and J.D. Duff with an Afterword by David Magarshack

About the Author

A Russian author of novels, short stories, plays, and philosophical essays, Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born into an aristocratic family and is best known for the epic books War and Peace and Anna Karenina, regarded as two of the greatest works of Russian literature. After serving in the Crimean War, Tolstoy retired to his estate and devoted himself to writing, farming, and raising his large family. His novels and outspoken social polemics brought him world-wide fame. — Quick view Add to Cart

Leo Tolstoy

The Death of Ivan Ilych And Other Stories (Signet Classic Edition, 28th Printing)

$6.99

Before Miss Peregrine gave them a home, the story of peculiars was written in the Tales.

Wealthy cannibals who dine on the discarded limbs of peculiars. A fork-tongued princess. These are but a few of the truly brilliant stories in Tales of the Peculiar—the collection of fairy tales known to hide information about the peculiar world, including clues to the locations of time loops—first introduced by Ransom Riggs in his #1 bestselling Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series.

Riggs now invites you to share his secrets of peculiar history, with a collection of original stories in this deluxe volume of Tales of the Peculiar, as collected and annotated by Millard Nullings, ward of Miss Peregrine and scholar of all things peculiar. Featuring stunning illustrations from world-renowned woodcut artist Andrew Davidson this compelling and truly peculiar anthology is the perfect gift for not only fans, but for all booklovers.

A perfect gift, reminiscent of classic bookmaking, this beautifully packaged volume features full-page woodcut illustrations, gold foil stamping, a ribbon, and removable back sticker. — Quick view Add to Cart

Ransom Riggs

Tales of the Peculiar

MSRP: $24.99

$16.99

Walden, a veritable treasury of American naturalism, teems with biting social observations about daily human life, not least among them:

"Our life is frittered away by detail....Simplify, simplify."

Henry David Thoreau built his small hut on the shore of Walden Pond in 1845. For the next two years he lived there as simply as possible, seeking zthe essential facts of lifey and learning to eliminate the unnecessary details--material and spiritual--that intrude upon human happiness. He described his experiences in Walden, using vivid, forceful prose that transforms his reflections on nature into richly evocative metaphors to live by. George Eliot's review of Walden singles out qualities that have attracted readers for generations, namely "a deep poetic sensibility," as well as Thoreau's own "refined [and] hardy mind." In a world obsessed with technology and luxury, Walden seems more relevant today than ever.

After being imprisoned for refusing to pay Concord's poll tax, Thoreau recounted his experience in an 1848 lecture, "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in Relation to Government." The speech, hardly noticed in Thoreau's lifetime, was later published as "Civil Disobedience." Today it is widely considered the single most important essay concerning the incumbent duties of American citizens and has inspired major civil movements around the world.

With an Introduction and Notes by Jonathan Levin — Quick view Add to Cart

Henry D. Thoreau

Walden and Civil Disobedience

MSRP: $7.95

$6.99

The best book on how your diet impacts your health has gotten even better! For this tenth anniversary edition, Annemarie Colbin has updated her classic to include the latest information on new dietary systems, low-fat eating, food combining, and alternative medicine. Food and Healing continues to be the touchstone guide to improving your life by changing the way you eat.

Drawing on an impressive range of thinking, from Oriental philosophy to contemporary medical journals, Colbin shatters many myths not only about the "Standard American Diet" but also about some of the quirky unhealthy food fads that continue to crop up across the country. Inside, you'll discover the crucial role of diet in preventing illness, how to tailor a diet approach that is right for you, the remarkable healing qualities of specific foods, how food affects your moods.

Annemarie Colbin argues passionately that we must take responsibility for our own health and rely less on modern medicine, which - even now - seems to focus on trying to cure rather than prevent illness. She shows that eating well is the first step toward better health. — Quick view Add to Cart

Annemarie Colbin

Food and Healing: How What You Eat Determines Your Health, Your Well-Being, and the Quality of Your Life

MSRP: $20.00

$7.99

The Great Hunger is the story of one of the worst disasters in world history: the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s. Within five years, one million people died of starvation. Emigrants by the hundreds of thousands sailed for America and Canada in small, ill-equipped, dangerously unsanitary ships. Some ships never arrived; those that did carried passengers already infected with and often dying of typhus.

The Irish who managed to reach the United States alive had little or no money and were often too weak to work. They crowded into dirty cellars without light or sanitation, begged in the streets, and accepted whatever employment they could get at wages which no American would accept. Epidemics, riots, and chaos followed in the wake of this hopeless flood. Irish immigrants came to be regarded as a danger to the health of the community and a burden on society.

Cecil Blanche Woodham-Smith, in this balance and dispassionate look at a terrible tragedy, attempts to apportion the blame among the then unknown disease which destroyed the potato on which the vast majority of the Irish depended almost exclusively for existence, greedy landlords, and the total lack of comprehension of the British government.

The Great Hunger is a heartbreaking story of suffering, insensitivity, and blundering stupidity, but it is also a story of courage, dignity, and, against all the odds, a hardly supportable optimism. — Quick view Add to Cart

Cecil Woodham-Smith

The Great Hunger, Ireland 1845-1849

$15.00

Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) was the first woman awarded the MD degree in the United States. Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women is the story of her dedicated, groundbreaking struggle to practice the medical profession, eloquently told in her own words.

Though faced with continuous discrimination, Blackwell graduated from medical school in 1849, ranking first in her class. Encountering resistance in her attempts to set up a practice in Ne York City, she persevered and established an infirmary and eventually a women's medical college.

An insightful introduction by Amy Sue Bix (assoiciate professor, program in the history of technology and science, Iowa State University) discusses the history ow women as healers, concentrating on the nineteenth century. Full of perceptive reflections on the philosophy of medicine, women's education, the evils of slavery, and the nature of American society in the nineteenth century, this unique autobiography will interest scholars and students of women's studies and the history of science. — Quick view Add to Cart

Elizabeth Blackwell

Pioneer Work In Opening The Medical Profession To Women

$18.00

Bearing W.P. Kinsella's trademark combination of "sweet-natured prose and a richly imagined world" (Philadelphia Inquirer), The Iowa Baseball Confederacy tells the story of Gideon Clark, a man on a quest. He is out to prove to the world that the indomitable Chicago Cubs traveled to Iowa in the summer of 1908 for an exhibition game against an amateur league, the Iowa Baseball Confederacy. But a simple game somehow turned into a titanic battle of more than two thousand innings, and Gideon Clark struggles to set the record straight on this infamous game that no one else believes ever happened. — Quick view Add to Cart

W.P. Kinsella

The Iowa Baseball Confederacy

MSRP: $19.95

$8.99

This is an endlessly inspiring and instructive chronicle of the world's greatest thinkers, from Socrates to Santayana.

The Story of Philosophy gives not only the ideas and philosophical systems of the world-famous "monarchs of the mind," such as Plato, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Spinoza, Kant, Voltaire, Locke and others of similar stature but their flesh-and-blood biographies. It also gives their setting in their own time and place and influence in our modern intellectual heritage. These pages are "packed with wisdom and wit.

Eleven years of research and three years of actual writing went into the creation of this book which, while written with exacting and scrupulous scholarship, is not meant solely for scholars. It is designed to command the respect of educators, and at the same time capture the interest of the layman.

Not only the titans of older days, but the most famous contemporary philosopher are here presented and illumined--including Bergson, Croce, Russell, Santayana, and Dewey.

This is a book that has proved its survival value, because it opens vistas of intellectual adventure and growth to those who hunger for the total perspective which is philosophy, and who see the wisest and most indestructible answers for the world's greatest philosophers to the persistent and fundamental questions about first and last things. — Quick view Add to Cart

Will Durant

The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers

$20.00