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  • The Cuban Drumbeat, by Piero Gleijesis - $15.00
    In waging a long war against oppression and misery in the third world, Castro's Cuba sent more troops into battle on foreign soil in defense of besieged populations than all but the U.S., Russia and a few Western European countries. Gleijeses wonders what's next for a post-Castro Cuba. […]
  • Two Underdogs and a Cat, by Slavenka Drakulic - $17.00
    Drakulic, well known to readers of The Nation, the New York Times and the New York Review of Books, ponders the fate of the communist idea through three stories: "An Interview with The Oldest Dog in Bucharest," "A Guided Tour of the Museum of Communism" and "A Cat Keeper in Warsaw" […]
  • The Idea of Communism, by Tariq Ali - $15.00
    "What Was Communism" series editor Ali ponders the over-arching question, and argues for a new form of socialism and global planning. […]

  1. New Books on the shelves- Cleopatra, Stephen Sondheim and More

    December 23, 2010 by Eric

    Stacy Schiff’s new biography of Cleopatra and Stephen Sondheim on Stephen Sondheim

    Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy SchiffFinishing the Hat by Stephen Sondheim Two terrific books on the shelf in the bookshop (and orderable through our online store): Stacy Schiff’s biography of the Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra: A Life has received raves in the press (see the New York Times review here) and from bookshop patrons as well. As for Finishing the Hat, Steven Sondheim’s “Collected Lyrics with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes”, it’s bound to give any fan hours of pleasure…  Both come highly recommended!

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  2. Autobiography of Mark Twain

    November 30, 2010 by Eric

    Autobiography of Mark Twain

    autobiography of mark twainOne of the really big books of the season. Stands to reason! Twain dictated this material (which will run to three volumes when publication is complete) in the last four years of his life- charging his executors with the instruction that it was to remain unpublished until he’d been dead a hundred years.

    One of a handful of America’s greatest writers, handling material he’d been anxious to compile for three decades or more- during which time he’d made numerous false starts. Beginning in January 1906, however, he dictated to a stenographer almost daily, working in as well some of the earlier attempts, and declared the job done in December 1909. Here’s the first third, in all its glory!

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  3. Books for the holidays, and for the moment!

    November 7, 2010 by Eric

    Books for the holidays, and for the moment!

    Just Kids- Patti SmithLife- Keith RichardsPatti Smith‘s new memoir about her youthful times with Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids, went to paperback in late September and won the National Book Award in mid-November. It’s been a moving and gratifying reading experience for dozens of people we’ve talked to in the shop.

    And then there’s Keith Richards‘ biography, published last month in hardcover, called Life. Keith’s lived a baker’s dozen of them already – lives, that is – and writes about them with terrific narrative drive and humor.

    Rock stars, both- and as it turns out, prose writers to the core. Keith had more help than Patti, we understand, but proved his mettle as an editor with this one.

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