The Book Shopper

Murray Browne

Trade Paper, 224 pp., $14.95
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"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?" —Henry Ward Beecher

The Book Shopper is a spirited and witty guide to the world of disheveled used bookstores and dusty basements where shelves sag under the burden of so many books. In the limitless sea of books, here's one that will make you laugh as it helps you find your way to titles and authors . . . [read more]

Fat Wednesday

John Verdi

Trade Paper, 296 pp., $22.95
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"Experiencing a change of aspect is characterized by our recognition that something has altered and nothing has altered." —from Fat Wednesday

In Fat Wednesday, John Verdi probes how the inexplicable connections of words can help us understand the ever-changing connections of things that we actually see in everyday experience. In his pre . . . [read more]

Flotsam

John Stewart

Trade Paper, 212 pp., $16.95
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"John Stewart is a rare combination: an artist, an adventurer, a survivor of a prison camp, a great photographer and a rambunctious, rollicking prose writer. He's had marvelous, unlikely experiences everywhere from the fashion salons of New York to the wildest mountains of Asia. The soul presented in this book is like none you’ve ever met."—C. K. Williams

In these shim . . . [read more]

In Pursuit of the Good

Eric Salem

Trade Paper, 256 pp., $22.95
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Where does happiness lie?

What is the best life?

Aristotle ponders these abiding questions in his Nicomachean Ethics—a work which has profoundly influenced Western thinking on ethical matters. A book of apparent obviousness, the Ethics possesses a depth and complexity that readers at first may miss. In his study, In Pursuit of the Good, Salem guides and deepens our . . . [read more]

The Metalogicon

John of Salisbury

Trade Paper, 305 pp., $22.95
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Written in 1159 and addressed to Thomas Becket, John of Salisbury's The Metalogicon presents—and defends—a thorough study of the liberal arts of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The very name "Metalogicon," a coinage by the author, brings together the Greek meta (on behalf of) and logicon (logic or logical studies). Thus, in naming his text, he also . . . [read more]

Philadelphia Architecture

John Andrew Gallery

Paper, 228 pp., $25.00
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This updated, comprehensive guide to Philadelphia's architecture will appeal to tourists and locals alike.

"The architectural heritage of over 300 years is visible on every street in every section of the city: Philadelphia is quite literally a museum of American architecture. Its ‘collection’ includes . . . virtually every important style found throughout the United States . . . [read more]

Seven Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges

Fernando Sorrentino

Translated from the Spanish by Clark M. Zlotchew

Trade Paper, 196 pp., $16.95
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These wide-ranging conversations have an open and intimate tone, giving readers a uniquely personal glimpse of one of the most fascinating figures in contemporary world literature.

Interviewer Fernando Sorrentino, an Argentinian writer and anthologist, displays literary acumen, sensitivity, urbanity, and an encyclopedic knowledge of Borges' work. (In his prologue, Borges jokes that So . . . [read more]

The Six-Cornered Snowflake

Johannes Kepler

Trade Paper, 150 pp., $12.00
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In 1611, the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote The Six-Cornered Snowflake, which was the first scientific reference to snow crystals. Kepler wondered why snow crystals always exhibit a six-fold symmetry. It would be 300 years before Kepler's question could finally be answered, but in the process of failing to solve its mystery, The Six-Cornered Snowflake raises a remarkable . . . [read more]

The Tables of the Law

Thomas Mann

Newly translated from the German by Marion Faber and Stephen Lehmann. Afterword by Michael Wood.

Trade Paper, 120 pp., $12.00
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"Beautiful . . . one of the best short novels he has written." —New York Times Book Review

"Can rank with the best of Mann's writing" —Boston Globe

* * *

"His senses were hot, and so he yearned for spirituality, purity, and holiness—the invisible, which seemed to him spiritual, holy, and pure."read more]

Zift

Vladislav Todorov

Translated from the Bulgarian by Joseph Benatov

Trade Paper, 192 pp., $14.95
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"Pulp fiction by a historian of ideas." —Literary Weekly (Sofia)

"Tongue flambé." —Kultura

December 21, 1963: Having served 20 years for a murder he didn't commit, "Moth" exits Central Sofia Prison anticipating his first night of freedom. Instead he steps into a new and alien world—the nightmarish total . . . [read more]