“Chris Fair has dined with soldiers in the Khyber Pass and with prostitutes in Delhi, rummaged for fish in Jaffna, and sipped Taliban tea in Peshawar. Cuisines of the Axis of Evil is a sophisticated, fun, and provocative cookbook with easy-to-follow recipes from both America’s traditional enemies in foreign policy—including Iran, Iraq, and North Korea—and friends of the U.S. who are nonetheless irritating by any measure. In addition, each country section includes all the smart, acerbic geopolitical nuggetry you need to talk the talk with the best of them. Recipes include Iranian chicken in a walnut pomegranate stew, Iraqi kibbe, and North Korean spicy cucumber, as well as special teas, mango salads, beverage suggestions, and much more.”

Founded by John Buckman, BookMooch is an online community for exchanging used books. You give a book and earn points, then use your points to get books you want from someone else on BookMooch. There’s no cost to join; you are responsible for paying the postage when you mail your books to someone else, but that’s it. BookMooch might make some money from users who click over to Amazon to buy books, but other than that, it’s yet another labor of love. You can donate points to charities – and there’s a long list of them – lots of prison outreach programs, which is great to see. You can also request to have a charity listed with them. International exchanges are also welcome. There’s lots more to it, and lots more info on the site (including statistics, which indicate that there have been nearly a million books mooched in the past year!).

Poets For Palestine was published to unite a diverse range of poets, spoken word artists, and hip-hop artists who have used their words to elevate the consciousness of humanity. Sixty years after the dispossession of the Palestinian people, this anthology presents forty-eight poems alongside original works by Palestinian artists. All proceeds from the sale of this collection will go toward funding future cultural projects that highlight Arab artistry in the United States.

On Reading
W.W. Norton, September 2008
ISBN 978-0-393-06656-2
68 duotone photographs/80 pages

“André Kertész (1894-1985) was one of the most inventive, influential and prolific photographers in the medium’s history. This small volume, first published in 1971, became one of his signature works. Taken between 1920 and 1970, these photographs capture people reading in many parts of the world. Readers in every conceivable place—on rooftops, in public parks, on crowded streets, waiting in the wings of the school play—are caught in a deeply personal, yet universal, moment. Kertész’s images celebrate the absorptive power and pleasure of this solitary activity and speak to readers everywhere. Both playful and poetic, On Reading is reissued with striking new duotone reproductions. Fans of photography and literature alike will welcome this classic.”

From The Gospel According to Bruce Springsteen by Jeffrey B. Symynkywicz – posted in full with comments on NPR.

1. The world has gone awry.

2. There is a power within the souls of men and women to transcend the world and to achieve real victories in spite of the world.

3. The world is as it is.

4. Life without connections is empty and dangerous.

5. Our stories symbolize something deeper.

6. Life is embodied.

7. It’s all about change.

8. There is no guarantee of success.

9. Hope is resilient.

10. There is always something more.

What’s Next – Roll Your Own Literature?
By Alison Morris
Publishers Weekly
July 24, 2008

“I’m really not quite sure what to make of this idea…. In 2007 the U.K.-based TankBooks published a series of classic books in small form – cigarette pack-sized form, to be exact – and packaged them in, essentially, cigarette packages. They called this series Books to Take Your Breath Away.'”

Read more on Publishers Weekly.

Between Women
Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England
by Sharon Marcus

Women in Victorian England wore jewelry made from each other’s hair and wrote poems celebrating decades of friendship. They pored over magazines that described the dangerous pleasures of corporal punishment. A few had sexual relationships with each other, exchanged rings and vows, willed each other property, and lived together in long-term partnerships described as marriages. But, as Sharon Marcus shows, these women were not seen as gender outlaws. Their desires were fanned by consumer culture, and their friendships and unions were accepted and even encouraged by family, society, and church. Far from being sexless angels defined only by male desires, Victorian women openly enjoyed looking at and even dominating other women. Their friendships helped realize the ideal of companionate love between men and women celebrated by novels, and their unions influenced politicians and social thinkers to reform marriage law.

Through a close examination of literature, memoirs, letters, domestic magazines, and political debates, Marcus reveals how relationships between women were a crucial component of femininity. Deeply researched, powerfully argued, and filled with original readings of familiar and surprising sources, Between Women overturns everything we thought we knew about Victorian women and the history of marriage and family life. It offers a new paradigm for theorizing gender and sexuality–not just in the Victorian period, but in our own.

Sharon Marcus is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

*Thanks to Bronte Blog for noting this book.

From Kyle Zimmer, President, First Book:

First Book is joining forces with eBay Foundation, the charitable arm of eBay Inc., for Community Gives – an online fundraising campaign designed to engage the eBay Community in supporting First Book’s mission to provide new books to the children who need them most.

First Book is one of only three organizations eBay Foundation has chosen to support, based on input from the eBay Community. The campaign kicked off on Monday with a $1 million grant split evenly among First Book, Best Friends Animal Society and Oxfam. In addition, to encourage participation eBay Foundation will give an extra dollar to First Book for every person who donates.

Funds generated will support First Book’s to reach and provide brand new books and educational resources to tens of thousands more Recipient Groups nationwide.

Wouldn’t you like to be an Author too?

Rachel Donadio’s essay in the Sunday New York Times Book Review, You’re an Author? Me Too! explores this very phenomenon – or is it pestilence – of book “publishing.” Beginning with what we all know by now – U.S.ers are reading less, yet, “In 2007, a whopping 400,000 books were published or distributed in the United States, up from 300,000 in 2006, according to the industry tracker Bowker, which attributed the sharp rise to the number of print-on-demand books and reprints of out-of-print titles.”

And at the same time our nation is reading less, there are more writers in the U.S. than at any other time in our history, and credentialed MFA programs kicking out an exponentially growing number of these. Additionally, Donadio notes that for as little as $3.50 a copy, “authors” can have their books printed and distributed through Amazon, and Borders is no in the fray, offering print packages starting at $300, with the “premium package,” which includes some actual editorial work, starting at $500.

While Donadio discusses the role of the writing programs as the “democratizer” of the talent pool, Gabriel Zaid, critic and author of “So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in the Age of Abundance,” says: “Everyone now can afford to preach in the desert.”

Good? Bad? Hard as writers, publishers – and readers – to be indifferent on this topic.

Read the full article here.

Special Tupelo Press Limited Edition Hardcovers Support Poetry in the Schools

Tupelo Press kicked off its Poetry in the Schools fundraising initiative with a series of limited edition hardcover books. The following recent releases are available in numbered, signed editions for $100. There are only 100 copies of each hardcover.

Dismal Rock by Davis McCombs
Psalm by Carol Ann Davis
Spill by Michael Chitwood

Inflorescence by Sarah Hannah is also available in a numbered limited edition hardcover (of 200) for $100.

Proceeds from the sales of these special releases go to support Tupelo’s Poetry in the Schools program, which will bring poets into grammar schools and high schools across the country to deliver the joy and wonder of poetry to a nation of school children who have suffered under tremendous cuts to their arts budgets.

You may order through the Tupelo Press website or by calling directly, 802-366-8185.

Pick from four books of poetry published by Calyx Press and add a box of handmade Bursts’s Chocolates to send to your sweetie for Valentine’s Day and get a 20% discount on the books. Order by February 8 to assure delivery by February 14. Titles for 20% discount include: Idleness is the Root of all Love by Christa Reinig; Femme’s Dictionary by Carol Guess; The White Junk of Love, Again by Sybil James; The Country of Women by Sandra Kohler. Nothing says love like poetry and chocolate! (Okay, well, maybe beer and poetry…)

Imagination in Action
Edited by Carol Malyon
The Mercury Press

“This book is a collection of essays and articles by Canadian painters and sculptors, musicians and composers, poets and novelists and journalists. Teachers, choreographers, actors, book-store owners, cooks, farmers, needle-workers… Trying to understand the world and our place in it; to bring order out of chaos; to figure out who we are, where we are, what we are doing here. Sometimes trying to communicate with others. Who are you? What are you doing? Here’s what I’ve been creating. This is my version of the world. Is it the same as yours? Creative folks discuss what they do, and why, and how they do it. Apparently there’s not one correct way. Forget those how-to books. Find your own method. You too can be creative.”

Northland Poster Collective online gallery and catalog store featuring the art of social justice, the tools of grassroots union organizing and labor activism, and the craft of union workers: Posters, Labor Books, Buttons, Bumper Stickers, Calendars, Note Cards, Iraq Note Cards, Holiday Cards, T-Shirts, Baby Clothes, Vietnam Era Originals, Vintage Poster Sets, Mugs, Mouse Pads, Coasters, Postcards, CDs, Cloth Hangings, Decals, Sweatshirts, Books & Videos, Hats, Signs. Featuring Immigrants Rights, Political Campaigns, Anti-WalMart, Iraq Art Project.

The greatest humanitarian challenge we face today is that of providing shelter. Currently one in seven people lives in a slum or refugee camp, and more than three billion people — nearly half the world’s population — do not have access to clean water or adequate sanitation. The physical design of our homes, neighborhoods, and communities shapes every aspect of our lives. Yet too often architects are desperately needed in the places where they can least be afforded.

Edited by Architecture for Humanity, Design Like You Give a Damn is a compendium of innovative projects from around the world that demonstrate the power of design to improve lives. This first book to bring the best of humanitarian architecture and design to the printed page offers a history of the movement toward socially conscious design and showcases more than 80 contemporary solutions to such urgent needs as basic shelter, health care, education, and access to clean water, energy, and sanitation.

Design Like You Give a Damn is an indispensable resource for designers and humanitarian organizations charged with rebuilding after disaster and engaged in the search for sustainable development. It is also a call to action to anyone committed to building a better world.

From NPR: “In honor of what would have been Gramatky’s 100th birthday, Penguin Putnam is reissuing a restored version of Little Toot, reviving the rich colors that were diminished in subsequent editions. The book also features full-color manuscript sketches, and reintroduces parts of the book’s original bindings. Scott Simon and Daniel Pinkwater preview [audio online] the newly released version of the children’s classic.”

Tupelo Press has announced the publication of Dorset Prize winner Davis McCombs’s Dismal Rock. In addition to the paperback publication, signed, numbered, limited hardcover edition of 100 are available for $100. The purchase of the special hardcover edition supports the Tupelo Press National Poetry in the Schools initiative, bringing the literary arts alive to students in elementary schools across the country.

This is a blast. You register your book on the site (for free) and get a printout to post in the book. Then you “release” the book into the human wilds with a note on it that indicates it’s a free book for the finder to read, log onto the web site and write about (track), and re-release it for another reader to find. Finders/Readers can make their own comments on the book – where they found it, what they thought of it, where they’ve left it, etc. It’s a great community recycling project that has to make somebody’s dream come true: “If I ruled the world, books would be free and would just appear on park benches or on subways at random…” Go now, register one of your (many, many – I know you have TOO many) books, and set it free. It’s time. BookCrossing.

Have a big reader on your gift list? Tired of buying corporate gift cards? Here’s a twist: help your reader reduce their footprint (or is it spine print) on the planet with Eco-Libris. For every book you read, you can “balance it out” by paying Eco-Libris to plant a tree for you. And it’s cheap: five bucks to balance out five books. A buck a book. There’s a slight break the higher you go, but seriously, this is cheaper than my state tax on a single book, and I have NO idea where that money even goes (although the nightly news does give some indication). The goal of EcoLibris is grand: “We want to balance out half a million books by the end of 2008.” Okay folks, let’s get started!

Who can resist a sale, especially when it involves books, and especially from a really cool small press? “The Scorching Summer Sale has been extended through August! Purchase any two Coach House books from the website and receive a third book absolutely free! (The free book must be of equal or lesser value than the two purchased books.) Simply place an online order for two books of your choice, then send an e-mail to [email protected] with your name and selection of third book. Act quickly. The sale ends August 31.”

“The For Beginners

Description from the publisher: In this new and updated edition of Food Pets Die For, first published by NewSage Press in 1997, Ann Martin once again goes behind the scenes of the commercial pet food industry. She uncovers the unsavory ingredients that can legally be used by commercial pet food companies, including euthanized cats and dogs, diseased and contaminated meat, moldy grains, and rancid fat. She also documents the ongoing animal experimentation funded by many major pet food companies in the name of nutritious pet food.

Martin arms consumers with crucial information on how to read labels on pet food, and discern for themselves whether or not they want to feed their pets commercial food. Martin offers healthy alternatives for feeding animal companions with nutritious and easy-to-prepare recipes. For people who don’t have the time to cook, Martin provides information on several pet food companies that produce healthy, human-grade pet food. Martin builds a strong case for why our pets will live longer, healthier lives without commercial pet food.

Darfur Diaries
Stories of Survival
Jen Marlowe, Aisha Bain and Adam Shapiro
Published by Nation Books

In November 2004, three independent filmmakers traveled to eastern Chad and crept across the border into Darfur. Improvising as they went, they spoke with dozens of Darfurians, learning about their history, hopes, and fears, and the resilience and tragedy of their everyday lives.

In February of 2003 following years of oppression, the Sudan Liberation Army in Darfur took up arms against the Sudanese government. The response to the rebellion was a brutal campaign by the government and allied militias of mass murder, rape and the wholesale destruction of villages and livelihood. Millions of people were displaced, and hundreds of thousands killed.

This book introduces us to those who remain: the refugees and displaced people, civilians and fighters resisting the Sudanese government, teachers, students, parents, children and community leaders, whose collective testimonies provide the heart of Darfur Diaries. Their stories, interwoven with the filmmakers’ own personal narratives and conveyed with political and historical context, provide a much-needed account to help understand the tragic situation in Darfur.

Poop Culture
How America Is Shaped by Its Grossest National Product
By Dave Praeger
Foreword by Paul Provenza, director of The Aristocrats
Published by Feral House “This book is not a history of poop, but a study of today. Its goal is to understand how poop affects us, how we view it, and why; to appreciate its impact from the moment it slides out of our anal sphincters to the moment it enters the sewage treatment plant; to explore how we’ve arrived at this strange discomfort and confusion about a natural product of our bodies; to see how this contradiction-the natural as unnatural-shapes our minds, relationships, environment, culture, economics, media, and art.”

Jia
by Hyejin Kim
“Based on true events, Jia is the first novel about present-day North Korea to appear in English. All but closed to outside visitors, North Korea is among the most opaque nations on earth. While most readers know only the bleak outlines of its politics and history, Hyejin Kim illuminates Korea from within.”
From MIDNIGHT EDITIONS, an imprint of CLEIS PRESS.

Two Lines: World Writing in Translation, part of the Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco, CA, has published English translations of fiction and poetry from more than 50 languages for over a decade. Now, thanks to partnership with the University of Washington Press, this former journal has shed its ISSN to become a full-fledged ISBN’d book. “Better for distribution and sales,” says Promita Chatterji, Two Lines Marketing Administrator, and better as well as for the continued excessive content that burst the seams of the lit journal boundaries. (“Really, it’s a journal,” they would say, hefting it two-handed off the table at AWP to suspicious readers.) Our best to Two Lines on their new venture; we’ll miss them on the NewPages lit mag list.