Featured Originals
One Way Forward
by Lawrence Lessig
Something is clearly rotten in our Republic. Americans are disillusioned with the political system and angry as hell. They feel like outsiders in their own nation, powerless over their own lives, blocked from having a real voice in how they are governed. But all of this can change. Lawrence Lessig, the renowned Harvard Law School professor and political activist presents a user-friendly, bipartisan manifesto for revolution just when we need it the most. His audaciously simple solution? Kill political corruption at its root: money.
"Lawrence Lessig's One Way Forward is one of the most exciting documents I've read since I first found The Federalist Papers."
Death Comes to Happy Valley
by Jonathan Mahler
Joe Paterno, the legendary Penn State football coach, modeled his life and career after the classic heroes he loved, but in the end his story was a modern tragedy. The most winning coach ever in college football, crafter of The Grand Experiment that put honor and academics above all else, finished his days under the dark cloud of shame and unspeakable scandal. Bestselling writer Jonathan Mahler’s admiring yet honest assessment shows what can happen when a school, and an entire community, falls under the spell of a larger-than-life man who was, in fact, merely mortal.
The Secret World of Saints
by Bill Donahue
Stigmata. Self-mortification. Miracles. It takes a lot to become a saint in the eyes of the Catholic Church. The journey to canonization is long (sometimes, as in the case of Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk Indian who just got the nod from the Vatican, it can take centuries), lurid (decayed body parts play a role), and, nowadays, surprisingly cutting-edge. (Miracles can be determined through MRIs.) This rollicking yet thorough investigation of the Church’s most mysterious tradition provides a fascinating inside look into how the holy earn their places in heaven and introduces us to America’s newest saint.
"My sinful covetousness for Bill Donahue's talents and the fun he's having here has put me out of the running for sainthood. I love his story anyway."
Rules for Virgins
by Amy Tan
Amy Tan, beloved bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter's Daughter, tells a startlingly sensual fictional tale of an aging master courtesan instructing her beautiful young protégé in 1912 Shanghai.
A Killing in Iowa
by Rachel Corbett
Rachel Corbett was eight years old when the man she had come to regard as a father killed his girlfriend and then himself. What had turned that seemingly gentle man into a killer? In this mesmerizing tale of love and murder, Corbett reconstructs the tragedy that shaped her life and tries to make sense of a senseless crime in a place where we least expect such violence: the quiet, rural heartland.
Sleeping with Famous Men
by Elizabeth Kaye
“It never hurts to meet a sexy man,” Elizabeth Kaye’s editor once told her. “It always hurts to meet a sexy man,” she said. With more than forty years of passionate, wisdom-making love affairs behind her, Kaye knew what she was talking about. In Sleeping with Famous Men, she has written an elegant, rueful and astonishingly frank account of her search for love and comfort and, finally, for meaning and peace. In the tradition of such masters as Marguerite Duras and Colette, Kaye comes to terms with her turbulent romantic past.
"In her prose, Elizabeth Kaye is a dancer. She transmits energy, enthusiasm, and ultimately, optimism through her eloquence."
Lady with a Past
by Elizabeth Mitchell
She's as American as apple pie, but the Statue of Liberty didn't start out that way. The brainchild of a comically egomaniacal French artist, Lady Liberty has an early history that was anything but patriotic. From the author of the Byliner bestseller The Fearless Mrs. Goodwin, the little-known tale of how America's beloved green giantess came to be.
"Mitchell has written a page-turner, exposing the riveting history of the Statue of Liberty, a tale far more brilliant in its complexity than the short-hand version we all know. A stunning jewel of intrigue."
Joan
by Sara Davidson
Joan: Forty Years of Life, Loss, and Friendship with Joan Didion is Sara Davidson's intimate, loving portrait of one of America's most revered and private writers. It is a treasure trove of Didion's no-nonsense wisdom about the art of literature and life, and about the power of both endurance and surrender.
The Cartel
by Taylor Branch
"College athletes are not slaves," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch. "Yet to survey the scene…is to catch the unmistakable whiff of the plantation." The Cartel, Branch’s 25,000-word narrative—a portion of which appeared in the October 2011 Atlantic—is his devastating investigation into college sports and the NCAA. In it Branch exposes decades of greed and self-interest and makes clear that the organization is poised to collapse under the weight of its hypocrisy.
"In eviscerating the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Mr. Branch provides ample evidence that our "student-athletes" are themselves lacking in their rights as American citizens. They are, he says, the "heir[s] to Dred Scott.""
Cooking Solves Everything
by Mark Bittman
Cooking might not bring world peace, but it comes awfully close. The award-winning author of How to Cook Everything makes the case for making your own dinner.
