Books with category 📜 History
Displaying 24 books

Stay True

2022

by Hua Hsu

Stay True is a gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for self, and the solace that can be found through art, by New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu. In the eyes of eighteen-year-old Hua Hsu, the problem with Ken—with his passion for Dave Matthews, Abercrombie & Fitch, and his fraternity—is that he is exactly like everyone else. Ken, whose Japanese American family has been in the United States for generations, is mainstream; for Hua, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, who makes 'zines and haunts Bay Area record shops, Ken represents all that he defines himself in opposition to.

The only thing Hua and Ken have in common is that, however they engage with it, American culture doesn't seem to have a place for either of them. But despite his first impressions, Hua and Ken become friends, a friendship built on late-night conversations over cigarettes, long drives along the California coast, and the successes and humiliations of everyday college life. And then violently, senselessly, Ken is gone, killed in a carjacking, not even three years after the day they first meet.

Determined to hold on to all that was left off one of his closest friends—his memories—Hua turned to writing. Stay True is the book he's been working on ever since. A coming-of-age story that details both the ordinary and extraordinary, Stay True is a bracing memoir about growing up, and about moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging.

Trust

2022

by Hernan Diaz

Trust is a sweeping puzzle of a novel about power, greed, love and a search for the truth that begins in 1920s New York. Can one person change the course of history? A Wall Street tycoon takes a young woman as his wife. Together, they rise to the top in an age of excess and speculation. Now a novelist is threatening to reveal the secrets behind their marriage. Who will have the final word in their story of greed, love and betrayal?

Composed of four competing versions of this deliciously deceptive tale, Trust by Hernan Diaz brings us on a quest for truth while confronting the lies that often live buried in the human heart.

An unparalleled novel about money, power, intimacy, and perception.

The Quiet Before

2022

by Gal Beckerman

The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas is an exploration of the formation of social movements through history and the role of technology in shaping them. Gal Beckerman, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, presents a narrative that spans from the 1600s to the present, examining how the quiet conception of revolutionary ideas in small, private groups has led to significant social changes, from the scientific revolution to the suffrage movement, and from feminism to modern-day epidemiology.

This book delves into the correspondence that ignited the scientific revolution, the petitions that won voting rights in 1830s Britain, the zines that expressed women's rage in the early 1990s, and the messaging apps utilized by epidemiologists during a pandemic. Beckerman highlights the importance of secluded spaces where radical ideas can incubate before reaching a wider audience and cautions that the prevalence of social media may be undermining these productive environments. By examining the successes and failures of movements like the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter, The Quiet Before offers insights into what current social media platforms lack and proposes ways to foster the growth of radical ideas in the future.

El regreso de Quetzalcóatl

Ésta es la profecía de Quetzalcóatl, su revelación, nuestro destino. El 13 de agosto de 1521 cayó Tenochtitlán en manos de decenas de miles de guerreros de diversos pueblos y ciudades del Anáhuac. Los herederos de los toltecas se liberaron del terrible yugo de los hijos de Huitzilopochtli, con el inesperado pero indispensable apoyo de un puñado de aventureros castellanos. Una era llegó a su fin y, como siempre ocurre en la historia humana, una nueva comenzó a nacer. Descendió la noche sobre el Pueblo del Sol e inició el amanecer de un México que no ha sabido salir de las tinieblas.

El regreso de Quetzalcóatl es un recorrido que abarca a toda la humanidad, y que pasa de la historia a la filosofía, de la psicología a la religión, y de ahí al misticismo para volver a la historia. Va de Teotihuacán a Roma, del mundo maya al valle del Nilo, de Mesoamérica a la India, de la toltequidad a la filosofía griega, y ante todo del pasado que debemos superar al presente en el que tenemos una última oportunidad para tratar de vislumbrar el futuro. Si descifras a Quetzalcóatl podrás salvar a México de hundirse en su inframundo.

The Sum of Us

2021

by Heather McGhee

Heather McGhee's specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out?

McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Maine to Mississippi to California, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm—the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. Along the way, she meets white people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams, and their shot at better jobs to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. This is the story of how public goods in this country—from parks and pools to functioning schools—have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how this country, unique among the world's advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare.

But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: gains that come when people come together across race, to accomplish what we simply can't do on our own. McGhee marshals economic and sociological research to paint a story of racism's costs, but at the heart of the book are the humble stories of people yearning to be part of a better America, including white supremacy's collateral victims: white people themselves. With startling empathy, this heartfelt message from a Black woman to a multiracial America leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game.

The Prophets

A novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence.

Isaiah was Samuel’s and Samuel was Isaiah’s. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man—a fellow slave—seeks to gain favor by preaching the master’s gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel’s love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation’s harmony.

With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr. fiercely summons the voices of slaver and the enslaved alike to tell the story of these two men.

Breath

2020

by James Nestor

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art is not just a book about breathing; it is a journey into the scientific, cultural, spiritual, and evolutionary history of this most fundamental practice. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love, describes it as a long overdue look at the importance of this simple act.

Journalist James Nestor takes readers around the world to uncover the mysteries of breath. From ancient burial sites and secret Soviet facilities to New Jersey choir schools and the streets of São Paulo, Nestor seeks out those who are uncovering the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices such as Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo.

As it turns out, the way we breathe affects everything from athletic performance to the health of our internal organs. Nestor's exploration reveals that slight adjustments to our breathing can have profound impacts on our health, including halting snoring, asthma, autoimmune diseases, and even correcting scoliotic spines.

With insights drawn from medical texts spanning thousands of years and cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath challenges the conventional wisdom about the biological function that we thought we knew so well. After reading this book, you might just find yourself breathing in a whole new way.

The Mastermind

2019

by Evan Ratliff

The incredible true story of the decade-long quest to bring down Paul Le Roux—the creator of a frighteningly powerful Internet-enabled cartel who merged the ruthlessness of a drug lord with the technological savvy of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

It all started as an online prescription drug network, supplying hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of painkillers to American customers. It would not stop there. Before long, the business had turned into a sprawling multinational conglomerate engaged in almost every conceivable aspect of criminal mayhem. Yachts carrying $100 million in cocaine. Safe houses in Hong Kong filled with gold bars. Shipments of methamphetamine from North Korea. Weapons deals with Iran. Mercenary armies in Somalia. Teams of hit men in the Philippines. Encryption programs so advanced that the government could not break them.

The man behind it all, pulling the strings from a laptop in Manila, was Paul Calder Le Roux—a reclusive programmer turned criminal genius who could only exist in the networked world of the twenty-first century, and the kind of self-made crime boss that American law enforcement had never imagined. For half a decade, DEA agents played a global game of cat-and-mouse with Le Roux as he left terror and chaos in his wake. Each time they came close, he would slip away. It would take relentless investigative work, and a shocking betrayal from within his organization, to catch him. And when he was finally caught, the story turned again, as Le Roux struck a deal to bring down his own organization and the people he had once employed.

Award-winning investigative journalist Evan Ratliff spent four years piecing together this intricate puzzle, chasing Le Roux's empire and his shadowy henchmen around the world, conducting hundreds of interviews and uncovering thousands of documents. The result is a riveting, unprecedented account of a crime boss built by and for the digital age.

The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

2018

by Aaron Mahnke

A chilling, lavishly illustrated Who's Who of the most despicable people ever to walk the earth, featuring both rare and best-loved stories from the hit podcast Lore, soon to be an online streaming series.

Here are the incredible true stories of some of the mortals who achieved notoriety in history and folklore through horrible means. Monsters of this sort—serial killers, desperate criminals, and socially mobile people with a much darker double-life—are, in fact, quite real, including:

  • H. H. Holmes, the infamous Chicago serial killer;

  • William Brodie, the Edinburgh criminal mastermind who inspired The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde;

  • And Bela Kiss, a Hungarian tinsmith with a most disturbing hobby: collecting women in gasoline drums.

This riveting best-of-the-worst roundup will haunt your thoughts, chill your bones, and leave you wondering if there are mortal monsters lurking even closer than you think.

The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures

2017

by Aaron Mahnke

A fascinating, beautifully illustrated guide to the monsters that are part of our collective psyche, this book features stories from the Lore podcast—now a streaming television series. It includes tales such as "They Made a Tonic," "Passed Notes," and "Unboxed," as well as rare material.

Monsters live in shadows—deep in the forest, late in the night, in the dark recesses of our minds. Spoken of in stories and superstitions, they are relics of an unenlightened age, old wives' tales passed down through generations. Yet, no matter how wary and jaded we have become, both as individuals and as a society, a part of us remains vulnerable to them: werewolves and wendigos, poltergeists and vampires, angry elves and vengeful spirits.

In this volume, Aaron Mahnke serves as a guide on a fascinating journey through the history of these terrifying creatures, exploring not only the legends but also what they tell us about ourselves. He takes us to places like the desolate Pine Barrens of New Jersey, home of the notorious winged, red-eyed Jersey Devil, and delves into harrowing accounts of cannibalism. He also visits the dimly lit rooms where séances take place, and the European villages where gremlins make mischief.

Whether these beasts and bogeymen are real or just a reflection of our primal fears, we know that not every mystery has been explained and that the unknown still holds the power to strike fear deep in our hearts and souls. As Mahnke reminds us, sometimes the truth is even scarier than the lore.

Utopia for Realists

2017

by Rutger Bregman

Universal basic income. A 15-hour workweek. Open borders. Does it sound too good to be true? One of Europe's leading young thinkers shows how we can build an ideal world today.

After working all day at jobs we often dislike, we buy things we don't need. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian, reminds us it needn't be this way—and in some places it isn't. Rutger Bregman's TED Talk about universal basic income seemed impossibly radical when he delivered it in 2014. A quarter of a million views later, the subject of that video is being seriously considered by leading economists and government leaders the world over. It's just one of the many utopian ideas that Bregman proves is possible today.

Utopia for Realists is one of those rare books that takes you by surprise and challenges what you think can happen. From a Canadian city that once completely eradicated poverty, to Richard Nixon's near implementation of a basic income for millions of Americans, Bregman takes us on a journey through history, and beyond the traditional left-right divides, as he champions ideas whose time have come.

Every progressive milestone of civilization—from the end of slavery to the beginning of democracy—was once considered a utopian fantasy. Bregman's book, both challenging and bracing, demonstrates that new utopian ideas, like the elimination of poverty and the creation of the fifteen-hour workweek, can become a reality in our lifetime. Being unrealistic and unreasonable can in fact make the impossible inevitable, and it is the only way to build the ideal world.

México racista

Con un afán polémico y un tono irreverente, este libro busca despertar el debate y denunciar la prevalencia de nuestras costumbres racistas y las formas de pensar que las acompañan.

A partir de ejemplos cercanos y actuales, el historiador Federico Navarrete realiza un original análisis de los vínculos entre el racismo y graves casos que han cimbrado a México desde los feminicidios en Juárez, pasando por la matanza de migrantes en San Fernando, hasta la desaparición forzada de los normalistas de Ayotzinapa.

El racismo impera en México. Es un hecho cotidiano que cobra forma lo mismo en una charla privada que en anuncios de tintes "aspiracionales" o en políticas públicas excluyentes. Desafortunadamente, una gran parte de la población es indiferente ante el fenómeno.

Amén de ofrecer un examen de los orígenes históricos del racismo en México, vinculados con lo que llama la "leyenda del mestizaje", Federico Navarrete nos ofrece una serie de posibles caminos para liberarnos de esta lacerante situación en busca del respeto a las diferencias y la convivencia sensata. Su aviso es claro y estamos a tiempo de hacer de la pluralidad un germen de convivencia y esperanza.

The Eighth Life

Six romances, one revolution, the story of the century.

At the start of the twentieth century, on the edge of the Russian Empire, a family prospers. It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. A caution which is justified- this is a recipe for ecstasy that carries a very bitter aftertaste... 

Stasia learns it from her Georgian father and takes it north, following her new husband, Simon, to his posting at the centre of the Russian Revolution in St Petersburg. Stasia's is only the first in a symphony of grand but all too often doomed romances that swirl from sweet to sour in this epic tale of the red century. 

Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the reader rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends. 

Space Invaders

Space Invaders is a dreamlike evocation of a generation that grew up in the shadow of a dictatorship in 1980s Chile. It tells the story of a group of childhood friends who, in adulthood, are preoccupied by uneasy memories and visions of their classmate, Estrella Gonzlez Jepsen. In their dreams, they catch glimpses of Estrella's braids, hear echoes of her voice, and read old letters that eventually, mysteriously, stopped arriving.

They recall regimented school assemblies, nationalistic class performances, and a trip to the beach. Soon it becomes clear that Estrella's father was a ranking government officer implicated in the violent crimes of the Pinochet regime, and the question of what became of her after she left school haunts her erstwhile friends. Growing up, these friendsfrom her pen pal, Maldonado, to her crush, Riquelmewere old enough to sense the danger and tension that surrounded them, but were powerless in the face of it.

They could control only the stories they told one another and the "ghostly green bullets" they fired in the video game they played obsessively. Nona Fernández, one of the leading Latin American writers of her generation, effortlessly builds a choral and constantly shifting image of young life in the waning years of the dictatorship. In her short but intricately layered novel, she summons the collective memory of a generation, rescuing felt truth from the oblivion of official history.

Dracula

2012

by Bram Stoker

A thirst for blood, nocturnal debauchery, hypnotic trances ... this is Dracula. Jonathan Harker is travelling to Castle Dracula to see the Transylvanian noble, Count Dracula. He is begged by locals not to go there, because on the eve of St. George's Day, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will come full sway. But business must be done, so Jonathan makes his way to the Castle - and then his nightmare begins. His beloved wife Meena and other lost souls have fallen under the Count's horrifying spell. Dracula must be destroyed.

Deathless

Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation. Catherynne M. Valente presents a modernized and transformed take on the legend of Koschei the Deathless, a menacing figure from Russian folklore equivalent to the devils or wicked witches of European culture.

The story unfolds in a mysterious version of St. Petersburg during the first half of the 20th century, following the life of Marya Morevna. She evolves from a clever child of the revolution to becoming Koschei's beautiful bride and ultimately, his undoing. Valente's tale is filled with Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy, bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. Deathless is a fierce story set against the backdrop of the history of Russia in the twentieth century and is, quite simply, unforgettable.

The Uses of Haiti

The Uses of Haiti tells the truth about uncomfortable matters—uncomfortable, that is, for the structures of power and the doctrinal framework that protects them from scrutiny. It tells the truth about what has been happening in Haiti, and the US role in its bitter fate.

Noam Chomsky, from the introduction

In this third edition of the classic The Uses of Haiti, Paul Farmer looks at what has happened to the health of the poor in Haiti since the coup. Winner of a McArthur Genius Award, Paul Farmer is a physician and anthropologist who has worked for 25 years in Haiti, where he serves as medical director of a hospital serving the rural poor. He is the subject of the Tracy Kidder biography, Mountains Beyond Mountains.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

2006

by Michael Pollan

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a groundbreaking book by Michael Pollan, one of America's most fascinating, original, and elegant writers. Pollan turns his omnivorous mind to the seemingly straightforward question of what we should have for dinner. This question has confronted humanity since the discovery of fire, but how we answer it today may determine our very survival as a species.

Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us—industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves—from the source to a final meal. He develops a definitive account of the American way of eating, taking readers from Iowa cornfields to food-science laboratories, from feedlots and fast-food restaurants to organic farms and hunting grounds. He emphasizes our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the plant and animal species we depend on.

Each time Pollan sits down to a meal, he deploys his unique blend of personal and investigative journalism to trace the origins of everything consumed, revealing what we unwittingly ingest. He explains how our taste for particular foods and flavors reflects our evolutionary inheritance. The surprising answers Pollan offers have profound political, economic, psychological, and moral implications for all of us. Ultimately, The Omnivore's Dilemma is a book as much about visionary solutions as it is about problems, contending that, when it comes to food, doing the right thing often turns out to be the tastiest thing an eater can do.

Beautifully written and thrillingly argued, The Omnivore's Dilemma promises to change the way we think about the politics and pleasure of eating. For anyone who reads it, dinner will never again look, or taste, quite the same.

Anil's Ghost

Michael Ondaatje, Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient, delivers a compelling narrative in Anil's Ghost, a novel set against the backdrop of Sri Lanka's civil war. We follow Anil Tissera, a young Sri Lankan woman raised and educated in the West, who returns to her homeland as a forensic anthropologist for an international human rights group. Her mission: to uncover the origins of the systematic murders that are ravaging the country.

As Anil delves into a mystery that leads her into the realms of love, family, and identity, she is ensnared by an unknown enemy's plot, driving her to unlock the concealed history of her nation. The narrative unfolds amidst the rich tapestry of Sri Lanka's culture, ancient civilization, and evocative landscapes. Anil's Ghost stands out as Ondaatje's most potent novel to date, weaving a tale that is as much about the human condition as it is about a country in turmoil.

The Dark Room

2001

by Rachel Seiffert

The Dark Room tells the stories of three ordinary Germans, each ensnared by the tumultuous events of history. Helmut, a young photographer in Berlin during the 1930s, channels his patriotic fervour into his craft, yet his keen eye fails to comprehend the true significance behind the images he captures. Lore, a twelve-year-old girl, finds herself leading her younger siblings on a harrowing journey across a ravaged Germany in 1945 after their Nazi parents are taken by the Allies.

Half a century later, Micha, a young teacher, grapples with his family's past and the actions of his grandfather during the war. His quest for the truth is met with silence and resistance, and the only person willing to assist carries a burdened history of their own. The Dark Room delves into these individual experiences with profound emotional depth and psychological authenticity, shedding light on the complex and dark moments of the twentieth century.

Los días del venado

Una invasión sin nombre avanza sobre las Tierras Fértiles. Jamás una catástrofe llega sin anunciarse, pero ¿quiénes serán aquellos capaces de percibir las innumerables pero intangibles señales que la preceden? ¿Y qué harán con ese conocimiento? Lo podrían transformar en amor o en poder. Los hombres de guerra y de conocimiento, los artistas y los Brujos deberán enfrentarla o aceptar el exterminio de su tiempo.

Será la guerra entre el Bien y el Mal y en medio de ambos, estarán las traiciones, los celos, las valentías, la plena lealtad de un amigo, la inocencia de una niña. Una guerra frente a la que ningún ser vivo podrá permanecer indiferente, ni los hombres en la tierra, ni los pájaros en el cielo, ni los árboles que unen ambos mundos.

Con LA SAGA DE LOS CONFINES Liliana Bodoc irrumpió en el panorama literario cosechando una enorme cantidad de lectores apasionados y el favor de la crítica

The English Patient

With ravishing beauty and unsettling intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Hana, the exhausted nurse; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burned man who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal, and rescue illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning.

Los recuerdos del porvenir

1963

by Elena Garro

En 1963, cuatro años antes de la publicación de Cien años de soledad, apareció en México una novela singular, historia de amor sombría, misteriosa, que cambió el tono de la narrativa mexicana de tan profunda y sorprendente manera como Pedro Páramo de Juan Rulfo: Los recuerdos del porvenir.

La asombrosa novela de Elena Garro es gótica y barroca. Más que una crónica -que sí lo es, de la Revolución Mexicana y de la guerra de los Cristeros- es una nostalgia y una soledad, es la voz de un pueblo iluminado, hallado y perdido, que habla en una primera persona desesperanzada y triste.

Una familia y otra familia, más las amantes solitarias, el loco del pueblo, las cuscas, los soldados, las beatas, un cura y un sacristán, más un campanario y una joven endemoniada de amor por el general Francisco Rosas, constituyen los solistas, las parejas y las comparsas de esta bella, ebria y condenada Danza de la Muerte.

Man's Search for Meaning

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished.

Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

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