In her study of the married couple as the smallest political unit, Phyllis Rose uses the marriages of five Victorian writers who wrote about their own lives with unusual candor: Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, and George Eliot--née Marian Evans.

"Exhilarating, adventurous, original . . . The Shelf is a reminder of what reading and writing are all about." —Azar Nafisi,#1 New York Times– bestselling author of Reading Lolita in TehranAfter a career of reading from syllabuses and writing about canonical books, Phyllis Rose decided to read like an explorer. Casting herself into the untracked wilde...

A fascinating biography of a revolutionary American artist ripe for rediscovery as a photographer and champion of other artists Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) was an enormously influential artist and nurturer of artists even though his accomplishments are often overshadowed by his role as Georgia O’Keeffe’s husband. This new book from celebrated biographer Phyllis Rose reconsiders Stieglitz as a revolutionary force in the history of American art. ...

The novel that Gloria Steinem called "the feminist Jekyll-and-Hyde of our time―and we recognize the monster in ourselves while we're laughing."Outrageous and outrageously funny, The Girl That He Marries is the story of Stephanie―nearly thirty and still single, a bright and attractive young woman with an unerring instinct for unmarriageable men and a nagging fear she's going to grow old alone. Enter Richard: urbane, ambitious, and eminently marriageable. Th...

From the award-winning author of God's Ear: A "wildly funny, achingly spiritual, profoundly Jewish and feminist" satire of religion and gender politics ( The New York Times Book Review).Call Me Ishtar is the outrageous manifesto of a goddess determined to right the wrongs of the three-thousand-year-old patriarchy. She is Ishtar: Mother Goddess, Queen of Heaven, Angel of Death, and Whore of Babylon, and, returning to earth in this most rec...

"[This] work is a call not just for leaders to better communicate with their teams but for the everyday person to humanize those they disagree with." —Cy Wakeman, New York Times–bestselling author of The Reality-Based Rules of the WorkplaceStart building bridges instead of barriers! This essential guide offers a simple five-part framework that will help you have honest and enlightening conversations despite deep and fundamental disagreements....

**“Aspiring novelists will be heartened.”—**Publishers WeeklyIn Revisionaries, a writing expert takes you on an engrossing tour through the discarded drafts, false starts, and abandoned projects of influential writers. In the process, he dismantles some of our most deeply held—and most suffocating—ideas about what it takes to produce great creative work. You’ll learn that:Franz Kafka lacked confidenceOctavi...

Incredible true stories reveal strange new magic in American history in this wondrous first book from the creator of the award-winning podcast The Memory Palace.“Nate DiMeo zooms in on stories of mishap, invention and adventure. . . . These brief historical lessons read like exquisite short stories, each of them revealing something profound about history and humanity.”—The GuardianThe Memory Palace is a collection...

The Grand Master details his development as a writer and shares thirteen favorite sci-fi stories from his youth and what they taught him about writing.Every writer must start somewhere. Robert Silverberg was once simply a young man learning the art and craft of writing before he found success. But how did he get from there to winning four Hugo Awards, three Locus Awards, and six Nebula Awards, as well as being named a Grand Master of science fiction?In ...

A panoramic narrative that places ancient Africa on the stage of world historyThis book brings together archaeological and linguistic evidence to provide a sweeping global history of ancient Africa, tracing how the continent played an important role in the technological, agricultural, and economic transitions of world civilization. Christopher Ehret takes readers from the close of the last Ice Age some ten thousand years ago, when a changing climate allowed for the...

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A fascinating and eye-opening look at how American schools have helped build and reinforce an infrastructure of racial inequality . . . a must-read for every American parent and educator.”—Esquire“Though the argument of this book is bleak, it illuminates a path for a more just future that is nothing short of dazzling.”—Oprah Daily“This book will transform the way you see this country.”—Michelle Alexander, author of

A brief and humorous 500-year history of the Simplified Spelling Movement from advocates like Ben Franklin, C. S. Lewis, and Mark Twain to texts and Twitter.Why does the G in George sound different from the G in gorge? Why does C begin both case and cease? And why is it funny when a philologist faints, but not polight to laf about it? Anyone who has ever had the misfortune to write in English has, at on...