The Secret Listener | An Ingenue in Mao’s Court by Yuan-tsung Chen shares the experiences of the author’s life in China under Mao’s regime. It is a personal account of life in the orbit of Mao and Zhao En-Lai and one woman’s effort to tell what it was like to be at the center of the storm.
Selected Poems by Ai Qing is a treasure of Chinese poetry. It is an extraordinary collection that traces the powerful inner life of this influential poet who crafted poems of protest, who longed for a newer, happier age, and who wrote with a profound lyricism that reaches deep into the heart of the reader.
Champagne Charlie | The Frenchman Who Taught Americans to Love Champagne by Don and Petie Kladstrup recounts the story about Charles Heidsieck, who faced a tumultuous road in his quest to introduce champagne to the United States. It is a thrilling tale of how the go-to celebratory drink of our time made its way, thanks to the controversial figure of Heidsieck.
My Time Will Come | A Memoir of Crime, Punishment, Hope and Redemption by Ian Manuel is a harrowing recount of the author’s incarceration after being sentenced as a young teenager. It is the story of how he endured the savagery of the United States prison system, and how his victim, an extraordinary woman, forgave him and bravely advocated for his freedom, which was achieved by an Equal Justice Initiative push to address the barbarism of our judicial system and bring about “just mercy.”
What’s Luck Got to Do With It? | How Smarter Government Can Rescue The American Dream by Edward Kleinbard examines the impact of brute luck in life. Like it or not, our lives and opportunities are determined largely by luck. Kleinbard shows that while we can’t undo every instance of misfortune, we can offer a path to not just a fairer America, but greater economic growth, more broadly shared.
The Bitch by Pilar Quintana is a powerful and beautiful novel that examines the painful chaos of life. It is written in a prose as terse as the villagers, with storms―both meteorological and emotional―lurking around each corner.
Catch ’67 | The Left, The Right and The Legacy of the Six Day War by Micah Goodman, a best-selling Israeli author analyzes the complicated situation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Through philosophical critique and political analysis, Goodman builds a creative, compelling case for pragmatism in a dispute where a comprehensive solution seems impossible.
The New Authoritarianism | Trump, Populism and the Tyranny of Experts by Salvatore Babones questions the true sense of democracy and how it has been affected by powerful liberal thinkers who have advanced a global rights-based agenda which has tilted the balance away from the lively and vibrant unpredictability of democratic decision-making toward the creeping technocratic authority of liberal consensus.
The Great Flowing River | A Memoir of China, from Manchuria to Taiwan by Chi Pang-Yuan is an autobiographical journey from China to Taiwan. A novelistic, epoch-defining narrative, The Great Flowing River unites the personal and intimate with the grand sweep of history.
Russia’s Dead End | An Insider’s Testimony from Gorbachev to Putin by Andrei Kovalev is a compelling memoir of the author’s career working inside the Kremlin. It assesses the current dangerous status of Russian politics and society while illuminating the path to a more just and democratic future.
