Nonfiction

On Cussing

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On Cussing: Bad Words and Creative Cursing Cover Image

On Cussing: Bad Words and Creative Cursing (Paperback)

By Katherine Dunn
$10.36
ISBN: 9781947793262
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Tin House Books - March 26th, 2019

 

Beyond the simple joy of cussing, Dunn explores literary style, the challenges and opportunities of grammar, the history and usage of swearing, and, finally, how an arrangement of letters and words on a page can create a physical reaction in our bodies. The perfect gift for the writer, reader, language-lover, and sailor in your life. 

Josh

The Patch

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The Patch (Paperback)

By John McPhee
$13.60
ISBN: 9781250234889
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - November 19th, 2019

 

Now in paperback just in time for the holiday season, the seventh collection of McPhee’s essays and an all around “Best of” his body of work.   McPhee brings his inimitable talent for observation to bear on several arenas of the human experience… sports, the phenomenon of celebrity status, nature…employing wit, poetry, and his trademark “turn of phrase”.  His curiosity about all things never ceases to entertain.

 

Ellen

Order of Imagination

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Order of Imagination: The Photographs of Olivia Parker (Hardcover)

By Sarah Kennel (Editor)
$40.00
ISBN: 9780875772400
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Peabody Essex Museum - June 11th, 2019

 

I’ve been following the work of Olivia Parker ever since David R. Godine published the first book of her work, Signs of Life, in 1978. If you didn’t see her career retrospective at the Peabody Essex Museum this fall, you’re too late. You missed an amazing exhibition, but you can still enjoy this catalog of that show

Dale

Lost Words

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The Lost Words (Hardcover)

By Robert MacFarlane, Jackie Morris (Illustrator)
$28.00
ISBN: 9781487005382
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Anansi International - October 2nd, 2018

 

A magnificent ode to the disappearing natural world. The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, and the intertwining of letters and images has a great effect. The concept is also very appealing for logophiles (such as yours truly).

 Stacey

Wild Life: Dispatches from a Childhood of Baboons and Button-Downs

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Wild Life: Dispatches from a Childhood of Baboons and Button-Downs (Hardcover)

By Keena Roberts
$22.40
ISBN: 9781538745151
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grand Central Publishing - November 12th, 2019

 

Keena Roberts split her childhood between a private school in Philadelphia and "Baboon Camp," a remote island in Botswana where her primatologist parents worked several months out of the year. Her resulting memoir, a story of a fish-out-of-water girl most comfortable with animals, is funny, touching, and deeply compelling.

Rebecca

The Moth Presents - Occasional Magic

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The Moth Presents Occasional Magic: True Stories About Defying the Impossible (Hardcover)

By Catherine Burns (Editor), Meg Wolitzer (Foreword by)
$20.00
ISBN: 9781101904428
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Crown Archetype - March 19th, 2019

 

A PERFECT GIFT BOOK! There is something for absolutely everyone in this funny, touching, hair-raising collection of real-life encounters. Selected best storytelling entries from The Moth Radio Hour.

 

Molly

The British Are Coming

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The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy #1) Cover Image

The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy #1) (Hardcover)

By Rick Atkinson
$32.00
ISBN: 9781627790437
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Henry Holt and Co. - May 14th, 2019

 

Atkinson brings the same engaging narrative style and excellent researcher's eye for the telling detail to the American Revolution as he did for his masterly WW2/Europe trilogy. (And as a longtime citizen of Concord and history fan I'm a demanding audience!)

Gary

The Atlas of Boston History

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The Atlas of Boston History (Hardcover)

By Nancy S. Seasholes (Editor)
$32.00
ISBN: 9780226631158
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: University of Chicago Press - October 10th, 2019

 

Visually stunning and beautifully designed, this comprehensive history of the city begins with its geological origins (under 4,000 feet of ice in the last Ice Age), through the periods before European colonization, 250 years as the most important city in North America, through the present day.  Many of the maps and illustrations are original for this volume, and the text represents the contributions of 40 historians, scholars and experts. It is that rare item, an indispensable reference book that is informative and gorgeous at the same time.

David

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