St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America's Hippest Street


Book Description

A vibrant narrative history of three hallowed Manhattan blocks—the epicenter of American cool. St. Marks Place in New York City has spawned countless artistic and political movements. Here Frank O’Hara caroused, Emma Goldman plotted, and the Velvet Underground wailed. But every generation of miscreant denizens believes that their era, and no other, marked the street’s apex. This idiosyncratic work of reportage tells the many layered history of the street—from its beginnings as Colonial Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant’s pear orchard to today’s hipster playground—organized around those pivotal moments when critics declared “St. Marks is dead.” In a narrative enriched by hundreds of interviews and dozens of rare images, St. Marks native Ada Calhoun profiles iconic characters from W. H. Auden to Abbie Hoffman, from Keith Haring to the Beastie Boys, among many others. She argues that St. Marks has variously been an elite address, an immigrants’ haven, a mafia warzone, a hippie paradise, and a backdrop to the film Kids—but it has always been a place that outsiders call home. This idiosyncratic work offers a bold new perspective on gentrification, urban nostalgia, and the evolution of a community.




Murder on St. Mark's Place


Book Description

In turn-of-the century New York City, midwife Sarah Brandt and Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy see birth and death--and even murder...




Our Place


Book Description

'Essential reading for anybody who cares about the future’ Henry Marsh, *New Statesman Books of the Year* A radical examination of Britain's relationship with the land by one of our greatest nature writers. **SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT GOLDEN BEER BOOK PRIZE 2019** The British love their countryside more than almost any other nation, yet they live in one of the most denatured landscapes on Earth. From the flatlands of Norfolk to the tundra-like expanse of the Flow Country in northern Scotland, Mark Cocker sets out on a personal quest through the British countryside attempting to solve this puzzle. Radical, provocative and original, Our Place tackles some of the central issues of our time whilst mapping out a future in which this overcrowded island of ours could be a place fit not just for human occupants but also for its billions of wild citizens. ‘A tour de force... By turns hopeful, melancholy, humorous and heartfelt’ BBC Wildlife Book of the Month




Making My Mark


Book Description

Lawyer, judge, public servant, trailblazer: these are only a few words to describe the remarkable accomplishments of the Honorable Marvin S. Arrington, Sr., of Atlanta, Georgia. It's the story of a dedicated man, born in to the segregated South who went on to break down racial barriers and build walls of inclusion and harmony. Judge Arrington was the first African American to become partner at an all-white Atlanta law firm and then, later, established one of the largest and most successful minority law firms in the country. Today, Marvin Arrington is a distinguished judge on the Fulton County Superior Court who continues now to address the great challenges of the 21st century.




Place of Privilege


Book Description

The ultra-elite private schools, the super schools; places where the resources, the curriculum and the tuition are comparable to the best liberal arts colleges. These are schools where lineage is a factor in the admission process. These are not schools for those who can afford better, they are schools for those who can afford only the very best. These are places of privilege. Rarely do they include black students. In the 1960's, they almost never did. In New York, the crown jewel place of privilege is The Dalton School; one of the most prestigious, elite prep schools in the nation, recognized globally for its visionary progressive educational philosophy and its ultra-wealthy, celebrity student body. Dalton is where Anderson Cooper was a student, Jeffrey Epstein was a teacher and Robert Redford and Bob Fosse were members of the PTA. In the mid-1960s, Dalton reached out to previously unfamiliar communities and for the first time actively recruited minority students. Mark and Ray are among the very first young Black men to attend Dalton. "Place Of Privilege" provides the remarkable narrative of the pathfinder courses their lives would take. This is the story of how Dalton changed their lives forever, and how their presence changed Dalton forever.




The Gospel According to Mark


Book Description

The earliest of the four Gospels, the book portrays Jesus as an enigmatic figure, struggling with enemies, his inner and external demons, and with his devoted but disconcerted disciples. Unlike other gospels, his parables are obscure, to be explained secretly to his followers. With an introduction by Nick Cave




Project Onion


Book Description

Kathryn “Kat” Jensen’s new audit consulting job quickly becomes extremely dangerous. Investigating a notorious drug trafficker’s bank accounts can lead to life-threatening complications! When Kat Jensen, an out-of-work internal auditor in New York City, joins Melville Consulting, a friend’s secretive consulting firm, she unravels the elaborate money-laundering scheme used by a notorious drug lord nicknamed El Rey, or The King. Based on her analysis, the banks freeze his accounts. Furious, El Rey storms their office, threatening to kill her boss. The drug czar gets arrested, but Kat is badly shaken and wants to quit. Except auditing jobs aren’t easy to find after she took a year off to go on an unusual bucket-list voyage, and now she is broke. Memories of Kat’s brother, who lost the battle against drug addiction, and the much-needed paycheck convince her to try again. But when Kat unexpectedly meets El Rey, her life is in danger, since now he wants revenge. PROJECT ONION features an unexpectedly resilient businesswoman who decides to fight back. This suspense novel blends crime, time travel, and romance with multiple twists and turns. What book reviewers are saying: “Following the typical format of crime fiction, Stensgaard delivers an entertaining set-up to her series. Kat’s motivations for joining the Melville Consulting team are clear and her emotions are apparent and relatable.” - The BookLife Prize, part of Publishers Weekly “Project Onion by Karen Stensgaard is an engrossing read, packed with suspense, a little romance, and even some time travel for good measure. It has a very strong female lead, plenty of action, and no small amount of stunning twists and turns that will leave you dizzy. The main character is the kind of woman that others might dream of being - a sophisticated, smart decision-maker who isn't afraid to stare danger in the face and the thrilling plot marks the start of what looks to be a great new series. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and am looking forward to more of Kat Jenson's adventures.” - 5 Star Review by Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorite “A riveting, impossible-to-put-down novel… Stensgaard kicks start her The Melville Consulting Series with this very clever, unpredictable genre mash-up tale. Stensgaard’s shrewd observations about a woman struggling to gather her courage in the face of unexpectedly trying circumstances register beautifully. The pacing is fast and tension stays high with relentless suspense in the back. This action-packed time-travel thriller delivers on its promising concept.” - The Prairies Book Review “An incredible story from a great storyteller with realistic and elaborately developed characters, Project Onion is a spellbinding opening that will create a lot of anticipation in readers as they wait for the next installment in the series. The narrative is enriched by the beautiful prose and Karen Stensgaard's deft creation in setting and atmosphere.” - 5 Star Review by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite “This book is one of a kind … The drama and romance set among the mystery make it an even more intriguing read and keeps you hooked and invested in the plot. I would love to read more such work or even more about these same characters. Kudos to the author for coming up with this story, and I hope the upcoming ones are just as great!” - 5 Star Review from Instagram Book Blogger read.with.emilee




Hard-Core


Book Description

As a homeless child prodigy, Harley Flanagan played drums for bands at Max’s Kansas City and CBGBs, and was taught to play bass by the famed black band Bad Brains, and drank with the notorious Lemmy of Motörhead. Most famously, Harley became a member of the famous hardcore band The Cro-Mags, and disputes accusations of stabbing two band members.




Detroit City Is the Place to Be


Book Description

"The fall and maybe rise of Detroit, America's most epic urban failure, from local native and Rolling Stone reporter Mark BinelliOnce America's capitalist dream town, Detroit is our country's greatest urban failure, having fallen the longest and the farthest. But the city's worst crisis yet (and that's saying something) has managed to do the unthinkable: turn the end of days into a laboratory for the future. Urban planners, land speculators, neo-pastoral agriculturalists, and utopian environmentalists--all have been drawn to Detroit's baroquely decaying, nothing-left-to-lose frontier. With an eye for both the darkly absurd and the radically new, Detroit-area native and Rolling Stone writer Mark Binelli has chronicled this convergence. Throughout the city's "museum of neglect"--its swaths of abandoned buildings, its miles of urban prairie--he tracks the signs of blight repurposed, from the school for pregnant teenagers to the killer ex-con turned street patroller, from the organic farming on empty lots to GM's wager on the Volt electric car and the mayor's realignment plan (the most ambitious on record) to move residents of half-empty neighborhoods into a viable, new urban center.Sharp and impassioned, Detroit City Is the Place to Be is alive with the sense of possibility that comes when a city hits rock bottom. Beyond the usual portrait of crime, poverty, and ruin, we glimpse a future Detroit that is smaller, less segregated, greener, economically diverse, and better functioning--what might just be the first post-industrial city of our new century"--




A Dangerous Place


Book Description

Writing with a signature command of his subject and with compelling resonance, Marc Reisner leads us through California’s improbable rise from a largely desert land to the most populated state in the nation, fueled by an economic engine more productive than all of Africa. Reisner believes that the success of this last great desert civilization hinges on California’s denial of its own inescapable fate: Both the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas sit astride two of the most violently seismic zones on the planet. The earthquakes that have already rocked California were, according to Reisner, a mere prologue to a future cataclysm that will result in immense destruction. Concluding with a hypothetical but chillingly realistic description of what such a disaster would look like, A Dangerous Place mixes science, history, and cultural commentary in a haunting work of profound importance.