Cultural Literature

I saw a car in a driveway and I ducked under the car lying there, afraid to move. It was still in the middle of the day, about five or six o'clock. Every time someone would walk past, or I heard something my heart would start beating so fast because, I...

On the heels of swing, bebop lifted jazz from the dance floor into an art form powered by virtuoso players. This engaging collection of essays, biographies and reviews by veteran jazz journalist Scott Yanow probes the lives and revolutionary works of...

Devin had his whole life figured out-high school, college, and then the NFL. Who knew one accident would set a world of chaos in motion? Karma has a way of creeping up on you. Who's with you when it seems everyone is against? Do you retreat or boss up...

Our generation made hip-hop. But hip-hop also made us. Why are suburban kids referring to their subdivision as "block"? Why has the pimp become a figure of male power? Why has dodging the feds become an act of honor long after one has made millions as a...

It's shocking how little most of us know about the fundamental rules for workplace survival. Few people truly understand how to hang onto their jobs, how to effectively respond to threats to their jobs, or what to do if their main source of income is...

The first book of photography to be published by the Academy Award-winning film director and photographer Spike Jonze. Will appeal to every fan of Beastie Boys and golden-era hip hop, as well as photography and Spike Jonze's own focused audiences. Spike...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. covers the entire life of the leader of the Civil Rights Movement Winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, this is the most comprehensive...

Following the Civil War, Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, thrived as a cauldron of sex and song, violence and passion. But out of this turmoil emerged a center of black progress, optimism, and cultural ferment. Preston Lauterbach tells this vivid,...

W. C. Handy, Furry Lewis, Booker White, Lillie May Glover, Roosevelt Sykes, Arthur Crudup, B. B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, Muddy Waters -- these and other musicians, singers, and songwriters, including the young Elvis Presley, eventually went to Beale...

A must-read for modern sanghas--Asian American Buddhists in their own words, on their own terms. Despite the fact that two thirds of U.S. Buddhists identify as Asian American, mainstream perceptions about what it means to be Buddhist in America often...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - ECPA BESTSELLER - "When it comes to the intersection of race, privilege, justice, and the church, Tasha is without question my best teacher. Be the Bridge is THE tool I wish to put in every set of hands."--Jen Hatmaker WINNER...

A thought-provoking meditation on food, family, identity, immigration, and, most of all, hospitality--at the table and beyond--that's part food memoir, part appeal for more authentic decency in our daily worlds, and in the world at large. Be My Guest is...