Cultural Literature

Billy Engel was a ten-year-old boy who had lived all his life in a city in northern Illinois. One day his parents began thinking that they would like to live on a farm. They drove around and looked at several farms, and finally decided that they liked...

Anyone who has ever heard a Billie Holiday record knows the sound of her voice--sad, sexy, always relaxed but securely aware of the beat. Conveying a poignancy that cut to the heart of a song, she redeemed even trivial material with her impeccable sense...

The first-ever collection of interviews with the tortured but groundbreaking singer Billie Holiday, part of Melville House's beloved Last Interview series Legendary singer Billie Holiday comes alive in this first-ever collection of interviews from...

(Jazz Piano Solos). 24 essential Evans standards arranged for piano solo, including: Alice in Wonderland * Autumn Leaves * But Beautiful * Everything Happens to Me * Here's That Rainy Day * How Deep Is the Ocean (How High Is the Sky) * In a Sentimental...

From the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body comes a travel diary documenting a visit to Kenya. All royalties and profits go to CARE International. In the early fall of 2002, famed travel writer Bill Bryson journeyed to Kenya at...

In the city of Laquan McDonald and in the season when some white Americans are beginning to learn that black lives matter, it would be absurd to set myself up as an apologist for the white gaze. I seek to describe its interiority, and to suggest...

This book analyzes the process of composition, learning and performance of the Southern folk blues of black America. Never before has this musical form been examined so scrupulously. Evans traces the impact of commercialism, especially the phonograph...

Perhaps the greatest all-around player in basketball history, Oscar Robertson revolutionized basketball as a member of the Cincinnati Royals and won a championship with the Milwaukee Bucks. When he was twenty-three, in 1962, he accomplished one of...

From age four in 1937 to his death in 1998, Donald Harrison Sr. embraced the tradition of New Orleans' Mardi Gras Indians. As Big Chief of the Guardian of the Flames, he led with both wisdom and passion. This biography of this remarkable man is based on...

How does it feel to be a black man in America? It hurts, but in a beautiful way. So Shawn Taylor says--and a lot more--in this unapologetic and sharply critical exploration of the hatred and anxiety that American society harbors toward black men, and...

Kittie Knox, a teenage Black girl in the 1890s, began making headlines in her hometown of Boston. In this excellent, deep-research piece full of cultural analysis, you can see the way how Knox's actions continue to affect cycling today.

Poignant....important and illuminating.--The New York Times Book Review Groundbreaking.--Bryan Stevenson, New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy From one of the world's leading experts on unconscious racial bias come stories, science, and...