2019.6.10 New Arrivals

Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope

AUTHOR : Mark Manson

PUBLISHER : Harper

We live in an interesting time. Materially, everything is the best it’s ever been-we are freer, healthier and wealthier than any people in human history. Yet, somehow everything seems to be irreparably and horribly f*cked-the planet is warming, governments are failing, economies are collapsing and everyone is perpetually offended on Twitter. At this moment in history, when we have access to technology, education and communication our ancestors couldn’t even dream of, so many of us come back to an overriding feeling of hopelessness.

What’s going on? If anyone can put a name to our current malaise and help fix it, it’s Mark Manson. In 2016, Manson published “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck,” a book that brilliantly gave shape to the ever-present, low-level hum of anxiety that permeates modern living. He showed us that technology had made it too easy to care about the wrong things, that our culture had convinced us that the world owed us something when it didn’t-and worst of all, that our modern and maddening urge to always find happiness only served to make us unhappier. Instead, the “subtle art” of that title turned out to be a bold challenge: to choose your struggle; to narrow and focus and find the pain you want to sustain. The result was a book that became an international phenomenon, selling millions of copies worldwide while becoming the No. 1 best seller in 13 different countries.

Now, in “Everthing Is F*cked,” Manson turns his gaze from the inevitable flaws within each individual self to the endless calamities taking place in the world around us. Drawing from the pool of psychological research on these topics, as well as the timeless wisdom of philosophers such as Plato, Nietzsche and Tom Waits, he dissects religion and politics and the uncomfortable ways they have come to resemble one another. He looks at our relationships with money, entertainment and the internet, and how too much of a good thing can psychologically eat us alive. He openly defies our definitions of faith, happiness, freedom - and even of hope itself.

Words Without Music

AUTHOR : Philip Glass

PUBLISHER : Faber & Faber

Rapturous in its ability to depict the creative process, “Words Without Music” allows readers to experience that sublime moment of creative fusion when life merges with art. Biography lovers will be inspired by the story of a precocious Baltimore boy, the son of a music-shop owner, who entered college at age fifteen, before traveling to Paris to study under the legendary Nadia Boulanger; Glass devotees will be fascinated by the stories behind “Einstein on the Beach” and “Satyagraha,” among so many other works.

Whether recalling his experiences working at Bethlehem Steel, traveling in India, driving a cab in 1970s New York, or his professional collaborations with the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Ravi Shankar, Robert Wilson, Doris Lessing and Martin Scorsese, “Words Without Music” affirms the power of music to change the world.

Martin Scorsese on Words Without Music:

“I came to Philip Glass’s music very simply, without any critical prodding or guidance. I listened and I was transfixed. The music was dynamic and colorful and mysterious all at once, and it put me in mind of the Zen exercise of sitting before a blank wall and contemplating the question, ‘What is this?’ It’s music that seems to go beyond music. It doesn’t just stay with you, it infuses and energizes and haunts you, and carries a sense of being alive, a perception of existence itself, the rhythm of living this life. Philip’s music has come to mean more and more to me as the years have gone by.

I was excited to work with Philip on Kundun, and he exceeded my wildest expectations by giving us a score that was genuinely transcendent. He’s exceeded my expectations again with this rich and beautifully written memoir. Who knew that he was as good a writer as he is a composer?”

Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times

AUTHOR : Dr. Alan Walker

PUBLISHER : Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Based on 10 years of research and a vast cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York and Washington, Alan Walker’s monumental “Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times” is the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English in more than a century. Walker’s work is a corrective biography, intended to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin. Fryderyk Chopin is an intimate look into a dramatic life; of particular focus are Chopin’s childhood and youth in Poland, which are brought into line with the latest scholarly findings, and Chopin’s romantic life with George Sand, with whom he lived for nine years.

Comprehensive and engaging, and written in highly readable prose, the biography wears its scholarship lightly: This is a book suited as much for the professional pianist as it is for the casual music lover. Walker illuminates Chopin and his music with unprecedented clarity.