$16.95
20% Off: $13.56

Grammar for the Soul
by Lawrence A. Weinstein
(Quest Books)

In Grammar for the Soul, Professor Weinstein (Writing at the Threshold), a co-founder of Harvard's Writing Center, demonstrates numerous surprising connections between elements of grammar and human attributes--connections, for example, between use of the colon and assertiveness, between the use of the passive voice and creativity, and between use of the first-person pronoun and heightened awareness.

$16.95
20% Off: $13.56

Of Woman Born
by Adrienne Cecile Rich
(W. W. Norton)

"Asking 'But what was it like for women?' with 'painful consciousness of my own Western cultural perspective and that of most of the sources available,' Adrienne Rich examines pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood from historical, physical, religious, institutional, political, and personal angles." -Jesse Larsen, 500 Great Books by Women

$12.95
20% Off: $10.36

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School
by Matthew Frederick
(The MIT Press)

This is a book that students of architecture will want to keep in the studio and in their backpacks. It is also a book they may want to keep out of view of their professors, for it expresses in clear and simple language things that tend to be murky and abstruse in the classroom.

$13.99
20% Off: $11.19

Free Food for Millionaires
by Min Jin Lee
(Grand Central Publishing)

"In her noteworthy debut, Lee filters through a lively postfeminist perspective a tale of first-generation immigrants stuck between stodgy parents and the hip new world. Lee's heroine, 22-year-old Casey Han, graduates magna cum laude in economics from Princeton with a taste for expensive clothes and an 'enviable golf handicap,' but hasn't found a 'real' job yet, so her father kicks her out of his house. She heads to her white boyfriend's apartment only to find him in bed with two sorority girls. Next stop: running up her credit card at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City.... Lee's take on contemporary intergenerational cultural friction is wide-ranging, sympathetic and well worth reading." -Publishers Weekly

$24.95
20% Off: $19.96

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Diaz
(Riverhead Hardcover)

"Writing in a combustible mix of slang and lyricism, Díaz loops back and forth in time and place, generating sly and lascivious humor in counterpoint to tyranny and sorrow. And his characters—Oscar, the hopeless romantic; Lola, his no-nonsense sister; their heartbroken mother; and the irresistible homeboy narrator—cling to life with the magical strength of superheroes, yet how vibrantly human they are.... Díaz's novel is intrepid and radiant." -Booklist

Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Congratulations to Mr. Diaz.

$15.00
20% Off: $12.00

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
by Daniel J. Levitin
(Plume)

"How the brain processes all aspects of music is the subject of this book rooted in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and the evolution of the brain. Levitin starts with how the ear perceives sound vibrations--signals are processed in the brain's audio cortex--and proceeds to the perception of frequencies, scales, and timbre, coupled with rhythm and tempo, exploring them within cultural context." -Booklist

$25.00
20% Off: $20.00

Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
(Knopf)

From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories--longer and more emotionally complex than any she has yet written--that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they enter the lives of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers.

$12.95
20% Off: $10.36

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death
by Jean-Dominique Bauby
(Vintage)

"Was it Hemingway who defined grace under pressure? No matter who said it, the words have never been more pertinent than in speaking of this heroic book, dictated against the worst imaginable adversities. Although every word cost the author a superhuman effort, the prose is not sickbed telegraphese but rather as light as the sprightliest humor, as pungent as the taste of cooking apricots, as vigorous as the step of a young man setting out on a first date. Read this book and fall back in love with life." -Edmund White (Hotel de Dream)

$35.00
20% Off: $28.00

Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45
by Max Hastings
(Knopf)

Hailed in Britain as “Spectacular.... Searingly powerful. Hastings makes important points about the war in the East that have been all too rarely heard.” (The Sunday Telegraph), Retribution is a riveting, impeccably informed chronicle of the final year of the Pacific war. In his critically acclaimed Armageddon, Hastings detailed the last twelve months of the struggle for Germany. Here, in what can be considered a companion volume, he covers the horrific story of the war against Japan.

$14.95
20% Off: $11.96

Stumbling on Happiness
by Daniel Gilbert
(Vintage)

"Citing the research of scientists and philosophers through the ages and incorporating facts and theories from psychology, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, and behavioral economics, Gilbert discusses the science of happiness, the shortcomings of imagination as well as the illusions of foresight. And far from being a dry tome, the book is a sly, irresistible romp down, or through, memory lane--past, present, and future. It is not only wildly entertaining but also hilarious (if David Sedaris were a psychologist, he very well might write like this) and yet full of startling insight, imaginative conclusions, and even bits of wisdom." -Booklist

$24.95
20% Off: $19.96

Armageddon in Retrospect
by Kurt Vonnegut
(Putnam Adult)

The first and only collection of unpublished works by Kurt Vonnegut since his death last year—a fitting tribute to the author, and an essential contribution to the discussion of war, peace, and humanity’s tendency toward violence. Included are Vonnegut’s last speech as well as an assortment of his artwork, and an introduction by the author’s son, Mark Vonnegut. Armageddon in Retrospect says as much about the times in which we live as it does about the genius of the writer.

$15.00
20% Off: $12.00

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
by Greg Mortenson
(Penguin (Non-Classics))

Anyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school.

$24.00
20% Off: $19.20

Maps and Legends
by Michael Chabon
(McSweeney's)

Michael Chabon's sparkling first book of nonfiction is a love song in 16 parts — a series of linked essays in praise of reading and writing, with subjects running from ghost stories to comic books, Sherlock Holmes to Cormac McCarthy.

$17.00
20% Off: $13.60

People's History of American Empire
by Howard Zinn
(Henry Holt)

Since its landmark publication in 1980, A People’s History of the United States has had six new editions, sold more than 1.7 million copies, become required classroom reading throughout the country, and been turned into an acclaimed play.  
Now Zinn, historian Paul Buhle, and cartoonist Mike Konopacki have collaborated to retell, in vibrant comics form, a most immediate and relevant chapter of A People’s History: the centuries-long story of America’s actions in the world. Narrated by Zinn, this version opens with the events of 9/11 and then jumps back to explore the cycles of U.S. expansionism from Wounded Knee to Iraq. 

$24.95
20% Off: $19.96

Fixing Failed States
by Ashraf Ghani
(Oxford University Press)

"Ashraf Ghani has held one of the toughest jobs on earth: the Finance Minister responsible for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. This experience grounds the analysis of failed states in a rare sense of realism. Here, he and Clare Lockhart cover the full array of problems that beset failed states, which range far beyond the conventional remit of development agencies." -Paul Collier (The Bottom Billion)

$16.95
20% Off: $13.56

The Architecture of Happiness
by Alain de Botton
(Random House)

"With this entertaining and stimulating book, de Botton (How Proust Can Change Your Life) examines the ways architecture speaks to us, evoking associations that, if we are alive to them, can put us in touch with our true selves and influence how we conduct our lives. Because of this, he contends, it's the architect's task to design buildings that contribute to happiness by embodying ennobling values.... The strength of his book is that it encourages us to open our eyes and really look at the buildings in which we live and work. A three-part series of the same title will air on PBS this fall." -Publishers Weekly

$21.95
20% Off: $17.56

The Last Lecture
by Randy Pausch
(Hyperion Books)

When Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think").

$16.00
20% Off: $12.80

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan
(Penguin)

We are indeed what we eat — and what we eat remakes the world. A society of voracious and increasingly confused omnivores, we are just beginning to recognize the profound consequences of the simplest everyday food choices, both for ourselves and for the natural world. The bestselling author of The Botany of Desire explores the ecology of eating to unveil why we consume what we consume in the twenty-first century in his latest book.

$24.95
20% Off: $19.96

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
by Mary Roach
(W. W. Norton)

The best-selling author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers has turned her curiosity and wit on the most alluring scientific subject of all: sex. Roach, "the funniest science writer in the country" (Burkhard Bilger of The New Yorker), devoted the past two years to stepping behind the normally closed doors of sexual physiology research to ask such questions as Can a person think herself to orgasm? Can a dead man get an erection? Is vaginal orgasm a myth? Why doesn't Viagra help women—or, for that matter, pandas? What she found out and what's ahead is just a Bonk away.

$14.95
20% Off: $11.96

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by Barack Obama
(Three Rivers Press)

In this lyrical and unsentimental memoir written when he was thirty three, present presidential phenom Obama, the son of a black African father and a white American mother, searched for a workable meaning to his life as a black American.

“Fluidly, calmly, insightfully, Obama guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race.” —Washington Post Book World 

$40.00
20% Off: $32.00

Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose and Letters (Library of America)
by Elizabeth Bishop
(Library of America)

"No further proof is necessary to show that Bishop...has, posthumously in the last three decades, become one of America's most popular 20th-century poets, but this hefty and handsome volume from the Library of America certainly clinches the deal. Between its covers one can find most of the perfectionist author's oeuvre.... All the poems gathered in the now-classic Collected Poems are here, as are the unpublished drafts released in 2006's controversial Edgar Allen Poe and the Jukebox. The memoir and fiction pieces of Collected Prose are also reprinted, along with a few other pieces of scattered nonfiction, as well as a generous selection of Bishop's enthralling letters. Bishop's work is deeply compassionate and necessary reading, and now almost all of it can be found in one place." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

$15.00
20% Off: $12.00

Infidel
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
(Free Press)

"Hirsi Ali, internationally acclaimed for her book The Caged Virgin and her film depicting the oppression of Muslim women, which cost the life of her colleague Theo van Gogh, now offers a compelling memoir of her life.... Her rising political prominence and outspokenness have made her a target of Islamic extremists. Hirsi Ali's spirited recollections and defense of women's rights to independence and self-expression are inspiring to women of all cultures." -Booklist

$26.00
20% Off: $20.80

Lush Life: A Novel
by Richard Price
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

$13.99
20% Off: $11.19

Case Histories
by Kate Atkinson
(Little, Brown)

"Combines the suspense of a whodunit with the richly textured plot of a sprawling family saga. The result is top-notch literature -- an unforgettable, unclassifiable read." --Chicago Sun-Times

$25.95
20% Off: $20.76

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
by Dan Ariely
(HarperCollins)

"A marvelous book that is both thought provoking and highly entertaining, ranging from the power of placebos to the pleasures of Pepsi. Ariely unmasks the subtle but powerful tricks that our minds play on us, and shows us how we can prevent being fooled." -Jerome Groopman (How Doctors Think)

$13.95
20% Off: $11.16

Water for Elephants
by Sara Gruen
(Algonquin Books)

An atmospheric, gritty, and compelling novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932, by the bestselling author of Riding Lessons. "Water for Elephants resembles stealth hits like...The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, books that combine outrageously whimsical premises with crowd-pleasing romanticism.... With a showman's expert timing, [Gruen] saves a terrific revelation for the final pages, transforming a glimpse of Americana into an enchanting escapist fairy tale." —The New York Times Book Review

$35.00
20% Off: $28.00

Terror and Consent : The Wars for the Twenty-First Century
by Philip Bobbitt
(Knopf)

"Brilliant . . . This is quite simply the most profound book to have been written on the subject of American foreign policy since the attacks of 9/11--indeed, since the end of the cold war.... It should be read, marked, and inwardly digested by all three of the remaining candidates to succeed George W. Bush as president of the United States."  -Niall Ferguson, The New York Times Book Review

$13.00
20% Off: $10.40

The Paper Moon
by Andrea Camilleri
(Penguin)

"At the start of Camilleri's wry ninth Insp. Salvo Montalbano procedural (after 2007's The Patience of the Spider), the irascible detective is hoping for a quiet day at his Vigàta office when a visitor, the beguiling Michela Pardo, implores him to help her track down her missing brother, Angelo.... Humor, much of it provided by Montalbano's eccentric colleagues, leavens the noirish story line, and the solution to the central puzzle is both psychologically plausible and intellectually satisfying. The crisp prose is a pleasure to read, and a last-minute twist a testament to the author's artistry." -Publishers Weekly

$25.95
20% Off: $20.76

The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History
by Gordon S. Wood
(Penguin Press HC, The)

Reflections on the historian's craft and its place in American culture, from a master craftsman. History is to society what memory is to the individual: without it, we don't know who we are, and we can't make wise decisions about where we should be going. But while the nature of memory is a constant, the nature of history has changed radically over the past forty years, for good but also for ill. In The Purpose of the Past, historian Wood examines the sea change in the field through considerations of some of its most important historians and their works.

$15.95
20% Off: $12.76

How Doctors Think
by Jerome Groopman
(Mariner Books)

"Many of the physicians Dr. Groopman writes about are visionaries and heroes; their diagnostic and therapeutic triumphs are astounding. And these are the doctors who are, like the author, willing to anatomize their own serious errors. This passionate honesty gives the book an immediacy and an eloquence that will resonate with anyone interested in medicine, science or the cruel beauties of those human endeavors which engage mortal stakes." -Perri Klass, Publishers Weekly (starred)

"A book to restore faith in an often-resented profession, well enough written to warrant its quarter-million-copy first printing." -Booklist