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  Eastbound through Siberia -...

  Georg Wilhelm Steller

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  “Traveling with Steller as he botanizes his way across Siberia is part wilderness adventure, part open air museum visit, and a valuable historical window.” —Erika Monahan, author of The Merchants of Siberia 
   
  In the winter of 1739, Georg Steller received word from Empress Anna of Russia that he was to embark on a secret expedition to the far reaches of Siberia as a member of the Great Northern Expedition. While searching for economic possibilities and strategic advantages, Steller was to send back descriptions of everything he saw. The Empress’s instructions were detailed, from requests for a preserved whale brain to observing the child-rearing customs of local peoples, and Steller met the task with dedication, bravery, and a good measure of humor. In the name of science, Steller and his comrades confronted horse-swallowing bogs, leaped across ice floes, and survived countless close calls in their exploration of an unforgiving environment. Not stopping at lists of fishes, birds, and mammals, Steller also details the villages and the lives of those living there, from vice-governors to prostitutes. His writings rail against government corruption and the misuse of power while describing with empathy the lives of the poor and forgotten, with special attention toward Native peoples. 
   
  “Not only showcases Steller the botanist but also reveals him as an admirable human being with a great sense of humor who managed to keep an upbeat attitude in the most trying circumstances.” —Eckehart J. Jäger 
   
  “What emerges is a remarkable window into life—both human and animal—in 18th century Siberia.” —The Birdbooker Report 
   
  “Adds fascinating details to the life of Steller and his travels and discoveries just before joining Bering in Kamchatka to set sail.” —Anchorage Daily News

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  Raised By Wolves

  Jess Ho

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  Growing up Cantonese in the racist outer suburbs was hard enough for Jess Ho, but add in a dysfunctional family who only made peace over food, and it was clear that a normal life was never on the menu. Jess emerged from childhood with a major psychological complex and a kick-arse palate, traits that would help them fit right in to the messy world of Melbourne's food scene.In hospitality, Jess found a new family of outsiders who shared their lust for life and appetite for destruction. As the Australian food scene exploded, fuelled by the kinds of ‘exotic' foods Jess had grown up on, they became one of the most influential voices in Australia's bar and restaurant scene. But the industry Jess loved had its own dysfunctions: greed, ego, sexual harassment, exploitation and a never-ending fetishisation of Asian food culture. And Jess wasn't one to hold their tongue.Raised by Wolves is a fierce, funny and razor-sharp coming of age story from a savage new voice.‘Jess Ho's Raised by Wolves is a cutting memoir full of joy and tragedy. This is a life in the Melbourne hospitality industry that deserves a place on your shelf'. JASON STEGER, The Booklist

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  Animals I Want To See - A Memoir...

  Tom Seeman

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  A lyrical coming-of-age story set in the projects of Toledo, Ohio, Animals I Want To See explores themes ofidentity, ambition, religion, and friendship—often across racial and social lines—as it spotlights a family offourteen and tracks a boy’s journey from a child janitor with big dreams to a teenage petty criminal to a studentat Yale and Harvard.“A terrific and moving memoir about dreaming big and making great things happen.” —President Bill Clinton“Read it and be inspired.” —Deepak Chopra, New York Times bestselling authorOn Bronson Street, in the projects of Toledo, Ohio, in a crowded house occupied by a family of fourteen, TomSeeman starts a very important list. Just as the trash-strewn field in his backyard is home to a treasure-trove ofwild animals, Tom’s list, “Animals I Want To See One Day,” is home to dreams of adventure in places far awayfrom the downtrodden neighborhood where he lives. But for all its hardship and crime, Bronson Street is alsosomething of a mythical street, populated by unforgettable people who share food, protect each other, and givesurprising gifts of beauty and merriment, proving that the bonds of community and friendship (often acrossracial and social lines) can bridge any divide and transcend what many of us are taught to believe about eachother.A luminous coming-of-age memoir that shimmers with countless marvels, Animals I Want To See tracks TomSeeman’s journey from a child janitor with big ambitions to a teenage petty criminal to a student at Yale andHarvard. At once a meditation on finding wonder in unlikely places, an ode to a heroic mother who makesthe seemingly impossible possible, and an exploration of what it means to create our own identities, this is aheartwarming, thought-provoking, ultimately uplifting book for all readers.

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  In Our Time - 1925 Edition -...

  Ernest Hemingway

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  In 1923 and '24, journalist and budding fiction writer Ernest Hemingway penned eighteen original short stories and published them in the magazine The Little Review with the help of his friend Ezra Pound, calling the collection "in our time" (all in lower case). Hemingway would later add to this collection and re-publish the stories in 1925 under the same title and - after adding an additional story - would again republish the entire volume in 1930, again as "in our time."Presented here is the expanded 1925 edition of this seminal novel. This collection of short stories would mark one of the most auspicious and earth-shattering debuts by an author in literary history and also introduced the world to the fictional character of Nick Adams, a protagonist Hemingway would re-visit repeatedly in his career.  Within a few years, Hemingway would become known as one of the most important voices of his generation and his stark prose - lean and brutal at times - would be imitated by generations of writers who followed him.

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  The Untold Journey - The Life of...

  Natalie Robins

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  A biography of a famed 20th century, Jewish New York author and literary and social critic who struggled in the shadow of her husband. Diana Trilling’s life with Columbia University professor and literary critic Lionel Trilling was filled with secrets, struggles, and betrayals, and she endured what she called her “own private hell” as she fought to reconcile competing duties and impulses at home and at work. She was a feminist, yet she insisted that women’s liberation created unnecessary friction with men, asserting that her career ambitions should be on equal footing with caring for her child and supporting her husband. She fearlessly expressed sensitive, controversial, and moral views, and fought publicly with Lillian Hellman, among other celebrated writers and intellectuals, over politics. Diana Trilling was an anticommunist liberal, a position often misunderstood, especially by her literary and university friends. And finally, she was among the “New Journalists” who transformed writing and reporting in the 1960s, making her nonfiction as imaginative in style and scope as a novel. The first biographer to mine Diana Trilling’s extensive archives, Natalie Robins tells a previously undisclosed history of an essential member of New York City culture at a time of dynamic change and intellectual relevance.“Meticulously researched and documented, the biography is a detailed foray into the lives of a generation of writers and into the mind of literary critic, writer and intellectual Diana Trilling.”—Ms.“Robins does a solid job of rehabilitating a significant literary and cultural figure of the 20th century, a woman who spent much of her career in her husband’s shadow.”—Kirkus Reviews

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  A Quaker Officer in the Civil...

  Justin Carisio

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  His opposition to slavery outweighed his religion’s views of war: “One of the most unique and extensive views of a Delaware war veteran’s experience” (Main Line Times).   When the call went out in 1862 for volunteers for Delaware’s 4th Infantry Regiment, a number of men from prominent Quaker families came forward to fight for the Union. Deeply patriotic and strongly opposed to slavery, they served with distinction in some of the later campaigns of the Civil War, from Cold Harbor through Appomattox. Among them was Henry Gawthrop. Commissioned a first lieutenant in Company F, he saw action during the Siege of Petersburg and at the Battle of Five Forks. Fifty years after the war, he drew on his diary and letters from the war years to create a unique memoir that is among the most comprehensive and detailed of any Delaware Civil War veteran. This is his story.   Includes photos!   “Excellent.” —Delmarva Now

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