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June 3rd, 2026

On this week's front table, see the Age of Revolutions through popular movements in the hemispheric Americas, hear the stories of women imprisoned for protecting themselves against abuse, and read a novel of New Orleans and the tragicomic progress of middle age. Then, follow a political and mythic history of fire, sample a bildungsroman about a young woman amid a secretive family, read about the unlikely comeback of the great beasts of America's early days, and take a lyrical road trip through an unwell culture. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com


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Posted in: Front Table
May 27th, 2026

On this week's front table, follow of cycles of history and denial in America, ponder the philosophical nature of boredom, and read a novel of grief and curses in Bogota's queer underground. Then, read works from a revolutionary and pioneering political thinker, lose yourself in a novel about losing yourself and its discontents, look into the future of design with the artists of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and read a poetic novel of sisterhood. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com


America...

Posted in: Front Table
May 20th, 2026

On this week's front table, read the memoir of a historian who braids her own story with that of Cuba, discover the surprising and contradictory progress of common sense, and follow a celebrated poet's search for her Modernist ancestors. Then, drift into a musical daydream, sample surreal fiction about exile and God, explore the dynamics of marginalized people with institutional power, and read a novel of sex work in the GDR. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com


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Posted in: Front Table
May 13th, 2026

On this week's front table, find a portrait of the twentieth century in the translations of an elusive writer, learn about the complex history and radical future of reinvestment in Black neighborhoods, and seal yourself into a fable of internationalism. Then, read a biography of the foundational figure of Judaism, sample the short stories of a bold new voice, travel down a highway of dreams and harsh realities, and read a new kind of Western. Find these titles and more at...

Posted in: Front Table
May 6th, 2026

On this week's front table, explore obstetrics and feminine resistance during the Roman Empire, gain a radical new understanding of money, and get lost in the haze of a transcendent, menacing festival. Then, go back to the early days of a pioneering theorist, experience a masterwork of Indian poetry, rifle through a notable literary correspondence, and resurface a long-buried river and narrative of class and labor. Find these titles and more at semcoop....

Posted in: Front Table
April 29th, 2026

On this week's front table, explore the history of justice in the face of state violence, ask how to embrace life in a time of highly visible despair, and read a complex and collective novel about Japanese internment. Then, visit the would-be utopia of Transcendentalist Concord, read a meta-noir about grief and perception, delve into a history of Rolling Stone magazine, and discover a vibrant new poet of our strange modern day. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com


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Posted in: Front Table
April 23rd, 2026

On this week's front table, learn collective tactics for housing justice, gain a cartoonist's eye's view on the history of aesthetics, and read a devastating fictional treatment of a tragedy of complicity. Then, sink into a definitive biography of Chopin, read subtly transgressive poetry of uprising, hear the musical inheritance of Africa in contemporary music, and visit a mysterious city for adulterous lovers. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com...

Posted in: Front Table
April 16th, 2026

On this week's front table, explore the gun control debate in Renaissance Italy, get an insider view of a notorious disinformation machine, and read a magical realistic epic of aristocratic Hungary. Then, find a new perspective on James Joyce as a political artist, enjoy poems that inhabit a world of flammable metaphors and spiritual fog machines, and trace the rise of police power in the United States. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com


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Posted in: Front Table
April 8th, 2026

On this week's front table, consider an argument for Spinoza as radical atheist, read about a small town's battle against violent radicalism, and confront a colossal and long out-of-print novel of guilt and reckoning. Then, hear an account on the tragedy in Gaza from a citizen, trace the history of American religion as shaped by settler colonialism, and encounter a powerful new writer's novel of a woman stricken by mysterious illness. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com


Spinoza, Atheist
(Princeton...

Posted in: Front Table
April 1st, 2026

On this week's front table, see the effects of erasure in architecture and the built environment, search for a jeweled egg that was lost to history, and discover Langston Hughes as a translator of Mexican and Cuban literature. Then, gain new perspective on the history of the American frontier, read the groundbreaking short work of a Yenish author, and explore the unsettling of sin by science. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com


Erasure by Design
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