On this week’s Front Table, reflect on the contradiction between “wokeness” and the benefits derived from inequality and dive into the literary history of trolling. Learn how political instability has fueled global capitalism and walk through meditations of the spiritual life of Thoreau. Explore the shifting borders of Ukraine through poetry, journey to Mycenae and follow a retired professors’ caffeine fueled journey to finish his life’s work. Find these titles and more at...
On this week’s Front Table, dive into the legacy of a legendary Hollywood director, and reflect on faith and despair in a poetic memoir. Discover a chilling dystopian world where elite students face tough choices, learn about the lasting trauma of Japanese American incarceration, and enjoy vibrant new African poetry. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com.
George Cukor's People: Acting for a Master Director
(Columbia University Press)
Joseph McBride
George...
On this week’s Front Table, take a surprising journey into the world of two great Modernist poets and the interests that connected them, study what made George Batailleone one of the most provocative and controversial writers of his time, and explore the question: "How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash?" with a witty and tender novel. Then, regard our culture's need for excess and consumption not with guilt but with grace and empathy, take a closer look at Evangelical Christians and why they are perhaps the most polarizing--and least understood--people living in America today, and enjoy a thrilling and eccentric novel about what it means to make art as a woman, and about the powerful forces of voyeurism, power, obsession, and online performance. Find these titles and more at...
On this week’s Front Table, consider a passionate case for the importance of the liberal arts at all levels of education. Study what drove Vladimir Putin to launch Europe's largest land war since World War II, and contemplate a tale about the end of the world, as told by the clear-eyed youth to which that world had been promised. Then, dive into a magisterial cultural history of the Atlantic Ocean before Columbus, and review a dazzling exploration of our wish to remain innocent and ignorant--and its consequences. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com.
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On this week’s Front Table, dive into the poetic clash of heritage and myth in Jamaica, explore the urgent fight to save endangered bears worldwide, and immerse yourself in the raw energy of 1970s Tokyo’s underground club scene. Then, uncover the complex journey of a Palestinian born in 1948 Israel, experience a genre-defying work that blends mysticism and Black poetics, and explore the resilience of revolutionary regimes. Finally, explore the misunderstood choices of artistic women who left their children through historical, literary, and contemporary lenses. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com.
On this week’s Front Table, appreciate the world's most familiar bird, follow the threads of ancient human civilization, and then deep dive into the last great rock band of the millennium. Meditate on our contemporary era, as a solitary female narrator asks what it means to be alive at this complex moment in history, and enjoy a heartwarming tale of visitors who wish to go back into their past to move on their present, finding closure and comfort so they can embark on a beautiful future. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com.
On this week’s Front Table, follow the threads of our human story with the natural world and the complex human stories behind artistic brilliance. Age to age, empire to empire, read about the endurance of government systems shaped through violence — and the furious healing work those who survive that violence take up. From poetry at the origins of this nation to a riotously colorful unspooling of the mind — find these titles and more at semcoop.com.
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Haunted by insomnia and the past as he approaches his fiftieth birthday, the narrator of My Dead...
