Front Table

December 9th, 2024

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...

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December 2nd, 2024

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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November 25th, 2024

On this week’s Front Table, dive into Ray Bradbury’s personal letters, explore a moving story of love, loyalty, and family, and experience a deep look at the 2015 Paris attacks trial. Then, discover Sylvia Plath’s revolutionary work through a new feminist lens, and examine the social impact of the rejection of the poor, coined aporophobia. Finally, uncover a gripping novel about obsession and identity, and explore the life and art of Joe Brainard through his personal letters. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com. Find these titles and more at ...
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November 18th, 2024

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


Far District: Poems
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November 11th, 2024

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


What the Chicken...

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November 4th, 2024

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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October 27th, 2024
On this week’s Front Table, consider a world of obsession and betrayal. Examine stories of adventurers from every corner of the globe in search for the unknown, then wrangle a chaotic news feed into a coherent story that singles out what we should pay attention to. Explore poetry that is full of tenderness and violence, longing and love, followed by the art and science of keeping and revealing secrets. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com
My Dead Book
(Semiotext(e))
Nate Lippens

Haunted by insomnia and the past as he approaches his fiftieth birthday, the narrator of My Dead...

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October 20th, 2024

On this week’s Front Table, consider the turkey – and alternative ways of honoring the bird this season. Follow that with a discovery of the political alchemy behind 230 years of development in American foreign policy and the motley crew of thinkers, movers, and shakers behind the Oxford English Dictionary. Come back to Camus with the Eris Press print of his classic and timely analysis of modernity in postwar Europe. From poetry that tenderly uproots intergenerational trauma and loss to reviving neglected interpretations of women in iconography to the viscerally alive and preserved short stories from a groundbreaking modernist, find these titles and more at semcoop.com
Historical Gloss and Foreign...
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October 13th, 2024

On This Week's Front Table, examine how the arts and sciences have always danced together; then explore reflections on the absurdities and abjection of being a poet who is also an office worker. Deepen how you think about the legacies of war, the presence of the past, and the renewed promise of art for our lives today; and consider John Lewis, a man whose heroism during the Civil Rights movement helped to bring America a new birth of freedom. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com.


John Lewis: A Life
(...

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October 6th, 2024

On This Week's Front Table, examine a new collection that unforgettably describes a spiritual and physical journey; then critique the nature of knowledge and judgment. Consider what it means to truly express oneself through art; and then explore how one of America's most powerful and misunderstood electorates may come to define the future of American politics. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com.



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