Praise from Elizabeth Taylor, the Chicago Tribune's Literary Editor
Famed naturalist and writer John Muir (a founder of the Sierra Club) once observed that if it ever came down to a war between the races, he would side with the bears. That remark inspired the title of this compelling collection of short fiction concerned with climate change.
This collection is a jolt out of our armchairs, a call to arms, because scientific evidence has its limitations. The all-star array of fiction writers who have contributed to this book helps us feel what it would be like to live in a very different landscape. T.C. Boyle's disturbing story involves early eco-activists; David Mitchell imagines a world dramatically changed by oil prices; Nathaniel Rich has a darkly comic story about a crab and a marine biologist.
Together, these stories inspire both fear and hope about our environmental future. Of course, the other reason this little volume is so terrific is that the stories are written with verve and style. Feel good about the purchase: Royalties go to 350.org, a group working to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class was chosen as one of the ten “best nonfiction books of 2011” by Dwight Garner in the New York Times
"The noun chav, in Britain, essentially means 'ugly prole': loutish, tacky, probably drunken and possibly violent. Think Snooki with a cockney accent. Mr. Jones’s book is a cleareyed examination of the British class system, and it poses this brutal question: 'How has hatred of working-class people become so socially acceptable?' His timely answers combine wit, left-wing politics and outrage."
Visit the New York Times to read the article in full.
The book was also included on Matthew Higgs’ “Best of 2011” list in Artforum (December 2011, print version)
"Seen in the light of the riots and the worldwide Occupy protests, his lucid analysis of a divided society appears uncannily prescient."
On Friday, October 28, the Langston Room in Busboys and Poets was filled to capacity for an event featuring Juan González, Joe Torres, and Amy Goodman. WPFW, Free Press, Democracy Now!, Busboys and Poets, and Teaching for Change hosted the event which featured an interview with the authors by Amy Goodman and a book signing.
View photos from the event here.
Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America editors Keith Gessen, co-founder of n+1, Sarah Leonard, an editor at Dissent and The New Inquiry, Kathleen Ross, business manager of n+1, and Eli Schmitt, an editor of the Occupy! Gazette, were arrested while protesting in downtown Manhattan the morning of November 17, 2011.
Kathleen, Sarah, and Eli were released later that day and and returned to join the gathering at Foley Square that evening. Each was given two counts of disorderly conduct.
Keith was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct, plus an additional charge of disrupting government administration, a misdemeanor. The reason is unclear. It could be because he declined to stand and walk to the paddywagon, and allowed police to carry him there.
Keith was released, along with the last of the OWS detainees, late the following night. The reason given for his being detained for over 36 hours was that the arresting officer forgot to sign his statement.
ABC News ran footage of Keith's arrest and the statement he gave while in handcuffs:
"Our political system is broken, our politicians get to Washington and don't do what we ask them to do and it seems like they don't listen to our votes. We don't have the money or resources and we have to come out to the street."
Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America features the editors and writers of the celebrated n+1 magazine, as well as some of the world’s leading radical thinkers, such as Slavoj Žižek, Angela Davis, and Rebecca Solnit.