"The bestselling guide to the lives and deaths -- and final resting places -- of cultural icons has directed flocks of fervent fans and multitudes of the morbidly curious to the graves, monuments, memorials, and tombstones of the more than 500 celebrities and antiheroes included in the book. Every entry features an entertaining capsule biography full of little-known facts, a detailed description of the death, and step-by-step directions to the site...

In The Triumph of Christianity, Bart Ehrman, a master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, shows how a religion whose first believers were twenty or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire became the official religion of Rome, converting some thirty million people in just four centuries. The Triumph of Christianity combines deep knowledge and meticulous research in an eye-opening, immensely readable narrative that...

"At the time of his death, Italo Calvino was at work on six lectures setting forth the qualities in writing he most valued, and which he believed would define literature in the century to come. Here, in Six Memos for the Next Millennium, are the five lectures he completed, forming not only a stirring defense of literature, but also an indispensable guide to the writings of Calvino himself. He devotes one "memo" each to the concepts of lightness, quickness,...

A basic but enjoyable introduction to the study of the culture of the ancient Greeks and Romans, from the languages to literature, philosophy, art, and much more For those who didn't take Classics at school, or who have forgotten most of what they knew, this primer is a look back at classical civilization-how they lived, and how many aspects of our own daily lives have been directly influenced by theirs, from roads and concrete, to central heating,...

"Chris Hedges's powerful memoir of his year of teaching inmates in a maximum-security New Jersey prison takes readers into the lives of men who were all but destined to become incarcerated because of their impoverished and dangerous childhoods and shows why criminal justice reform is so essential"-- Since 2013, Hedges has taught courses in drama, literature, philosophy, and history in the college degree program offered by Rutgers University at East...

"A kaleidoscopic exploration that traverses history, literature, art, and science to reveal humans' unique and vibrant relationship with color. We have an extraordinary connection to color-we give it meanings, associations, and properties that last millennia and span cultures, continents, and languages. In The World According to Color, James Fox takes seven main colors-black, red, yellow, blue, white, purple, and green-and uncovers behind each a root...

"Mixing passion and humor, a personal work of literary criticism that demonstrates the power of our greatest books to illuminate our lives. Why do we read literature? For Arnold Weinstein, the answer is clear: literature allows us to become someone else. Literature changes us by giving us intimate access to an astonishing variety of other lives, experiences, and places across the ages. Reflecting on a lifetime of reading, teaching, and writing, The...

"What does it mean to devote yourself wholly to helping others? In Strangers Drowning, Larissa MacFarquhar seeks out people living lives of extreme ethical commitment and tells their deeply intimate stories; their stubborn integrity and their compromises; their bravery and their recklessness; their joys and defeats and wrenching dilemmas. A couple adopts two children in distress. But then they think: If they can change two lives, why not four? Or...