Modern Cities

It’s officially booty o’clock, I’m alone again in my kitchen choking down a slice of terrible chocolate cake…and I’m pretty sure I just got drunk texted by the man I have a ginormous crush on. I’ve been daydreaming about Eliot Hoffman’s dimples for two months, and even though I’m sure this was a mistake on his end, it doesn’t mean it’s not an opportunity on mine. It’s the middle of the night, and I just wanna talk to him. So I text him back.

A New York Times Notable Book Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age. At the age of sixteen, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the...

THIS EDITION of "A Tale of Two Cities" preserves Charles Dickens's powerful and dramatic original story while thoughtfully adapting the text for today's readers. Carefully crafted annotations clarify old-fashioned language, historical references, and challenging vocabulary, making the novel accessible and enjoyable for contemporary audiences. Perfect for leisure reading, book clubs, classroom study, or family discussions, this adaptation ensures that readers of all ages can fully appreciate Dickens's timeless masterpiece. Set against the turbulent backdrop of the French Revolution, "A Tale ...

In 1965, Singapore's GDP per capita was on a par with Jordan. Now it has outstripped Japan. After the Second World War and a sudden rupture with newly formed Malaysia, Singapore found itself independent—and facing a crisis. It took the bloody-minded determination and vision of Lee Kuan Yew, its founding premier, to take a small island of diverse ethnic groups with a fragile economy and hostile neighbors and meld it into Asia's first globalized city.

Viennese ideas saturate the modern world. From California architecture to Hollywood Westerns, modern advertising to shopping malls, orgasms to gender confirmation surgery, nuclear fission to fitted kitchens—every aspect of our history, science, and culture is in some way shaped by Vienna. Richard Cockett gives us the entirety of an extraordinary story of how one city made the modern world—and how we all remain inescapably Viennese.

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE A sweeping chronicle of four tumultuous years in 1980s New York that changed the city forever—and anticipated the forces that would soon divide the nation—from the bestselling author of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning “A...

THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE THE NEW YORK TIMES 'SIZZLING NEW SUMMER THRILLER' PICK TIME MAGAZINE'S BEST NEW BOOKS TO READ THIS SUMMER A BELLETRIST BOOK PICK TOWN & COUNTRY'S BOOK CLUB PICK "A New York cool girl novel (in the vein of Emma Cline)…a delicious escape and a...

Paul Auster's signature work, The New York Trilogy, consists of three interlocking novels: City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room - haunting and mysterious tales that move at the breathless pace of a thriller.

A top historian offers a new history of Paris’s Belle Époque, the luminous age of the Eiffel Tower and the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, but also of social unrest and violent clashes over what it meant to be French From the wrought ironwork of the Eiffel Tower to the flourishing art nouveau movement...

Traditionally known as a dirty, congested, and dangerous city, 19th Century Paris was transformed in an extraordinary period from 1848 to 1870, when the government launched a huge campaign to build streets, squares, parks, churches, and public buildings. The Louvre Palace was expanded, Notre-Dame Cathedral was restored and the French masterpiece of the Second Empire, the Opra Garnier, was built.

Bloomsbury presents How Paris Became Paris by Joan DeJean, read by Patricia Rodriguez "This lively history charts the growth of Paris from a city of crowded alleyways and irregular buildings into a modern marvel."--New Yorker At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Paris was known for...

Two political titans forge a modern city and a vibrant public sector in this history of strong leadership at a time of national crisis. City of Ambition is a brilliant history of the New Deal and its role in the making of modern New York City. The story of a remarkable collaboration between Franklin Roosevelt and Fiorello La Guardia, this is a case study in creative political leadership in the midst of a devastating depression.

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Empire Falls, this slyly funny, moving novel about a blue-collar town in upstate New York—and about Sully, one of its unluckiest citizens, who has been doing the wrong thing triumphantly for fifty years—is a classic American story. "Remarkable...

SOME SECRETS EVEN MONEY CAN'T BURY When Palm Springs millionaire Barney Lochner is found dead in his mansion—and his trophy wife's lover is shot to death at a Salton Sea mini-mart—private investigator Dana Forsythe is pulled into a tangle of greed, lust, and betrayal worthy of the valley's most exclusive midcentury modern zip codes. Dana's client is Jamie Lochner, the trophy wife in question. She swears she's innocent, but the evidence says otherwise: her missing gun, her lover's body, her fingerprints on the life she tried to escape. Hovering over it all is Barney's daughter Nielle, a ...

Xanthe meets Brackston's most famous heroine, Elizabeth Hawksmith from The Witch's Daughter, in this crossover story with all the "historical detail, village charm, and twisty plotting" of the Found Things series (Publishers Weekly). City of Time and Magic sees Xanthe face her greatest...

"Bringing a self-assured, intelligent manner to this dark mixture of urban fantasy, romance, Russian folklore, and Shakespearean storytelling, narrator Ferdelle Capistrano has a fine time giving voice to the seven beautiful but cunning Antonova sisters and the three equally cunning Fedorov...

Do You Love A Witty Romance and Bridesmaids In Pink? Get a front row seat for all the behind the scenes drama this catty group of bridesmaids has to dish up! Kate Michaels is a down-on-her-luck bridesmaid waiting for her life to finally take a turn in the right direction. This country girl trying to make it in the city of Portland, Oregon covers up her shambled life with a web of lies. Her raging credit card debt, unemployed status, and deadbeat ex-boyfriend/tenant become minor league problems when she is cast in her friend Mary’s wedding. In the days leading up to the nuptials, Kate ends...

This program includes a bonus conversation with the author. Nat Cassidy is at his razor-sharp best again with his horror novel Nestlings, which harnesses the creeping paranoia of Rosemary's Baby and the urban horror of Salem's Lot, set in an exclusive New York City residential building. “This...

New York Times bestselling author Richard Kadrey and Cassandra Khaw have teamed up to deliver a new dark story where Neil Gaiman meets Jessica Jones with magic, monsters, and mayhem. Julie Crews is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-something who packs a lot of magic into her small body. She’s...

When 1919 began, the city of Chicago seemed on the verge of transformation. Modernizers had an audacious, expensive plan to turn the city from a brawling, unglamorous place into “the Metropolis of the World.” But just as the dream seemed within reach, pandemonium broke loose and the city’s...