Signed Books

Signed by Joel Kotkin
(Penguin Press, $25.95)
Hardcover - February 2010
First Editions, first printings.

From the author of The City: A Global History and The New Geography, this look at America in 2050 foresees a population greater by 100 million people, living mostly in suburban areas rather than in cities like New York and Chicago. With technology enabling more people to work from home, families and local communities will define the social fabric.

Thanks to our friends at Tattered Cover in Denver, Colorado for supplying us with these books.

signed by Joe Sacco
(Metropolitan Books, $29.95)
Hardcover - December 2009
First editions, first printings

Joe Sacco finally returns to the subject of his previous book, Palestine, with FOOTNOTES IN GAZA, a tome of investigative journalism and history. The book is concerned with the killing of 111 Palestinians in Rafah and Khan Younis in 1956, an incident slowly and painfully unraveled through a series of interviews and framed stories. Sacco has an unflinching eye for detail and exactness as he illustrates the story. Never ignorant of the ongoing violence in the region, Footnotes in Gaza explores the many differing and often contradictory accounts of a nearly forgotten incident, all the while offering an informative exploration of contemporary Palestine.    

This signing took place in New York. A big thank you to our friends at McNally Jackson Books for their generosity and hospitality.

- Adam Waterreus

HALF BROKE HORSES by Jeannette Walls
(Scribner, $26)
October 2009 - Hardcover
First editions, not first printings.

As she did in her memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls spins family dysfunction into a riveting, triumphant tale. Walls writes Half Broke Horses, a “true-life novel,” in the voice of her spirited, defiant grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. Lily grew up in the Depression’s grueling rural poverty, moving from a Texas dugout to a failing New Mexico ranch. She was forced to leave school when her father spent her tuition money on a pack of great Danes, but she still became a teacher, a rancher, and a pilot. Think Little House on the Prairie, with a bit more grit and a lot more sass. - Elizabeth Sher

Jeannette Walls was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up in the southwest and Welch, West Virginia. She graduated from Barnard College and was a journalist in New York City for twenty years. Her memoir, The Glass Castle, a triumphant account of overcoming a difficult childhood with her dysfunctional but vibrant family, has been a New York Times bestseller for over three years. A publishing sensation around the world, The Glass Castle has sold more than 2.5 million copies in the U.S. and has been translated into twenty-two languages. Walls is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Christopher Award for helping to "affirm the highest values of the human spirit,? as well as the American Library Association's Alex Award, and the Books for Better Living Award. The Glass Castle was chosen as Elle magazine's book of the year. Walls lives in rural Virginia with her husband, the writer John Taylor.

First Editions, first printings.
(Knopf, $27.95)
Hardcover, October 2009

Generally regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in history, Sugar Ray Robinson came of age as a man and a boxer in the ’40s and ’50s.  He’s best known for the six legendary brawls he fought with Jake Lamotta, but his cultural significance extends beyond athletics. His story is also the story of post-war Harlem featuring the likes of Lena Horne, Langston Hughes, and Miles Davis.  At the height of his career, Robinson owned a Harlem night club that was frequently the hottest spot in town.  Wil Haygood, who writes for the Washington Post, brings not only the inimitable Robinson to life in Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson (Knopf, $27.95), but also fixes him within the electric milieu that is Harlem.  After penning bios of Adam Clayton Powell and Sammy Davis, Jr., Haygood rounds out his picture of African-American icons of the mid-twentieth century with this life of Sugar Ray. - Mark LaFramboise

signed by Vincent Bzdek
Palgrave Macmillan, 04/28/2009
First editions, first or second printing.