No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you're not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren't found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of Sao Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe. Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.

From acclaimed author Makiia Lucier, a dazzling, romantic fantasy inspired by Pacific Island mythology. In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person’s greatest sorrow. An unwanted marriage, a painful illness, and unpaid debt ... gone. But as with all things that promise the moon and the stars and offer hope when hope has gone, the tale comes with a warning. Every wish demands a price. Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that follow, Hanalei finds solace in studying the majestic seadragons that roam the Nominomi Sea. Until, one day, an encounter with a female dragon offers her what she desires most. A chance to return home, and to right a terrible wrong. Samahtitamahenele, Sam, is the last remaining prince of Tamarind. But he can never inherit the throne, for Tamarind is a matriarchal society. With his mother ill and his grandmother nearing the end of her reign. Sam is left with two to marry, or to find a cure for the sickness that has plagued his mother for ten long years. When a childhood companion returns from exile, she brings with her something he has not felt in a very long time - hope. But Hanalei and Sam are not the only ones searching for the dragonfruit. And as they battle enemies both near and far, there is another danger they cannot escape…that of the dragonfruit itself.  

In the beloved tradition of Howl’s Moving Castle, a whimsical and unforgettable story of fantastic adventure, common sense, and the power of love to overcome the greatest of obstacles . . . Before Foss Butcher was Snagged, she thought no more of the magic-users than did anyone else in her tiny village. Sometimes gorgeous women in impossible carriages rolled into town and took bits of people’s hearts. Everyone knew hearts fueled their magic. But Foss, plain, clumsy, and practical as a boot, never expected anyone would want hers. True enough, when the only sorcerer in the kingdom stepped from his glossy carriage, he didn’t intend to hook Foss. Sylvester’s riot of black curls and perfectly etched cheekbones caught her eye a moment too long, that was all. Suddenly, Foss is cursed and finds herself stomping toward the grand City to keep his enchanted House, where her only friend is a talking cat and the walls themselves have moods. But as Foss learns the ways of magic, she realizes she’s far from its only unwilling captive. Even Sylvester is hemmed in by spells and threats. It’s said this sorcery protects king, country, and order for thousands. If Foss wants to free herself—and, perhaps, Sylvester—she’ll have to confront it all . . . and uncover the blight nestled in the heart of the kingdom itself.

Ursula K. Le Guin’s magnificent work of imagination, a visionary, genre-crossing story about a future utopian community on the Northern California coast. A masterly, hypnotic and her most consistently lyric and luminous book. This new edition includes an introduction by Shruti Swamy, author of A House is a Body. Midway through her career, Ursula K. Le Guin embarked on one of her most detailed, impressive literary projects, a novel that took more than five years to complete. Blending story and fable, poetry, artwork, and song, Always Coming Home is this legendary writer’s fictional ethnography of the Kesh, a people of the far future living in a post-apocalyptic Napa Valley. Having survived ecological catastrophe brought on by relentless industrialization, the Kesh are a peaceful people who reject governance and the constriction of genders, limit population growth to prevent overcrowding and preserve resources, and maintain a healthy community in which everyone works to contribute to its well-being. This richly imagined story unfolds through a series of narrated “translations” that illuminate individual lives, including a woman named Stone Telling, who travels beyond the Valley and comes to reside with another tribe, the patriarchal Condor people. With sharp poignancy, Le Guin explores the complexities of the Kesh’s unified society and presents to us—in exquisite detail—their lives, histories, adventures, customs, language, and art.  In addition to poems and folk tales, Le Guin created verse dramas, records of oral performances, recipes, and even an alphabet and glossary of the Kesh language. The novel is illustrated throughout with drawings by artist Margaret Chodos and includes a musical component—original recordings of Kesh songs that Le Guin collaborated on with composer Todd Barton—bringing this utterly original and compelling world to life.

Poruszająca opowieść z pogranicza folk horroru i kryminału. Dziennikarka trafia do zapadłej mieściny, gdzie poznaje mroczny sekret skrywany przez kobiety od pokoleń Carolyn Marshall wciąż próbuje poskładać swoje życie po śmierci męża. Gdy zostaje uwikłana w tragiczny wypadek, jej szef wysyła ją do prowincjonalnego miasteczka Raeford, by zweryfikowała absurdalną pogłoskę: ponoć klacz urodziła zdrowego ludzkiego chłopca. Na miejscu Carolyn zderza się z hermetyczną społecznością, która lepiej traktuje konie — słynie zresztą z ich hodowli — niż ludzi. A kiedy wśród okolicznych pól zostają odnalezione dwa potwornie okaleczone ciała — końskie i ludzkie — staje się dla niej jasne, że za badaną pogłoską kryje się coś więcej. Gdy Carolyn coraz głębiej wnika w życie miasteczka i jego zamkniętych w sobie mieszkańców, zaczyna się jej wydawać, że traci kontakt z rzeczywistością. A może ta nieprawdopodobna historia jest kluczem do mrocznej tajemnicy, która od pokoleń prześladuje kobiety z Raeford? Niematki to niepokojąca i trzymająca w napięciu do ostatniej strony duszna opowieść o kobiecej wściekłości, cielesności i dziedzicznej traumie.

Universal basic income. A 15-hour workweek. Open borders. Does it sound too good to be true? One of Europe's leading young thinkers shows how we can build an ideal world today. After working all day at jobs we often dislike, we buy things we don't need. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian, reminds us it needn't be this way—and in some places it isn't. Rutger Bregman's TED Talk about universal basic income seemed impossibly radical when he delivered it in 2014. A quarter of a million views later, the subject of that video is being seriously considered by leading economists and government leaders the world over. It's just one of the many utopian ideas that Bregman proves is possible today. Utopia for Realists is one of those rare books that takes you by surprise and challenges what you think can happen. From a Canadian city that once completely eradicated poverty, to Richard Nixon's near implementation of a basic income for millions of Americans, Bregman takes us on a journey through history, and beyond the traditional left-right divides, as he champions ideas whose time have come. Every progressive milestone of civilization—from the end of slavery to the beginning of democracy—was once considered a utopian fantasy. Bregman's book, both challenging and bracing, demonstrates that new utopian ideas, like the elimination of poverty and the creation of the fifteen-hour workweek, can become a reality in our lifetime. Being unrealistic and unreasonable can in fact make the impossible inevitable, and it is the only way to build the ideal world.

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other "Bunny," and seem to move and speak as one. But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled "Smut Salon," and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus "Workshop" where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision. The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.

‘For a very long time, the days went by, each just like the day before, then I began to think, and everything changed’ Deep underground, thirty-nine women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only vague recollection of their lives before. As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl - the fortieth prisoner - sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground. Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman’s modern classic is an important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.

Jedna z najbardziej radykalnych, a zarazem najdoskonalszych książek Clarice Lispector. W 1988 roku włączona do wydawanej pod patronatem UNESCO serii „Arquivos Collection”, w której ukazują się najwybitniejsze dzieła literatury latynoamerykańskiej. Mieszkanka luksusowego apartamentu w Rio de Janeiro postanawia posprzątać pokój opuszczony przez czarną służącą, która zwolniła się z pracy. Gdy przekracza próg pomieszczenia, uświadamia sobie, że toczące się w nim do niedawna życie w niczym nie przypominało jej własnego. Rozgląda się wokół i dostrzega na ścianie karykaturalny rysunek. Domyśla się, że to wiadomość zostawiona dla niej przez służącą. I że dziewczyna, której imię i twarz przypomina sobie z największym trudem, nienawidziła jej. A potem otwiera szafę i zamiera z przerażenia – w jej stronę sunie powoli odpychający owad. Karaluch ucieleśniający wszystko, czego bohaterka nie chce i czego się boi. Pasja według G.H. to opowieść „o spotkaniu z radykalną innością – pisze w posłowiu do książki Wojciech Sawala. – Chodzi tu zarówno o Innego, którego na co dzień nie widzimy, a którego kosztem żyjemy, jak i o Innego, którym sami w istocie jesteśmy, choć paradoksalnie, by stać się ludźmi, musimy tej własnej wewnętrznej inności się wyprzeć”. Fascynująca podróż do granic literatury, języka i tego, co w naszym codziennym doświadczeniu – tym społecznym i tym ogólnoludzkim –uznajemy za oczywiste i niepodlegające dyskusji.

Osiemdziesięciopięcioletnia Vivian Gornick ma w Ameryce status literackiej gwiazdy. Sławę przyniosły jej właśnie Przywiązania, które wydała w 1987 roku. Można powiedzieć, że była prekursorką stylu, który wówczas określano mianem „dziennikarstwa osobistego” (personal journalism) – pisarstwa, w którym autobiografia staje się punktem wyjścia do poszukiwania uniwersalnego znaczenia zjawisk i zdarzeń, a to, co prywatne, ujmowane jest jako kulturowe i polityczne. W "Przywiązaniach" Gornick opisuje doświadczenie bycia podwójną outsiderką – kobietą i Żydówką, w dodatku pochodzącą z klasy robotniczej. Stawia pytanie o to, kim jest i kim może być w naszej kulturze kobieta, gdy nie definiuje się w relacji do mężczyzn – jako żona, wdowa, rozwódka, kochanka.

Myung and Laleh are keepers of the whale of babel. They roam within its cosmic chambers, speak folktales of themselves, and pray to an enigmatic figure they know only as 'Great Wisa'. To Laleh, this is everything. For Myung, it is not enough. When Myung flees the whale, she stumbles into a new universe where shapeshifting islands and ancient maps hold sway. There, she sets off on an adventure that is both tragic and transformative, for her and Laleh. For at the heart of her quest lies a mystery that has confounded scholars for centuries: the truth about the mad sisters of Esi. Fables, dreams and myths come together in this masterful work of fantasy by acclaimed author Tashan Mehta, sweeping across three landscapes, and featuring a museum of collective memory and a festival of madness. At its core, it asks: In the devastating chaos of this world, where all is in flux and the truth ever-changing, what will you choose to hold on to?