The State of Jones
by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer
(Doubleday)
Hardcover, 416 pages, $27.50
Released: 23 June 2009 (US)

“The State of Jones is a true story about the South during the Civil War—the real South. Not the South that has been mythologized in novels and movies, but an authentic, hardscrabble place where poor men were forced to fight a rich man’s war for slavery and cotton. In Jones County, Mississippi, a farmer named Newton Knight led his neighbors, white and black alike, in an insurrection against the Confederacy at the height of the Civil War. Knight’s life story mirrors the little-known story of class struggle in the South—and it shatters the image of the Confederacy as a unified front against the Union.”—Doubleday

The State of Jones
Chapter One [PDF]

Last Night in Montreal
by Emily St. John Mandel
(Unbridled Books)
Released: 2 June 2009 (US)

LAST NIGHT IN MONTREAL follows the intersecting lives of four people: Lilia, a twenty-something who mysteriously disappeared during childhood; Eli, who tries to hold on to her and then tries to let her go; Christopher, the private detective who remains obsessed with Lilia’s case; and Michaela, the detective’s daughter, who is as rootless as Lilia—and who knows the answers Lilia seeks. A beautifully written, almost poetic tale of loss and love, of sacrifice and abandonment, and of finding a way home, this novel is an hypnotic read, one that casts a spell.

Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Atlantic correspondent and journalism professor Ellen Ruppel Shell is an engaging and compelling look at the ramifications of American’s desires for endless bargains. The book comes out in July and is an essential read for anyone interested in getting another perspective on both the current economic crisis and how drastically Americans’ lives have been altered over the last 50 years.

Today is the birthday of Allen Ginsberg, celebrated beat poet and social activist who died in 1997. Here’s a video of him giving a reading at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. We miss you Allen.