Recommended for Indies First: University Press Titles Suitable for Any Bookstore

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To give booksellers an idea of the wide range of titles published by university presses, Bookselling This Week presents a list of books from 17 of the more than 30 university presses offering specials for Indies First on Small Business Saturday.

This year, a record number of university presses are offering booksellers an array of specials on frontlist and backlist titles in celebration of Indies First on Small Business Saturday, November 25, and the Association of American University Presses’ University Press Week, November 6–11.

A list of university presses’ top picks from their lists — titles they think indie booksellers would have the most success with — is available as an Excel spreadsheet on BookWeb. In addition, a list of 100 title recommendations from ABA member booksellers whose stores sell numerous university press books is available as an Excel spreadsheet on the Indies First page on BookWeb.

Booksellers can view all the Indies First special offers and associated promotional codes available from trade publishers and university presses on a dedicated page in the ABA Book Buyer’s Handbook and in an Excel spreadsheet on the Indies First homepage on BookWeb. The special Indies First publisher offers are available during varying dates between September 15 and December 31. ABA will continue to update the Handbook and the Excel spreadsheet as additional publisher offers are confirmed. (Booksellers will need a username and password to access the lists; e-mail [email protected] for login details.)

In addition, Ingram will celebrate University Press Week by producing a series of videos based on this year’s theme, #LookItUP Knowledge Matters, which can be posted to social media, websites, and blogs to promote the event. Ingram is currently soliciting homemade videos from booksellers for use in the project on topics such as bookselling as a form of activism; entries, which will be accepted until Friday, October 6, will be cut and formatted to create a single, unique video montage that booksellers, libraries, and publishers can share. Video submissions can be sent to Ingram’s Christy Johnson via Dropbox. Instructions for submitting to the project can be found here.

Here is a list of 17 books published by university presses that have been recommended by publishers and booksellers. A second list of book choices will be published in an upcoming issue of Bookselling This Week.


CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Radicals in America: The U.S. Left Since the Second World War by Howard Brick and Christopher Phelps (9780521731331, PB, $25.95)
“Howard Brick and Christopher Phelps’ recent Radicals in America is dope as hell. When debates about the origins, validity, and potential of democratic socialism dominated mainstream discourse for those brief moments in 2016 (halcyon days...), this book helped me understand the historical significance of these ideas.” —Dan LoPreto, WORD Bookstores (Brooklyn, NY)

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

Left-Wing Melancholia: Marxism, History, and Memory (Revised) by Enzo Traverso (9780231179423, HC, $35)
“I can’t stop talking about Enzo Traverso’s recent Left-Wing Melancholia. Seriously. I think discussing how the Left can harness a utopian, yet traumatic, revolutionary past is absolutely necessary for our current political moment.” —Dan LoPreto, WORD Bookstores (Brooklyn, NY)

DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Revolution Has Come: Black Power, Gender, and the Black Panther Party in Oakland by Robyn C. Spencer (9780822362869, PB, $24.95)
“A step back and away from a lot of the iconic macho posturing, Spencer focuses on the experience of women in the Black Panther Party. Not simply an Oakland story, but about power dynamics and working against and through them.” —Brad Johnson, East Bay Booksellers (Oakland, CA)

FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS

All Ears: The Aesthetics of Espionage by Peter Szendy, translated by Roland Vegso (9780823273966, PB, $25)
All Ears: The Aesthetics of Espionage traces the long history of moles from the Bible, through Jeremy Benthan’s ‘panacoustic’ project, all the way to the intelligence-gathering network called ‘Echelon.’ Together with this archiology of auditory surveillance, Szendy offers an engaging account of spycraft’s representations in literature (Sophocles, Shakespeare, Joyce, Kafka, Borges), opera (Monteverdi, Mozart, Berg), and film (Lang, Hitchcock, Coppola, De Palma).” —Recommended by the booksellers of the Seminary Co-Op (Chicago, IL), description provided by the publisher

GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Gallaudet Children’s Dictionary of American Sign Language by the editors of Gallaudet University Press (9781563686313, HC w/ DVD, $39.95)
“Featuring over 1,000 American Sign Language sign drawings and their English equivalents, plus charming color illustrations for each sign, this dictionary is the most comprehensive ASL reference volume available for children. The accompanying DVD displays native ASL signers demonstrating how to form each sign.” —From the publisher

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Vice of Luxury: Economic Excess in a Consumer Age by David Cloutier (9781626162563, PB, $32.95)
“Engaging ideas from business, marketing, and economics, The Vice of Luxury takes on the challenging task of naming how much is too much in today’s consumer-oriented society…David Cloutier proposes a new approach to economic ethics that focuses attention on our everyday economic choices. He shows why luxury is a problem, explains how to identify what counts as the vice of luxury today, and develops an ethic of consumption that is grounded in Christian moral convictions.” —From the publisher

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Elizabeth Bishop at Work by Eleanor Cook (9780674660175, HC, $27.95)
“In this exacting work, Cook succeeds at the delicate task of showing us how Bishop crafts her densely detailed, precise, patterned worlds. Close readers of poetry, and not just Bishop fans, will learn an immense amount about the craft from Cook’s careful readings.” —Alena Jones, Seminary Co-Op (Chicago, IL)

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS

Living With Cancer by Vicki Jackson (9781421422336, PB, $22.95)
Living With Cancer is comprehensive, straightforward, and just plain wise. From the practical details of diagnosis and treatment to the deep meaning of hope, it offers answers to the questions that people facing cancer have and guidance for how to live — truly live — with this disease. If you have cancer, or love someone who does, read this.” —Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, author of Being Mortal

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

Nice Work If You Can Get It: Life and Labor in Precarious Times by Andrew Ross (9780814776919, PB, $25)
“Andrew Ross’s Nice Work If You Can Get It gave me a solid understanding of the precarious nature of labor in late capitalism years before the so-called gig economy became a major subject of discussion. Before you read the latest (terrifically boring) piece in The New Yorker about the ‘sharing economy,’ read this book.” —Dan LoPreto, WORD Bookstores (Brooklyn, NY)

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Everything Lost: The Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs, Rev. Ed by William S. Burroughs, edited by Geoffrey D. Smith, John M. Bennett, and Oliver Harris (9780814253830, PB, $19.95)
“In late summer 1953, as he returned to Mexico City after a seven-month expedition through the jungles of Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru, William Burroughs began a notebook of final reflections on his four years in Latin America…Out of these dark reflections we see emerge vivid fragments of Burroughs’ fiction and, even more tellingly, unique, primary evidence for the remarkable ways in which his early manuscripts evolved. Assembled in facsimile and transcribed by Geoffrey D. Smith, John M. Bennet, and Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris, the notebook forces us to change the way we see both Burroughs and his writing at a turning point in his literary biography.” —From the publisher

OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS/SWALLOW PRESS

Comic Shop: The Retail Mavericks Who Gave Us a New Geek Culture by Dan Gearino (9780804011907, HC, $26.95)
“Journalist Dan Gearino is the first to tell the story of how the modern comic shop evolved into the cultural icon it is today. He talks to dozens of industry insiders, from retail pioneers to creators, to give an insider’s tour of comic shops and how they have shaped popular culture over the past four decades. A guide to 40 of the most interesting shops across the U.S. and Canada rounds out the book.” —From the publisher

PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Henry James and American Painting by Colm Tóibín, Marc Simpson, and Declan Kiely (The Morgan Library & Museum, 9780271078526, HC, $40)
“Depicting characters like the eponymous young sculptor in Roderick Hudson and spaces like the crowded galleries in The Wings of the Dove, Henry James’s iconic novels reflect the significance of the visual culture of his society. In this book, novelist and critic Colm Tóibín joins art historian Marc Simpson and Declan Kiely of The Morgan Library & Museum to reveal how essential the language and imagery of the arts — and friendships with artists — were to James’ writing.” —From the publisher

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson (9780691170817, PB, $19.95)
“Ever wonder about those shipping containers when you’re crossing the MacArthur Causeway? A fascinating look at the box that changed the world.” —Chip Day, Books & Books (Miami Beach, FL)

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS

Blood on Their Hands: How Greedy Companies, Inept Bureaucracy, and Bad Science Killed Thousands of Hemophiliacs by Eric Weinberg & Donna Shaw (9780813576220, HC, $34.95)
“This book will make your blood boil at the inhumanity of people who knew they were killing patients by the thousands and kept right on, caring for themselves and their pocketbooks. Eric Weinberg and Donna Shaw tell a powerful human story that is hard to put down and will be even harder to forget.” —David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and bestselling author

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Complete Essays of Montaigne by Michel de Montaigne (9780804704861, PB, $39.95)
“The master of the essay is a joy to read. His self-awareness, curiosity, and empathy combine to establish a voice whose influence is ubiquitous in our culture, even if many of us haven’t (yet) read a word of these wonderful essays.” —Jeff Deutsch, Seminary Co-Op (Chicago, IL)

SUNY PRESS

The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote by Brooke Kroeger (9781438466309, PB, $24.95)
“The story of how and why a group of prominent and influential men in New York City and beyond came together to help women gain the right to vote. —From the publisher

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Ecstatic Confessions: The Heart of Mysticism by Martin Buber (9780815604228, PB, $19.95)
“Buber collects first-hand testimonials of religious experiences from across cultures, introducing the project with one of the clearest visions of the meaning and value of direct engagement with the divine.” —Jeff Deutsch, Seminary Co-Op (Chicago, IL)