Enigma of China: An Inspector Chen Novel - Qiu Xiaolong

The Enigma of China (Minotaur Books, $15.99) is that its business practices are called socialist, but are in reality capitalist, materialist, and driven by corrupt cronyism. In addition, as the Hirshhorn’s recent Ai Weiwei exhibit instructed us, metaphor is a crucial tool for art in a land where images and words are closely monitored and censored.  Qiu Xiaolong’s Inspector Chen Cao explores this theme, bringing a poet’s sensitivity to the art of detection when he must be extremely careful not to cross his superiors. This is all the more dangerous when the apparent suicide of a disgraced party leader may actually be murder.

Enigma of China: An Inspector Chen Novel (Inspector Chen Cao #8) By Qiu Xiaolong Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781250048578
Availability: Not On Our Shelves—Ships in 1-5 Days
(This book cannot be returned.)
Published: Minotaur Books - June 17th, 2014

The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards - Kristopher Jansma

Kristopher Jansma’s original and unusual novel, The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards (Penguin, $16), is akin to a journey through a hall of mirrors. On the surface, it’s the dazzling life-story of an aspiring writer. Entranced by his best friends—perpetually successful, witty, beautiful, and creatively modernist—the unnamed narrator turns their exploits into the foundations of his own stories. But does he unfairly idealize these unwitting muses? Is he plagiarizing not their work, but their lives? And if so, does this make his work fraudulent? From chapter to chapter, names and relationships change, until the reader can no longer discern what is “real” from what is imagined—which leaves only the truth that  appropriation is ultimately disastrous.

The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards: A Novel By Kristopher Jansma Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780143125020
Availability: Special Order—Subject to Availability
Published: Penguin Books - February 25th, 2014

I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined) - Chuck Klosterman

In his latest collection of essays, I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined) (Scribner, $16), the inimitable free-thinker Chuck Klosterman delivers an unconventional commentary on culturally relativist assumptions that define our lives. The book is about celebrity, adulation, abstraction, guilt, mockery, demonization, and how society’s worst impulses are safely played out in our villains (and heroes). His wide-ranging subjects include: NWA and Lars von Trier; O.J. Simpson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; Charles Bronson and Bernhard Goetz; and, of course, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse-tung – and David Bowie. Don’t take things for granted! Think about what you believe! Grapple with Mr. Klosterman’s intellect and see if your opinions hold up.

I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined) By Chuck Klosterman Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781439184509
Availability: Special Order—Subject to Availability
Published: Scribner - July 1st, 2014

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