Seven Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin by James Sullivan from Da Capo Press is $1.57 (US Kindle)
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Book Description
In Seven Dirty Words, journalist and cultural critic James Sullivan tells the story of Alternative America from the 1950s to the present, from the singular vantage point of George Carlin, the Catholic boy for whom nothing was sacred. A critical biography, Seven Dirty Words is an insightful (and, of course, hilarious) examination of Carlin’s body of work as it pertained to its cultural times and the man who created it, from his early days as amore-or-less conventional comedian to his stunning transformation into the subversive comedic voice of the emerging counterculture. Sullivan also chronicles Carlin’s struggles with censorship and drugs, as well as the full-blown renaissance he experienced in the 1990s, both personally and professionally, when he became an elder statesman to a younger generation of comics who revered him. Seven Dirty Words is nothing less than the definitive biography of an American master who changed the world, and also a work of cultural commentary which frames George Carlin’s extraordinary legacy.
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Siberian Education: Growing Up in a Criminal Underworld by Nicolai Lilin from W. W. Norton is $2.53 (US Kindle)
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Book Description
"Marvelous and Illuminating. . . . Forces us to reassess our notions of good and evil." —Irvine Welsh
In a contested, lawlessregion between Moldova and Ukraine known as Transnistria, a tightly knit groupof “honest criminals” live according to strict codes of ritualized respect andfierce loyalty. In a voice utterly compelling and unforgettable, Nicolai Lilin,born and raised within this exotic subculture, tells the story of his moraleducation outside the bounds of “society” as we know it, where men upholdvalues with passion—and often by brute force.
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The Air We Breathe: A Novel by Andrea Barrett from W. W. Norton is $2.90 (US Kindle)
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Book Description
"An evocative panorama of America...on the cusp of enormous change" (Newsday) by the National Book Award-winning author of Ship Fever.
In the fall of 1916, America prepares for war—but in the community of Tamarack Lake, the focus is on the sick. Wealthy tubercular patients live in private cure cottages; charity patients, mainly immigrants, fill the large public sanatorium. Prisoners of routine, they take solace in gossip, rumor, and—sometimes—secret attachments. But when the well-meaning efforts of one enterprising patient lead to a tragic accident and a terrible betrayal, the war comes home, bringing with it a surge of anti-immigrant prejudice and vigilante sentiment. Reading group guide included.
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