Stories on Rye collects more than 100 stories from the famed LA deli's patrons and employees, capturing their experiences and memories at Canter's since it first opened in 1931. Gina Canter's beautiful illustrations celebrate both the place and its patrons, as voices from the past join the present, to demonstrate that nostalgia can be very much alive. Like the Canter's booths that have welcomed movie stars and presidents alongside countless everyday people, the book contains a vast range of memories. Most significant, perhaps, is its connection to the Jewish heritage, such as the holocaust survivor who reunites with her family at Canter's after being separated for over 40 years. Hilarious, touching and perhaps a little magical, Stories on Rye are a testament to the human spirit, and to a restaurant that shares its legacy with each of its patrons.

The Catcher in the Rye," written by J.D. Salinger and published in 1951, is a classic American novel that explores the themes of adolescence, alienation, and identity through the eyes of its protagonist, Holden Caulfield. The novel is set in the 1950s and follows Holden, a 16-year-old who has just been expelled from his prep school, Pencey Prep. Disillusioned with the world around him, Holden decides to leave Pencey early and spend a few days alone in New York City before returning home. Over the course of these days, Holden interacts with various people, including old friends, a former teacher, and strangers, all the while grappling with his feelings of loneliness and dissatisfaction. Holden is deeply troubled by the "phoniness" of the adult world and is haunted by the death of his younger brother, Allie, which has left a lasting impact on him. He fantasizes about being "the catcher in the rye," a guardian who saves children from losing their innocence by catching them before they fall off a cliff into adulthooda. The novel ends with Holden in a mental institution, where he is being treated for a nervous breakdown. He expresses some hope for the future, indicating a possible path to recovery..

For much of the twentieth century, the New York Jewish deli rivaled-- and in some ways surpassed-- the synagogue as the primary gathering place for the Jewish community. The deli, argues Merwin, reached its full flowering not in the immigrant period but in the interwar era, when the children of Jewish immigrants celebrated the first flush of their success in America by downing sandwiches and cheesecake in theater district delis. But it was the kosher deli that followed Jews to the outer boroughs of the city, and became the most tangible symbol of their continuing desire to maintain a connection to their heritage.

“Wordsworth, Whitman, William Carlos Williams, and the Beats in their respective generations moved poetry toward a more natural language. Bukowski moved it a little farther.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review In what is widely hailed as the best of his many novels, Charles Bukowski details the long, lonely years of his own hardscrabble youth in the raw voice of alter ego Henry Chinaski. From a harrowingly cheerless childhood in Germany through acne-riddled high school years and his adolescent discoveries of alcohol, woman, and the Los Angeles Public Library's collection of D.H. Lawrence, Ham on Rye offers a crude, brutal, and savagely funny portrait of an outcast's coming-of-age during the desperate days of the Great Depression.

Heartbroken over the death of her fiance, Ragweed, Poppy, a deer mouse, journeys west through the vast Dimwood Forest to bring the sad news to Ragweed's family. But Poppy and her prickly porcupine pal, Ereth, arrive only to discover that beavers have flooded the serene valley where Ragweed lived. Together Poppy and Ragweed's brother Rye brave kidnapping, imprisonment, and a daring rescue to fight the beavers. At the same time, Rye -- who has lived in Ragweed's shadow -- fights to prove himself worthy of Poppy's love.

"The puzzling, frustrating world of Holden Caulfield never loosens its grip on our imagination. Somehow, the growing pains of a privileged, alienated teenager lock onto deeper issues that continue to haunt us all. The Catcher in the Rye and Philosophy exposes these deeper issues by looking at Salinger's masterpiece through a philosophic lens."--Publisher's website.

Introduction -- The land and its flavors -- Hardship and hunger -- Hospitality and excess -- Coda : post-Soviet Russia.