A collection of poems by the author of Turning Japanese, exploring race and sexuality, history and identity, through the lens of desire.

“You’ll finish [Greenfield’s] book with new respect for color, especially for red. With A Perfect Red, she does for it what Mark Kurlansky in Salt did for that common commodity.”—Houston Chronicle Interweaving mystery, empire, and adventure, Amy Butler Greenfield’s masterful popular history offers a window onto a world far different from our own: a world in which the color red was rare and precious—a source of wealth and power for those who could unlock its secrets. And in this world nothing was more prized than cochineal, a red dye that produced the brightest, strongest red the Old World had ever seen. A Perfect Red recounts the story of this legendary red dye, from its cultivation by the ancient Mexicans and discovery by 16th-century Spanish conquistadors to the European pirates, explorers, alchemists, scientists, and spies who joined in the chase to unlock its secrets, a chase that lasted more than three centuries. It evokes with style and verve this history of a grand obsession, of intrigue, empire, and adventure in pursuit of the most desirable color on earth.

“An intriguing amalgam of personal memoir, philosophical speculation, natural lore, cultural history, and art criticism.” —Los Angeles Times From the award-winning author of Orwell's Roses, a stimulating exploration of wandering, being lost, and the uses of the unknown Written as a series of autobiographical essays, A Field Guide to Getting Lost draws on emblematic moments and relationships in Rebecca Solnit's life to explore issues of uncertainty, trust, loss, memory, desire, and place. Solnit is interested in the stories we use to navigate our way through the world, and the places we traverse, from wilderness to cities, in finding ourselves, or losing ourselves. While deeply personal, her own stories link up to larger stories, from captivity narratives of early Americans to the use of the color blue in Renaissance painting, not to mention encounters with tortoises, monks, punk rockers, mountains, deserts, and the movie Vertigo. The result is a distinctive, stimulating voyage of discovery.

A lucid account of the history of Jainism The early Jainas were clever communicators. From sensuous poetry to voluptuous sculptures, tales that were both explicit and explorative, and even games, they employed a range of innovative techniques to explain and transmit their teachings. Sudhamahi Regunathan, a former vice-chancellor of the Jain Vishva Bharati University, takes a leaf out of their book as she writes this introduction to Jainism. Using an array of stories and myths, she starts with a historical account of the first twenty-three Tirthankaras as narrated in the Jaina texts and goes on to delve into the philosophy of the religion. The discussions on the tenets that form the bedrock of Jainism are illuminating -- be it anekanta, the belief in the multi-dimensionality of truth; santhara, the controversial practice of voluntarily embracing death; or the interplay between desire and restraint, which is at the heart of Jainism's simple way of life. Regunathan also highlights the contribution of the Jainas to building a common Indian ethos, and throws light on Jainism's many distinctions. It is a little known fact, for instance, that the first nun was initiated into the Jaina order long before the start of the Christian era. Scholarly yet accessible, The Colours of Desire on the Canvas of Restraint hopes to upturn the popular notion that Jainism is a 'dry' religion as it takes its readers into an austere yet colourful world.

WHAT SHE CAN’T SEE COULD KILL HER... Natalie Jones is the lucky survivor of an elusive killer who preys on young women and then disappears from view. And since her harrowing ordeal, the once gutsy photojournalist has remained isolated in her home, paralyzed by fear and her failing vision. Special Agent Liam “Mac” McKenzie has scars of his own. But despite his efforts to ignore the attraction that simmers between him and Natalie, he needs her help to catch a predator. Soon, they will forge a tentative alliance—one charged with desire. Through a soft-focus lens, Natalie dares to envision a future with Mac beyond the investigation…never guessing that the clues hidden within her photographs are drawing them into an explosive confrontation with a madman.

Jeremy Collins is the most tempting man Jasmine Smith has ever met. He's smart, handsome, a successful freelance journalist, and, most of all, passionate and honest about his feelings for her. But, the problem is that he's white...

The transformative new book from “one of the most important American poets at work today” (Dunya Mikhail) I am content because before me looms the hope of love. I do not have it; I do not yet have it. It is a bird strong enough to lead me by the rope it bites; unless I pull, it is strong enough for me. I do worry the end of my days might come and I will not yet have it. But even then I will be brave upon my deathbed, and why shouldn’t I be? I held things here, and I felt them. —From “Psalm 40” The poems in Katie Ford’s fourth collection implore their audience—the divine and the human—for attention, for revelation, and, perhaps above all, for companionship. The extraordinary sequence at the heart of this book taps into the radical power of the sonnet form, bending it into a kind of metaphysical and psychological outcry. Beginning in the cramped space of selfhood—in the bedroom, cluttered with doubts, and in the throes of marital loss—these poems edge toward the clarity of “what I can know and admit to knowing.” In song and in silence, Ford inhabits the rooms of anguish and redemption with scouring exactness. This is poetry that “can break open, // it can break your life, it will break you // until you remain.” If You Have to Go is Ford’s most luminous and moving collection.