A Founding Father, a Victorian novelist and a Russian revolutionary walk into a…stop me if you’ve heard this one. Thomas Jefferson (yes that one), Charles Dickens (the very same) and Count Leo Tolstoy (who else?) are brought together in a blistering battle of wits. From Scott Carter (executive producer of Real Time with Bill Maher), this whip-smart comedy examines what happens when great men of history are forced to repeat it.

"Darkly hilarious...an unexpected bundle of joy." -O, The Oprah Magazine Alice Cohen was happy for the first time in years. After a difficult divorce, she had a new love in her life, she was rais­ing a beloved adopted daughter, and her career was blossoming. Then she started experiencing mysterious symptoms. After months of tests, x-rays, and inconclusive diagnoses, Alice underwent a CAT scan that revealed the truth: she was six months pregnant. At age forty-four, with no prenatal care and no insurance coverage for a high-risk pregnancy, Alice was besieged by opinions from doctors and friends about what was ethical, what was loving, what was right. With the intimacy of a diary and the suspense of a thriller, What I Thought I Knew is a ruefully funny, wickedly candid tale; a story of hope and renewal that turns all of the "knowns" upside down.

The Astor Orphan is an unflinching debut memoir by a direct descendant of John Jacob Astor, Alexandra Aldrich. She brilliantly tells the story of her eccentric, fractured family; her 1980s childhood of bohemian neglect in the squalid attic of Rokeby, the family’s Hudson Valley Mansion; and her brave escape from the clan. Aldrich reaches back to the Gilded Age when the Astor legacy began to come undone, leaving the Aldrich branch of the family penniless and squabbling over what was left. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs that bring this faded world into focus, The Astor Orphan is written with the grit of The Glass Castle and set amid the aristocratic decay of Grey Gardens.

A short biography of Charles Dickens by acclaimed actor and writer Simon Callow that offers a fresh perspective on one of the greatest novelists in the English language in a lively, highly readable account. "It has all the gusto that a popular biography of Dickens—a man who “could do nothing by halves”—should possess. . . . The best biography for Dickens newcomers and a wonderful read for all."—Library Journal Dickens was one of the first true celebrity authors. Thousands of fans in Britain and America eagerly awaited each new installment of his stories and flocked to see him on his legendary speaking tours. Not only did he create an incredible cast of characters on the page, but he was also a dazzling mimic and storyteller, and he wrote, stage-managed, and acted in plays for the public. Throughout his life, from his childhood performances in pubs to his legendarily powerful reading tours, Dickens was fanatical about the stage. Callow reveals Dickens’s genius on and off the page and offers a compelling insight into a life that was driven as much by performance and showmanship as by literature.

A novel about mid-20th century Italy: Miri, a Jewish girl from London marries an Italian communist nobleman, but her safety is threatened when Mussolini's Fascist government begins deporting Jews to the death camps. Miri escapes to England, leaving her son in her husband's hands. Local politics takes a hand in their fate, however, with terrible consequences. When the war ends, Miri returns to a devastated Italy, seeking a reckoning. If needs be, revenge.ADVANCE PRAISE FOR Justice:A true novel, in that it creates a world--Robert Kelly, poetPRAISE FOR Richard's Feet:"Work of near-demonic beauty, antic imaginationand universal resonance." San Francisco Chronicle"A darkly comic vision, entirely original." Guardian"Brilliant, gigantic, appalling." Daily Telegraph"Essential reading" The Financial Times"Bawdy, turbulent, rife with fiendish beauty" The Atlanta Journal-Constitution"Rivetingly entertaining" The Daily Telegraph"A hypnotic novel, very clever, very imaginative, a breathtaking attempt to get a handle on the entire human condition" The Mail on Sunday"Superb" The Sunday Times"Astonishing, affecting, holds the reader spellbound" Publishers Weekly"Tremendous, a catapult of a novel" The Kansas Star"As thorough an examination of postwar European consciousness as Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain was of its era" American Library Journal"Magnificent" The Times"Breadth of vision, massive feats of scale and formal ingenuity" The Guardian "An enthralling novel, written with imaginative verve in language of strength and clarity, recounted with masterly skill" The Irish Times"Ambitious and fascinating, a very fine writer, exquisite in his descriptive prowess" The Irish Sunday Press"For verbal opulence and elegance of linguistic design, a wondrous thing" The Independent"...this novelist of such amazing dexterity, humanity, inventive skill. He reminds me of Durrell, of Burgess - yet with a sense of tenderness often missing in those showmen. I've since read as much as I can of this writer, unfailingly inventive - as I read his work, I often feel (as with Powys often, and Lawrence sometimes) that I'm reading a detective story that turns to be about me" --Robert Kelly, Books of the Year, Readysteadybook.comPRAISE FOR CAREY HARRISON'S WORK"One of the most accomplished writers of our time" The Dublin Evening News"Fascinating, a superb analysis" The New York Times"Weirdly compelling, reminiscent of Jack Kerouac" New Woman"Fruity characterizations" London Review of Books"A minor miracle, the way Harrison stitches together the goonish and the gorgeous" The London Times"Glorious, full of sensual exotica" The Observer"A superb mix of slapstick, surrealism and tragedy" The Listener"A novel for Everyperson" Sunday Business Post"A model of judiciousness, densely packed, skillfully blended" The New York Times

Originally published in 1885, What I Believe is part of series of books by novelist Leo Tolstoy that outline his personal interpretation of Christian theology. After a midlife crisis at age 50, he began to believe in the moral teachings of Christianity, while rejecting mysticism and organized religion. He believed that pacifism and poverty were the paths to enlightenment. His precepts of nonviolence even influenced Mohandas Gandhi. Students of religion, political science, and literature alike will gain new understanding from the ideas presented in this book. Students of literature will get to understand more deeply one of the greatest novelist in history, while those interested in religion and politics can see how Tolstoy's philosophy came to influence the world at large. Russian writer COUNT LEV ("LEO") NIKOLAYEVICH TOLSTOY (1828-1910) is best known for his novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877).

A PBS NewsHour Best Book of the Year A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year in Nonfiction A brilliant scholar imparts the lessons bequeathed by the Black community and its remarkable artists and thinkers. Farah Jasmine Griffin has taken to her heart the phrase "read until you understand," a line her father, who died when she was nine, wrote in a note to her. She has made it central to this book about love of the majestic power of words and love of the magnificence of Black life. Griffin has spent years rooted in the culture of Black genius and the legacy of books that her father left her. A beloved professor, she has devoted herself to passing these works and their wisdom on to generations of students. Here, she shares a lifetime of discoveries: the ideas that inspired the stunning oratory of Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X, the soulful music of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, the daring literature of Phillis Wheatley and Toni Morrison, the inventive artistry of Romare Bearden, and many more. Exploring these works through such themes as justice, rage, self-determination, beauty, joy, and mercy allows her to move from her aunt’s love of yellow roses to Gil Scott-Heron’s "Winter in America." Griffin entwines memoir, history, and art while she keeps her finger on the pulse of the present, asking us to grapple with the continuing struggle for Black freedom and the ongoing project that is American democracy. She challenges us to reckon with our commitment to all the nation’s inhabitants and our responsibilities to all humanity.