An insider’s account of misogyny and rape in the US military and her extraordinary path to recovery and activism Desperate to realize her childhood dream of being an astronaut, Lynn K. Hall was an enthusiastic young cadet. For Hall, the military offered an escape from her chaotic home—her erratic mother, absent biological father, and a man she called “dad” who sexually abused her. Resolute and committed to the Air Force Academy, Hall survived the ordeals of a first-year cadet: intense hazing from upperclassmen, grueling physical training, and demanding coursework. But she’s dismissed from the Academy when, after being raped by an upperclassman and contracting herpes, she is diagnosed with meningitis and left with chronic and debilitating pain. Betrayed by the Academy and overcome with shame, Hall candidly recounts her loss of self, the dissociation from her body and the forfeiture of her individuality as a result of the military’s demands and her perpetrator’s abuse. Forced to leave the military and return to the civilian world, Hall turns to extreme sports to cope with and overcome PTSD and chronic pain. She, in turn, reclaims herself on the mountain trails of the Colorado Rockies. An intimate account of grappling with shame and a misogynistic culture that condones rape and blames victims, Caged Eyes is also a transformative story of how it’s possible to help yourself and others in the aftermath of a profound injustice.

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin From the Paperback edition.

Ever revel in the wonder of your inner world? Ever wonder if ours is a universe that smiles with us when we grow and evolve, and its processes are nurturance to that end? Meet Me at the Apex smiles, and yet it will shake you from your comfort zone and goad you toward transcendence---whatever your path. This novel is hilarious at times and will carry you to heights of joy, and yet is capable of dragging you through pits of sorrow; it is sublime and ethereal, and yet there are moments when it is sensual, raw and earthy; it is iconoclastic and controversial, and yet it celebrates as sacred each person's belief and path. This diary of protagonist Joshua Denton's 3-day stream of consciousness while buckled by illness forces readers to inspect even their most entrenched beliefs, whether God-fearing or atheistic. His hiatus quickly becomes a luring toward epiphany, his path to which is intense processing of events and enigmas.

This is what this is to you, because this is how I sing, how I paint, how I dance, how I live. It is freedom in the limitless space that allows words to unrestraint the self through slanted blacks, that became, become; people, places, and thoughts of my past present future. Feel the poems as photographs taken in a real and raw snap as the moment is captured. Through the years it has become a story of a meditation in love. Written without editing or re-reading to keep to its truth. These poems are a memoir/autobiography in words that are intuitive and immediate reactions to breaths taken and forgotten to take and never taken, and the broken sighs in between. We breathe in, and breathe out. The air and everything between these breathes are the experiences that materialize life; become words. Taking readers through travels, growth, spirituality and finally, finding the soul mate of this timeless existence; these are my insides turned outside.

Now in its third year, the Best European Fiction series has become a mainstay in the literary landscape, each year featuring new voices from throughout Europe alongside more established names such as Hilary Mantel, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Ingo Schulze, George Konrad, Victor Pelevin, and Enrique Vila-Matas. For 2012, Aleksandar Hemon introduces a whole new cross-section of European fiction, and there are a few editorial changes as well. For the first time, the preface will be by an American—Nicole Krauss—and the stories, one per country/language, will be arranged within themes (love, art, war, the body), to facilitate book club and reading group discussions.

An FBI analyst hunts for a sadistic serial killer in Washington, DC, in this “dark and mesmerizing” thriller—“equal parts Kathy Reichs and Thomas Harris” (Lisa Gardner). FBI neuroscientist Sayer Altair hunts for evil in the deepest recesses of the human mind. Still reeling from the death of her fiancé, she wants nothing more than to focus on her research into the brains of serial killers. But when the Washington, DC, police stumble upon a gruesome murder involving a girl who was starved to death while held in a cage, Sayer is called in to lead the investigation. Then the victim is identified as the daughter of a high profile senator—and Sayer is thrust into the spotlight. As public pressure mounts, she discovers that another girl has been taken and is teetering on the brink of death. With evidence unraveling around her, Sayer realizes that they are hunting a killer with a dangerous obsession . . . a killer who is closer than she thought.