This book has been cycling around our staff for years, and it seems to have the Midas Touch. Everyone who's read it thinks it's made of gold. Recommended by STEVE, EMILY, CHRIS R., EDAN, CORY and more...

"A fresh collection from the author of The Rest is Noise that aims to, in the author's words, "approach music not as a self-sufficient sphere but as a way of knowing the world." The book is totally entertaining, accessible, educational, and even interactive (you can listen to the book-- there is a free audio companion available through Ross's website)." --JENN

"Howard Zinn is the high school teacher I wish I’d had. In interviews he describes himself as a self-taught historian even though he has a Ph.D. from Columbia. His point is that almost all of the material in his “People’s History…” had to be discovered and researched independently as none of it was ever part of his professional education. And that’s the point; this book covers history that is almost never part of the curriculum. From the first page, where he quotes Columbus advocating a policy of deception in order to enslave the natives, to the last chapter, where he documents Clinton’s quiet dismantling of the New Deal, habeas corpus, and the 1st amendment, Zinn is unrelenting in his condemnation of the myth of American History. It is, by turns, engrossing, depressing, and enraging, but it is never boring." --CHARLES

"Shakespeare's Tempest collides with Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the result is an imaginative steampunk romp unlike any other book I've ever read. It's weird, it's a little grotesque, and its mechanical wonderland is not so unlike the one we find ourselves living in today." --EMILY