Top Ten New Items in AK Distro! (August)
We know it’s a rough time for a lot of people financially at the moment—but we also know that you all still need a good book now and then, and we still need your support to keep going. So we’ve especially been on the lookout lately for good books that we can offer to you at better-than-normal prices: that way we all get what we need! This month we’ve had some great successes, getting some really good cheap books. So the first couple of “new” things in our post this month aren’t totally new to us, just newly cheap enough that you really shouldn’t pass them up (because with any luck, they won’t be here for long).
Sale books from Seven Stories Press
We just got a giant pallet of overstock from our friends at Seven Stories, who’ve done some really great books over the years. Now we need your help moving these books, because we really don’t have room in our warehouse for a pallet of overstock! So we’ve priced them (brand new books, mind you!) at $3–$10 in hopes that they’ll fly out the door. Scroll through the list and you’re sure to find something—we’ve discounted titles from Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Subcomandante Marcos, Paco Ignacio Taibo, and plenty more.
Sale books from Disinformation
Disinformation books have always been popular when we table at events—with titles like You Are Being Lied To and Everything You Know Is Wrong, it’s hard not to pick them up just to see what you might be missing. Some of them are pretty hefty volumes, which means they’ve got a lot in them, but also means you might normally balk at the price. Now we’ve managed to get some slightly damaged copies (we’re talking totally intact books, just with slightly bent corners or cover scuffs that might have made them unsellable in “new” bookstores) and we’re selling them at $2–$10 off the normal list prices.
Black Panther: Intercommunal News Service 1967–1980 edited by David Hilliard
As someone interested in movement art (and a fan of Emory Douglas), I’m particularly excited about the great graphics that are reproduced in this book—but the text is an equally valuable primary source, covering everything from the BPP’s free breakfast program and international solidarity to political prisoners and COINTELPRO. Original pages of the Black Panther Party’s newspaper are reproduced here and put into historical context—and you also get a bonus DVD. This is another ever-so-slightly-damaged item, so we’re able to knock $7 off the normal price and everyone wins!
Sick: A Compilation Zine on Physical Illness edited by Ben Holtzman
Especially in the midst of all the current hubbub about healthcare and the evil machinations of governments and insurance companies, illness (one’s own or someone else’s) is one of those things that should really make us think about the kind of communities we want to create for ourselves. How can people receive and provide support outside of these frameworks of power? What does it mean to be an informed patient when everything seems to be set up against you? Despite the word “zine,” this is actually a small paperback book, packed with reflections on these questions and many others.
Celebrate People’s History Postcard Set #2 edited by Josh MacPhee
The first set of Celebrate People’s History postcards has been a really popular item for us and we’re down to the last of those (I’m going to buy one for myself right now before we run out…I’m serious, and you should too). But I’m also excited to see the second set available now, especially since Muhammad Ali is on the cover and I saw part of a VH1 documentary on him at the gym this morning. Seriously, it does not take much to get me excited about good radical prints, and these are great! The set includes 16 full-color postcard reproductions of Celebrate People’s History posters including Paul Robeson, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Cochabamba, Haymarket, the Silent Majority, Judi Bari, Mothers of East Los Angeles, and more—all in a pretty letterpress package from Stumptown Printers.
Outsiders: Art by People edited by Steve Lazarides
This one was actually recommended to us by our buyer at St. Mark’s Bookshop in New York (let that be a lesson to all of you: if you hear of something we should have in our catalog but don’t yet, please let us know!). Steve Lazarides is a gallery owner and also Banksy’s manager, so you know he’s got a good eye for street art. I’m not going to pretend I’m cool enough to know all the artists included in this lavish full-color book…but the work ranges from pretty good to really awesome, and since there are twenty-five different artists featured, it’s a good range as well.
Ethereal Shadows: Communications and Power in Contemporary Italy by Franco “Bifo” Berardi
It seems Bifo is all the rage these days, with several of his books finally coming into print in English. This one is new from Autonomedia, and focuses specifically on the Italian media. He looks at the rise and eventual fall of Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, as well as several case studies of the media activism of which Bifo himself was an integral part: Radio Alice (Italy’s first pirate radio station), Rekombinant (an online network), and Orfeo TV (an autonomous street television network). Isn’t it refreshing to read analysis like this by people who were actually involved in on-the-ground struggles? I think so!
This Land: An Environmental Justice Folk Recording by Joshua Marcus
This CD is presumably named in homage to Woody Guthrie, and it’s definitely in his spirit. It isn’t just another folk recording—it’s a collaborative songwriting project, meaning that Joshua Marcus (a Philly folk singer) put a lot of time into working with folks doing environmental justice work to come up with songs that would speak to the conditions people are facing today and the work that needs to be done. And he’s donating the proceeds to the community groups who participated in the project.
A Young People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn and Rebecca Stefoff
This is written specifically for young people, but it’s the same basic idea as the grown-up version of A People’s History of the United States (US history told from the perspectives of people whose voices who probably weren’t included in your textbooks). This first came out two years ago, as two separate hardcover volumes selling for $17–$18 apiece. Then it came out last year as a single-volume hardcover priced at $45. Now, at long last, it’s available as an affordable single-volume paperback!
El precio del fuego: Las luchas por los recursos naturales y los movimientos sociales en Bolivia by Benjamin Dangl
This is the Spanish translation of The Price of Fire, which we published in English a couple years back. It’s an informative look at the many forms that resistance to corporate globalization has taken in Bolivia. We got ahold of a limited number of copies of the new Spanish edition, as part of an arrangement with the Bolivian publisher who put it out. Get them while you can!