{"title":"Staff picks this week","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis week's staff picks, chosen from the books we've featured on Instagram. Each one is a single copy.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"ten-philosophical-mistakes","title":"Ten Philosophical Mistakes","description":"For the first time in paperback, the illuminating critique of modern thought from America's 'Philosopher for Everyman' (Time).","brand":"Mortimer J. Adler","offers":[{"title":"Very good","offer_id":44273385144419,"sku":"947614-very-good","price":3.75,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0676\/0320\/2147\/files\/view_archive_97f97d2e-256e-4e3d-b333-740fe380352a.jpg?v=1782095412"},{"product_id":"balling-the-jack-a-novel","title":"Balling The Jack:  A Novel","description":"When you bet it all - everything you have - you're balling the jack. Tom Reasons thought that a money bet was enough for him. Then he put his career, his love, even his life on the line. Tom is just a year out of school, a paralegal in a Wall Street firm, and he's already asking himself, 'Is this all there is?' He's not finding any thrills on the job, and off it he sees his friends sliding into marriages and careers. He also finds himself spending way too much time thinking about his ex-girlfriend, Lisa. Tom's pleasures are few and simple - chasing good times in bars with his old gang from school, leading his dart team. But his real escape is gambling. Every Friday night he bets his paycheck on a single game. If he wins, he lives the high life - checking out bands, standing his friends drinks, going after girls. If he loses, it's ramen noodles and TV until his next check. Win or lose, though, it's all worth it to Tom, because the thrill of risking it all is what reminds him he's alive. Tom's life works surprisingly well - until he crosses Joe Duggan. Duggan is the tough Irish captain of the meanest dart team in the league, an outfit from Hell's Kitchen known as the Hellions. After Tom's team has the nerve to beat the Hellions for the league championship, Duggan wants a rematch - this time for a little money. When a little money becomes a lot, Tom's scramble through the underworld of New York to raise the money brings him, his friends, and Lisa into dangerous territory. When it all comes down to one throw of a dart, with everything on the line, Tom discovers what he's really wanted, really needed, all along.","brand":"Frank Baldwin","offers":[{"title":"Fine","offer_id":44273390551139,"sku":"6514605-fine","price":4.25,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0676\/0320\/2147\/files\/view_archive_1297bd71-fb83-4081-b250-d80c08385e62.jpg?v=1782095416"},{"product_id":"art-at-auction-246-1979-80-1980","title":"Art At Auction. 246. 1979\/80 (1980)","description":"\u003cp class=\"copy-notes\"\u003eA hardcover edition from 1980 of Art At Auction. 246. 1979\/80 (1980) by Sotheby\u0026amp;s London; Sotheby\u0026amp;s New York NY. It runs to 496 pages, in fine condition. Stock is limited to the copies on our shelves in Kuwait. Shelved under Art, Photography \u0026amp; Music. Wrapped with care for collectors and shipped from Kuwait.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sotheby\u0026s London; Sotheby\u0026s New York NY","offers":[{"title":"Fine","offer_id":44273390682211,"sku":"9108274-fine","price":10.75,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0676\/0320\/2147\/files\/view_archive_19f830b1-5d6e-414a-ac64-c5ceb5e81733.jpg?v=1782095416"},{"product_id":"the-city-of-falling-angels-by-the-author-of-midnight-in-the-garden-of-good-and-evil","title":"The City Of Falling Angels (By the Author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil)","description":"Venice, a city steeped in a thousand years of history, art and architecture, teeters in precarious balance between endurance and decay. Its architectural treasures crumble--foundations shift, marble ornaments fall--even as efforts to preserve them are underway. This book opens in 1996, when a dramatic fire destroys the historic Fenice opera house, a catastrophe for Venetians. Arriving three days after the fire, Berendt becomes a kind of detective--inquiring into the nature of life in this remarkable museum-city--while gradually revealing the truth about the fire. He introduces us to a rich cast of characters, Venetian and expatriate, in a tale full of atmosphere and surprise which reveals a world as finely drawn as a still-life painting. The fire and its aftermath serve as a leitmotif, adding elements of chaos, corruption, and crime and contributing to the ever-mounting suspense.--From publisher description.","brand":"John Berendt","offers":[{"title":"Fine","offer_id":44273725341795,"sku":"666077-fine","price":5.0,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0676\/0320\/2147\/files\/view_archive_7b5e7e84-8a1b-48bf-840b-1e9c8188fec2.jpg?v=1782095637"},{"product_id":"the-metaphysical-club-a-story-of-ideas-in-america","title":"The Metaphysical Club : A Story Of Ideas In America","description":"Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for HistoryA riveting, original book about the creation of modern American thought.The Metaphysical Club was an informal group that met in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1872, to talk about ideas. Its members included Oliver Well Holmes, Jr., future associate justice of the United States Supreme Court; William James, the father of modern American psychology; and Charles Sanders Peirce, logician, scientist, and the founder of semiotics. The Club was probably in existence for about nine months. No records were kept. The one thing we know that came out of it was an idea -- an idea about ideas. This book is the story of that idea. Holmes, James, and Peirce all believed that ideas are not things 'out there' waiting to be discovered but are tools people invent -- like knives and forks and microchips -- to make their way in the world. They thought that ideas are produced not by individuals, but by groups of individuals -- that ideas are social. They do not develop according to some inner logic of their own but are entirely depent -- like germs -- on their human carriers and environment. And they thought that the survival of any idea deps not on its immutability but on its adaptability. The Metaphysical Club is written in the spirit of this idea about ideas. It is not a history of philosophy but an absorbing narrative about personalities and social history, a story about America. It begins with the Civil War and s in 1919 with Justice Holmes's dissenting opinion in the case of U.S. v. Abrams-the basis for the constitutional law of free speech. The first four sections of the book focus on Holmes, James, Peirce, and their intellectual heir, John Dewey. The last section discusses some of the fundamental twentieth-century ideas they are associated with. This is a book about a way of thinking that changed American life.","brand":"Louis Menand","offers":[{"title":"Very good","offer_id":44273735368803,"sku":"300502-very-good","price":5.0,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0676\/0320\/2147\/files\/view_archive_575ee91c-e46a-4f7d-9c85-2347d2c204c9.jpg?v=1782095646"},{"product_id":"needlecraft-designs-from-our-best-quilts-20-favorite-quilt-designs-graphed-for-needlework-20-favorite-quilt-designs-graphed-for-needlework","title":"Needlecraft Designs From Our Best Quilts: 20 Favorite Quilt Designs Graphed For Needlework: 20 favorite quilt designs graphed for needlework","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe designers of the individual quilt blocks are listed underneath their respective quilt blocks on pages 6-10. DMC yarn was used for stitching all the projects illustrated in this book execpt the one shown on the cover. See the instructions for the individual designs for exact quantities needed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"copy-notes\"\u003eA paperback edition from 1978 of Needlecraft Designs From Our Best Quilts: 20 Favorite Quilt Designs Graphed For Needlework by Mary Elizabeth Johnson. It runs to 80 pages, in fine condition. We hold one copy, so once it is gone it is gone. Shelved under Art, Photography \u0026amp; Music. Wrapped with care for collectors and shipped from Kuwait.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mary Elizabeth Johnson","offers":[{"title":"Fine","offer_id":44274085462115,"sku":"1627759-fine","price":6.25,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0676\/0320\/2147\/files\/view_archive_7f01c239-5a0d-415d-9489-0d301776e39f.jpg?v=1782096040"},{"product_id":"collected-poems-of-emily-dickinson","title":"Collected Poems Of Emily Dickinson","description":"Emily Dickinson was a prolific writer and yet, with the exception of four poems in a limited regional volume, her poems were never published during her lifetime. It was indeed fortunate that her sister discovered the poems—all loosely bound in bundles—shortly after Dickinson died. Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson is the complete collection of the first three volumes of poetry published posthumously in 1890, 1891, and 1896 by editors Mary Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. The volumes were all received with high acclaim and contain some of her best-known poems. It was in the twentieth century, however, that Dickinson was finally recognized as one of the great poets and, without dispute, the most popular. The name Emily Dickinson is a legend now, but she never had the opportunity to taste the wine of success and fame in her lifetime. In fact, if there was any legendary status she received in her life, it was not for poetry but for the way she lived her life. She received local notoriety in her native town of Amherst, Massachusetts, as an eccentric recluse who, with few exceptions, would never set foot outside her house. Yet, as her poetry will attest, she had a keen insight of life, love, nature, and death and seemed to be content with her station in life.Reading through the poems in Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson, you will see that she was indeed a woman of independence and spirit, a poet that lives today in our hearts and minds.","brand":"Emily Dickinson","offers":[{"title":"Very good","offer_id":44274573049955,"sku":"398781-very-good","price":6.25,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0676\/0320\/2147\/files\/view_archive_23f0f886-aa6b-47f9-b031-213c2d5213db.jpg?v=1787584520"},{"product_id":"vernon-god-little-a-21st-century-comedy-in-the-presence-of-d-1102","title":"Vernon God Little: a 21st century comedy in the presence of death","description":"\u003cp\u003eWINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2003 WINNER OF THE 2003 WHITBREAD FIRST NOVEL PRIZE Named as one of the 100 Best Things in the World by GQ magazine in 2003, the riotous adventures of Vernon Gregory Little in small town Texas and beachfront Mexico mark one of the most spectacular, irreverent and bizarre debuts of the 21st century so far. Its depiction of innocence and simple humanity (all seasoned with a dash of dysfunctional profanity) in an evil world is never less than astonishing. The only novel to be set in the barbecue sauce capital of Central Texas, Vernon God Little suggests that desperate times throw up the most unlikely of heroes. 'A showpiece of superb comic writing . . . Out of the detritus of a morally bankrupt society, Pierre has fashioned a work of comic art.' Sunday Telegraph 'In a just world, this ridiculously funny first novel would come free with every television set . . . Not since reading John Kennedy O'Toole's masterpiece, A Confederacy of Dunces . . . have I laughed so much or felt such sheer delight at the discovery of a wholly fresh comic voice . . . this novel reads like a modern day fairytale.' Mail on Sunday\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dbc Pierre","offers":[{"title":"Very good","offer_id":44279511646307,"sku":"1102-very-good","price":2.5,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0676\/0320\/2147\/files\/view_archive_bc599d6b-fd30-4eeb-8688-a2f16ecddb89.jpg?v=1782180560"},{"product_id":"the-syringa-tree-a-novel-1822171","title":"The Syringa Tree: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this heartrending and inspiring novel set against the gorgeous, vast landscape of South Africa under apartheid, award-winning playwright Pamela Gien tells the story of two families–one black, one white–separated by racism, connected by love. Even at the age of six, lively, inquisitive Elizabeth Grace senses she’s a child of privilege, “a lucky fish.” Soothing her worries by raiding the sugar box, she scampers up into the sheltering arms of the lilac-blooming syringa tree growing behind the family’s suburban Johannesburg home.Lizzie’s closest ally and greatest love is her Xhosa nanny, Salamina. Deeper and more elemental than any traditional friendship, their fierce devotion to each other is charged and complicated by Lizzie’s mother, who suffers from creeping melancholy, by the stresses of her father’s medical practice, which is segregated by law, and by the violence, injustice, and intoxicating beauty of their country. In the social and racial upheavals of the 1960s, Lizzie’s eyes open to the terror and inhumanity that paralyze all the nation’s cultures–Xhosa, Zulu, Jew, English, Boer. Pass laws requiring blacks to carry permission papers for white areas and stringent curfews have briefly created an orderly state–but an anxious one. Yet Lizzie’s home harbors its own set of rules, with hushed midnight gatherings, clandestine transactions, and the girl’s special task of protecting Salamina’s newborn child–a secret that, because of the new rules, must never be mentioned outside the walls of the house.As the months pass, the contagious spirit of change sends those once underground into the streets to challenge the ruling authority. And when this unrest reaches a social and personal climax, the unthinkable will happen and forever change Lizzie’s view of the world. When The Syringa Tree opened off-Broadway in 2001, theater critics and audiences alike embraced the play, and it won many awards. Pamela Gien has superbly deepened the story in this new novel, giving a personal voice to the horrors and hopes of her homeland. Written with lyricism, passion, and life-affirming redemption, this compelling story shows the healing of the heart of a young woman and the soul of a sundered nation.Praise:A gripping first novel in the tradition of such great southern African writers as Nadine Gordimer and Doris Lessing. Spare beautiful prose builds to an unforgettable climax. --BOOKLIST, starred review            Pamela Gien's novel is impressively affecting. She is a wonder. The Syringa Tree as a play was uniquely moving, but Gien has taken it beyond its walls, and given us remarkable writing that stands freely as a deeply affecting and fresh telling of this classic story. -—Lillian Ross  The story of a young girl and her cherished caretaker is the story of a heartbroken country. Pamela Gien brings South Africa to vivid life, illuminating how the bonds of love are stronger than the forces of history. I read the end of the book through tears. -–Amanda Eyre Ward, author of How to Be LostThis book plunges us inside the skin of humanity and is suffused with a rare understanding. The Syringa Tree reminds us that every life can be a drop–and a great deal more–in the sea of history.-–Scott Simon, NPR, author of Pretty Birds and Home and AwayEvocative and impassioned. Gien captures perfectly the voice of the child Elizabeth and the grown woman she becomes. --Baltimore Sun, Summer List     Highly recommended...Gien here illuminates the shameful history of a country, by highlighting the juxtaposition of race, anti-Semitism, and class privilege. -Library Journal                                                                                                                     A spare, yet poetic account that steadily works its magic on the reader as both a portrait of individuals, and a country, in the tumultuous time of apartheid. --Seattle Post-IntelligencerGien...renders South Africa...as a virtual paradise, whichpainfully contrasts with the blood spilled on its soil. She’s an expressive, fluent writer whose best passages are lyrical yet intimate, bringing you right into the room. --Seattle WeeklyA gorgeous, hopeful, heartrending novel. . . . This uncommonly moving, deeply humane novel nearly dances in a reader's hands with the rhythms and the colors, the complicatedness and the inimitability of southern Africa.'--O The Oprah MagazineFrom the Hardcover edition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pamela Gien","offers":[{"title":"Fine","offer_id":44280804376675,"sku":"1822171-fine","price":4.5,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0676\/0320\/2147\/files\/view_archive_c51889e7-917e-49ab-8cae-dbd10224d883.jpg?v=1782192827"},{"product_id":"reconciliation-islam-democracy-and-the-west-islam-democracy-31502","title":"Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, And The West: Islam, democracy, and the West","description":"\u003cp\u003eBenazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October 2007, after eight years of exile, hopeful that she could be a catalyst for change. Upon a tumultuous reception, she survived a suicide-bomb attack that killed nearly two hundred of her countrymen. But she continued to forge ahead, with more courage and conviction than ever, since she knew that time was running out—for the future of her nation, and for her life. In Reconciliation, Bhutto recounts in gripping detail her final months in Pakistan and offers a bold new agenda for how to stem the tide of Islamic radicalism and to rediscover the values of tolerance and justice that lie at the heart of her religion. With extremist Islam on the rise throughout the world, the peaceful, pluralistic message of Islam has been exploited and manipulated by fanatics. Bhutto persuasively argues that America and Britain are fueling this turn toward radicalization by supporting groups that serve only short-term interests. She believed that by enabling dictators, the West was actually contributing to the frustration and extremism that lead to terrorism. With her experience governing Pakistan and living and studying in the West, Benazir Bhutto was versed in the complexities of the conflict from both sides. She was a renaissance woman who offered a way out. In this riveting and deeply insightful book, Bhutto explores the complicated history between the Middle East and the West. She traces the roots of international terrorism across the world, including American support for Pakistani general Zia-ul-Haq, who destroyed political parties, eliminated an independent judiciary, marginalized NGOs, suspended the protection of human rights, and aligned Pakistani intelligence agencies with the most radical elements of the Afghan mujahideen. She speaks out not just to the West, but to the Muslims across the globe who are at a crossroads between the past and the future, between education and ignorance, between peace and terrorism, and between dictatorship and democracy. Democracy and Islam are not incompatible, and the clash between Islam and the West is not inevitable. Bhutto presents an image of modern Islam that defies the negative caricatures often seen in the West. After reading this book, it will become even clearer what the world has lost by her assassination.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Benazir Bhutto","offers":[{"title":"Fine","offer_id":44281466486883,"sku":"31502-fine","price":5.0,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0676\/0320\/2147\/files\/view_archive_18c06549-be44-419f-a5c8-e51366dd4401.jpg?v=1782201713"},{"product_id":"out-of-the-night-that-covers-me-8543053","title":"Out Of The Night That Covers Me","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn orphaned white boy and an eccentric black man forge an unlikely friendship in the segregated world of 1950s Alabama. The boy, John, whose beloved mother has died, now faces a loveless future with his alcoholic uncle on a sharecroppers farm in the Alabama Black Beltan abusive life he soon dreams of escaping. The black man, Tuway, works by day in the town bank. By night, he helps other blacks escape the poverty of the rural South to find a new life in Chicago. As he negotiates the schism between black and white cultures, Tuway is forced to include a desperate John into his double life. In a bid to change their livesand help others in needTuway and John take on the threats and challenges that foreshadow the great Civil Rights upheaval of the 1960s. My Last Days as Roy Rogers (Warner 1\/99), Pat Cunningham Devotos critically acclaimed hardcover debut, won widespread praise in publications, including Booklist, Denver Post, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal among others.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pat Cunningham Devoto","offers":[{"title":"Fine","offer_id":44288531628131,"sku":"8543053-fine","price":5.0,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0676\/0320\/2147\/files\/view_archive_a561c667-4fce-41b5-94d9-6095f4f6a61a.jpg?v=1782276570"},{"product_id":"world-writers-today-7594640","title":"World Writers Today","description":"\u003cp\u003e[This anthology] offers a fresh collection of quality writing from around the world, featuring such diverse contemporary authors as Naguib Mahfouz, Doris Lessing, Chinua Achebe, and Laura Esquivel. This multicultural collection includes fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry by both established writers and new voices from a wide range of countries. Organized thematically, [the book] attests to the vigor, diversity, and breadth of modern international writing. -Back cover.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers; Incorporated; Scott; Foresman and Company","offers":[{"title":"Fine","offer_id":44288534773859,"sku":"7594640-fine","price":11.25,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0676\/0320\/2147\/files\/view_archive_c0e5f5e9-a277-4a79-98e6-70824e89b496.jpg?v=1782276623"}],"url":"https:\/\/qasralthaqafa.com\/collections\/staff-picks-week.oembed","provider":"Qasr Al-Thaqafa","version":"1.0","type":"link"}