Non-Fiction Books

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • A "A beautifully ragged, laugh-out-loud funny and utterly unforgettable book" (S an Francisco Chronicle ) that redefines both family and narrative. • From the bestselling author of The Circle. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. This exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

The bestselling call to action for improving the working lives of public school teachers—and improving our classrooms along the way. Since its initial publication and multiple reprints in hardcover in 2005, Teachers Have It Easy has attracted the attention of teachers nationwide, appearing on the New York Times extended bestseller list, C-SPAN, and NPR's Marketplace , in addition to receiving strong reviews nationwide. Now available for the first time in paperback, this groundbreaking book examines how bad policy makes teachers' lives miserable. Many teachers today must work two or more jobs to survive; they cannot afford to buy homes or raise families. Interweaving teachers' voices from across the country with hard-hitting facts and figures, this book is a clear-eyed view of the harsh realities of public school teaching, without chicken-soup-for-the-soul success stories. With a look at the problems of recruitment and retention, the myths of short workdays and endless summer vacations, the realities of the work week, and shocking examples of how society views America's teachers, Teachers Have It Easy explores the best ways to improve public education and transform our schools.

On September 30, 2003, Calvin was declared innocent and set free from Angola State Prison, after serving 22 years for a crime he did not commit. Like many other exonerees, Calvin experienced a new world that was not open to him. Hitting the streets without housing, money, or a change of clothes, exonerees across America are released only to fend for themselves. In the tradition of Studs Terkel's oral histories, this book collects the voices and stories of the exonerees for whom life — inside and out — is forever framed by extraordinary injustice

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of The Circle • The true story of one family, caught between America’s two biggest policy disasters: the war on terror and the response to Hurricane Katrina. "Eggers’ tone is pitch-perfect—suspense blended with just enough information to stoke reader outrage and what is likely to be a typical response: How could this happen in America? ... It’s the stuff of great narrative nonfiction.” — The New York Times Book Review Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun run a house-painting business in New Orleans. In August of 2005, as Hurricane Katrina approaches, Kathy evacuates with their four young children, leaving Zeitoun to watch over the business. In the days following the storm he travels the city by canoe, feeding abandoned animals and helping elderly neighbors. Then, on September 6th, police officers armed with M-16s arrest Zeitoun in his home. Told with eloquence and compassion, Zeitoun is a riveting account of one family’s unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water.

In time to coincide with a gallery show in San Francisco, this is Dave Eggers's first collection of drawings. Most of these works are of unusual mammals, most often accompanied by slogans with ancient, heroic, or just plain odd overtones. This full-color package will be a combination of 26 large-sized prints and an accompanying booklet. This book echoes questions posed by Eggers in McSweeney's Issue 27 : What is the line between a doodle, a cartoon, a gag, and a work of fine art? Does it seem, sometimes, that the artist is defacing his or her own work by adding text? Is loose draftsmanship appealing, in that it’s intimate and disarming? Is absurdity more appealing when it comes across as humble?

David Shrigley’s existential-comic sensibility takes form across many mediums, from photography and sculpture to animation and drawings Best known for his wry and witty drawings, British artist David Shrigley has built up an artistic practice that, over the past two decades, has expanded well beyond drawing to include photography, sculpture, neon signs, animation, painting, printmaking, publishing and music. Shrigley finds humor in flat depictions of the inconsequential and the bizarre, qualities that he heightens through a deliberately limited technique. In this unusually complete look at the much-loved artist’s diverse approaches, Shrigley is revealed as a master of many media and many kinds of humor, from the black humor for which he is famed to caricature and more slapstick situations. With an immediate and accessible appeal to diverse audiences, Shrigley’s work offers an insightful commentary on the absurdities of human relationships. Published on the occasion of the artist’s first major survey show, at London’s Hayward Gallery, this beautifully produced volume includes a 7” vinyl picture-disc, featuring an exclusive recording by the artist. David Shrigley was born in Macclesfield, England, in 1968, and studied Environmental Art at the Glasgow School of Art from 1988–1991. As well as authoring numerous books, he directed the video for Blur’s “Good Song” and for Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s “Agnes, Queen of Sorrow.” Between 2005 and 2009, he contributed a cartoon for the U.K. Guardian Weekend magazine every Saturday.

More than 20 well-known writers and celebrities share the travel experiences that shaped their personalities and changed their lives. Contributors include Dave Eggers, Richard Ford, Pico Iyer, John Berendt, Alexander McCall Smith and Jane Smiley. About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in. TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards 2012 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)

Visitants begins at 140 kilometers per hour, with Dave Eggers being driven across the Saudi Arabian desert by a hired driver who looks at him and says “American, boom boom!” Spanning his entire career, there are long, lighthearted and caterwauling adventures in places such as Cuba and Thailand as well as briefer sketches of people he meets in places such as Croatia and Egypt. And there are meditative pieces from South Sudan and Syria that reveal another side to his acclaimed books What Is the What and Zeitoun . Vast in scope, the collection is shot through with a sense of danger and adventure as well as constant wrestling with complex issues of equity and power.

From Lonely Planet, the world's leading travel guide publisher, Better Than Fiction 2 , the follow-up to 2012's Better Than Fiction , is a second serving of true travel stories told by some of the world's best fiction writers including Dave Eggers, Jane Smiley and Karen Joy Fowler . Varied in place, plot and voice, these are stirring and evocative pieces that all share one common characteristic-they manifest a passion for the precious gift of travel, from its unexpected but inevitably enriching lessons about other peoples and places, to the truths, sometimes uncomfortable but always enlarging, it reveals about ourselves. By turns comic, dramatic, and moving - from Francine Prose's confrontation of the mysteries of India to DBC Pierre's search for Hemingway's muse in Italy - these 30 short tales reveal the joys, perils, and surprises of travel, and that truth can often be stranger (and better) than fiction. Whether on a plane en route to your own travel adventure, or at home settling in for a vicarious experience of world adventures, embark on this literary journey around the world and explore your passion for travel now! Authors: Lonely Planet, Don George, Dave Eggers, Jane Smiley, Karen Joy Fowler, Stefan Merrill Block, Francine Prose, DBC Pierre, Fiona Kidman, Alexander McCall Smith, Keija Parssinen, MJ Hyland, Catherine Lacey, Rebecca Dinerstein, Lloyd Jones, Porochista Khakpour, Jack Livings, Marina Lewycka, Lydia Millet, Suzanne Joinson, Sophie Cunningham, Christina Nichol, Mandy Sayer, Steven Amsterdam, Marie-Helene Bortino, Shirley Streshinsky, Steven Hall, David Shafer, Avi Duckor-Jones, Lily King, Aliya Whitely, and Natalie Baszile About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in. Lonely Planet's award-winning list travel literature anthologies include An Innocent Abroad (Independent Publishers Award, Silver for Essays, 2015) and A Fork in the Road (Lowell Thomas Award, Bronze for Travel Book, 2014; James Bear Award, Nominated for Travel Fiction, 2014). 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' -- Fairfax Media 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times Lonely Planet guides have won the TripAdvisor Traveler's Choice Award in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.

One of Publishers Weekly 's Best Picture Books of 2015. The Golden Gate Bridge is the most famous bridge in the world. It is also, not entirely coincidentally, the world’s first bright-orange bridge. But it wasn’t supposed to be that way. In this book, fellow bridge-lovers Dave Eggers and Tucker Nichols tell the story of how it happened—how a bridge that some people wanted to be red and white, and some people wanted to be yellow and black, and most people wanted simply to be gray, instead became, thanks to the vision and stick-to-itiveness of a few peculiar architects, one of the most memorable man-made objects ever created. Told with playful paper cut-outs and irresistible prose, This Bridge Will Not Be Gray is a joyful history lesson in picture-book form—a gorgeously crafted story that teaches us how beauty and inspiration tend to come from the most unexpected places. Sometimes you have to fight for what you believe in, even if it’s just a color.

"A friendly reminder of how America can be at its best." – Entertainment Weekly If you had to name a statue, any statue, odds are good you'd mention the Statue of Liberty. Have you seen her? She's in New York. She's holding a torch. And she's in mid-stride, moving forward. But why? In this fascinating and fun take on nonfiction for kids, Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris investigate a seemingly small trait of America's most emblematic statue. What they find is about more than history, more than art. What they find in the Statue of Liberty's right foot is the powerful message of acceptance that is essential of an entire country's creation. An ideal patriotic gift for kids, this book as received accolades from a number of reputable publications: A Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of the Year A School Library Journal Best Picture Book of the Year A 2018 Orbis Pictus Award Honor Book A Junior Library Guild selection Seven Starred Reviews "In a time when immigration is a hot-button issue, it's good to be reminded that Lady Liberty continues to lift her lamp beside the golden door." – Booklist , starred review "Thought-provoking." – Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books , starred review "A timely immigrant's tale." – Shelf Awareness , starred review "Crucial." – Publishers Weekly , starred review "Heartfelt throughout and indisputable timely." – Kirkus Reviews , starred review "Unique and important." – School Library Journal , starred review "Vital." – School Library Connection , starred review "As enlightening as it is charming." – The New York Times "Witty, moving." – The Wall Street Journal

Eggers is one of the most notable writers of his generation, recognized for such bestsell­ing and critically acclaimed books as A Hologram for the King , What Is the What , and The Circle . Before he embarked on his writing career, Eggers was classically trained as a draftsman and painter. He then spent many years as a professional illus­trator and graphic designer before turning to writ­ing full-time. More recently, in order to raise money for ScholarMatch, his college-access nonprofit, he returned to visual art, and the results have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the country. Usually involving the pairing of an animal with humorous or biblical text, the results are wry, oddly anthropomorphic tableaus that create a very entertaining and eccentric body of work from one of today’s leading culture makers.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A gripping, triumphant adventure” (Los Angeles Times ) from bestselling author Dave Eggers, the incredible true story of a young Yemeni American man, raised in San Francisco, who dreams of resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee but finds himself trapped in Sana’a by civil war. Mokhtar Alkhanshali is twenty-four and working as a doorman when he discovers the astonishing history of coffee and Yemen’s central place in it. He leaves San Francisco and travels deep into his ancestral homeland to tour terraced farms high in the country’s rugged mountains and meet beleaguered but determined farmers. But when war engulfs the country and Saudi bombs rain down, Mokhtar has to find a way out of Yemen without sacrificing his dreams or abandoning his people.

"[This] charming book provides examples and sends the message that citizens aren't born but are made by actions taken to help others and the world they live in." — The Washington Post This is a book about what citizenship—good citizenship—means to you, and to us all: Across the course of several seemingly unrelated but ultimately connected actions by different children, we watch how kids turn a lonely island into a community—and watch a journey from what the world should be to what the world could be. What Can a Citizen Do ? is the latest collaboration from the acclaimed behind the bestselling Her Right Foot : Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris. For today's youngest readers about what it means to be a citizen and the positive role they can play in society. Includes beautiful illustrations and intriguing, rhyming text. "Obligatory reading for future informed citizens." — The New York Times What Can a Citizen Do is an empowering and timeless read with an important message for all ages. Great family read-aloud book Books for kids ages 5-8 Picture books for grades K-3

A tiger carries a dining room chair on her back. But why? Where is she going? With just one word per page, in lush, color-rich landscapes, we learn about the features that make up our world: an archipelago, a dune, an isthmus, a lagoon. Across them all, the tiger roams. An enigmatic investigation of our world's most beautiful places from bestselling author Dave Eggers, beautifully illustrated by debut artist Angel Chang. • Each page introduces young readers to a different geographic element—from archipelagos to lagoons to gorges • Universal story of a mother's arduous journey back to her family • Quirky and enigmatic story with hipster appeal Fans of Symphony City, Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn , Curiousitree, and Natural Wonders of the World will love this book. This book is perfect for: • Parents and grandparents • Teachers • Fans of Dave Eggers or McSweeney's • Fans of wildlife or animal lovers • Art book lovers