Abrams: 1969 books

April, 1947. In a run-down farmhouse on a remote Scottish island, George Orwell begins his last and greatest work: Nineteen Eighty-Four.Forty-three years old and suffering from the tuberculosis that within three winters will take his life, Orwell comes to see the book as his legacy—the culmination...

“Perfectly captures the spirit of Music City . . . An incredible collection of recipes that makes you want to spend as much time as possible in Nashville” (Sean Brock, chef and author of Heritage). If it seems like Nashville is everywhere these days—that’s because it is. GQ recently...

The story was all too real-indeed this classic was inspired by the real-life story of Ed Gein, a psychotic murderer who led a dual life. Alfred Hitchcock too was captivated, and turned the book into one of the most-loved classic films of all time the year after it was released. Norman Bates loves...

It was his novel The Naked Year, a flinchingly honest portrayal of life in post-Revolutionary Russia, that catapulted Pilnyak into notoriety. The Naked Year follows the provincial town of Ordinin through 1919, a year of war, illness, and tumultuous change. The village and its inhabitants--merchants,...

The Civil War has just entered its third bloody year and the North is about to impose its first military draft, a decision that in New York City will spark the most devastating and destructive riot in American history. Peter Quinn, acclaimed author of Looking for Jimmy and Hour of the Cat, relates...

In her newest volume, Susan Waggoner recaptures the magic of Christmases past with the vintage crafts projects readers have been craving. Inspired by the most sought-after treasures from the 1920s through the 1960s, Waggoner recreates a tempting array of decorations and provides step-by-step instructions...

It is a poignant excursion into the last days of the Beats and the emerging radicalized culture of the sixties from Kentucky to New York City and daringly unique. This road movie of a novel, which begins as a fifties coming-of-age story and ends in an isolated hippy commune under threat of revolution, provides a transcendent commentary on America then and now.

Powers of Darkness is an incredible literary discovery: In 1900, Icelandic publisher and writer Valdimar à?smundsson set out to translate Bram Stoker’s world-famous 1897 novel Dracula. Called Makt Myrkranna (literally, “Powers of Darkness?), this Icelandic edition included an original preface...

The profound intelligence and political resonance readers have come to expect from Giller Prize-winner David Bergen are on rich display in his electrifying new novel, Stranger, “an engrossing human exploration of displacement and inequality in a world governed by greed? (Toronto Star).à?so...

Ulys O. Hanson, an African-American professor of the History of Slavery, who is in North Africa on a mysterious foundation grant, sets off across the Sahara on a series of wild adventures. He first meets Hamid, a mad Moroccan who turns him on, takes him over and teaches him to pass as a Moor. Mya,...

**“An excellent and useful book for both beginners and more experienced home decorators . . . Encourages us all to be both carefree and careful” (**Martha Stewart).   Making a home is a lifelong pursuit and it starts with your very first place. Suzanne and Lauren McGrath, a mother-daughter...

A Night of Serious Drinking is among Rene Daumal's most important literary works. Like Daumal’s Mount Analogue it is a classic work of symbolic fiction. An unnamed narrator spends an evening getting drunk with a group of friends; as the party becomes intoxicated and exuberant, the narrator embarks...

Second Sight is seventh in the series that follows the legendary spy Paul Christopher-a man ensnared by a line of work that never failed to exert its insidious influence outside professional boundaries. Now retired and living the quiet life as a loving husband in Washington, D.C., Christopher has...

Read this thought-provoking, critically acclaimed novel (6 starred reviews!!!) from Frances Hardinge, winner of the Costa Book of the Year, Costa Children's Book Award, and Horn Book-Boston Globe Award. Faith Sunderly leads a double life. To most people, she is reliable, dull, trustworthy—a...