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Betye Saar: Volume II of the David C. Driskell Series of African American Art

In the second volume of the David C. Driskell Series of African American Art, the autobiographical assemblages of Betye Saar are beautifully reproduced alongside the story of her dynamic career spanning more than 40 years.   Her peculiar combination of found objects and personal keepsakes meld the objective, political and impersonal with her own family history and racial heritage, infusing her unique constructions with profound emotional power.   Sixty-nine full color plates complimented by Carpenter’s straightforward exposition highlight Saar’s documentation of familial ties and faith as well as her challenges to racist and sexist stereotypes across cultural boundaries.

Check out the other stunning titles in this series we have in stock- Hughie Lee-Smith, Margo Humphrey, Archibald J. Motely, Jr. and Faith Ringgold.


Carpenter, Jane H. Betye Saar. Pomegranate, 2003. Cloth, dj, quarto, 116 pp, 69 full color plates. List price: $35.00.  Our in-store sale price: $11.95.

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Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall

Ishiguro, Kazuo. Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall. Knopf, 2003. Cloth, dj, octavo, 221 pp. List price: $25.00. Our in-store sale price: $4.95.

In Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall, one of the most unique writers of our time gives us his first sequence of short fiction. Kazuo Ishiguro, who pursued a musical career before dedicating himself to writing, combines the loosely connected five narratives like the movements of a symphony, organically intertwining characters, conversations and motifs from story to story.  Readers will quickly recognize Ishiguro’s signature bittersweet and witty style applied to the more ephemeral form of the short story, as he effectively synthesizes literature with its musical counterpart.  Though the stories are not as fully developed as his longer works, Nocturnes stands on its own as a beautiful and haunting exploration of music in the life’s decrescendos.

Ishiguro, Kazuo. Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall. Knopf, 2003. Cloth, dj, octavo, 221 pp. List price: $25.00. Our in-store sale price: $4.95.

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A Consumers’ Republic

A Consumers' Republic


Besides the 4th of July, Thanksgiving and its retail counterpart Black Friday are two of the most uniquely “American” holidays. Does standing in lines and fighting the crowds on Black Friday make you a good American? In A Consumers’ Republic, Bancroft Prize-winning historian Lizabeth Cohen argues that during the second half of the twentieth century, good consumerism and good citizenship became inseparable ideals; a good citizen morphed into a good consumer. She describes the post-war landscape of mass consumption, highlighting its economic, racial and gender inequality with provocative historical accuracy and an eye to the future. Complemented by 64 photographs, this bold and pertinent analysis of the creation of the “citizen consumer” brings the buyer’s history into the present and proffers its contributions to the contemporary unrest of the aptly-named 99%.

Cohen, Lizbeth. A Consumers’ Republic. Vintage, 2003. paperback, octavo, 576 pp. List price: $16.95. Our in-store sale price: $5.95.