Blondie’s Parallel Lines mixed punk, disco and radio-friendly FM rock with nostalgic influences from 1960s pop and girl group hits. This 1978 album kept one foot planted firmly in the past while remaining quite forward-looking, an impulse that can be heard in its electronic dance music hit “Heart of Glass.” Bubblegum music maven Mike Chapman produced Parallel Lines, which was the first massive hit by a group from the CBGB punk underworld.By embracing the diversity of New York City’s varied music scenes, Blondie embodied many of the tensions that played out at the time between fans of disco, punk, pop and mainstream rock.

Debbie Harry’s campy glamor and sassy snarl shook up the rock ‘n’ roll boy’s club during a growing backlash against the women’s and gay liberation movements, which helped fuel the “disco sucks” battle cry in the late 1970s. Despite disco’s roots in a queer, black and Latino underground scene that began in downtown New York, punk is usually celebrated by critics and scholars as the quintessential subculture. This book challenges the conventional wisdom that dismissed disco as fluffy prefab schlock while also recuperating punk’s unhip pop influences, revealing how these two genres were more closely connected than most people assume. Even Blondie’s album title, Parallel Lines, evokes the parallel development of punk and disco–along with their eventual crossover into the mainstream.

“An interesting thesis well made in this enjoyable addition to the 33 1/3 series.” – International Times

“A neat snapshot of a time of revolution, reinvention and experimentation … [This book is] every bit as appetising as the album itself, and an astute, erudite examination of one of the greatest albums of all time.” – Record Collector

“It’s a rare treat when an author busts out a tightly researched agenda that totally flips your perspective on a record, a band, a scene, a genre, and an entire artistic era. Kembrew McLeod provides such a treat with this gloriously revisionist history, positing that Blondie and the core of the New York punk scene’s early bands and aesthetics were a product of a wildly vital gay underground theater scene that flourished from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.” – Charles Aaron, MTV News

“There’s a little book I’ve been devouring on the subway this past week or two: Blondie’s Parallel Lines by Kembrew McLeod. It has had me tracing and re-tracing connections all over the place, re-examining my own assumptions about my own evolving musical tastes and cultural assumptions from the time of my first transistor radio … Refreshing.” – One Flew East

Kembrew McLeod is a Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. He has published and produced several books and documentaries about music and popular culture, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Slate, Salon, SPIN, MOJO and Rolling Stone. Kembrew’s documentary Copyright Criminalsaired on PBS’s Emmy Award-winning Independent Lens series, his 2007 book Freedom of Expression® received an American Library Association book award, and his 2014 book Pranksters received a “Best of the Best Books You Should Know About” designation from the American Association of University Presses. He recently was awarded a National Endowment of the Humanities Public Scholar Fellowship to support his next book, The Pop Underground: Downtown New York in the Sixties and Seventies, From Warhol to Blondie, which builds on research done for his book on Blondie’s Parallel Lines in Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series. He is based in Iowa City.

WINNER OF A 2016 AMERICAN BOOK AWARD

The American Slave Coast tells the horrific, far-reaching story of how the slavery business made the reproductive labor of the people it referred to as “breeding women” essential to the expansion of the nation. Amercan slaves were not only labor, but merchandise and collateral all at once. In a land without silver, gold, or trustworthy paper money, their children and their children’s children into perpetuity were human savings accounts that functioned as the basis of money and credit, paying interest to slaveowners in the form of newborns. The collision course of Virginia, the “mother of slavery,” versus South Carolina, the great slave importer, supplied part of the drama of the Constitutional Convention and climaxed in the debacle of the Confederacy. Thomas Jefferson’s prohibition of the African slave trade as of 1808 was not a humanitarian action but instead protected his slave-breeding Virginia constituents—more slave ships came to New Orleans from the East Coast of the United States than from Africa.The American Slave Coast is an alternative political, cultural, and economic history of the United States that shows how the slavery business set the agenda of the colonies and the nation, presenting even the most familiar historical figures and events in a revealing new light.

Critical Praise

“A massive story of impressive research…” —Kirkus

“Riveting and revolting.” —AlterNet.

“The three-hundred-year story has rarely, if ever, been told so fully or so well.“—David Waldstreicher, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, author of Slavery’s Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification

“The Sublettes offer an economic history and theory of slavery that is blunt in its assessment, unassailable in its argument and accessible to a general reader.” —The Guardian

Ned Sublette is the author of Cuba and Its Music, The World that Made New Orleans, and The Year Before the Flood. Constance Sublette published, as Constance Ash, the novels The Horsegirl, The Stalking Horse, and The Stallion Queen, and edited an anthology of science fiction. They live in New York City.

A REFINERY29 BEST BOOK OF 2016

ON THE J.P. MORGAN #NEXTLIST2017

Careers are not linear, predictable ladders any longer; they are fluid trajectories. No matter our age, life stage, bank account balance, or seniority, we are all being asked to navigate career changes much more frequently than in years past. The average employee tenure in America is just four to five years, and even those roles change dramatically within that time. Our economy now demands that we create businesses and careers based on creativity, growth, and impact. In this dynamic world of work, the only move that matters is your next one.

Drawing from her own experience and those of other successful pivoters, Jenny Blake has created a four-stage process that teaches anyone how to seamlessly and continually:

• Double-down on existing strengths, interests, and experiences
• Find new opportunities and identify skills to develop without falling prey to analysis-paralysis and compare-and-despair
• Run small experiments to determine next steps
• Take smart risks to launch with confidence in a new direction

This book is for anyone searching for an answer to the question, “What’s next?”

Whether you have hit a plateau in your perfect-on-paper job, are considering taking on a new role in your current job, are thinking about starting your own business, or you want to move into a new industry altogether, one thing remains clear: your career success depends on your ability to determine your next best move.

If change is the only constant, let’s get better at it.

Jenny Blake is a career and business strategist and international speaker who helps people smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout and create sustainable careers they love. She left her job in career development at Google in 2011 after five and a half years at the company to launch her first book, Life After College, and has since run her own consulting business in New York City.

Like Fela Kuti and Bob Marley, singer, composer, and bandleader Thomas Mapfumo and his music came to represent his native country’s anticolonial struggle and cultural identity. Mapfumo was born in 1945 in what was then the British colony of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The trajectory of his career—from early performances of rock ‘n’ roll tunes to later creating a new genre based on traditional Zimbabwean music, including the sacred mbira, and African and Western pop—is a metaphor for Zimbabwe’s evolution from colony to independent nation. Lion Songs is an authoritative biography of Mapfumo that narrates the life and career of this creative, complex, and iconic figure.

What Happened, Miss Simone?: A Biography by Alan Light (Crown/Archetype, 2016) 

Inspired by the critically acclaimed Netflix documentary What Happened, Miss Simone?, an intimate and vivid look at the legendary life of Nina Simone, the classically trained pianist who evolved into a chart-topping chanteuse and committed civil rights activist. 
 
From music journalist and former Spin and Vibe editor-in-chief Alan Light comes a biography of incandescent soul singer and Black Power icon Nina Simone, one of the most influential, provocative, and least understood artists of our time. Drawn from a trove of rare archival footage, audio recordings and interviews (including Simone’s remarkable private diaries), this nuanced examination of Nina Simone’s life highlights her musical inventiveness and unwavering quest for equality, while laying bare the personal demons that plagued her from the time of her Jim Crow childhood in North Carolina to her self-imposed exile in Liberia and Paris later in life.

Harnessing the singular voice of Miss Simone herself and incorporating candid reflections from those who knew her best, including her only daughter, Light brings us face to face with a legend, examining the very public persona and very private struggles of one of our greatest artists.

“[Nina Simone’s] willingness to speak her mind shines out of every page of Alan Light’s biography.”
–The Times (UK)

“A probing account of Simone’s inner struggles…Far from detracting from her civil rights heroism, it makes that achievement all the more astonishing.”
–The New York Review of Books

“Simone was a genius. Her triumphs and troubles share the stage in Light’s pitch-perfect biography, What Happened, Miss Simone?.”
–Elle

Alan Light has been one of America’s leading music journalists for the past twenty years. He was a senior writer at Rolling Stone, founding music editor and editor-in-chief of Vibe, and editor-in-chief of Spin magazine. Light has appeared as a music and culture expert on numerous television and radio programs, and is currently the director of programming for Live from the Artists Den, a concert series on PBS. He has been a contributor to the New York Times, The New Yorker, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, Elle, and Mother Jones and has won two ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards for his work.

Light is the author of The Skills to Pay the Bills, an oral history of the Beastie Boys; The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah”; and cowriter of the New York Times bestselling memoir by Gregg Allman, My Cross to Bear, and Let’s Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain.

The Cannabis Manifesto by Steve DeAngelo (North Atlantic Books 2015)

With medical marijuana now being recognized as a major healthcare issue, the question is no longer whether cannabis will be legalized, or even when it will be legalized. The most important and pressing questions at this point are: how will it be legalized? How will it be regulated and marketed, by whom and in what manner? In THE CANNABIS MANIFESTO, longtime activist Stephen DeAngelo charts a clear, well-reasoned course to bring cannabis responsibly into the mainstream of American life. He looks beyond the question of if and when to examine the real challenges facing society as it brings this heretofore illegal substance out of the shadows.

Stephen DeAngelo is a longtime cannabis activist – arguably the national political leader of the $22.5 billion annual cannabis industry – and is the founder of the largest medical cannabis dispensary in the world, The Harborside Health Center, based in the Bay Area. DeAngelo has been featured by The New York Times, Fortune Magazine, The Washington Post, CNN, The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, BBC, and many others. His creation of a model medical cannabis dispensary coupled with his extensive knowledge as a lifelong activist make him one of the most respected speakers in the cannabis and hemp industries.

Critical Praise

“In The Cannabis Manifesto, Steve DeAngelo has written what amounts to the Declaration of Independence for Cannabis.”—Sara Davidson, author of Loose Change

“Steve DeAngelo is the earliest pioneer of socially responsible and patient- and community-centric cannabis distribution. If you are wondering if medical cannabis might help you or a friend or family member, or if you have questions about medical cannabis, or if you’re just trying to figure out what this issue entails, let this book be your guide.”
—Willie L. Brown, Jr., 41st mayor of San Francisco

“Steve DeAngelo is the kind of devoted activist who normally would get hospitals and schools named after him, if he had been advocating something more mainstream. He is articulate, fiercely tenacious, and lives by his own principles, in life and in business. But as our recent history has shown, he might have something more important than a monument—a victory.”
—Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me

“A pioneering voice in the movement to liberate the cannabis plant and those who rely on it for health and wellness, Steve DeAngelo shares his vision for a more just world in this forward-thinking manifesto.”
—Aaron Smith, executive director of National Cannabis Industry Association

“Steve DeAngelo has been an icon in the cannabis movement and industry for a very long time. I don’t know that there’s anyone on the planet right now that possesses Steve’s level of business savvy and knowledge of the cannabis plant. When Steve offers up his wisdom, people should listen and try to soak up as much knowledge as they can. I know I do. The Cannabis Manifesto is a book that every cannabis enthusiast should have on their bookshelves.”
—Johnny Green. editor of the Weed Blog

“By willing into existence a lab to test the cannabis provided to patients by his dispensary, Steve DeAngelo jump-started the CBD era in America.”
—Fred Gardner, managing editor, O’Shaughnessy’s clinical journal

“Steve DeAngelo says what needs to be said in this bold and thoughtful manifesto.  He’s a role model for budding cannabis entrepreneurs who understand the unique relationship of this nascent industry to the broader struggle for freedom and justice in America.”
—Ethan Nadelmann, Founder and Executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

” There’s no greater authority in the United States on marijuana and the laws surrounding it than Steve DeAngelo.”
—Morgan Spurlock, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, producer, CNN’s Inside Man

“Finally, an intelligent public discourse about cannabis. Steve DeAngelo, with his huge heart, brilliant mind, and activist spirit, has created in The Cannabis Manifesto an invitation to a promising paradigm shift.”
—Ricky Williams, NFL professional, Heisman Trophy winner

Unique portraits of legendary characters along South America’s mountain spine, from Charles Darwin to the present day, told by a master traveler and observer.

The Andes Mountains are the world’s longest mountain chain, linking most of the countries in South America. Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and author Kim MacQuarrie takes us on a historical journey through this unique region, bringing fresh insight and contemporary connections to such fabled characters as Charles Darwin, Pablo Escobar, Che Guevara, and many others. He describes the floating islands of Lake Titicaca, where people’s lives depend entirely on a reed that grows there. He introduces us to a Patagonian woman who is the last living speaker of her language, as he explores the disappearance and sometimes surprising resiliency of indigenous cultures throughout the Andes. He meets a man whose grandfather witnessed Butch Cassidy’s last days in Bolivia,tracks down the ballet dancer who once hid the leader of the brutal Shining Path in her home, and hears a harrowing story from the school teacher who gave Che Guevara his final meal.

Through the stories he shares, MacQuarrie raises such questions as, where did the people of South America come from? Did they create or import their cultures? What makes South America different from other continents—and what makes the cultures of the Andes different from other cultures in South America? Why did Peru’s Shining Path leader Guzmán nearly succeed in his revolutionary quest while Che Guevara in Bolivia so quickly failed? And what so astounded Charles Darwin in South America that led him to conceive the theory of evolution? Deeply observed and beautifully written, Life and Death in the Andes shows us this land as no one has before.

Kim MacQuarrie is a four-time Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and award-winning author who has lived and worked all over the world. Educated in the US and France, he lived for five years in Peru and spent some of that time living with a recently contacted tribe in the Amazon jungle, only 100 miles from Machu Picchu. He is the author of The Last Days of the Incas, as well as three illustrated books about Peru. He currently divides his time between the US, Peru, and Thailand. Visit him at KimMacQuarrie.com.

Critical Praise

“MacQuarrie writes smartly and engagingly and with a sense of populist enthusiasm about the variety of South America’s life and landscape.” –Tom Zoellner, The New York Times Book Review

“The human history that has shaped South America is dramatically re-created in this rich account of iconic Andes characters, from Pablo Escobar and Hiram Bingham, to Che Guevara and Butch Cassidy.” —National Geographic Traveler

“This is a well-written, immersive work that history aficionados, particularly those with an affinity for Latin America, will relish.” —Library Journal Review

“Richly detailed….deeply felt…thoughtfully observed.”   — Kirkus

Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties by Elijah Wald (Dey Street/ HarperCollins, July 2015)

LISTED IN THE NEW YORK TIMES‘ TOP TEN OF 2015 LIST

WINNER OF THE 2016 ASCAP VIRGIL THOMSON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING MUSIC CRITICISM

WINNER OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY’S 2016 MUSIC IN AMERICAN CULTURE AWARD

In Dylan Goes Electric!, Elijah Wald explores the cultural, political and historical context of this seminal event that embodies the transformative decade that was the sixties. Wald delves deep into the folk revival, the rise of rock, and the tensions between traditional and groundbreaking music to provide new insights into Dylan’s artistic evolution, his special affinity to blues, his complex relationship to the folk establishment and his sometime mentor Pete Seeger, and the ways he reshaped popular music forever. Breaking new ground on a story we think we know, Dylan Goes Electric! is a thoughtful, sharp appraisal of the controversial event at Newport and a nuanced, provocative, analysis of why it matters.

“A great work of scholarship, brimming with insight – among the best music books I have ever read.” —John Harris, The Guardian

“Devastatingly smart analysis . . . Wald is a remarkably sharp and graceful writer, capable of drawing extraordinary connections between artists, genres, and cultural moments. There’s simply no one better when it comes to unpacking not just the mechanics of American music, but the mythology of American music.” — Amanda Petrusich, author of Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World’s Rarest 78rpm Records

The Lost Treasures of R&B: A D Hunter Mystery by Nelson George (Akashic Books 2015)

With gentrifying Brooklyn as the backdrop, D works to unravel various mysteries—both criminal and musical—while coming to terms with the failure of his security company and the ghosts of his childhood in “old Brooklyn.” Like its predecessors The Accidental Hunter and The Plot Against Hip Hop, The Lost Treasures of R&B uses pop music as the backdrop for a noir-flavored big-city tale.

Another Little Piece of My Heart by Richard Goldstein (Bloomsbury 2015)

In 1966, at the age of twenty-two, Richard Goldstein approached The Village Voice with a novel idea. “I want to be a rock critic,” he said. “What’s that?” the editor replied. It was a logical question, since rock criticism didn’t yet exist. In the weekly column he would produce for the Voice, Goldstein became the first person to write regularly in a major publication about rock as a serious art form. From his unique position in journalism, he saw and participated in the full arc of events that shaped culture and politics in the 1960s. He toured with Janis Joplin, spent a day at the Grateful Dead house in San Francisco, and dropped acid with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. He was present for Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the student uprising at Columbia, and the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention. He was challenged to a boxing match by Norman Mailer and took Susan Sontag to her first disco. Goldstein developed close relationships with several rock legends –– Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, to name two –– and their early deaths came as a wrenching shock, fueling his disillusionment as he watched the music he loved rapidly evolve from a communal rite to a vast industry and the sense of hope for radical social upheaval fade away. ANOTHER LITTLE PIECE OF MY HEART is the intimate memoir of the writer as a young man with profound ambition. It is also a sweeping personal account of a decade that no one else could provide –– a deeply moving, unparalleled document of rock and revolution in America.

“A deeply felt and largely compelling portrait of an age that indelibly marked everyone who took part in it. Indispensable for understanding the culture of the sixties and the music that was at its heart.”

—Kirkus (starred review)