Mostly unpublished works from such fine writers and comic artists as Joe Biel (Perfect Mix Tape Segue), Shosh Cohen (The Gulper), Krissy Durden (Figure 8, Paper Crush), Nicole Georges (Invincible Summer), Rebecca Gilbert (Verboslammed, Napcore), Shawn Granton (10' Rule), Kate Haas (Miranda), Korinna Irwin (Rock Star with Words), Kate Lopresti (Constant Rider), Clutch McBastard (Clutch), Aaron Renier (Spiral Bound), Tim Root (Crappy Comics), Mark Russell (Penny Dreadful), Jack Saturn (We Ain't Got No Car), Kirstin Tonningsen (Zigzaggery), and Alex Wrekksaurus (Brainscan, Stolen Sharpie Revolution), and loads more! A fine example of the shining creative community that embodies "puddletown".

New 3rd Edition! Kyle Bravo has assembled his HOW2 zines into a comprehensive book along with dozens of other instructional articles that tell you how to do...just about everything. Topics include getting active, direct action, gardening, making a woodstove, solar box cooker, egg replacer, how to make wine, homebrewing, liberated lifestyles, squats, homeschooling, fixing a toilet, audio phone patch, how to make envelopes, shoe repair, silk screening, making rubber stamps, how to juggle, magic tricks, making puppets, how to patch your clothes, putting utensils on your keychain, how to sing, bird feeders, how to play guitar, putting out records, billboard improvement, how to fix your bike, basic car maintenance, building a bike cart, how to take pride in your body, how to sexually stimulate your partner, diy birth control, how to handle an overdose, self defense, knowing your rights, how to live a more fulfilling life, unschooling, starting a fire with friction, making glue from pine sap, making rope, wild food, natural remedies, fire logs from newspapers, rubbing alcohol campstove, composting, diy toothpaste, getting rid of fruit flies, greywater systems, composting toliets, making hanging and floating tents, saving money at the post office, making posters and stencils, packing for tours, places to dumpster dive, making a tape wallet, building a cart-bike, cleaning stamps, blockprinting, fixing a harmonica, diy flowerpots, avoiding dangerous household chemicals, preventing ear infections, how women can pee standing up, menstrual massages, and a few pieces for inspiration. I'm sure you can see by now why this is essential. ISBN 0-9726967-9-2

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“I hated school. I hated work. I hated boredom. I had no interests. I had a happy childhood. There was school, growing up, questions about the future. I was 21. I had no dream.” begins the book with no title, no author, no description of the contents, and no blurbs.

Comparisons to "Evasion" are inevitable as is the general hobo lifestyle, situationism, and approach here.

Written by an alienated twentysomething who is perceptive, honest, true to himself, self-conscious and consistent enough to constitute what amounts to a literary style.

“Drunken episodes continued, music played on; there was hysterical laughter, stupid games, crashing shins on coffee tables, spilling beer on ashy couches, collapsing at bar entrances, staring out at car windows driven by drunks and fools. I gazed with half-shut eyes at a slowly rising sun—on to the next town, the next fix. Ruination unending."

“I stumbled through streets in the night, away from the intoxicated noise. Buildings swayed in the dark. I fell against a lamppost and tried to breathe.”

There's plenty of montage here and it's not all depressing either. “We rode slow in the sun and looked at the great houses with nobody around—three- and four-car garages, wide smooth driveways, country-style mailboxes, shrubs and trees in beds of wood-chips, expensive basketball hoops with no kids around—everything quiet in the country with the sun and the breeze blowing over the wide strips of asphalt. Large houses sat on hills like statues hacked out of boulders and preserved by gods.

We giggled like little kids. Sybil rode the bike like a grasshopper on a horse. She pedaled hard up the hills, making the big wheels turn. I wanted to explode with happiness . . .”

The unnamed narrator goes to college, drops out, hangs outs and reads, moves on, gets loaded at parties, despairs over women, hitchhikes, sleeps under bridges, walks along trashy roadsides and explores duplicated suburban towns, runs out of money, spends a few days at home, despairs over his parents’ sincere efforts to get him to get ahold of himself, goes to Europe, finds life there just as dead-end as here, returns, increases his chemical intake, and finds himself snared deeper and deeper by a whirlpool of drug dependency and hopelessness.

By the end he can’t believe how hopeless and low he’s gotten, how much he drinks, how the kids he went to college with have grabbed hold of some kind of life while he’s still wallowing in nothingness. He renders up his self-horror with such energy and aesthetic care that it makes up for his rubbing our faces in the deep American muck.

We live in a world of 80,000 edible plants where about 150 are being cultivated, and only 8 are traded globally. A world that produces food for 12 billion people when there are only 6.3 billion people living, and 800 million suffer from hunger and malnutrition - with many more suffering from diseases easily eliminated with better food. Food is modified to travel long distances rather than to be nutritious and flavorful. This book draws up a program for food and agriculture to become more socially and ecologically sustainable. Food is vital to the health of our bodies, economies, and environment - and this book imagines a food system that is sustainable, healthy, and just.

Just as "Chicago Stories" goes out of print, we are treated to another new short book from Aaron Cometbus. It pulls together a few selections previously publishing in other zines, magazines, and newspapers to create a story about his time in New York City, taking a walk for his 30th birthday, the switch of an old friend to a new lover, coffee reviews in Pensacola, a clever book review of Peops by Fly, a library love story, and more. I predict this book will be out of print by the end of the year if you don't already have enough reasons to snatch it up!

Based on extensive interviews with pupils and teachers, this book investigates the potential of educational alternatives. Between 1910 and 1960 anarchists across the US established more than twenty schools where children studied in an atmosphere of freedom and self-reliance - in contrast to the formality and discipline of the traditional classroom. They sought to abolish all forms of authority and to usher in a new society based on the voluntary cooperation of free individuals. Participants included Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger, Alexander Berkman, and Man Ray.

It's possible Bill Daniel is the most inspiring filmmaker of our day. With an impressive filmography that includes work on Craig Baldwin's Sonic Outlaws and as Vanessa Renwick's long-time collaborator, Daniel has crafted a remarkable book to go with his twenty-years-in-the-making Who Is Bozo Texino? - a documentary about modern day hoboes, rail workers and a forgotten outsider subculture. It's a rollicking rail zine of boxcar graffiti and obscure railroad nostalgia - the result of a 25 year obsession with hobo and railworker folklore. Freight riding stories, interviews with hoboes and boxcar artists, historical oddities and tons of photos of modern day boxcar tags are all presented in the guise of a vintage rail fanzine.

In this classic work of American nonfiction the greatest labor organizer in US history details her three quarter century fight for labor's liberation, and her unswerving belief in industrial unionism as the key to that struggle. In steel, railroading, metal mining, textiles, and above all, the coal industry, Mother Jones fought alongside strikers. Here too is the exciting story of her crusade against child labor, her innovative efforts to organize working women, her experiences in court and in jail, and her daring involvement in the Mexican Revolution. Mother Jones' lively narrative - every page bristling with her characteristic humor, indignation and uncommon sense - is a masterpiece of American radicalism. This abundantly illustrated new edition includes a host of valuable additions. In a new Foreword Meridel LeSueur vividly recalls her 1914 meeting with Mother Jones. IWW historian Fred Thompson's Afterword provides useful background and fills in important gaps in Mother Jones' story. Also included are a Mother Jones article from 1901, a tribute by Eugene V Debs, an introduction by Clarence Darrow, helpful annotations to the text, a full bibliography and an index.

New edition! A thorough introduction and motivational tool for women wanting to make film or video. Contents include cameraless filmmaking, super 8 basics, animation, make your own (how to produce a no-budget short film while being unemployed), activist camera/ film in community, basics of video & exercises for the beginner, girls & filmmaking, screenwriting, what is a short film?, what is a long film?, DIY drive-In, organize your own film festival, submitting to film festivals, and a list of resources for filmmakers. An indepensible resource for novices and pros alike. Now a paperback book!

A group of teenage queer punks get in perpetual trouble with the police when they aren't flirting over loud music or postering their high school with flyers to allow same sex couples at prom. It's like they were your actual high school peers - pissing off the administration and taking care of each other when they get beat up by skinheads. Liz Baillie has a real talent for dialogue, characters, storytelling, and capturing New York - especially those moments that we all live, awkwardly making out, pulling pranks, and drinking beer. This graphic novel collects the first five (out of 10) issues of the comic My Brain Hurts. Listen to a 90 min podcast interview with Liz about all things comical! ISBN 978-1-934620-03-8

I think it's fairly safe to assume that most people reading this description have attended a punk show in their time - making this book a fairly universal and nostalgic stroll down memory lane. The interesting part of this book though is that most of the names here are familiar - Blake Schwarzenbach, Michelle Tea, Russ Rankin, Michael Azerrad, Blag Dahlia, Ben Sizemore, Boff Whalley, Joe Queer, Paul Curran, Harrison Haynes, and many more. The best story of all though is by none other than Ann Kanaan, mother of Ramsey Kanaan about working "security" at a Political Asylum show in 1982 so her son would be able to perform!

For punk parents and beyond comes Jessica Mill's parenting guide, "My Mother Wears Combat Boots." Culled from her magazine column of the same name (in Maximum Rock and Roll) the contents are warm and engaging, even for non-parents such as your reviewer here. It's part memoir, part how-to, and follows Jessica's trials and triumphs as she raises her daughter Emma Joy into an energetic 5 year old. The book covers topics including: Pregnancy, birthing, going back to work, breast-feeding, the family bed, cursing, gender coding, first foods, traveling with kids and a whole lot more. This zinester writes in such a fluid and charming way, you already hope she's writing a follow up for years 5-10! I'm guessing that most mamas can relate to what Jessica's written and probably also wish they'd read this book sooner! Touching and informative.

After another 2 year hiatus, we are welcomed back to the dark, jaded musings of Al Burian. This time Al collects Burn Collector #10, 11, 12, 13 as well as Natural Disasters #1 and 2 and a teeny bit from Punk Planet. The highlight is Al comparing himself to Kilgore Trout, from Kurt Vonegut's "Breakfast of Champions", a man in his mid-50s; still failed in his profession, using inventive ways of getting through life as an unsuccessful writer. The ironies are definitely present as Al is one of the most respected rock musicians and zine writers around today, yet the comparison makes sense as Al's ex-girlfriend marries someone else (reception at his house, nonetheless). He tries to breakup with a different girlfriend for an entire issue while even his mother is insisting that he should. He travels around Europe and goes to a family reunion in Germany as the family's perpetual loser, where his mother laments how terrible all of his bands' albums are and his family wonders why he has so little income. This book features some of the most solid writing you'll encounter in zines; employing foreshadowing, characters, irony, recurring themes, and metaphor; making for an excellent read. If you aren't already familiar with Burn Collector or just never picked up some of these issues - close your curtains, unplug your phone, bake some cookies, and recline with this book!

Just in time for the 2007 New Orleans Book Fair, the New Orleans super discount pack! We've combined 3 books and 8 zines, focused on life in New Orleans at a discount of $10. Included are: The NEW Chainbreaker book!, Leaning With Intent to Fall (Ethan's new book!) Stories Care Forgot, I Hate This Part of Texas/Keep Loving Keep Fighting #7, I Hate This Part of Texas #5, Crescent City Stories, New Orleans My Love, Emergency #5, Rocket Queen #2, the Gentrification Reader, And The War at Home: New Orleans After Katrina.

Dave Roche's tales of woe from working as an substitute education assistant in Portland's school system. He helps kids who can't function in normal classrooms focus on their work and keeps kids from fighting while they tease him or adorably flirt with him. It's a real heartwarming ticket to putting a smile on your face or turning your day around. Illustrations from Clutch McBastard, Nicole Georges, Keith Rosson, Nate Beaty, Shawn Granton, and Aaron Renier. New third edition has corrected errors, updated content, a new epilogue, and it's blue! ISBN 0-9726967-5-X

*** NEW *** Listen to a podcast of Dave reading his book from the Thinkin, Stinkin, Rarely Drinkin Tour!

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NAME THAT DEMON!!! Freaky boyfriends! Shouting Moms! Innocence betrayed! Rotten things we've done that will haunt us forever! These are some of the pickled demons Lynda Barry's stories serve up comic-strip style, mixing the true and un-true into something she calls "autobifictionalography." Inspired by a 16th-century Zen monk's painting of a hundred demons chasing each other across a long scroll, and encouraged by a 20th-century editor at Salon.com, Barry's demons jump out of these pages and double-dare you to speak their names.

Every now and then, things explode. Riots, uprisings, revolutions, and new and bizarre social groups spring up seemingly from nowhere. Our standard histories tend to treat these as oddities, if treated at all, or as misguided responses to hard times, limited by lack of responsible leadership. For the first time in English, here's a people's history to puncture that balloon. From the Cynics and Spartacus through the Levelers, Diggers, and Ranters to the Revolution of the Carnation, the San Francisco Diggers, Red Guard of Shenwulian, Brethren of the Free Spirit, Guevara, the Provos, and the Metropolitan Indians. Nearly 100 episodes of the revolt and utopia that popped up without a plan or a leader, from the ancient Greeks to the present. Orgasms of History also includes Volny's original artwork and sketches of the characters involved in the greatest, most inspiring events of all time. Yves Fremion lives in Paris, where he participated in the May '68 orgasm.

New edition! An Examination of the history of police violence from a radical, yet pragmatic and highly readable perspective. Written for lay readers and scholars alike, we're shown that police misconduct isn't just a matter of 'bad apples,' but a function of the very nature of policing in the United States. Williams examines the populations most often subjected to police abuse and the forms it takes. Studies of modern police forces evolved from slave patrols and protection rackets, racism in law enforcement, critiques of 'community' policing, and suggests strategies for combating police violence. He also includes a chapter on prison economics, with an emphasis on how police have cooperated with politicians to increase the number of prisons. Practical guidance to activists, and the future to making police obsolete.

Brought to the limelight in Sam Green's documentary, this book brings to life America's most famous renegades, the "Weather Underground". Based on detailed and original research, this book is a gripping account of the actions and motivations of the group of white people who risked their born privilege to oppose war and racism. At the same time, it provides a nuanced and critically engaged study demonstrating the Weather Underground's contemporary significance.

This engaging, and timely book tells the untold story of the "Weather Underground", from its incendiary beginnings to its tumultuous end. In an unsparing critical analysis, Berger uses dozens of in-depth interviews with former members and other long-time activists to trace the group's evolution in relation to the civil rights, Black Power, and anti-war movements. From the Students for a Democratic Society of the 1960s through the political trials of the 1980s, "Outlaws of America" is a history of the Weather Underground that clearly resonates today. It is essential reading for students, activists, and anyone concerned about both the state of the world and what to do about it.

Previous books on the subject lacked sources and clarity due to Grand Jury proceedings and an uncertain future for the members. Dan Berger has been able to combine all existing sources as well as finally procuring direct sources to bring us the most complete document about this essential group.

Anarchist activist and author Peter Gelderloos first recommended this book to me years ago, and these days Ward Churchill's Pacifism As Pathology is one of the first books I would grab to explain my politics to just about anyone. Actually, it's a really good prequel to Gelderloos's book...

Issuing a counterargument to a particular "liberal" brand of secular worship of pacifism, Churchill criticizes Gandhi, 1960s anti-war activists, and Martin Luther King, Jr's Civil Rights struggle as victories DESPITE rather than BECAUSE of their non-violent practices. Ultimately, this book is hella inspiring for its very real criticism of the candy-ass, apologetic, guilt-ridden liberal movement that tells us that non-violence (like voting, paying taxes, buying local, and just saying no to Starbux) is the key to social change. Churchill's idea of revolution is a little more... direct.

In late 1991 and early 1992, Joe Sacco spent two months with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, traveling and taking notes. Upon returning to the States, he started writing and drawing Palestine, which combined the techniques of eyewitness reportage with the medium of comic-book storytelling to explore this complex, emotionally weighty situation. It won lots of awards, and quite right too. It is a brilliant, amazing book, now compiled into one massive volume. "A political and aesthetic work of extraordinary originality, quite unlike any other in the long, often turgid and hopeless debates that had occupied Palestinians, Israelis, and their respective supporters...With the exception of one or two novelists and poets, no one has ever rendered this terrible state of affairs better than Joe Sacco." [from the introduction by Edward Said]

Straddling formats between zine, book, and artist book - this is a collection of John Meijas' various zines and comics from time he spent working as a teacher. Some stories are funny or minimalist comics. Others are serious and warming or heart wrenching. He shares a love of The Clash with his co-worker, organizes to paint murals in the school, and dealing with unpleasant students, principals, and school boards. The packaging and presentation is pretty artistic and much of the enjoyability of this is the depth and variety with which he explores the situations as well as the varieties of artwork presented. I'm generally impressed by everything they do as the bar of quality is set really high with each issue.

"What do you want?" is a constant query put to economic and globalization activists. In yet another volume, Albert expounds on his answer—participatory economics, "parecon" for short—a new economy, an alternative to capitalism, built on familiar values including solidarity, equity, diversity, and people democratically controlling their own lives, but utilizing original institutions fully described and defended in this book.

New! From The New Press! An entire People's History series, edited by Howard Zinn! Here we have a big honkin' book, full of first-person accounts and extensively researched primary sources. Finally, collected in one place are in-depth accounts from the women, minorities, and the lower classes, whose stories are so often overlooked, especially in times of war. A winding journey beyond the rhetoric of black and white, north and south, it raises the bar for history texts to come.

How much do you know about the Mexican Revolution?

• In December 1914 the peasant armies of Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata conquered Mexico City and established a peasant government there.

• Mexico’s 1917 constitution granted the right of peasants and peasant communities to own the land they tilled.

• Mexico’s 1917 constitution established an eight-hour workday, a minimum wage, the rights to establish unions, to collectively bargain, and the right to strike—rights not seen in the United States until the 1930s and later.

This book was first published in Spanish in 1971, The Mexican Revolution has been praised by Mexico’s Nobel Prize–winning author Octavio Paz as a “notable contribution” to history and is widely recognized as a seminal account of the Mexican Revolution. Written during the author’s time as a political prisoner in the famous penitentiary of Lecumberri in Mexico, it became widely accepted as the official textbook by history faculties in Mexico despite Gilly’s continued incarceration.

This comprehensively revised and updated edition of the original text is available in paperback for the first time, with a foreword by Latin American history scholar Friedrich Katz and a new preface to the English edition by the author. A true “people’s history,” The Mexican Revolution is a stirring, bottom-up account of an event whose reverberations are still felt throughout Latin America and the rest of the world.