{"title":"Staff Picks: Annie","description":"A selection of books chosen by Annie from the Itasca Books shelves. Her picks bring together thoughtful design, compelling voices, cultural exploration, and ideas worth spending more time with.","products":[{"product_id":"begin-one-way-a-childrens-book-of-road-signs","title":"Begin One Way: A Children's Book Of Road Signs","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Exceptionally 'kid friendly' in content organization and presentation, \u003cem\u003eBegin One Way: A Children's Book Of Road Signs\u003c\/em\u003e is especially and unreservedly recommended as a critically important and essential addition to family, daycare center, preschool, elementary school, and community library City Life \u0026amp; Transportation Safety collections.\" -  \u003cstrong\u003eMidwest Book Review \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEnjoy a walk through an urban neighborhood guided by a child eager to share their love of road signs. By the end of this journey, children will be familiar with many common road signs and their meanings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book encourages children to be curious about the world they inhabit, inspires them to explore their own neighborhoods on foot, and empowers them to participate in daily activities like crossing the road safely. The rhyming text and whimsical hand-drawn illustrations will engage and appeal to children and adults alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIoana Stoian\u003c\/strong\u003e is passionate about encouraging children to be authentic and to follow their curiosity about the world around them. She is the author of the board book \u003cem\u003eAlways be You\u003c\/em\u003e (2019) and this is her debut picture book.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Busy Hands Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41681188716694,"sku":"9780957619227","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/products\/img_proxy_2037c915-21e9-430b-a8a2-b903b738e2aa.jpg?v=1650377975"},{"product_id":"holler-a-poet-among-patriots","title":"Holler: A Poet Among Patriots","description":"\u003cp\u003eA tour de force of prose style, \u003cem\u003eHoller\u003c\/em\u003e is poet Danielle Chapman's moving and provocative portrait of her Southern, military childhood — and an unflinching reckoning with what such an inheritance means now. A crucial book for anyone with a racial conscience in today's divided America, Holler is one woman's account of \"the miraculous catastrophe\" of being human in an inhumane world, and proof that it's possible to fully face who we are while searching for forgiveness.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHoller\u003c\/em\u003e begins with Chapman's father's death, in a scuba diving accident in Okinawa, which she witnessed at age three. Brought back to the States by her father's father, the former Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, Chapman soon finds herself in the family's ancestral farmhouse in Tennessee — a tavern built in 1790 and later an antebellum farm. There, Chapman encounters the pungent atmospheres of her Confederate forebears, and a living cast of Southern eccentrics and WWII warhorses, forcing her to confront America's racism and its wars. She enters her Gen X adolescence on fire with liberal outrage, but bewildered by \"what to do about it.\" It's only as an adult, returning to her memories after decades working as a poet and a professor, that Chapman is able to tell the stories that made her childhood — turning up the depth of their sins, their sufferings, their humor, and their grace.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChapman's second collection of poetry, \u003cem\u003eBoxed Juice\u003c\/em\u003e, is forthcoming from Unbound Edition Press in 2024.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDanielle Chapman\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of two collections of poems, \u003cem\u003eDelinquent Palaces\u003c\/em\u003e (Northwestern University Press, 2015) and \u003cem\u003eBoxed Juice\u003c\/em\u003e, which will be released from Unbound Edition Press in Spring 2024. She teaches Shakespeare and creative writing at Yale University and lives in Hamden, CT, with her husband, Christian Wiman, and their daughters, Eliza and Fiona.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eChapman begins this dramatic, frank, witty, and intellectually lush family memoir by citing the perils implicit in chronicling her upbringing in a Southern military household. -\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBooklist\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eHoller\u003c\/em\u003e traces out the strands of self, place and history that bind us to any past we claim or disclaim, that live on in our pride and regret, our nerves and our senses.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eMarilynne Robinson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Danielle Chapman's \u003cem\u003eHoller\u003c\/em\u003e is a magical and rare species of a book that decenters our conclusive judgments and over-moralizing to make room for the complexities of history and the truth of personal stories, hidden narratives, and family lore. I am moved by the grace this book seeks and the textured moments it evokes. The biggest tragedy, the book suggests, is that we are either claimed by beauty and evil, enmeshed in tales that calcify; or, like from the pen of Chapman, released into our greater consciousness to lend us opportunities for insight and redemption.\" -\u003cstrong\u003e Major Jackson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What is it to forgive and to be forgiven? Is history unforgivable? Danielle Chapman was born into a history of sorrow and guilt, a white, Southern, military family, her grandfather a Commandant of the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, her ancestors the owners and traders of enslaved people. With blazing lyric intensity, she recreates the infinitely complicated, sometimes savage, sometimes tender world in which she grew to consciousness. Chapman's story builds to a conclusion of mythic power and surprise made real in every phrase of her phosphorescent prose. An astonishment. A lesson in being human.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eRosanna Warren\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Danielle Chapman's beautiful memoir looks at the American crisis from the inside: a poet and academic from the North reflects on her Southern family history. She investigates with vigor and honesty the story of one family – a story that is sometimes (often) as devastating as American history itself. Chapman's honesty, her unwillingness to look away, to hide from the past is endlessly compelling — as she considers her Southern ancestors unfussed by the evil in their world and in themselves, putting off repentance, or, rather, bequeathing it to me. And here I am, ashamed and yet alive. In a time when so many offer lip-service instead of actual reckoning, Chapman [is]… full of character, full of refusal to speak in platitudes, full of personality and heart, brimming with the kind of verbal music that makes emotion come alive for the reader almost viscerally (indeed, few can write a prose as musical and precise as Chapman's).\u003cem\u003e Holler\u003c\/em\u003e is stunning book.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eIlya Kaminsky\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This memoir arises from Chapman's good nature though there is much to cry over. Chapman's temperament is even and kind. You feel it in the poetic nuances of her sentences, in her precision and wit, in the legacy of literature that enlarges her thoughts. It is a Southern story, American with a bitter and by-now familiar tint of blood and red apples. Chapman has reflected on the many shapes such a story takes, when told without prejudice, and the resulting work has great value.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eFanny Howe\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eHoller\u003c\/em\u003e is exquisite and moving, an excavation of personal history and national mythologies, and Danielle Chapman's complex and sensitive approach offers a brave and insightful path forward as we confront the past.\" - \u003cstrong\u003ePhilip Klay\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Danielle Chapman sees—and lets us see—both the beauty and the horror of her family legacy in this sad, haunting, and, above all, unblinking memoir.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eAnne Fadiman\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Unbound Edition Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46627528966461,"sku":"9798987019955","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/files\/9798987019955ita.jpg?v=1693512140"},{"product_id":"free-the-people-to-free-the-money-to-free-the-people-an-organize-the-rich-anthology-2","title":"Free the People to Free the Money to Free the People: An Organize the Rich Anthology","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFor over fifty years, a growing movement has been quietly organizing wealthy people to redistribute their resources toward justice.\u003c\/b\u003e From the radical rich kids of the 1970s to today's cross-class coalitions, this is the most comprehensive collection of stories to date from the front lines of this work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThrough intimate first-person accounts, strategic analysis, and hard-won wisdom, contributors reveal what it actually looks like to organize across class—the relationships built, experiments tried, victories won, and mistakes made. These pages contain the voices of inheritors giving away millions, organizers building unlikely alliances, and movement leaders grappling with the contradictions of philanthropy and power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt a time when billionaires shape elections and inequality reaches historic levels, this anthology offers both hope and practical wisdom. It shows how the wealthy can be organized not just as donors, but as full participants in creating a just future—freeing the people to free the money to free the people.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eContributors include:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cspan\u003eWinona LaDuke, Rajasvini Bhansali, Iimay Ho, Braeden Lentz, Michael Gast, Linda Burnham, Max Elbaum, Alex T. Tom, Chuck Collins, Marian Moore, Billy Wimsatt, Nigel Charles, Leah Hunt-Hendrix, Sharon Chen and Mijo Lee. \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Organize the Rich","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":50663545700669,"sku":"9798218735340","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/files\/9798218735340ita_1abc6da8-fd58-407f-befb-a610dd858267.jpg?v=1756228424"},{"product_id":"the-authentic-house-architecture-tailored-to-people-and-place","title":"The Authentic House: Architecture Tailored to People and Place","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Authentic House\u003c\/i\u003e celebrates Minneapolis-based Rehkamp Larson Architect's quarter century of work, focusing on 25 houses that embody the spirit and soul of people and place. The projects are organized by location, By the Water, On the Land, and In the City, showing a range of houses settled into their unique landscapes from Midwestern lakes to ocean views and rolling prairie to urban neighborhoods. A guiding philosophy of Rehkamp Larson is that neither the style nor the function of a house is predetermined. Instead, the aesthetics and livability take shape with a creative, iterative process tailored to the homeowners and the land.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTimeless residential architecture balances durability, value, and beauty. It supports the functional parts of everyday life while providing a joyful refuge. Rehkamp Larson's process revolves around creating spaces that resonate deeply with clients through attentive listening, creative thinking, and problem solving. The firm combines the art and science of architecture to create authentic solutions for a wide range of residential types including farmhouse, lake cottage, cabin in the woods, vineyard estate, beach retreat, and neighborhood home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten by Mark Larson and Jean Rekamp Larson, founders of the award-winning Rehkamp Larson Architects based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eContents include:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe history and framework behind the firm's architectural design work\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eInspiration for design of houses by the water, on the land, and in the city\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eProfiles of 25 houses\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFloor plans\/site plans\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003c!--[endif]--\u003eExterior and interior professional photos\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Authors\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMark Larson\u003c\/strong\u003e and\u003cstrong\u003e Jean Rehkamp Larson\u003c\/strong\u003e co-founded Rehkamp Larson Architects in 2000 with the vision of an inspired, collaborative, client-focused residential design practice. At the core of this work is a passion for the creative process of designing good places for people to live.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rehkamp Larson Architects","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":53072025846077,"sku":"9798218890353","price":65.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/files\/9798218890353ita.jpg?v=1789421115"}],"url":"https:\/\/itascabooks.com\/collections\/staff-picks-annie.oembed","provider":"Itasca Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}