The $12 Books of Christmas
For the entire month of December we’re selling twelve select 3RP titles for only $12—only on the Three Rooms Press website! Check out the books below and click the link to pick up your sale books today! Read below for descriptions or just go to the complete 12 Books 12 Dollars Sale page here.
Book 1: THE UNVARNISHED GARY PHILLIPS: A Mondo Pulp Collection
Award-winning author, screenwriter, and editor Gary Phillips gathers his most thrilling, outlandish, and madcap pulp fiction in an 17-story collection that straddles the line between bizarro, science fiction, noir, and superhero classics. Aztec vampires, astral projecting killers, oxygen stealing bombs, undercover space rangers, aliens occupying Los Angeles, right wing specters haunting the ’hood, masked vigilantes and mad scientists in their underground lairs plotting world domination populate the stories in this rip-snorting collection. In these pages grindhouse melds with blaxploitation along with strong doses of B movie hardcore drive-in fare. Phillips, editor of the Anthony Award-winning The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir, and author of One-Shot Harry, and Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem, said this about pulp. “The most common definition of pulp is it’s fast-paced, a story containing out there characters and a wild plot. There is that. But certainly, as we’ve now arrived at the era of retro-pulp, these stories have elements of characterization…not just action but a glimpse behind the steely eyes of these doers of incredible deeds.” As an added bonus, Phillips resurrects Phantasmo, a Golden Age comics character created by Black artist-writer E.C. Stoner in an all-new outing of ethereal doings.
Book 2: LOVESICK BLOSSOMS by Julia Watts
In a small Kentucky college town in 1953, two married women fall madly in love with each other, until a single slip-up in discretion threatens to destroy both their lives. In her new adult novel, award-winning author Julia Watts creates a compelling and emotional tale of passion, power, fulfillment—and consequences—of not playing by the rules in Appalachia. Colleagues and neighbors of Samuel and Boots are more than willing to accept their married status, even though their official relationship is one of convenience that will never be consummated. But when Samuel meets a new professor’s wife, Frances, at a faculty party, she soon falls in love, and learns the difficulty of discretion in a small town—with tragic consequences. LAMBDA award-winning author Julia Watts (Needlework, Quiver) returns to adult fiction in this consummate historical work.
Book 3: ROBIN AND HER MISFITS by Kelly Ann Jacobson
In this complete reimagining of the Robin Hood legend, the “merry men” are a roving gang of fiercely unique queer female bikers, street racers, and thieves, whose leader, Robin, drives them from a life of greed to a pledge to “steal from the rich” and give back to queer girls in need of help. Robin and her four Misfits—Little John, White Rabbit, Daisy Chain, and Skillet—have run away from their families in order to live off the grid on their own terms. For a while, they’re hidden, safe, and happy as they commit petty crimes that provide enough to get by. All that matters is keeping their small clan alive. Then, one mission proposed by an unfriendly associate from their past reminds them of their former lives and motivates the group to a new purpose. The five Misfits develop into a league of strong individuals united by a fresh goal: do whatever it takes to help queer girls rise above oppressive laws and attitudes.
Book 4: ALIEN ARCHIVES by Robert Silverberg
In ALIEN ARCHIVES: Eighteen Stories of Extraterrestrial Encounters, acclaimed sci-fi Grand Master Robert Silverberg collects his finest short stories and novellas about the sci-fi subject that’s making headlines now more than ever: aliens. What makes Aliens Archives an important collection today? Plenty. Consider:
- The U.S. Navy has recently admitted that between 2014 and 2015, pilots reported “almost daily” sightings of UFOs in the air (Rolling Stone, May 28, 2019)
- Oxford professor Young-hae Chi has recently published a book arguing that invisible extraterrestrials live among us—and are breeding with humans to save the planet! (NBC News, May 25, 2019)
- The next Decal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, which aims to “identify and prioritize leading-edge scientific questions and the ways to answer them,” is due out in 2020. Astrobiologists at Caltech are expecting it to focus on extraterrestrial life (Haaretz, June 9, 2019)
In other words, Earth’s first documented encounter with aliens may be closer than ever…making Silverberg’s extraterrestrial speculation necessary for our times!
Book 5: CELESTIAL MECHANICS by William Least Heat-Moon
In this emotional tale of haunted love, CELESTIAL MECHANICS’s Silas Fortunato finds himself locked in a marriage descending toward darkness until the arrival of his sister-in-law and soon thereafter the appearance of a witching neighbor who may or may not be alive. In ways enigmatic, ghostly, and funny, the three women draw him into the equivocal nature of dreams and reality, their influences leading Silas on a journey toward what may be light and a new belonging to something vastly beyond him.
Book 6: DON’T HIDE THE MADNESS: William S. Burroughs in Conversation with Allen Ginsberg
In DON’T HIDE THE MADNESS, the fathers of the Beat movement converse about deeply intimate and personal history while gathered at Burroughs’ house in Lawrence, Kansas. The conversation includes discussion of: - David Cronenberg’s film adaptation of Burroughs’ classic novel Naked Lunch - Shamanism, including a detailed description of the shamanic exorcism of the demon Burroughs believes forced him to kill his common-law wife in 1951 - Literary associates, influences, techniques, and insights - Punk rock’s contributions to counterculture lore With the current political landscape mirroring many aspects of the early Beat period, DON’T HIDE THE MADNESS is particularly timely. Interest in both authors’ work is on the rise. Many consider these legendary icons’ perspectives to particularly prophetic.
Book 7: FULL MOON STAGES: Notes from 50 Years of The Living Theatre
by Judith Malina
As cofounder of the internationally-known, highly-controversial radical political troupe, The Living Theater, author Judith Malina is one of the leading female countercultural figures of the 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond. in FULL MOON STAGES: PERSONAL NOTES FROM 50 YEARS OF THE LIVING THEATRE, she creates an intimate memoir in a unique format with a collection of personal notes written on every full moon for 50 years from 1964 to 2014. These never-before-published entries reveal Malina’s most private thoughts and inform the reader on what The Living Theatre was performing as they wound their way from New York City to Italy, France, Belgium, Germany and Brazil in a nomadic series of notable performances of such underground classics as The Brig, The Connection, and Paradise Now. Malina is relentless in her commitment to the full moon schedule, writing regardless of her current life circumstance. Notes issue forth from hotels, trains—even prison, offering a light on the consequences of holding true to her code of the theatrical expression of her pacifist-anarchist principles. The book’s format is well-suited for modern readers interested in history of the counterculture. In addition, the book includes 30+ rare historical photos from Living Theatre archives.
Book 8: AWE AND OTHER WORDS LIKE WOW by Kat Georges
In her second poetry collection, poet Kat Georges consciously searches for joy in a world of growing darkness. She finds it in unexpected places: at the doctor’s office, after being diagnosed with a serious ailment; on the streets of New York, after hearing a young child’s laugh; facing off with noisy neighbors; in a supermarket vegetable section encounter with a philosopher. Her adamant insistence on seeking light in the darkest of places sets her work apart in a media-driven world seeking out the grief and devastation, and provides both solace and inspiration for the reader. These new poems combine humor and deep insight into human nature to capture moments of much-needed wonder and enchantment. Cover design by Susan Shup.
Book 9: LIFE IN THE PAST LANE: Poems by Peter Carlaftes
In his impressive third volume of poetry, Peter Carlaftes digs into the beauty—and lunacy—of contemporary pop culture and its tendency to masque and disrupt the sustainability not just of the planet, but human nature itself, from love and ecstasy to anger and grief. The poems in Life in the Past Lane are both daring and discreet, ranging from full frontal assaults on political and religious cults to tender, discerning, intimate studies of the challenges of self-faith, relationships and maintaining quiet equilibrium in the noisy space of modern life. Risk-taking and endlessly innovative, Life in the Past Lane offers poems that dare to ask questions to which there is no answer, and to answer the unasked. It looks at the past clear-eyed, without reverence, and studies the place in the road where we are now, weaving cultural and personal memory with the currency that too-often ignores how we arrived. This extraordinary collection, relentlessly accessible, surprises with the depth of poems and the clarity of the thoughts, concepts, and execution that forged them.
Book 10: PUNK AVENUE by Phil Marcade
PUNK AVENUE: Inside the New York City Underground 1972-1982 is an intimate account of Paris-born author Phil Marcade’s first ten years in the United States, where—after drifting from Boston to the West Coast and back—he wound up in New York City and became deeply immersed in the start of the punk rock scene. With brilliant, often hilarious prose, Marcade relays first-hand tales of his experiences, such as having the Ramones play their very first gig at his party, working with Blondie’s Debbie Harry on French lyrics for her songs, enjoying Thanksgiving with Johnny Thunders’ mother, and starting the beloved NYC punk-blues band The Senders.
Book 11: THE OBAMA INHERITANCE: 15 Stories of Conspiracy Noir edited by Gary Phillips
Noir meets diverse voices and transforms the genre into an over-the-top, transcendental psychedelic thriller ride of pulpy goodness in THE OBAMA INHERITANCE: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir. The collection is curated by editor and award-winning crime novelist and activist Gary Phillips, and includes stories by Walter Mosley, Robert Silverberg, Nisi Shawl, Kate Flora, Christopher Chambers and more!
Book 12: SECERT RULES TO BEING A ROCKSTAR by Jessamyn Violet
Eighteen-year-old Kyla Bell dreams of one day being a professional musician… but gets little to no support from her parents. Still, she practices every day and performs locally, harboring her own secret hopes. One night, her dreams are answered in the form of sultry rocker Ruby Sky, the magnetic frontwoman of her favorite band, Glitter Tears. Ruby hears Kyla perform and asks her to join the band on keys for their upcoming tour. In order to accept, Kyla must drop out of her Western Massachusetts high school and move to Los Angeles immediately to live with a renowned yet highly volatile producer who has agreed to put her through “rock star boot camp” in a matter of weeks. Blindsided by her emerging feelings for Ruby Sky, Kyla tumbles through the lights and shadows of the 90s music scene in Los Angeles.Share This!