New York: Akashic Books, (2019). First edition - "Rick Nagano is a graduate student in the history department at USC, struggling to make rent on his South Los Angeles apartment near the neighborhood where his family once lived. When he lands a job as a research assistant for the elderly Mrs. W--, the heir to an oil fortune, he sees it at first simply as a source of extra cash. But as he grows closer to the iconoclastic, charming, and feisty Mrs. W--, he gets drawn into a world of privilege and wealth far different from his racially mixed, blue-collar beginnings." Crime Reads called this ". . assured and marvelous, an absorbing rags among riches tale about a broke USC grad student who finds himself swept off his feet by Los Angeles's insular, powerful .01% class. It's a contemporary novel that feels like an instant classic, with the sinister glamour of Sunset Boulevard, and a fresh, original point of view." 240 pp.

Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, (2004). First edition - A book by a tea planter's wife, who lived on a tea estate in Assam, India for 20 years and her son, an anthropologist, one which "delves into the history of the leaf that over thousands of years became 'the world's favorite drink,' emphasizing the links between tea and political, cultural, social and economic events in China, Japan, India and England, where the British obsession with that 'nice cup of tea' fueled the rapid growth of the British Empire. They also expound on the health benefits of tea, listing its many medicinal properties and contending that when tea was first introduced into China, Japan and England, it led to a decline in mortality rates because boiling the water to make it kills harmful bacteria. The story comes full circle in the final chapters, which concentrate on the hardships of the 'coolies' who labored to harvest and process tea under the control of their rapacious British overlords. (Publishers Weekly) Illustrated, notes, bibliography, index. xi, 308 pp

New York: Warner, (1991). First edition - An epic historical saga by this award-winning author - it "follows two intertwined yet bitterly antagonistic families from their Pilgrim origins to the present day.. . An observant mariner on board the Mayflower keeps a detailed log and chronicles a shocking incident that would bring shame and dishonor upon the Bigelow family if it were made known. The log is lost, but its trail gleams like a golden thread through the narrative, and, as the ever-wealthier Bigelows and the rakish Hilyards clash bitterly over the years . . After Martin's less than reverent look at our Pilgrim forefathers, he packs the narrative with abundant adultery, several massacres, pirateering, slave-trading and rum-running. In the current generation, Geoff Hilyard is trying to save his part of Jack's Island from avaricious Bigelow developers. To stave off financial ruin, he is searching for the elusive Mayflower log, now an enormously valuable historical document. Martin gives Michener a run for his money with this rousing tale." (Publishers Weekly) With a reported first printing of 75,000 copies, this advance issue is much more uncommon than the hardcover. 652 pp.

New York: Viking, (2019). SIGNED first edition - A novel which recreates the years from 1947-1963 and the relationship between Tennessee Williams and his lover Frank Merlo. Castellani's "first achievement is to create a world, one inhabited largely by young, charming gay men, that seems to be comprised almost entirely of late nights and last cigarettes and picnics on good blankets and linen suits with the trousers rolled to the knees. The scenes glitter with a strong sexual pulse. His second achievement is to pry this milieu open and pour a series of intricate themes into it Ñ not merely the nature of fidelity and of the artistic impulse but also the manifold variety of estrangements and humiliations that come with being the lover of a much more famous and talented man." (NY Times) SIGNED on the title page with the word "Enjoy." 357 pp.

New York: Putnam, (2019). SIGNED first edition - The author's second novel, "about a struggling writer who gets his big break, with a little help from the most famous woman in America. After years of trying to make it as a writer in 1990s New York City, James Smale finally sells his novel to an editor at a major publishing house: none other than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. . . But when the book's forthcoming publication threatens to unravel already fragile relationships, James finds that he can't bring himself to finish the manuscript. Jackie and James develop an unexpected friendship, and she pushes him to write an authentic ending, encouraging him to head home to confront the truth about his relationship with his mother." SIGNED on the title page. 308 pp.

New York: Free Press / Simon & Schuster, (2008). First edition - The author's first novel, winner of the Man-Booker award (only the fourth Indian writer to receive this), and basis of the 1921 film of the same name. "Halwai, the narrator, is a modern Indian hero. In a nation proudly shedding a history of poverty and underdevelopment, he represents, as he himself says, tomorrow but it's a more complicated story than Balram initially lets on. Before moving to Bangalore, he was a driver for the son of a feudal landlord. One rainy day in Delhi, he crushed the skull of his employer and stole a bag containing a large amount of money, capital that financed his Bangalore taxi business. That business ferrying technology workers to and from their jobs depends, in turn, on keeping the police happy with the occasional bribe. As a parable of the new India, then, his tale has a distinctly macabre twist. He is not only an entrepreneur but a roguish criminal with a remarkable capacity for self-justification, and the background against which he operates is not just a resurgent economy and nation but a landscape of corruption, inequality and poverty." Promotional material laid in. 276 pp.

New York: Atria (Simon & Schuster), (2016). First edition - Cuban-born author's first novel, one which "spans 70-plus years as two girls tell their gripping stories in alternating chapters. We meet Hannah Rosenthal in 1939 Berlin. A lively 11-year-old, she likes to roam the city with her best friend, Leo. But the Nazis are closing in, forcing Jewish families like the Rosenthals to flee. Anna Rosen, also 11, lives in contemporary New York City with her mother, who has become increasingly despondent since the death of her husband on 9/11. His life was shrouded in mystery, and Anna is desperate to know more about him. Back in Germany, the Rosenthals set sail on the SS St. Louis, bound for Havana. The St. Louis carried 937 passengers, most of them Jewish refugees, whom the Cuban government has promised to take in. But the Cubans renege, allowing only 28 people to come ashore. Those remaining are forced to return to Europe, where many perish." Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor. Includes a list of all the passengers on the St. Louis. 347 pp.

New York: Penguin, 2004. SIGNED first edition - Inspiring and touching by turns, this book puts a human face on an emotional issue. "'We are all the same' was the closing line of young AIDS sufferer Nkosi Johnson's message to participants at a conference in Durban. Born HIV-positive, Nkosi was adopted by Gail Johnson, a white South African woman, after his mother's death from AIDS. His story became a symbol of the AIDS crisis in Africa when Johnson tried to enroll him in a public school. ABC News reporter Jim Wooten followed Nkosi's experiences as he became a celebrity in his own country and worldwide. Wooten makes the story of Nkosi's short life a personal one; his admiration for the boy is clear." INSCRIBED on the title page and dated in the year of publication. 244 pp.

New York: Penguin, 2004. SIGNED first edition - Inspiring and touching by turns, this book puts a human face on an emotional issue. "'We are all the same' was the closing line of young AIDS sufferer Nkosi Johnson's message to participants at a conference in Durban. Born HIV-positive, Nkosi was adopted by Gail Johnson, a white South African woman, after his mother's death from AIDS. His story became a symbol of the AIDS crisis in Africa when Johnson tried to enroll him in a public school. ABC News reporter Jim Wooten followed Nkosi's experiences as he became a celebrity in his own country and worldwide. Wooten makes the story of Nkosi's short life a personal one; his admiration for the boy is clear." SIGNED on the title page. 244 pp.

New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, (2002). First edition - A powerful memoir in which "Forna searches for the truth about her father's execution in Sierra Leone after his treason conviction. Mohamed Forna, a British-educated doctor and activist in what was, in the 1960s, a fledgling democracy extricating itself from British colonialist rule, resigned from what had become a dictatorship rife with corruption and chaos. . . Lush descriptions of her idyllic childhood provide eerie counterpoint to chilling depictions of the hell Sierra Leone had become upon her return in recent years, a place where bands of child warriors, hacking off limbs as both punishment and warning, have created a mutilated populace. The poverty her father tried to fight remains the only constant in the war-torn land." (Publishers Weekly) 403 pp.

New York: Crown Publishers, (2020). SIGNED first edition - The first book for middle grade students by the author of 'Dear Martin'. "Using the Negro Travelers Green Book and her hidden past as a road map, a grandma takes her grandson on a cross country journey. When Gma pulls up to William Scoob Lamars house in a brand-new Winnebago and invites him on an adventure, Scoob leaves a note for his dad and jumps in.. . Scoob is a willing wingman because he wants to escape his strict single dad for a few days. After they cross from Georgia to Alabama and Gma keeps avoiding Dads calls, Scoob begins to get suspicious. When Gma lets him see the contents of her once off-limits treasure box, which includes a 1963 edition of the Travelers Green Book, Scoob understands this trip means much more than even he imagined. The complex role race plays in their family and on this trip - Scoob is mixed-race and presents black, and Gma is white - is explored in a meaningful way that provides details about a period in time as well as present-day realities." (Kirkus) Illustrated with drawings by Dawub Anyabwile. SIGNED on the title page. 227 pp.

New York: Atria (Simon & Schuster), (2023). SIGNED first edition - "An exhaustive case study of policing in this Bay Area city - 'More has been done to try to reform the Oakland Police Department than any other police force in the United States,' but the main parallel seems to be: True reform is nearly impossible. By zooming in geographically, but also stretching out their timeline the town had a racist mayor who unleashed police officers against Chinese immigrants back in 1879 the authors conjure a sense of chronic tragedy. A culture of corruption and violence keeps flourishing despite repeated good faith efforts to stop the bad apples, who continue to show up, generation after generation, to spoil the barrel." The crimes of the officers involved were only exposed because of a young rookie (who left the force) and all of them were acquitted at trial - although over the years Oakland paid millions of dollars to settle police brutality cases. SIGNED on the half title page by Darwin BondGraham. Extensive notes. 445 pp.

New York: Simon & Schuster (1999). First edition - An uncommon title by Babitz, a "glamorous trip through the dance scene" in Los Angeles by this novelist and social commentator. Among those found in these pages are choreographer Rene Victor, salsa queenSandra Bullock, tango champion Robert Duvall, Toni Basil, El Floridita and the Viper Room. Native Los Angelena Babitz had her "first brush with notoriety in 1963 through Julian Wasser's iconic photograph of a nude, 20-year-old Babitz playing chess with the artist Marcel Duchamp on the occasion of his landmark retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum." Molly Lambert commented about her work in the Paris Review ""Babitz is at home anywhere, and everywhere she goes she finds the most interesting person, the weirdest place, the funniest throwaway detail. She makes writing seem effortless and fun, which any writer can tell you is the hardest trick of all." 199 pp.