Progressive and Socially Minded Books publishing Jan-Jun 2016!

I created Carabas to champion ‘all the good stuff’: imaginative, fantastical and cult fiction and film, alternative music, comics and graphic novels across genres – also worthy non-fiction of and around the same, and those books which provide an insight into the social concerns of today. This page, long planned, is for customers and shops as well to discover great books – non-fiction and fiction besides – that challenge perspectives and raise awareness that they may wish to buy or stock and sell.

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In entirely related news we’re now on the Hive affiliate program. Hive supports independent bookshops by enabling customers to order online with some great offers to match more corporate suppliers and nominate their local independent to receive a cut of the sale value or pick it up from them. We believe in supporting bricks-and-mortar – you’ll find book links to a preferred chain (rather than Amazon) on other pages – but we particularly believe in supporting great independent businesses and we wanted to have joined Hive before releasing these and other recommends.

So please find our round-up of socially minded, progressive non-fiction, and fiction in prose and graphic novel form, from January to June 2016 below. If a customer please support independents (especially if they’ve been good enough to tweet / RT us) by either purchasing direct from them or choosing them on Hive – we also get a small percentage of the latter which will help pay site costs and keep us going.

Enjoy!

Tim B

NON-FICTION

*	Pub	Author	ISBN	Bind	RRP	Publisher
	EMPIRE OF THINGS: HOW WE BECAME A WORLD OF CONSUMERS, FROM THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY TO THE TWENTY-FIRST
	Jan	Frank Trentmann	9780713999624	HB	£30	Allen Lane
	What we consume has become the defining feature of our lives: our economies live or die by spending, we are treated more as consumers than workers, and even public services are presented to us as products in a supermarket. In this monumental study, acclaimed historian Frank Trentmann unfolds the extraordinary history that has shaped our material world, from late Ming China, Renaissance Italy and the British empire to the present. Astonishingly wide-ranging and richly detailed, Empire of Things explores how we have come to live with so much more, how this changed the course of history, and the global challenges we face as a result.
	FAST FOOD: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE HUNGRY (FOOD CONTROVERSIES)
	Feb	Andrew F Smith	9781780235745	PB	£9.95	Reaktion Books
	Fast food is the most pervasive culinary trend of our time. It is an industry that has changed the way the world eats, as the model works virtually everywhere. At its heart are large multinational chains, running an estimated one million outlets in virtually every corner of the world, serving hundreds of millions of people every day. It provides access to reasonably tasty food with speed, economy and convenience, and appeals to customers of practically every nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, class, financial status and culinary tradition on earth.
	Fast Food: A Global Perspective explores why this industry has been so successful, and at the same time examines its many negative effects. Fast food has harmed the environment, undermined the health of customers, degraded the diets of children, and underpaid its workers. Indirectly, through its suppliers, it has supported factory farming and condoned dangerous working conditions from field to processing plant. The fast-food industry has undercut indigenous food purveyors, contributed to the loss of local and regional diversity and promoted culinary homogenization around the world.
	Critics have published scathing exposes, supported boycotts, engaged in demonstrations, and lobbied political leaders in an attempt to force the fast-food corporations to reduce the harm they cause – usually to little effect. Fast Food: A Global Perspective examines the industry’s options and those of its customers, and asks what society as a whole can and should do to ameliorate the major problems generated by fast food.
	THE GREAT DIVIDE
	Apr	Joseph Stiglitz	9780141981222	PB	£10.99	Penguin
	“Why has inequality increased in the Western world – and what can we do about it? In The Great Divide, Joseph E. Stiglitz argues that inequality is a choice – the cumulative result of unjust policies and misguided priorities.
	In these essays, articles and reflections, Stiglitz fully exposes the inequality that is afflicting America and other Western countries in thrall to neoliberalism. From Reagan-era policies to the Great Recession and its long aftermath, Stiglitz delves into the processes and irresponsible policies – deregulation, tax cuts for the rich, the corruption of the political process – that are leaving many people further and further behind and turning the dream of a socially mobile society into an ever more unachievable myth. With formidable yet accessible economic insight, he urges us to embrace real solutions. Ultimately, Stiglitz believes our choice is not between growth and fairness; with the right policies, we can choose both.”
	GLOBAL PUNK: RESISTANCE AND REBELLION IN EVERYDAY LIFE
	May	Kevin Dunn	9781628926040	PB	£16.99	Bloomsbury Academic
	Global Punk examines the global phenomenon of DIY (do-it-yourself) punk, arguing that it provides a powerful tool for political resistance and personal self-empowerment. Drawing examples from across the evolution of punk – from the streets of 1976 London to the alleys of contemporary Jakarta – Global Punk is both historically rich and global in scope. Looking beyond the music to explore DIY punk as a lived experience, Global Punk examines the ways in which punk contributes to the process of disalienation and political engagement. The book critically examines the impact that DIY punk has had on both individuals and communities, and offers chapter-length investigations of two important aspects of DIY punk culture: independent record labels and self-published zines. Grounded in scholarly theories, but written in a highly accessible style, Global Punk shows why DIY punk remains a vital cultural form for hundreds of thousands of people across the globe today.
	SAVING CAPITALISM
	May	Robert B Reich	9781785780677	PB	TBC	Icon
	Do you recall a time when the income of a single schoolteacher or baker or salesman or mechanic was enough to buy a home, have two cars, and raise a family? Robert Reich does – in the 1950s his father sold clothes to factory workers and the family earnt enough to live comfortably. Today, this middle class is rapidly shrinking: American income inequality and wealth disparity is the greatest it’s been in eighty years. As Reich, who served in three US administrations, shows, the threat to capitalism is no longer communism or fascism but a steady undermining of the trust modern societies need for growth and stability. With an exclusive chapter for Icon’s edition, Saving Capitalism is passionate yet practical, sweeping yet exactingly argued, a revelatory indictment of the economic status quo and an empowering call to action.
Link to come…
	SHADOW STATE: INSIDE THE SECRET COMPANIES THAT RUN BRITAIN
	Jun	Alan White	9781780745749	PB	£14.99	Oneworld
	About a third of UK spending on public services goes on outsourcing: that’s over £80 billion a year. The companies in receipt of lucrative contracts are responsible for delivering some of our most sensitive and important services – including prisons, healthcare, transport, legal aid and even child protection services – and yet for the most part they’re able to operate in the shadows with no transparency or accountability.
	From G4S to Serco and ATOS, and from the death of Jimmy Mubenga on a deportation flight to attempts to dramatically cut NHS staff numbers, Alan White exposes the dangers of this secretive system and shows what can go wrong when profit becomes the main motivator in public services. Informed by exclusive interviews with senior managers and whistle-blowers, this excoriating work is the first to examine this controversial arm of British Government. The picture it paints is deeply troubling.
	POSTCAPITALISM: A GUIDE TO OUR FUTURE
	Jun	Paul Mason	9780141975290	PB	£9.99	Penguin
	The most important book about our economy and society to be published in my lifetime’ Irvine Welsh From Paul Mason, the award-winning Channel 4 presenter, Postcapitalism is a guide to our era of seismic economic change, and how we can build a more equal society.
	Over the past two centuries or so, capitalism has undergone continual change – economic cycles that lurch from boom to bust – and has always emerged transformed and strengthened. Surveying this turbulent history, Paul Mason wonders whether today we are on the brink of a change so big, so profound, that this time capitalism itself, the immensely complex system by which entire societies function, has reached its limits and is changing into something wholly new. At the heart of this change is information technology: a revolution that, as Mason shows, has the potential to reshape utterly our familiar notions of work, production and value; and to destroy an economy based on markets and private ownership – in fact, he contends, it is already doing so.
	In this groundbreaking, Sunday Times top ten book, Mason shows how, from the ashes of the recent financial crisis, we have the chance to create a more socially just and sustainable global economy.
	BLUFF: THE GAME THAT CENTRAL BANKS PLAY AND HOW IT LEADS TO CRISIS
	Jun	Anjum Hoda	9781780748139	TPB	£12.99	Oneworld
	The accepted narrative of the global financial crisis of 2007-09 is that the central banks saved us from an inferno caused by Wall Street greed. While there is no doubt they did save us, did the firefighters actually cause the fire as well?
	The Bank of England and US Federal Reserve have used the bait of low interest rates together with the bite of inflation in their quest for economic growth. Bluff reveals how these tactics have failed and instead left us with an unhealthy mix of debt, alternating booms in real estate and equity markets and laggard wages. In an incisive critique, Bluff makes the case for a much-needed public debate on the role of the all-powerful central banks; an acknowledgment of the damage caused by flawed policy decisions; and a vital reassessment of the social contract between the people and their central bank.

 

GRAPHIC NOVELS

*	Pub	Author	ISBN	Bind	RRP	Publisher
	THE RED VIRGIN AND THE VISION OF UTOPIA
	May	Mary Talbot, Bryan Talbot	9780224102346	HB	16.99	Jonathan Cape
	Set against the background of violence and state repression in a turbulent period of French history, The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia chronicles the incredible and outrageous life of Louise Michel, the revolutionary feminist dubbed ‘The Red Virgin of Montmartre’. A utopian dreamer, notorious anarchist, teacher, orator and poet, she was decades ahead of her time. Always a radical, she fought on the barricades defending the short-lived Paris Commune of 1871 against the reactionary regime that massacred thousands of French citizens after the Commune’s defeat. Deported to a penal colony on the other side of the Earth, she took up the cause of the indigenous population against French colonial oppression.
	Celebrating the utopian urge in nineteenth-century literature and politics and the origins of science fiction, The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia is the third collaboration of best-selling academic and graphic novelist Mary M. Talbot with her husband, the graphic novel pioneer Bryan Talbot. Their first book together, Dotter of her Father’s Eyes, won the 2012 Costa Biography Award.
	*** Check out Mary Talbot’s article on the origins of The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia on Carabas here – and check out our preview of this great title here! [Link Imminent] ***
	THE OPPORTUNITY
	Mar	Volley, Will	9781908434791	PB	£12.99	Myriad Editions
	A modern-day Death of a Salesman, this thrilling debut graphic novel casts a spotlight on the unforgiving world of door-to-door salesmen.
	‘First thing I’m going to buy when I get my own office is a Porsche Boxster…’ Colin is an ambitious door-to-door salesman on the verge of ‘making it’ as the owner of his own sales office. And the future is looking good.
	But when the terms of his promotion change without warning, Colin and his team find themselves with just five days to achieve a new sales target – and to prevent his rival, Paul, from being promoted in his stead. Colin has to keep his disgruntled team from ‘negging out’ while a gang of ruthless debt collectors are getting ever closer. Of course, everything is going to be fine, more than fine, in fact… but meanwhile, he runs out of coins in the phone box and the boss isn’t taking his calls.
	As Colin’s grasp on reality dissolves, we see how the relentless focus on positive thinking – in the face of exploitative management, pay and conditions – leads to delusion, vulnerability, failure and, finally, human tragedy. The story explores how the philosophy preached by American business entrepreneurs can impact on an individual; a life dedicated to achieving one specific goal – how vulnerable that situation can become for some and how rewarding it can be for others.
	Set amid the rain-lashed estates of southern England, THE OPPORTUNITY is darkly disturbing, stylish and compelling character study, surely to become a classic of graphic noir.

 

CHILDREN’S / YA PICK

*	Pub	Author	ISBN	Bind	RRP	Publisher
	MARTians
	Jan	Blythe Woolston	9781406341393	PB	6.99	Walker Books
	Sharp and satirical, this dark comedy will appeal to fans of M.T. Anderson’s groundbreaking dystopia, Feed. An unsettling story of consumerism gone mad, MARTians brilliantly imagines “a world that is part Kafka and part Orwell” (Booklist). Last girl Zoë Zindleman, numerical ID 009-99-9999, is starting work at AllMART, where “your smile is the AllMART welcome mat”. Her living arrangements are equally bleak: she can wait for her home to be repossessed now that AnnaMom has left, or move to the Warren, an abandoned shopping centre, to live with the other left-behind children. As Zoë struggles to find her place in a world that has consumed itself beyond redemption, she realizes she isn’t ready to disappear into the AllMART abyss quite yet. Zoë wants to live.

 

FANTASTICAL ADULT FICTION

*	Pub	Author	ISBN	Bind	RRP	Publisher
	S.N.U.F.F.
	Jan	Victor Pelevin	9781473213043	MMP	8.99	Gollancz
	Damilola Karpov is a pilot. Living in Byzantium, a huge sky city floating above the land of Urkaine, he makes his living as a drone pilot – capable of being a cameraman who records the events unfolding in Urkaine or, with the weapons aboard his drone, of making a newsworthy event happen for his employers: ‘Big Byz Media’.
	His recordings are known as S.N.U.F.F.: Special Newsreel/Universal Feature Film.
	S.N.U.F.F. is a superb post-apocalyptic novel, exploring the conflict between the nation of Urkaine, its causes and its relationship with the city ‘Big Byz’ above. Contrasting poverty and luxury, low and high technology, barbarity and civilisation – while asking questions about the nature of war, the media, entertainment and humanity.
	EMPIRE V
	Feb	Victor Pelevin	9781473213074	TPB	14.99	Gollancz
	Roman thought he’d found the perfect opportunity to rebel. He may have been wrong.
	He awakens strapped to a set of parallel bars in a richly appointed sitting room, and begins a conversation with a masked man which will change his life. His world has been a facade – one which the mysterious Brahma is about to tear away.
	A stunning novel about the real world, and about the hidden channels of power behind the scenes, EMPIRE V is a post-modern satirical novel exploring the cults and corruption of politics, banking and power. And not only are these cults difficult to join – it turns out they may be impossible to leave…

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Also we have a feeling that some may well be interested to know of two punk titles publishing to coincide with a certain historic Sex Pistols gig in June… for Hive links just click the jacket in question to the right or see below. They’re also on the June page below via a certain bricks and mortar high street chain though, again, you seem to get a better deal on Hive anyway 🙂

 

More:

Check out our portal page to discover more great books publishing January to June 2016 here!

Or click one of the below for our top fantastical adults & kids YA, graphic novels and non-fiction…

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