OR Books

11/01/2024

See you this Sunday at 5pm! RSVP required to join in-person or online. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1037160654437?aff=oddtdtcreator

10/31/2024

Jeremy Corbyn and Len McCluskey's galvanizing anthology, POETRY FOR THE MANY, is now available in paperback!

Pick up a copy for the poetry lover in your life 🍞🌹

https://buff.ly/3Yri2yo

Peace and Justice Project

10/23/2024

“Magnificent. It brought tears many times.” —Alice Walker

A SEAT AT THE TABLE by Andy Shallal is now available to pre-order ☕ 📚

https://buff.ly/3YAidZw

10/21/2024

If you use AI, don't let it use you—from Douglas Rushkoff and PROGRAM OR BE PROGRAMMED 👾 🤳

Join Douglas in conversation with on November 3 at

10/18/2024

Get your copy: https://buff.ly/4fsdzTd

10/10/2024

On Ed Wood’s birthday, take the chance to revel in his spectacular, scintillating, stupefying stories 👚💓

BLOOD SPLATTERS QUICKLY presents 32 stories by the legendary filmmaker, replete with original typos, lovingly preserved. Get your copy here: https://buff.ly/4eV7yOr

& keep an eye out for an upcoming book on Ed Wood by : a sympathetic critical study to reposition “the worst director of all time” as a maverick independent whose work challenges the boundary between “bad” and “good.” More to be announced soon… 👀

10/09/2024

57 years ago today Che Guevara was executed.

Che's last words to his killer, a soldier in the Bolivian Army, were "remember, you are killing a man"

Read about world's most storied revolutionary in WHO KILLED CHE? How the CIA Got Away with Murder https://buff.ly/47WWA8Z

10/07/2024

A terrible year, a beautiful mind.

IF I MUST DIE: Poetry and Prose by Refaat Alareer

Link to order Refaat's book in bio.

10/07/2024

Read to get beneath the misinformation.

https://buff.ly/3ByIcHX and https://buff.ly/47UlMwN

10/04/2024

Seen yet?

Check out our latest title, SEND IN THE CLOWNS! by James McNaughton and Seán Kennedy. This book presents an imaginative reading of as an economic and political allegory with unexpected insights into contemporary capitalism.

The myth of the lone superhero has brought us to the brink of disaster. If we don’t want jokers for president, we must empower the clowns!

Pre-order now for 15% off: https://buff.ly/3zLgdEc

10/03/2024

The Hollywood Reporter on the banning of OR Books' new title, UNDERSTANDING HAMAS, from Diesel Bookstore in Brentwood CA:

The outdoor mall, long a magnet for Brentwood residents including Kamala Harris, Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Garner, has faced unrest in recent days over a controversial book.

10/02/2024

Yesterday was publication day for PROGRAM OR BE PROGRAMMED by Douglas Rushkoff, the 2nd edition of a crucial work on digital literacy, now updated in the context of AI 🤖

Celebrate with Douglas Rushkoff and Matt Klein at the virtual book launch this Friday!

Register here: https://events.zoom.us/ev/AnuW1_PWrinWYmBo51PfOKma3AcwKEfVyFH_tTWNUajP4zDXKrJL~Am1JLvq0gnHkaBUZMI7YxCa3p2gYiPQJlZJatjus9ktQ3gAjyBoFmN37lg

09/30/2024

Last week, Diesel bookstore in Brentwood, California announced that it was removing our soon-to-be-published book Understanding Hamas and Why That Matters. The decision followed a complaint by a customer and a subsequent demonstration outside the store demanding the book no longer be sold. The store issued a statement saying that it had taken this action because it was opposed to hate speech, and for the protection of its staff in the face of violent threats received online.

At OR we are dismayed by the effective banning of our book by Diesel, not least because, in a coincidence rich with irony, it occurs during the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, an initiative designed to oppose the banning of books. We don’t know if anyone at the Diesel store, or the associated protest, has read our book. If they have, they will have discovered that it comprises contributions by a group of distinguished researchers with deep knowledge of Hamas and the Middle East conflict more generally. The book is explicit in stating that it does not advocate for Hamas but instead presents an in-depth consideration of its history, structure, and politics. 

With the anniversary of October 7 approaching two things are apparent: First, we should mourn the terrible loss of life on that day and in the year that has followed, mindful of the truth that all individual lives are of equal value. A lasting ceasefire to stop this carnage is needed now. Second, we should recognize that to achieve such a ceasefire we need to look through the distortions and propaganda of politicians and media to see what the parties involved stand for, how history has delivered them to their present stance, and what are their aspirations. Without such an understanding, a resolution to the conflict will be much more difficult.

It is in pursuit of these objectives that we are publishing this book. We will hosting an event to discuss issues raised in the book on Oct 2 in NYC. We hope that expressions of opposition to understanding any aspect of this tragic conflict will be seen for the damaging and inhumane absurdity that they are.

09/28/2024

Get 15% off our Latin America list for 📚 Use the code HHM15 at checkout, valid until October 15th. Check out some of our top titles ⬇️

https://orbooks.com/catalog/latin-america/

09/27/2024

We have some gorgeous postcards for you to pick up at this Sunday. Hope to see you there!

The Other Almanac, Museum of Degenerates , Young Person's Illustrated Guide to American Fascism, What We Talk About When We Talk About Cities (And Love)

09/24/2024

"A story that needs to be shared widely" — read Labour Hub's review of ABOLITION LABOR by Andrew Ross, Tommaso Bardelli, and Airuba Thomas:

Mike Phipps reviews Abolition Labor: The Fight to End Prison Slavery, by Andrew Ross, Tommaso Bardelli, And Aiyuba Thomas, published by OR Books. In February 2016, President Obama signed a bill tha…

09/20/2024

📣 Exciting event next week for our UK readers at Tofts Cafe Bar Folkestone!

Author Henry Cockburn lives at one end of a long trail stretching from Afghanistan to the southeast coast of England. His home in Kent is close to where small, frail boats arrive bringing refugees on the last lap of their 6,000-mile journey from Kabul and the Hindu Kush. Meeting and talking with refugees, Henry became aware that even they themselves rarely understand the heroic nature of their odyssey. The journey’s never-ending risks have become second nature to them. For most other people, they are simply unknown. Correcting such misperceptions is one of the objectives of this powerful story.

Join Henry on September 26th in Folkestone to celebrate his new book, TALE OF AHMED 📚

09/19/2024

October 2 join us for an evening marking the publication of UNDERSTANDING HAMAS AND WHY THAT MATTERS.

10% of all book sales that evening will go to Heal Palestine. RSVP to [email protected]

If you can't make it, order your copy today https://orbooks.com/catalog/understanding-hamas/

09/12/2024

How can we resist fascism?

Take it from Sue Coe: "Fascism today is the expression of corporate capitalism as it decays. Profits are high, but the people and environment upon which their continuity depend are in crisis. Thus, morbid symptoms appear: extreme wealth inequality, efforts to control the bodies of women and girls, endless wars, and the dismantling of laws that regulate and protect society. Now as in the past, fascism is a system based upon violence and obedience. Elections are not an adequate answer to the fascist threat, but they are a start. Vote, while you still can – and then organize. Resist decaying capitalism, protect personal freedoms, restore the environment, and seek justice."

Find out more in THE YOUNG PERSON’S ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO AMERICAN FASCISM by Sue Coe and Stephen F. Eisenman. This book presents a fierce interweaving of punch-packing illustration and punctilious text which lays bare the authoritarianism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and misogyny fueling the alarming political landscape we are travelling through.

Designed especially to inform and activate younger readers, it pays particular attention to the harrowing Capitol insurrection on January 6th 2021 and Trump’s efforts to evade its legal consequences. Beyond the crimes of Trump, Coe and Eisenman explore the threads of fascism in U.S. history and in today’s foreign policy under President Biden, including the proxy war against Russia, support for genocide in Gaza, and the brutal treatment of asylum seekers along the U.S./Mexican border.

Pre-order your copy now at 15% off: https://orbooks.com/catalog/the-young-persons-illustrated-guide-to-american-fascism/

09/11/2024

Shipping now!! Order a copy of this relevant and good-looking book by the fantastic https://orbooks.com/catalog/program-or-be-programmed/

09/05/2024

RESISTING THE RIGHT by Robert Edwards is a handbook for surviving a far-right take-over of the United States. Today, that prospect is a frightening reality. It threatens the irreversible destruction of America’s democratic system.

In a powerful and necessary intervention, Edwards shows how a right-wing autocracy can be combatted using political action, civil disobedience, economics, cyberspace, traditional media, social media, the arts, and even our personal relationships.

At a time when the future of American democracy teeters on a cliff edge, the urgency of this book could not be more acute.

Get your copy now: https://orbooks.com/catalog/resisting-the-right/

09/03/2024

Resist the Right with author Robert Edwards in conversation with Liza Featherstone and Kai Bird on September 11 in alphabet city!

RSVP to [email protected] required



Get your copy https://orbooks.com/catalog/resisting-the-right/

08/30/2024

UNDERSTANDING HAMAS is available to pre-order. Check out some of the lessons from inside the book and order your copy: https://orbooks.com/catalog/understanding-hamas/

08/29/2024

Michael Coffey on the making of his new, personal book, BECKETT'S CHILDREN, which explores traces of the Irish writer Samuel Beckett and American poet Susan Howe's long-rumored status as father and daughter.

Watch the full conversation with Lois Oppenheim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ_R728dMLI

Order your copy: https://orbooks.com/catalog/becketts-children/

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