The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters edited by Scott Bruce

The threat of redistricting, an Arab military leader, and The Penguin Book of the Undead are featured subjects this week at Labyrinth Books.

Today, Wednesday, October 12 at 6 p.m., David Daley and Sam Wang will be discussing Mr. Daley’s new book Ratf**ked: The True Story behind the Secret Story to Steal America’s Democracy through Redistricting (Norton $26.95). The book details how Republican legislators and political operatives “fundamentally rigged our American democracy through redistricting.” David Daley examines the far-reaching effects of the so-called REDMAP program, which has radically altered America’s electoral map and created a firewall in the House, insulating the party and its wealthy donors from popular democracy. 

David Daley was the editor in chief of Salon and the Digital Media Fellow for the Wilson Center for Humanities and the Arts and the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. He is currently CEO and publisher of the Connecticut News Project. Sam Wang is professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton University and author of Welcome to Your Brain and Welcome to Your Child’s Brain. He is also noted for developing statistical methods to analyze U.S. presidential election politics.

Parsons’s “Commander”

Laila Parsons will talk about her biography, The Commander: Fawzi al-Qawuqji and the Fight for Arab Independence 1914-1948 (Hill & Wang $28) on Thursday, October 13 at 6 p.m.

According to Booklist, “Parsons captures Qawuqji as quixotic and charismatic, if at times desperate and reckless, and brings to the fore his relentless pursuit of a greater Arab state, despite sometimes insurmountable opposition from colonial powers, religious and ethnic groups, and other rebel leaders …. In light of ongoing political upheaval in the Middle East, Parsons’s coverage of this key figure and formative period is especially relevant.”

Laila Parsons is an associate professor of history and Islamic studies at McGill University. She is the author, previously, of The Druze Between Palestine and Israel, 1947-49.

Reading the Undead

Scott Bruce and Anthony Grafton will be talking about The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters (Penguin $17) on Friday, October 14 at 6 p.m. The book was edited by Mr. Bruce.

Publishers Weekly says “This exceptionally well-curated compilation shows that the wide variety of accounts of the undead have been rampant in literature long before the Gothic era …. Bruce has chosen selections from numerous cultures, including ancient Greece, Anglo-Norman England, and medieval Scandinavia …. He presents the contents with an enthusiasm that makes these … works accessible to the casual reader.”

Scott Bruce is an historian of religion and culture in the early and central Middle Ages. He is a professor of history at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

A professor of history at Princeton University, Anthony Grafton is the author of numerous books, among them are Bring out Your Dead: The Past as Revelation.

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