dot books.

The shelf

Every book on the shelf.

Independent, modern, hand-curated. Filter by genre or publisher. The shelf rotates every Tuesday.

Studies in Literature and History

Studies in Literature and History

A collection of literary and historical essays, ranging across authors, ideas, and eras with the reflective breadth of a cultivated critical mind.

$7.00

Great Britain and the American Civil War

Great Britain and the American Civil War

A detailed history of Britain's fraught relationship with the American Civil War, examining diplomacy, public opinion and the tensions that nearly drew the two nations into open co

$7.50

My own story

My own story

A first-person memoir told in the author's own voice, recounting a remarkable life and the struggles, convictions, and events that shaped it.

$8.00

The problem of Cell 13

The problem of Cell 13

Jacques Futrelle's classic detective tale, in which the brilliant Professor Van Dusen, the Thinking Machine, wagers he can escape a locked prison cell using only his intellect.

From $8.50

Italian Popular Tales

Italian Popular Tales

A rich collection of Italian folk stories gathered from oral tradition: fairy tales, legends, and comic anecdotes from across the peninsula.

$7.50

Penrod

Penrod

Booth Tarkington’s comic portrait of Midwestern boyhood follows Penrod Schofield through pranks, friendships, and social embarrassment.

From $7.50

Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez. Vol II

Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez. Vol II

The second volume of a life told largely through the letters of a leading Royal Navy commander of the Napoleonic wars.

$8.00

The Hour of the Dragon

The Hour of the Dragon

Robert E.

From $8.00

Daily stories of Pennsylvania : $b prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state

Daily stories of Pennsylvania : $b prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state

A collection of short stories about Pennsylvania, originally prepared for publication in the state's leading daily newspapers, offering brief tales drawn from its people, places an

$8.00

The Faith of Our Fathers

The Faith of Our Fathers

Cardinal Gibbons's enduring explanation and defense of Catholic belief, written in plain, generous prose for believers, seekers, and the simply curious alike.

$8.00

Creative Evolution

Creative Evolution

Henri Bergson’s major philosophical work rethinks life, mind, time, and change through a bold critique of mechanism and a dynamic account of evolution.

From $8.00

The Approach to Philosophy

The Approach to Philosophy

An inviting introduction to philosophical thinking, written to lead newcomers past jargon and into the real questions.

$8.00

The wheel of earth

The wheel of earth

A work whose title evokes the turning of the world and the cycles of human life.

$7.50

The Varieties of Religious Experience

The Varieties of Religious Experience

William James's landmark study of religion as lived personal experience, examining conversion, mysticism, saintliness, and the inner life of faith with the eye of a pioneering psyc

From $8.00

The Book of the Courtier

The Book of the Courtier

Baldassare Castiglione's Renaissance dialogue imagines the perfect courtier over four candlelit evenings at Urbino, weighing grace, wit, love and virtue with the ease of good compa

$8.00

Cameron of Lochiel

Cameron of Lochiel

A historical novel of old French Canada, following friendship and loyalty as the fortunes of war divide two young men.

From $8.50

The Hunter's Lodge Case

The Hunter's Lodge Case

A compact Hercule Poirot mystery from Agatha Christie.

From $8.50

Folkways

Folkways

William Graham Sumner's influential study of how customs, habits, and mores shape human societies.

$8.50

The Chautauqua Girls At Home

The Chautauqua Girls At Home

A warm-hearted story of young women returning from a religious gathering determined to live out their new faith, carrying earnest ideals into the tests of everyday life.

$8.00

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

Charles Darwin's world-changing 1859 work, laying out the theory of evolution by natural selection with patient evidence and cautious brilliance.

$8.00

The Spanish American Reader

The Spanish American Reader

A classic Spanish-language reader assembling passages for students of the language and of Spanish American life and letters.

$8.00

The Journal to Stella

The Journal to Stella

Jonathan Swift's intimate letters to Esther Johnson, written from London during his years at the heart of politics.

$7.00

Astounding Stories of Super-Science January 1930

Astounding Stories of Super-Science January 1930

The very first issue of a legendary pulp magazine, this January 1930 number launched what would become a cornerstone of American science fiction.

$8.00

The Rosary

The Rosary

A tender, enormously popular romance about love tested by pride, appearance, and the slow work of the heart.

$8.50

The Ultimate Weapon

The Ultimate Weapon

Classic pulp science fiction from John W.

From $8.00

Captain Canot

Captain Canot

The vivid, troubling first-hand narrative of a nineteenth-century adventurer's years in the Atlantic slave trade.

From $8.00

William Pitt and national revival

William Pitt and national revival

A historical study of William Pitt the Younger and Britain's recovery and resurgence under his leadership.

$8.00

The Prairie Traveler

The Prairie Traveler

Randolph B.

$8.00

The Burgess Bird Book for Children

The Burgess Bird Book for Children

Thornton W.

$7.50

Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497

Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497

Julia Cartwright's graceful biography brings to life Beatrice d'Este, the brilliant young Duchess of Milan whose short career sat at the dazzling, dangerous centre of the Italian R

$8.00

Roman Public Life

Roman Public Life

A scholarly survey of the institutions of ancient Rome, its magistrates, assemblies, senate, and law, explaining how the Republic and Empire were actually governed.

$8.00

Two on a Tower

Two on a Tower

Thomas Hardy's poignant novel of a love that reaches across barriers of class and age, played out beneath the vast indifference of the stars.

From $8.50

The Wandering Jew — Complete

The Wandering Jew — Complete

Eugène Sue's sprawling nineteenth-century epic of intrigue, following a scattered family pursued across the world by a ruthless conspiracy.

$7.50

The Legacy of Greece: Essays By: Gilbert Murray, W. R. Inge, J. Burnet, Sir T. L. Heath, D'arcy W. Thompson, Charles Sin

The Legacy of Greece: Essays By: Gilbert Murray, W. R. Inge, J. Burnet, Sir T. L. Heath, D'arcy W. Thompson, Charles Sin

A distinguished collection of essays surveying what the modern world owes to ancient Greece, from philosophy and science to art, literature, and religion.

From $8.00

Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled

Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled

Hudson Stuck's vivid record of winter journeys by dog sled across Alaska, a missionary-explorer's account of the far North, its trails, peoples and unforgiving cold.

From $8.00

Hobson-Jobson

Hobson-Jobson

The famous Anglo-Indian glossary that traces how words like bungalow, shampoo, curry and pyjama passed from India into English, part dictionary, part treasure-house of colonial enc

$8.00

Ethics

Ethics

A foundational inquiry into how we ought to live and what makes conduct right or good.

$8.00

The Trail of the Hawk

The Trail of the Hawk

An early Sinclair Lewis novel about a restless young American who trades the flatness of small-town life for the open sky, finding in flight and ambition a new kind of frontier.

$8.50

Western Characters

Western Characters

A vivid gallery of frontier types drawn from the border life of the American West, sketching the settlers, adventurers and originals who peopled a raw and changing land.

$8.50

The History of the Peloponnesian War

The History of the Peloponnesian War

The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides is a foundational work of history and political realism on war, power, leadership, rhetoric, and civil conflict.

From $8.00

The Plymouth Express Affair

The Plymouth Express Affair

A young woman is found dead beneath the seat of a railway carriage, her jewels missing, and Hercule Poirot untangles a crime of theft, deception and family secrets in this compact

From $8.50

A Journey to the Center of the Earth

A Journey to the Center of the Earth

A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne is a foundational science-fiction adventure filled with subterranean wonder, peril, discovery, and scientific imagination.

From $8.00

Unnatural death

Unnatural death

Dorothy L.

$8.50

Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete

Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete

An insider's sweeping memoir of Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing his rise from soldier to emperor and his fall, drawn from close personal acquaintance with one of history's most consequ

$8.00

Fifty-Two Stories For Girls

Fifty-Two Stories For Girls

A generous story collection offering a tale for every week of the year, gathered for young readers.

$7.50

Astronomy for Amateurs

Astronomy for Amateurs

Camille Flammarion's beloved introduction to the night sky, written to make the heavens accessible to anyone willing to look up.

From $8.00

India, Its Life and Thought

India, Its Life and Thought

A historically revealing survey of Indian society and religion, best read today with attention to its missionary-colonial perspective.

From $8.00

The Missing Will

The Missing Will

Agatha Christie's short case sends Hercule Poirot after a dead man's hidden testament, a puzzle set as a deliberate test of wits, solved by the little Belgian's endlessly methodica

From $8.50

The Communist Manifesto

The Communist Manifesto

The short, incendiary pamphlet by Marx and Engels that reframed history as a struggle between classes.

From $5.00

The Diamond Coterie

The Diamond Coterie

A twisting Victorian mystery of stolen jewels, hidden identities and patient detection, in which a determined investigator works to unmask the schemers behind a web of theft and de

$8.50

Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey

Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey

Ingersoll Lockwood's curious Victorian fantasy.

From $7.50

The Burgess Animal Book for Children

The Burgess Animal Book for Children

Thornton Burgess's charming natural-history storybook, introducing young readers to the birds and mammals of the American wild through the gentle lessons of Mother Nature and her w

$7.50

Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror

Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror

A contemporary account of the catastrophic 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, gathering the terrible events into a single dramatic record.

$8.00

The Torrents of Spring

The Torrents of Spring

A short novel about love, memory, and the ache of a passion recalled from later life.

$8.50

The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age

Twain and Warner’s satirical novel exposes speculation, corruption, boosterism, and political performance in post–Civil War America.

From $8.50

Roget's Thesaurus

Roget's Thesaurus

The most famous word-finder in the English language: Peter Mark Roget's great map of meaning, grouping the tongue's riches by idea rather than alphabet.

From $8.50

Microcosmography

Microcosmography

A witty gallery of English character sketches from the early seventeenth century, portraying types high and low with sharp observation and dry humour.

$7.00

Apology

Apology

Plato’s compact defense of Socrates joins courtroom speech to enduring questions about philosophy and conscience.

From $8.00

Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Res

Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Res

Solomon Northup's searing 1853 memoir: a free Black man from New York, lured south and kidnapped into slavery in Louisiana, endures twelve years in bondage before his desperate str

From $5.00

The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, Touching the Spagyrist's Principles Commonly call'd Hypos

The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, Touching the Spagyrist's Principles Commonly call'd Hypos

Robert Boyle's landmark 1661 dialogue challenges the old doctrines of the alchemists and Aristotelians, pressing the questions that would help turn alchemy into modern chemistry.

$8.00