Read Local: 10 New and Forthcoming Books from City Lights

5. Occupy the Economy

We blame corrupt bankers, their industry, and the government who refused to properly regulate it for the financial crisis, but we need to look further back, to a time when the capitalist system itself shifted. Author David Barsamian devotes his entire book to interviews with renowned economist Richard Wolff, during which the two seek to understand the root causes of the current economic crisis, and what concerted efforts by individuals can do to bring about meaningful change.

4.The Beautifully Worthless

Most comparisons to Jack Kerouac induce eye-rolls, but you figure that the Beatific City Lights wouldn't print such a thing unless they meant it. The Beautifully Worthless is a subverted road story about a runaway waitress who leaves her lover and hits the road with her dog. She maps her travels in letters to the girl she left behind and poetry about love and heartache.

3. Nervous Device

Wagner's poems contain multitudes, at once overflowing with seductive lyricism only to suddenly shift into brash fragmentation. She is informed, but the word subjective has no place whatsoever in her work. As the cover suggests, the potential for human connection is downright erotic for Wagner.

2. Sister Spit

Edited by award-winning writer and co-founder of Sister Spit, Michelle Tea is the most appropriate editor of a compilation of writing and artwork by "the irreverent, flagrantly queer, hilariously feminist, tough-talking, genre-busting ruffians" who have joined the band on tour.

1. A Time of Angels

Aridjis, one of Mexico's most admired poets, believes that angels are among us, moving among gritty realities in silent hope. In this illustrated, bilingual limited edition, the poet shares glimpses of angels all around us.