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books tagged “Pop Culture”
books tagged “Pop Culture”
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45 Master Charactersby Victoria SchmidtISBN 1582970696 (1-58297-069-6)
Hardcover, F & W Pubns Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: '45 Master Characters'Book summary:Every novelist, screenwriter and oral storyteller faces the challenge of creating original and exciting characters, Archetypes - mythic, cross-cultural models from which all characters originate - provide a solid foundation upon which to fashion new and vastly different story people. 45 Master Characters explores the most common male and female archetypes, provides instructions for using them to create your own original characters, and gives examples of how other authors have brought such archetypes to life in novels, film and television. Worksheets are then included for writers to develop and map the lives of their own characters. [via]
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Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemicby Thomas H. Naylor, David Wann, John De Graaf, Vicki Robin, David HorseyISBN 1576753573 (1-57675-357-3)
Softcover, Ingram Pub Services
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Affluenza: The All-consuming Epidemic'Book summary:Affluenza is an eye-opening, soul-prodding look at the wretched excess of today's American society. John De Graaf, David Wann and Thomas Naylor define it as something akin to "a painful, contagious, socially-transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more". Having begun life as two US TV programmes co-produced by De Graaf, this book takes a hard look at the symptoms of affluenza, the history of its development into an epidemic, and the options for treatment. In making its readers aware of this pervasive disease in an age when "the urge to splurge continues to surge", the first section is the book's most provocative. According to figures the authors quote and expound upon, Americans each spend more than $21,000 per year on consumer goods, average rates of saving have fallen from about 10 per cent of income in 1980 to zero in 2000, credit card indebtedness tripled in the 1990s and more people file for bankruptcy each year than graduate from college. "To live, we buy," explain the authors. They present many of the historical, political and socio-economic reasons that affluenza has taken such strong root in American society and, in the final section, offer practical ideas for change. These use the intriguing stories of those who have already opted for simpler living and are creatively combating the disease, through simple habit alterations to more in-depth environmental considerations and from living lightly to managing wealth responsibly.
Many books make you think the author has crammed everything they know into a one-hit wonder attempt at knowledge transfer. The feeling you get reading Affluenza is quite different; the authors appear well-read, well-rounded and intelligent, knowledgable beyond the content of their book but smart enough to realise that we need a short, sharp jolt to recognise our current ailment. It's obviously a cliché that money can't buy happiness, but this book will strike a resounding chord with anyone who realises that time is more valuable than toys. Affluenza is a clarion call for those interested in being part of the healing solution. --S Ketchum [via]
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All Families Are Psychoticby Douglas CouplandISBN 1582342156 (1-58234-215-6)
Softcover, Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'All Families Are Psychotic'Book summary:Canadian author Douglas Coupland's seventh novel could be subtitled When Bad Things Happen to Bad People. As the estranged members of the Drummond family straggle into Florida for youngest sister Sarah's impending space shuttle launch, we only begin to glimpse the true meaning of the word dysfunctional. The family, plagued by terminal disease, financial disaster, felonious activity, infidelity, and violence, is forced--by a series of ever more fantastic occurrences--to attempt to deal with each other. That would be an easier task if they didn't loathe one another with a ferocity usually reserved for war criminals. It's not quite Jerry Springer-style tabloid TV set in Disney's Haunted Mansion, but the family members do muster the strength to insult, assault, and infect one another with abandon. With the exception of the family matriarch, Janet, they are unappealing and selfish, but without Machiavellian brilliance. Instead, they're inclined toward out-and-out stupidity, blinded by self-interest rather than enlightened by it. As they bumble through misadventure after misadventure, there seems to be no reason to cheer for them. Even Sarah, the family's shining star, has her dark side.
True to Coupland's style, the book reads lightning fast. The author punctuates his narrative with clipped dialogue and punchy exchanges that advance the palpable sense of unease and tension running throughout. And amidst the acrimony, Coupland throws a genuine caper into the plot, involving Prince William's farewell letter to his mother, Princess Diana. Add to that the oppressive heat and the postmodern, pop culture junkyard of Coupland's Florida setting, and the entire book brews and builds like a roiling tropical storm. --S. Duda [via]
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All My Life for Saleby John FreyerISBN 1582342512 (1-58234-251-2)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'All My Life for Sale'Book summary:All right, 'fess up: at some point you've been in the apartment of a hipster friend and looked long and covetously at his or her collection of vintage View-Masters or '50s kitsch ashtrays. But then, why would anyone collect such cool knickknacks if not to impress their friends? Filmmaker John D. Freyer knows this feeling well, and from this impulse he's written a fascinating autobiography, charting his own story and a web of relationships with like-minded eccentrics via the cataloging in words and pictures of all the odd but neat stuff he spent twenty-something years accumulating.
As Freyer was preparing to leave graduate school in Iowa City to return to a typically small New York apartment, he decided to sell all his worldly possessions through eBay and his own Web site, allmylifeforsale.com. People bought his used socks, a can of Chunky Soup from his pantry, his Planet of the Apes LP, and a bag of small, roasted cuttlefish. The things Freyer sold would be junk to most, but they were treasures to him and his pals--a generation searching for a unique identity in an increasingly mass-produced, cookie-cutter age. Discovering how he came to own these things and who took them off his hands makes for a surprisingly intriguing and funny read in this beautifully designed and fabulously illustrated tome. --Jim DeRogatis [via]
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Animaliaby Barbara Helen BergerISBN 1582460124 (1-58246-012-4)
Hardcover, Ten Speed Press
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The Art of Rebellionby Christian HundertmarkISBN 1584231572 (1-58423-157-2)
Hardcover, Gingko Pr Inc
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The Art Of Rebellion: The World Of Street Artby Christian HundertmarkISBN 1584232099 (1-58423-209-9)
Softcover, Gingko Pr Inc
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The Beatles: Illustrated Lyricsby Beatles, Alan AldridgeISBN 157912058X (1-57912-058-X)
Hardcover, Black Dog & Leventhal Pub
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Bitter With Baggage Seeks Same: The Life and Times of Some Chickensby Sloane Tanen, Stefan HagenISBN 1582343764 (1-58234-376-4)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
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Bjorkby Bjork, Wm Clark Associates StaffISBN 1582342261 (1-58234-226-1)
Softcover, Bloomsbury Publishing
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Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Cultureby John StrausbaughISBN 1585424986 (1-58542-498-6)
Hardcover, J P Tarcher
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture'Book summary:A refreshingly clearheaded and taboo-breaking look at race in America reveals our culture as neither Black nor White nor Other, but a mix-a mongrel.
Black Like You is an erudite and entertaining exploration of race relations in American popular culture. Particularly compelling is the author's ability to tackle blackface--a strange, often scandalous, and now taboo entertainment. Although blackface performance came to be denounced as purely racist mockery, and shamefacedly erased from most modern accounts of American cultural history, Strausbaugh shows that, nevertheless, its impact has been deep and longlasting. The influence of blackface can be seen in rock and roll and hip-hop; in vaudeville, Broadway, and drag performances; in Mark Twain and "gangsta lit"; in the earliest filmstrips and Hollywood's 2004 White Chicks; on radio and television; in advertising and product marketing; and even in the way Americans speak.
With remarkable common sense and clarity, Strausbaugh candidly illuminates truths about race rarely discussed in public, including:
- American culture neither conforms to knee-jerk racism nor to political correctness. It is neither Black nor White nor Other, but a mix-a mongrel.
- No history is best forgotten-however uncomfortable it may be to remember. The power of blackface to enrage and mortify Americans to this day is reason enough to examine what it still tells us about our culture and ourselves.
- Blackface is still alive. Its impact and derivations- including Black performers in "whiteface"-can be seen all around us. [via]More editions of Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture:
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Border Crossings: Christian Trespasses on Popular Culture and Public Affairsby Rodney ClappISBN 1587430037 (1-58743-003-7)
Softcover, Baker Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Border Crossings: Christian Trespasses on Popular Culture and Public Affairs'Book summary:The usual modern assumption is that Christians are supposed to leave explicitly Christian convictions and practices behind when they engage public affairs and popular culture. In this fascinating book, Rodney Clapp rejects that assumption and trespasses onto secular territory--from global corporations to Winnie-the-Pooh, from family values to The X-Files, from consumerism to Hank Williams and John Coltrane. [via]
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The Business Of Holidaysby Maud Lavin, Melanie Archer, Amy Tavormina Fidler, Benjamin Finch, Alyson Priestap-Beaton, Jason WarrinerISBN 1580931502 (1-58093-150-2)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Business Of Holidays'Book summary:Holiday celebrations in the United States are a major force driving the nation's approximately $3 trillion retail economy. The commercial culture of holidays extends from the traditional -- decorations, costumes, and cards -- to the immaterial and ephemeral -- phone calls, airline tickets, and department store bills. Simultaneously colorful presentation and careful analysis, The Business of Holidays interprets holiday commerce and design, corporate culture, and tradition (invented and inherited). This volume consists of more than thirty-five essays arranged according to the calendar year, from New Year's Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, and explores longstanding holiday images, such as Santa Claus and shamrocks, as well as quirkier aspects of visual culture. The rites that surround these special days have been adopted, or even invented by, the pervasive marketing that surrounds them to such an extent that the celebration of holidays and the business of holidays have become inseparable. [via]
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The Cat in the Dryer and 222 Other Urban Legends : Absolutely True Stories That Happened to a Friend... of a Friend... of a Friendby Thomas J. CraughwellISBN 1579122582 (1-57912-258-2)
Hardcover, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Cat in the Dryer and 222 Other Urban Legends : Absolutely True Stories That Happened to a Friend... of a Friend... of a Friend'Book summary:What's an urban legend? It's a story that gets passed around so frequently that no one really knows how it began. All we know is that the tale is so amusing, dark, coincidental or ironic that, whether it's true or not, we are dying to believe it--and pass it on.
In the successful tradition of Alligators in the Sewer and The Baby on the Car Roof, this all-new collection of over 200 urban legends offers the latest and greatest tales so weird and funny that they just have to be true. Includin the firemen who rescued a stranded cat and then ran over it; the baby born in flight who was given free air travel for life; the drug-test cheater who was caught when his urine sample revealed him to be pregnant.
Organized by genre, each story in The Cat in the Dryer runs one or two pages, and features possible variations and embellishments. Subjects range from famous people to disturbing pranks, from holiday nightmares to creepy stories, and from military misadventures to pet disasters. [via]More editions of The Cat in the Dryer and 222 Other Urban Legends : Absolutely True Stories That Happened to a Friend... of a Friend... of a Friend:
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Change Your Underwear Twice a Week: Lessons from the Golden Age of Classroom Filmstripby Danny GregoryISBN 1579652638 (1-57965-263-8)
Softcover, Artisan
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Change Your Underwear Twice a Week: Lessons from the Golden Age of Classroom Filmstrip'Book summary:In the pre-Internet, pre-VCRoh, go ahead, call them prehistoricdays of baby boomers' grade school, the high art of audiovisual classroom programming was the filmstrip. If you're old enough, you remember the darkened room, the hum of the projector, and the beeep that signaled the teacher to turn to the next frame.
If you weren't busy shooting spitballs, filmstrips might even have taught you something about science, hygiene, the great bounty of American farms and factories. With simple illustrations and quaint photographs that evoke a more innocent era, Change Your Underwear Twice a Week is the first book to collect dozens of these filmstrip treasures together, creating a panorama of four decades of overlooked graphic design, popular culture, and inadvertent humor.
Readers from the Internet generation will get a good chuckle over what appears to be electronic cave art. But you'll also discover one of the great subtexts of postwar American life. From the mid-1940s until the late 1960s, filmstrips were the coming attractions of capitalism and the American way, teaching youngsters how society wanted them to view the world.
Filmstrips celebrated our foundering railroads ("Tommy Takes a Train Trip"), the space program ("The Moon, Our Nearest Neighbor"), and our trusted friend the butcher, the milkman, the mailman, and the cop. They taught us not to sit too close to our new TV sets and why we should change our underwear twice a week (presumably, Commies did this only once a week).
A chronicle of America's filmstrip experience, Change Your Underwear Twice a Week is also a glimpse into the companies and eccentric pioneers who created these graphic gems and how they influenced several generations of American youth. [via]
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Cinderella's Big Score: Women Of The Punk And Indie Undergroundby Maria RahaISBN 1580051162 (1-58005-116-2)
Softcover, Seal Pr
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A Complete Guide to Faeries & Magical Beings: Explore the Mystical Realm of the Little Peopleby Cassandra EasonISBN 1578632676 (1-57863-267-6)
Softcover, Red Wheel/Weiser
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A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Mealby Anthony BourdainISBN 1582341400 (1-58234-140-0)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal'Book summary:A Cook's Tour is the written record of Anthony Bourdain's travels around the world in his search for the perfect meal. All too conscious of the state of his 44-year-old knees after a working life standing at restaurant stoves, but with the unlooked-for jackpot of Kitchen Confidential as collateral, Mr. Bourdain evidently concluded he needed a bit more wind under his wings.
The idea of "perfect meal" in this context is to be taken to mean not necessarily the most upscale, chi-chi, three-star dining experience, but the ideal combination of food, atmosphere, and company. This would take in fishing villages in Vietnam, bars in Cambodia, and Tuareg camps in Morocco (roasted sheep's testicle, as it happens); it would stretch to smoked fish and sauna in the frozen Russian countryside and the French Laundry in California's Napa Valley. It would mean exquisitely refined kaiseki rituals in Japan after yakitori with drunken salarymen. Deep-fried Mars Bars in Glasgow and Gordon Ramsay in London. The still-beating heart of a cobra in Saigon. Drink. Danger. Guns. All with a TV crew in tow for the accompanying series--22 episodes of video gold, we are assured, featuring many don't-try-this-at-home shots of the author in gastric distress or crawling into yet another storm drain at four in the morning.
You are unlikely to lay your hands on a more hectically, strenuously entertaining book for some time. Our hero eats and swashbuckles round the globe with perfect-pitch attitude and liberal use of judiciously placed profanities. Bourdain can write. His timing is great. He is very funny and is under no illusions whatsoever about himself or anyone else. But most of all, he is a chef who got himself out of his kitchen and found, all over the world, people who understand that eating well is the foundation of harmonious living. --Robin Davidson, Amazon.co.uk [via]
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Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloweenby David J. SkalISBN 1582343055 (1-58234-305-5)
Softcover, Bloomsbury Publishing
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Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuationby Lynne TrussISBN 1592402038 (1-59240-203-8)
Softcover, Gotham Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation'Book summary:We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? A look at most neighborhood signage tells a different story. Through sloppy usage and low standards on the internet, in email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, this lively history makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with.[via]More editions of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation:
The Eden Expressby Kurt VonnegutISBN 1583225439 (1-58322-543-9)
Softcover, Seven Stories Pr
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Eleanor Rigbyby Douglas CouplandISBN 1582346437 (1-58234-643-7)
Softcover, Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Eleanor Rigby'Book summary:Liz Dunn isn't morbid, she's just a lonely woman with a very pragmatic outlook on life. Overweight, underemployed, and living in a nondescript condo with nothing but chocolate pudding in the fridge, she has pretty much given up on anything interesting ever happening to her. Everything changes when she gets an unexpected phone call from a Vancouver hospital and a stranger takes on a very intimate place in her life. From here the plot of Douglas Coupland's Eleanor Rigby skyrockets into a very bizarre world, rife with reverse sing-alongs and apocalyptic visions of frantic farmers. The style and plot paths are very identifiably Coupland--slightly mystical, off-kilter, and very, very smart. Ultimately a novel about the burden of loneliness, Eleanor Rigby takes its characters through strange and sometimes nearly unimaginable predicaments.
Fans of Douglas Coupland's later novels, particularly Hey Nostradamus! and Miss Wyoming, are bound to like Eleanor Rigby. Like many of his novels, the journey is strange and unexpected but you come out at the other end with a snapshot of a sardonic and bizarre but ever-so-slightly hopeful place. --Victoria Griffith [via]
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Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowdsby Charles MacKayISBN 1586635581 (1-58663-558-1)
Hardcover, Sterling Pub Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds'Book summary:Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? Why do financially sensible people jump lemming-like into hare-brained speculative frenzies--only to jump broker-like out of windows when their fantasies dissolve? We may think that the Great Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and over-valued high-tech stocks of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but Mackay's classic--first published in 1841--shows that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no limits, and has no temporal bounds. These are extraordinarily illuminating,and, unfortunately, entertaining tales of chicanery, greed and naivete. Essential reading for any student of human nature or the transmission of ideas.
In fact, cases such as Tulipomania in 1624--when Tulip bulbs traded at a higher price than gold--suggest the existence of what I would dub "Mackay's Law of Mass Action:" when it comes to the effect of social behavior on the intelligence of individuals, 1+1 is often less than 2, and sometimes considerably less than 0. [via]
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Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Cultureby William D. RomanowskiISBN 1587432013 (1-58743-201-3)
Softcover, Brazos Pr
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The Gospel According to Tony Soprano: An Unauthorized Look into the Soul of Tv's Top Mob Boss and His Familyby Chris SeayISBN 1585421944 (1-58542-194-4)
Softcover, J P Tarcher
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The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in the Matrixby Greg Garrett, Chris SeayISBN 1576834786 (1-57683-478-6)
Softcover, Navpress
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in the Matrix'Book summary:The world has changed. The Gospel Reloaded rushes headlong into The Matrix, exploring the trilogy's intricate details, religious undertones, and eclectic philosophies. These aren't movies you just "watch." They are postmodern epics, full of meaning and metaphor--deserving of serious inquiry and contemplation. Get inside the collective minds of the Wachowski brothers. See how even the minute details--from Neo's name to Thomas Anderson's room number--yield secrets to better understand the film. The movies call us to seek and find. Read how the themes of The Matrix call you to your own spiritual revelation. Ask of your own life: what's real and what's a mirage? Then you'll discover just how deep this rabbit hole really goes. [via]
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A Great, Silly Grin: The British Satire Boom of the 1960sby Humphrey CarpenterISBN 1586480812 (1-58648-081-2)
Hardcover, Perseus Books Group
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Harry Potter And the Philosopher's Stone: Scottish Gaelic Editionby J. K. RowlingISBN 158234681X (1-58234-681-X)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury USA
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Hell in a Handbasket: Dispatches from the Country Formerly Known As Americaby Tom TomorrowISBN 1585424587 (1-58542-458-7)
Softcover, J P Tarcher
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Here but Not Here: A Love Storyby Lillian RossISBN 1582431108 (1-58243-110-8)
Softcover, Counterpoint
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Here but Not Here: A Love Story'Book summary:As John Cheever's stories from the New Yorker magazine demonstrate, in the upper-crust Northeast in midcentury, when divorce simply wasn't done, adultery was not exactly unheard of. But Lillian Ross's exposé of her own decades of adultery with her sainted boss, New Yorker editor William Shawn, still comes as a shock. It's doubly shocking because he was uniquely revered and had an upright if not asexual reputation and because members of the New Yorker family seldom spill the beans.
Gossip connoisseurs will gorge on Ross's tasty tidbits. As a child in Chicago, Bill Shawn narrowly escaped murder by renowned thrill killers Leopold and Loeb, who left Bill's house and kidnapped Bobby Franks instead. Bobby died and Bill became a famously shy victim of phobias--blood, violence, heights, confinement, or darkness could make him, in his own self-imploding way, go postal. When Bill's mom hired a nurse to save him from scarlet fever, the nurse "decided he needed, in addition to nursing, some sexual education. 'To my astonishment, she provided both, but I don't think it did me any harm,' Bill told me."
He was then a child of 12. It does not occur to Ross that sex might have long-term effects of any consequence. She feels zero guilt that she set up a love nest in Marlene Dietrich's old apartment 10 blocks from Shawn's family, and adopted a child, and had a phone put in by Shawn's bed, and spent Christmases with him, leaving Thanksgivings free for Shawn to spend with his wife and biological children. "Bill assured me that Cecille was going along with our arrangements. From time to time, I would think: Maybe she loves him so much she wants him to have what keeps him alive." Meow!
Mrs. Shawn, as Ved Mehta notes in his 1998 book, Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker, was a reporter who supported her husband when they got to New York, and even got him his fateful job at the magazine, prior to devoting herself to their family. Ross got assignments from Shawn that made her famous, but she notes, "We never experienced even a moment of 'conflict of interest' problems, for the simple reason that we never had any conflict of interest.... If I wanted to see Bill in his office, I called his secretary, like everyone else."
"I have always been less inclined than most people I know to indulge in self-analysis," writes Ross. She may be a renowned reporter, but her own mind is one subject that entirely escapes her notice.
Annoyed that romantic emotions were spoiling her mood when her career took off in 1950 ("I felt I should have been having a lot of fun. Instead, I was being emotionally distracted and drained"), Ross did what any disgruntled journalist would do. She spent a year and a half at company expense in Hollywood, playing tennis with Charlie and Oona Chaplin, bonding with Bogart and Bacall, and writing the classic book Picture about her dear friend John Huston's movie The Red Badge of Courage. Ross became an A-list partygoer, the first major showbiz reporter with highbrow credentials, and Huston and company handed her a story much better than the movie in question. "I thought I was the luckiest reporter in the history of journalism," writes Ross, who may be right. And no wonder she was such a hit: cute, connected, willing to listen to egomaniacs and let subjects read her drafts before publication, Ross was, like the showbiz-titan pals of Carrie Fisher that are celebrated in her Hollywood roman à clef Delusions of Grandma, "ruthless and glad."
But Ross's impersonal journalism method works better with big, showy subjects such as Huston or Ernest Hemingway. Faced with the elusive Mr. Shawn, who practically had the power to cloud men's minds so that they could not see him, she fails to illuminate his heart for the reader, despite all the fascinating facts at her command. And does she know how classically, rascally masculine a lot of Shawn's lines sound? Many of them boil down to "My staff doesn't understand me."
Ross notes that William Shawn's brother Mike wrote the Doublemint ad jingle "Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun." William clearly doubled Lillian's fun. But with Mr. Shawn, doubleness wasn't the half of it. --Tim Appelo [via]
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Honky-tonk Parade: New Yorker Profiles on Show Peopleby John LahrISBN 1585677035 (1-58567-703-5)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Humbugs of the Worldby P. T. BarnumISBN 1589631927 (1-58963-192-7)
Softcover, Fredonia Books
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Inside Magazines: Independent Pop Culture Magazinesby Jeff Rian, Patrik Andersson, Judith Steedman, Jop Van BennekomISBN 1584231092 (1-58423-109-2)
Softcover, Gingko Pr Inc
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Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen And the Original Tonight Showby Ben Alba, Jay LenoISBN 1591023424 (1-59102-342-4)
Hardcover, Prometheus Books
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It's a Wonderful Christmas: The Best of the Holidays 1940-1965by Susan WaggonerISBN 1584793279 (1-58479-327-9)
Hardcover, Stewart, Tabori & Chang
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Kids Say the Darndest Things!by Art Linkletter, Charles M. SchulzISBN 1587612496 (1-58761-249-6)
Softcover, Ten Speed Pr
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Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbellyby Anthony BourdainISBN 158234082X (1-58234-082-X)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly'Book summary:Most diners believe that their sublime sliver of seared foie gras, topped with an ethereal buckwheat blini and a drizzle of piquant huckleberry sauce, was created by a culinary artist of the highest order, a sensitive, highly refined executive chef. The truth is more brutal. More likely, writes Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential, that elegant three-star concoction is the collaborative effort of a team of "wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths," in all likelihood pierced or tattooed and incapable of uttering a sentence without an expletive or a foreign phrase. Such is the muscular view of the culinary trenches from one who's been groveling in them, with obvious sadomasochistic pleasure, for more than 20 years. CIA-trained Bourdain, currently the executive chef of the celebrated Les Halles, wrote two culinary mysteries before his first (and infamous) New Yorker essay launched this frank confessional about the lusty and larcenous real lives of cooks and restaurateurs. He is obscenely eloquent, unapologetically opinionated, and a damn fine storyteller--a Jack Kerouac of the kitchen. Those without the stomach for this kind of joyride should note his opening caveat: "There will be horror stories. Heavy drinking, drugs, screwing in the dry-goods area, unappetizing industry-wide practices. Talking about why you probably shouldn't order fish on a Monday, why those who favor well-done get the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel, and why seafood frittata is not a wise brunch selection.... But I'm simply not going to deceive anybody about the life as I've seen it." --Sumi Hahn [via]
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Law & Order: The Unofficial Companionby Susan Green, Kevin CourrierISBN 1580631088 (1-58063-108-8)
Softcover, Renaissance Books
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Life's Imponderables: The Answers to Civilization's Most Perplexing Questions Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? When Do Fish Sleep? Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses?by David FeldmanISBN 1578660807 (1-57866-080-7)
Hardcover, Sterling Pub Co Inc
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Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generationby Barbara FindlenISBN 1580050549 (1-58005-054-9)
Softcover, Seal Pr
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Living on the Edge : Amazing Relationships in the Natural Worldby Jeff CorwinISBN 1579547923 (1-57954-792-3)
Hardcover, Rodale Press, Incorporated
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Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in Itby Thomas De ZengotitaISBN 1582343578 (1-58234-357-8)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury Publishing
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in It'Book summary:A provocative, eye-opening look at the way media shapes every aspect of our lives.[via]
Just when you thought there was nothing new to say about the media, along comes a book that transcends the conventional wisdom with an original vision, one that unites our most intimate personal concerns with far-reaching historical trends in an accessible way. From Princess Diana's funeral to the prospect of mass terror, from oral sex in the Oval Office to cowboy politics in distant lands, from high school cliques to marital therapy, from hip-hop nation to climbing Mt. Everest, from blogs to reality TV to the Weather Channel, Mediated takes us on a tour of every department of our media-saturated society. And at every turn we see ourselves as we are, immersed in options, surrounded by representations, driven to unprecedented levels of self-consciousness-and obliged by these circumstances to transform our very lives into performances.
Sophisticated, satirical, sometimes searing, ultimately forgiving, Mediated tackles everything we take for granted and reintroduces us to it all as if for the first time. You'll laugh, you'll squirm, you'll agree, you'll object-but you'll find more Aha! moments packed into fewer pages than you've ever come across before.More editions of Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in It:
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The Medium Is the Massage: An Inventory of Effectsby Marshall McLuhan, Quentin FioreISBN 1584230703 (1-58423-070-3)
Softcover, Gingko Pr Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Medium Is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects'Book summary:The medium used to be the message. But in the "collide-oscopic" barrage of image and text that resulted from Marshall McLuhan's 1967 collaboration with graphic designer Quentin Fiore, the medium becomes the massage. The basic premise of this playful popularization of McLuhan's theories of the electronic revolution will be familiar to readers of his other works: "Any understanding of social and cultural change is impossible without a knowledge of the way media work as environments." But more than McLuhan's other work, The Medium Is the Massage also reflects the tumultuous decade in which it was produced, the 60s. It was a time when existentialism, the theatrr of the absurd, "happenings," and Eastern religions were all the rage in academic circles. Massage adds to that mix traces of utopianism ("We have now become aware of the possibility of arranging the entire human environment as a work of art"; a hint of radicalism (of electronic circuitry McLuhan says: "Its message is Total Change, ending psychic, social, economic, and political parochialism. The old civic, state, and national groupings have become unworkable."); and a bracing pinch of paranoia ("Electrical information devices for universal, tyrannical womb-to-tomb surveillance" have brought us "to a point where remedial control, born out of knowledge of media and their total effects on all of us, must be exerted."). True to its observation that "information pours upon us, instantaneously and continuously," McLuhan and Fiore shower us with photographs, cartoons, newspaper headlines, backwards and upside-down writing, and other graphical innovations. The book is also packed with quotations from a motley collection of savants (in addition to McLuhan himself, of course): Alfred North Whitehead, James Joyce, Lao Tsu, John Dewey, John Cage, and Bob Dylan. The book's design and content aptly, and palpably, demonstrate the insights that have caused many highly stimulated readers to pronounce McLuhan a visionary, a veritable "oracle of the electronic age." --Russell Prather [via]
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The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story Of The 60s TV Pop Sensationby Andrew SandovalISBN 1592233724 (1-59223-372-4)
Softcover, Advantage Pub Group
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Monopoly: The Story Behind the World's Best-Selling Gameby Rod Kennedy, Jim WaltzerISBN 1586853228 (1-58685-322-8)
Softcover, Gibbs Smith
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The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Godsby Mark Larson, Barney Hoskyns, Maria Burgaleta LarsonISBN 1582340641 (1-58234-064-1)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
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Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guideby Gary Graff, Daniel DurchholzISBN 1578590612 (1-57859-061-2)
Softcover, Music Sales Corp
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The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, sable Trim, Scraps, and Bonesby Anthony BourdainISBN 1582344515 (1-58234-451-5)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
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Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in Americaby Barbara EhrenreichISBN 1587243687 (1-58724-368-7)
Hardcover, Wheeler Pub Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America'Book summary:Essayist and cultural critic Barbara Ehrenreich has always specialized in turning received wisdom on its head with intelligence, clarity, and verve. With some 12 million women being pushed into the labor market by welfare reform, she decided to do some good old-fashioned journalism and find out just how they were going to survive on the wages of the unskilled--at $6 to $7 an hour, only half of what is considered a living wage. So she did what millions of Americans do, she looked for a job and a place to live, worked that job, and tried to make ends meet.
As a waitress in Florida, where her name is suddenly transposed to "girl," trailer trash becomes a demographic category to aspire to with rent at $675 per month. In Maine, where she ends up working as both a cleaning woman and a nursing home assistant, she must first fill out endless pre-employment tests with trick questions such as "Some people work better when they're a little bit high." In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test.
So, do the poor have survival strategies unknown to the middle class? And did Ehrenreich feel the "bracing psychological effects of getting out of the house, as promised by the wonks who brought us welfare reform?" Nah. Even in her best-case scenario, with all the advantages of education, health, a car, and money for first month's rent, she has to work two jobs, seven days a week, and still almost winds up in a shelter. As Ehrenreich points out with her potent combination of humor and outrage, the laws of supply and demand have been reversed. Rental prices skyrocket, but wages never rise. Rather, jobs are so cheap as measured by the pay that workers are encouraged to take as many as they can. Behind those trademark Wal-Mart vests, it turns out, are the borderline homeless. With her characteristic wry wit and her unabashedly liberal bent, Ehrenreich brings the invisible poor out of hiding and, in the process, the world they inhabit--where civil liberties are often ignored and hard work fails to live up to its reputation as the ticket out of poverty. --Lesley Reed [via]
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The Noir Styleby Alain Silver, James Ursini, Robert Porfirio, Linda BrookoverISBN 1585674850 (1-58567-485-0)
Softcover, Overlook Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Noir Style'Book summary:Standard histories of film noir commence the coining of the term (which means "black film") by French writers in the years after the war when they saw a new mingling of grit, wit, and swooning Thanatos in movies like The Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity. Alain Silver's and James Ursini's nearly libidinous collection of "duo-tone" (i.e., black and white) movie stills reaches far afield, finding noir's style radiating from the Brucke painters in the 1920s, Edward Hopper's wee-small-hours townscapes of the 1940s, and Weegee's bloody, beautiful photos. In page after oversized page, the authors park perceptive readings beside images of classic rainy streets (Underworld, USA, The Money Trap), doomy women in lipstick (Laura, Gilda), disturbed interiors (Sunset Boulevard), and wrenching ironies (DOA). The commentary reveals how light, frame, composition, body language, and a few other irreducibles charge individual scenes and contribute to the look of noir as a whole, beginning with gangster and horror films in the 1930s and closing with Silence of the Lambs in 1992. The texts lapse occasionally into heavy breathing about Meaning, but the authors invite us to get what we want from this most stylish of American movie genres by just flipping the pages. With hardly a cliché image in the bunch, we can eagerly fall afresh into Jane Russell's outstretched arms (in Macao), zoom down the black sidewalk stretching behind a dying John Garfield (in He Ran All the Way), and contemplate once more the tissue of lies between Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon. --Lyall Bush [via]
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Paint It Black: A Guide To Gothic Homemakingby VoltaireISBN 1578633613 (1-57863-361-3)
Hardcover, Red Wheel/Weiser
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Peanuts Treasuryby C. M. SchulzISBN 1586630687 (1-58663-068-7)
Hardcover, Sterling Pub Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Peanuts Treasury'Book summary:As the creator of Peanuts, the world's most widely read comic strip, Charles Schulz (1922-2000) touched the hearts and funny bones of millions of people, with his work appearing in more than two thousand newspapers around the world and translated into twenty-one languages. Through such lovable characters as Charlie Brown and Snoopy (not to mention the rest of the Peanuts gang), Schulz created, in the words of Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau, "the uncontested gold standard for comics," and paved the road for future cartoonists. The Peanuts Treasury is a fitting testimony to Charles Schulz's enduring legacy and will stand for years to come as a loving tribute to one of the most influential cartoonists of all time. [via]
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Penny Arcade 1: Attack of the Bacon Robotsby Jerry Holkins, Mike KrahulikISBN 1593074441 (1-59307-444-1)
Softcover, Dark Horse Comics
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Penny Arcade 2: Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kingsby Jerry Holkins, Mike KrahulikISBN 1593075413 (1-59307-541-3)
Softcover, Dark Horse Comics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Penny Arcade 2: Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings'Book summary:Verily, the heroes of Penny Arcade return in the second volume of valiant chivalric deeds of brave heroism, heroic gallantry and gallant bravery! Forsooth! Sir Gabe and Sir Tycho return in Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings! Collecting all the Penny Arcade strips posted online from 2001 and 2002, Volume 2 includes creator commentary, a sketchbook section and an introduction from somebody sort of famous! If you haven't heard of Penny Arcade, the most poplular online comic ever, it might not be too late to salvage whatever reputation you have and get in on the fun all the cool people have been having. We won't tell anyone. [via]
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Popstrology: The Art And Science Of Reading The Pop Starsby Ian Van Tuyl, Grover Owen, Owen GroverISBN 1582344221 (1-58234-422-1)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technologyby Albert BorgmannISBN 1587430584 (1-58743-058-4)
Softcover, Baker Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology'Book summary:Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology [via]
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Schott's Food & Drink Miscellanyby Ben SchottISBN 1582344205 (1-58234-420-5)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany'Book summary:From the author of the international bestseller Schott's Original Miscellany, the new collection of vital irrelevance and uncommon knowledge from the worlds of food and drink.[via]
The eponymous foods, famous last meals, and perfect martini proportions revealed in the bestselling Schott's Original Miscellany were only the tip of the iceberg: Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany is a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles from the culinary world. From food history to cooking terms, cocktail recipes to dining etiquette, grace before meals to after-dinner toasts-this olla podrida offers everything for the wine drinker, gastronome, and glutton. Ben Schott's brilliant juxtaposition of delectable tidbits makes this new miscellany so hard to put down, it may even make you late for dinner.More editions of Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany:
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Schott's Original Miscellanyby Ben SchottISBN 1582343497 (1-58234-349-7)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Schott's Original Miscellany'Book summary:Impossible to read at one sitting, but utterly unputdownable, Schott's Original Miscellany is a unique collection of fabulous trivia.[via]
What other book boasts an index that includes shoelace lengths, sign language, and the seven deadly sins; dueling and dwarves; the hair color of Miss America and the Hampton Court maze?
Where else can you find, packed onto one page, the names of golf strokes, a history of the Hat Tax, cricketing dismissals, nouns of assemblage, an unofficial motto of the US Postal Service, and the flag of Guadeloupe?
Where else but Schott's Original Miscellany will you stumble across John Lennon's cat, the supplier of bagpipes to the Queen, the labors of Hercules, and the brutal methods of murder encountered by Miss Marple?
A book like no other, Schott's Original Miscellany is entertaining, informative, unpredictable, and utterly addictive.More editions of Schott's Original Miscellany:
Scrawl: Dirty Graphics & Strange Charactersby Edward Booth-ClibbornISBN 1584230037 (1-58423-003-7)
Softcover, Gingko Pr Inc
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Serenityby Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, Will ConradISBN 1593074492 (1-59307-449-2)
Softcover, Dark Horse Comics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Serenity'Book summary:Penned by Whedon and Brett Matthews, who wrote several episodes of Firefly as well as Dark Horse''s final Angel comics series and the animated Chronicles of Riddick feature "Dark Fury," Serenity follows a ship full of mercenaries, fugitives and one law-abiding prostitute in their pursuit for fast cash and a little peace along the fringes of space. The ragtag crew of Serenity take on a scavanger mission with the hopes of earning enough dough to disappear for a while. Only too late do they realize the whole gig is orchestrated by an old enemy eager remake their aquanitance with the help of some covert-operatives known only as the Blue Gloves. Artist Will Conrad (Marvel''s Elektra and Witches) and colorist Laura Martin (Astonishing X-Men and The Ultimates) paint a rough and wild world of adventure across a strange and dangerous universe, in this not-to-be-missed tale straight from the brain of pop-culture mastermind Joss Whedon! [via]
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She's a Rebel : The History of Women in Rock and Rollby Gillian G. Gaar, Yoko OnoISBN 1580050786 (1-58005-078-6)
Softcover, Seal Press
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› Find signed collectible books: 'She's a Rebel : The History of Women in Rock and Roll'Book summary:An encyclopedic narrative of the role of women in rock and pop over the last four decades, from Big Mama Thornton, who topped the R&B charts with "Hound Dog" three years before Elvis, to the female musical powerhouses of the '90s. Compulsively readable and thoroughly entertaining, this is a spirited and much-needed retelling of rock history which has tended to treat women peripherally at best. And unlike most rock journalists, Gaar knows how to do research, and how to both tell a long story with attention to detail and keep readers' attention for a long time. [via]
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Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell and the Making of Gone With the Windby Darden Asbury PyronISBN 1588180972 (1-58818-097-2)
Softcover, Gibbs Smith
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell and the Making of Gone With the Wind'Book summary:A biography about Margaret Mitchell [via]
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Target Underwear And a Vera Wang Gown: Notes from the Closetby Adena HalpernISBN 1592402216 (1-59240-221-6)
Hardcover, Gotham Books
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This Is Spinal Tap: Official Companionby Karl FrenchISBN 1582341257 (1-58234-125-7)
Softcover, Bloomsbury Publishing
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The Time Traveler's Wifeby Audrey NiffeneggerISBN 1587246392 (1-58724-639-2)
Hardcover, Wheeler Pub Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Time Traveler's Wife'Book summary:A New York Times Bestseller
A Today Show Book Club SelectionThis is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian. They met when Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true: Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder. Periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, disappearing spontaneously for experiences alternately harrowing and amusing.
Available only in Wheeler Hardcover 7. [via]
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To Honolulu in Five Days : Cruising Aboard Matson's S. S. Lurlineby Lynn Blocker Krantz, Nick Krantz, Mary Thiele FobianISBN 1580082327 (1-58008-232-7)
Hardcover, Ten Speed Press
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The Truth Behind The Mommy Wars: Who Decides What Makes A Good Mother?by Miriam PeskowitzISBN 1580051294 (1-58005-129-4)
Softcover, Seal Pr
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The Unauthorized X-Files Challenge: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Tv's Most Incredible Showby James Hatfield, George BurtISBN 1575660962 (1-57566-096-2)
Softcover, Kensington Pub Corp
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Uncle John's Curiously Compelling Bathroom Readerby Bathroom Readers Hysterical InstituteISBN 1592236790 (1-59223-679-0)
Softcover, Advantage Pub Group
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Uncle John's Fast-Acting Long-Lasting Bathroom Readerby Bathroom Readers' InstituteISBN 1592234836 (1-59223-483-6)
Softcover, Advantage Pub Group
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Uncle John's Gigantic Bathroom Readerby Bathroom Readers' InstituteISBN 1592236065 (1-59223-606-5)
Hardcover, Advantage Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Uncle John's Gigantic Bathroom Reader'Book summary:This ones big. Make that pretty huge. No, waitits GIGANTIC! Presenting Uncle Johns Gigantic Bathroom Reader, featuring two of our best-selling and hard-to-find titles: Uncle Johns Absolutely Absorbing Bathroom Reader and Uncle Johns Giant 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader, now bound together in this omnibus hardcover edition for your reading pleasure. Tipping the scales at more than 700 pages, this massive missive is guaranteed to boost your IQ! Packed with fun facts, tantalizing tidbits, and intriguing information, this is no book for the faint of heart. This gigantic volume has it all: entertainment, humor, forgotten history, science, origins of everyday things, strange lawsuits, and a great big pile of pop culture. So dont go to your throne alone take Uncle John with you![via]More editions of Uncle John's Gigantic Bathroom Reader:
Uncle John's Legendary Lost Bathroom Readerby Bathroom Readers' Institute (Ashland, Or.)ISBN 159223173X (1-59223-173-X)
Softcover, Portable Pr
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Uncle John's Slightly Irregular Bathroom Readerby Bathroom Readers' InstituteISBN 1592232701 (1-59223-270-1)
Softcover, Portable Pr
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Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man Critical Editionby Marshall McLuhan, W. Terrence GordonISBN 1584230738 (1-58423-073-8)
Hardcover, Gingko Pr Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man Critical Edition'Book summary:Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man : Critical Edition [Hardcover] [via]
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Up the Junctionby Nell Dunn, Susan BensonISBN 1582430667 (1-58243-066-7)
Softcover, Counterpoint
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Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitmentby Ethan WattersISBN 1582342644 (1-58234-264-4)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury Publishing
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitment'Book summary:The numbers can't be ignored: the current generation of young Americans is delaying marriage longer than any other generation in history. But while the media trumpets this fact in a way that seems designed to scare us, until now no one has really taken the time to understand what people are doing instead.[via]
Driven by his personal desire to understand why his single life stretched far into his thirties, Ethan Watters explores the cultural and social forces that have steered his generation away from the altar-and discovers many reasons to be optimistic about the course his generation has chosen. Central to his thinking is the idea of Urban Tribes: the closely knit communities of friends that spring up during the ever-increasing period of time between college and married life. Tribes are revealed to be the key to understanding this generation, explaining not only why its members are putting off marriage, but also why singles often live outside of families so happily. In the end, Watters makes the case that the tribe years engender the self-respect critical to successful partnerships.
A funny, deeply insightful, and compulsively readable book that dares to suggest that the generation in question just might be interested in more than buying the latest SUV and drinking lattes at the local coffeehouse, Urban Tribes is destined to become one of the most talked-about books of the year.
"This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Urban Tribes redefines the debate over the nature of community and social cohesion in society today. Ethan Watters provides powerful insight into the rise of new kinds of cities and support structures for the growing class of creative, single people inhabiting leading urban centers in the United States and around the world." -Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday LifeMore editions of Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitment:
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Urban Tribes: Are Friends the New Family?by Ethan WattersISBN 1582344418 (1-58234-441-8)
Softcover, Bloomsbury Publishing
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Urban Tribes: Are Friends the New Family?'Book summary:In his early thirties, Ethan Watters began to realize that none of his friends were following the paths of their parents. Instead of settling down in couples and starting families, they lived and vacationed in groups, worked together at businesses they'd started, and met every week for dinner. As he started to document this phenomenon, he encountered countless other "tribes," in cities all over the U.S. Watters explores why tribe members have embraced this structure and what kind of affection and stability they find there, and contends that the conventional wisdom painting Generation X as isolated, selfish slackers may hide an unexpected, much warmer picture.[via]More editions of Urban Tribes: Are Friends the New Family?:
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Using Pop Culture to Teach Information Literacy: Methods to Engage a New Generationby Linda D. BehenISBN 1591583012 (1-59158-301-2)
Softcover, Libraries Unltd Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Using Pop Culture to Teach Information Literacy: Methods to Engage a New Generation'Book summary:Building on the information needs and the learning style preferences of today's high school students, the author builds a case for using pop culture (TV shows, fads, and current technology) to build integrated information skills lessons for students. Chapters include a rationale, a review of the current literature, and examples of units of study incorporating popular culture and technology.
There is serious discussion in the media about today's youth, the Echo Boomers, and their connection with technology. Our high school students tell us that they have few meals with their families, that they want their teachers and their school's decision makers to listen to them and take their ideas seriously, and that they use the little free time they have to talk to or instant message with their friends or to play video games. Author and media critic Jon Katz says, Technology is youth culture. These kids are building a revolution. Technology is part of their ideology, their language, everything they do. Building on the information needs and the learning style preferences of today's high school students, the author builds a case for using pop culture (TV shows, fads and current technology) to build integrated information-skills lessons for students. Chapters include a rationale, a review of the current literature, and examples of units of study incorporating popular culture and technology. Grades 7-12.
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Vampire Gallery: A Who's Who of the Undeadby J. Gordon MeltonISBN 1578590531 (1-57859-053-1)
Softcover, Visible Ink Pr
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Videohound's Cult Flicks & Trash Picsby Carol A. Schwartz, Jim OlenskiISBN 1578591139 (1-57859-113-9)
Softcover, Visible Ink Pr
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What Is Goth?by VoltaireISBN 1578633222 (1-57863-322-2)
Hardcover, Red Wheel/Weiser
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Why Readby Mark EdmundsonISBN 1582346089 (1-58234-608-9)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Why Read'Book summary:In this important book reconceiving the value and promise of reading, acclaimed author Edmundson dramatizes what the recent identity crisis of the humanities has effectively obscured: that reading can change your life for the better.[via]
Mark Edmundson's Harper's Magazine article "On the Uses of the Liberal Arts" is reported to be the most photocopied essay on college campuses over the last five years. Ruminating on his essay and the intense reaction to it, Edmundson exposes universities' ever-growing consumerism at the expense of a challenging, life-altering liberal arts education.
Edmundson encourages educators to teach students to read in a way that can change their lives for the better, rather than just training and entertaining. He argues that questions about the uses of literature-what would it mean to live out of this book, to see it as a guide to life-are the central questions to ask in a literary education. Right now they are being ignored, even shunned. And if religion continues to lose its hold on consequential parts of society, what can take its place in guiding souls? Great writing, Edmundson argues. At once controversial and inspiring, this is a groundbreaking book written with the elegance and power to change the way we teach and read. -
Wilsonby David MametISBN 1585674540 (1-58567-454-0)
Softcover, Overlook Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wilson'Book summary:When the Internet-and the collective memory of the twenty-first century-crashes, the past is reassembled from the downloaded memories of Ginger, wife of ex-President Wilson. The transcripts take the reader on an intellectually breathtaking tour through David Mamet's baroque, fragmented world, where nothing is certain except the certainty bestowed by the academy.[via]
After the Cola riots, the fire at the Stop 'n' Shop, and the death of my kitten, what remains? Does the Joke Code still operate? Has anyone seen my copy of Bongazine? Can Jane of Trent unlock this paranoia? What were Chet and Donna doing in the boathouse? And just who does Ginger think she is? In playing with the ideas of perception, accuracy, and truth, Wilson dares to doubt them all.More editions of Wilson:
Wilson: A Consideration of the Sourcesby David MametISBN 1585671894 (1-58567-189-4)
Hardcover, Overlook Press, The
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The World of Ripley's Believe It or Not! : A Global Retrospective of Amazing Achievements, Bizarre Behavior and Extraordinary Eventsby Julie Mooney, Ripley Entertainment StaffISBN 1579120881 (1-57912-088-1)
Hardcover, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The World of Ripley's Believe It or Not! : A Global Retrospective of Amazing Achievements, Bizarre Behavior and Extraordinary Events'Book summary:It's shocking but irresistible. The fantastic and amazing World of Ripley's Believe It or Not® uncovers and relates curiosities from around the globe. Its full-color, oversized format and round trim make it a suitably remarkable package to display the bizarre findings of Robert Ripley, who traveled to 198 countries to research his famous newspaper cartoon strip.
Starting with his first drawing in 1918 and the first Ripley museum in the 1930s, this book is filled with examples of human oddities, exotic artifacts, strange happenings, unusual inventions, marvels of nature, extraordinary achievements and coincidences. Readers will be amazed by the truly macabre world that Ripley captured. Hundreds of photographs show the real people and things that inspired the famous drawings. Exotic objects and human feats stretch the limits of the mind, body and imagination.
Here readers will meet world champion chicken picker Buck Fulford who could catch, kill, cook and eat a chicken in less than two minutes; Alice Penfold who could lift her sister Mary on a stool using only her teeth; "Three Ball Charlie" who could put a tennis ball, golf ball and billiards ball in his mouth and still whistle; and Liu Ch'ung of China who has double pupils in each eye. [via]More editions of The World of Ripley's Believe It or Not! : A Global Retrospective of Amazing Achievements, Bizarre Behavior and Extraordinary Events:
Latin
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Harrius Potter Et Philosophi Lapis / Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stoneby J. K. RowlingISBN 1582348251 (1-58234-825-1)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Harrius Potter Et Philosophi Lapis / Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'Book summary:Latin translation of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in which Harry Potter, a normal eleven-year-old boy, discovers that he is a wizard. Long ago, Harry's parents were killed in a battle with the evil Lord Voldemort. When we first meet Harry, he is living miserably with his repulsive and non-magical (or Muggle) Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon Dursley, and their even more revolting son, Dudley. Following a bizarre but hilarious chain of events, Harry finds himself at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, with an outrageous cast of characters, including super-smart Hermione Granger, vile Draco Malfoy, sinister Professor Snape, and the wise Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Adventures galore ensue.[via]More editions of Harrius Potter Et Philosophi Lapis / Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone:
Welsh
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Harri Potter a Maen Yr Athronydd / Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stoneby J. K. RowlingISBN 1582348278 (1-58234-827-8)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Harri Potter a Maen Yr Athronydd / Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'Book summary:J. K. Rowling was born in Chipping Sodbury in the UK in 1965. Such a funny-sounding name for a birthplace may have contributed to her talent for collecting odd names. Jo always loved writing more than anything and in 1996, one year after she finished it, Bloomsbury bought her first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.[via]More editions of Harri Potter a Maen Yr Athronydd / Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone:
Greek
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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Ancient Greek Editionby J. K. RowlingISBN 158234826X (1-58234-826-X)
Hardcover, Bloomsbury USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Ancient Greek Edition'Book summary:The Greek translation of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in which Harry Potter, a normal eleven-year-old boy, discovers that he is a wizard. Long ago, Harry's parents were killed in a battle with the evil Lord Voldemort. When we first meet Harry, he is living miserably with his repulsive and nonmagical (or Muggle) Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon Dursley, and their even more revolting son, Dudley. Following a bizarre but hilarious chain of events, Harry finds himself at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with an outrageous cast of characters, including super smart Hermione Granger, vile Draco Malfoy, sinister Professor Snape, and wise Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Adventures galore ensue.[via]More editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Ancient Greek Edition:
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