Popular culture Books

Book SynopsisA richly illustrated exploration of Black culture at its most wildly imaginative, artistically ambitious, and politically urgent.A richly illustrated exploration of Black culture at its most wildly imaginative and artistically ambitious, In the Black Fantastic assembles art and imagery from across the African diaspora. Embracing the mythic and the speculative, it recycles and reconfigures elements of fable, folklore, science fiction, spiritual traditions, ceremonial pageantry, and the legacies of Afrofuturism. In works that span photography, painting, sculpture, cinema, graphic arts, music and architecture, In the Black Fantastic shows how speculative fictions in Black art and culture are boldly reimagining perspectives on race, gender and identity. Standing apart from Western narratives of progress and modernity premised on the historical subjugation of people of color, In the Black Fantastic celebrates the ways that Black artists draw

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Book SynopsisA gaming academic offers a “fascinating” exploration of why we play video games—despite the unhappiness we feel when we fail at them (Boston Globe)We may think of video games as being “fun,” but in The Art of Failure, Jesper Juul claims that this is almost entirely mistaken. When we play video games, our facial expressions are rarely those of happiness or bliss. Instead, we frown, grimace, and shout in frustration as we lose, or die, or fail to advance to the next level. Humans may have a fundamental desire to succeed and feel competent, but game players choose to engage in an activity in which they are nearly certain to fail and feel incompetent. So why do we play video games even though they make us unhappy? Juul examines this paradox.In video games, as in tragic works of art, literature, theater, and cinema, it seems that we want to experience unpleasantness even if we also dislike it. Reader or audience re

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Book Synopsis**New York Times Bestseller**Comedic actor, producer, and writer Rainn Wilson, cofounder of the media company SoulPancake, explores the problem-solving benefits that spirituality gives us to create solutions for an increasingly challenging world.

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Book SynopsisONE OF PITCHFORK''S BEST MUSIC BOOKS OF 2019. From the comedic minds behind TheHardTimes.net comes the most accurate reporting on punk and hardcore culture in music history. Since 2014, The Hard Times has been at the forefront of music journalism, delivering hard-hitting reports and in-depth investigations into the punk and hardcore scene. From their scathing takedown of Kim Jong-un after he appointed himself the new singer of Black Flag to their incisive coverage of a healthy Lars Ulrich being replaced by a hologram, the site has become a trusted source for all things counterculture. Now, in this zine-style historical retrospective, the writers behind the site reveal their humble roots, documenting The Hard Times' ascension alongside the rise of punk. With original articles from their archives commenting on '70s, '80s, and '90s punk, as well as fan favorites from the aughts onward, this comprehensive examination of the scene will make readers dust off their Doc Martens and creepy crawl their way to the nearest pit.Trade ReviewPRAISE FOR THE HARD TIMES: THE FIRST FORTY YEARS: “250 pages of non-stop LOLs…[with] spot-on pieces satirizing the punk, hardcore, and indie worlds with a consistency that rivals The Onion in its prime.” –Pitchfork, Best Music Books of 2019 “The perfect, light reading…The Hard Times infuses their genuine affinity for music with savage humor that roasts every type of music fan.” –PASTE Magazine “Painstakingly researched…a testament to the benefits of strategically selling out.” –Washington Post “Hilarious…The First 40 Years bundle acidic jokes and incisive industry commentary in articles that celebrate and eviscerate the scene as it’s evolved from the Buzzcocks to Blink-182.” –AV Club “Think of it like The Onion for the cool kids.” –NPR’s Morning Edition “A comedy goldmine.” –LA Weekly “The Hard Times offers comfort amid today’s endless news cycle of shootings, corruption, and environmental catastrophes…Sometimes we need humor to heal, and this book has as much of the former as you could possibly hope for.” –San Francisco Weekly 100% AUTHENTIC PRAISE FOR THE HARD TIMES: “Is this that meme page from Instagram?” —Dave Grohl, lead vocalist, Foo Fighters “Ronald Reagan and his band of merry billionaires set the stage for a corrupt world that puts profits over people. Oh, how they promised the citizens of this country that trickle-down economics would be a boon to the working class, when the only trickle we got was in the form of piss being rained down on us from the . . . [cut for length]” —Jello Biafra, frontman, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, former frontman, Dead Kennedys “No.” —Henry Rollins, author, actor, vocalist, talking head “I’ve never read The Hard Times, but I will definitely check it out sometime.” —Debbie Harry, lead vocalist, Blondie —

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Book SynopsisAn in-depth look at the influence of fans—society’s alpha consumers—on our lives and culture.Trade Review"Fans aren’t just customers—they care more about what your company does, both good and bad—and no one understands how fans tick and what they can mean for a business better than Zoe and Aaron." -- Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations"In a 1986 sketch on Saturday Night Live, William Shatner told a gathering of Trekkers at a Holiday Inn in Rye, New York, to “get a life . . . for crying out loud.” A lot has happened since then. Tremendous technological transformations and online opportunities have created a complex calculus regarding the relationship between texts and brands and the people who love them. Superfandom provocatively explores this evolving relationship—with a dazzling number of examples—and describes what happens when fans don’t just consume something but influence it as well. And it’s not just a celebration of the new voices now being heard in the process of the production of culture; it also describes how superfans can, on occasion, be real pains-in-the-neck." -- Robert Thompson, professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communication and director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University"Superfandom is the ultimate guide to making the most of the new fan-based economy. It presents the new way businesses interact with their customers, and it’s funny, too. Read it for insights into epic failure and brilliant success in fan management, or read it for stories about the politics of Disney’s social clubs. Either way, you won’t regret it. Your fandom will be better off for it." -- Jonah Berger, professor at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and best-selling author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On"An insightful and entertaining look at the culture of fandom, from its early days right up to the present . . . . Well-reasoned and engagingly written." -- Booklist"Recommended for companies who seek to create a successful brand, as well as readers interested in the nature of fan culture." -- Library Journal

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Book Synopsis"A stylish, playful exploration of what digital life is doing to the way we find meaning in the world." —GuardianTrade Review"[I]nsightful, in part for its academic nuance but also for its humane, personal style.…A moving meditation of reality in the 21st century." -- Wired UK"[A] touching exploration of identity in the twenty-first century." -- Everything Else, culture podcast from the Financial Times"In its willingness to dig deeper, Picnic Comma Lightning provides a bravura investigation of our turbulent times." -- New Scientist"Clever, funny and deeply moving…an engaging and thought-provoking journey through the fakery of modern life." -- Mail on Sunday"A brave exploration of life after loss and how it alters our reality." -- Evening Standard"[A]cutely perceptive…delivers a thoughtful message about finding an authentic way to live at a time when reality itself can seem built on shifting sands." -- Publishers Weekly"A lucid…brilliant critique of a fragmented culture in a peculiar time." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

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Book Synopsis“A raucous, smash-mouth, first-person takedown of the National Football League. —Wall Street JournalThe New York Times bestsellerFrom the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Town, an equally merciless probing of America's biggest cultural force, pro football, at a moment of peak success and high anxietyLike millions of Americans, Mark Leibovich has spent more of his life tuned into pro football than he'd care to admit. Being a lifelong New England Patriots fan meant growing up on a steady diet of lovable loserdom. That is, until the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era made the Pats the most ruthlessly efficient and polarizing sports dynasty of the modern NFL, and its fans the most irritating in all of Pigskin America. Leibovich kept his obsession quiet, making a nice career for himself covering that other playground for rich and overgrown children, American politics. Still, every now and then Leibovich woul

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Book SynopsisAn adult coloring book retrospective presenting music legend David Bowie's most idiosyncratic and indelible looks throughout the years, with insight into his famed designer collaborations, fashion inspirations, and stylish illustrations.Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Thin White Duke. . . . Bowie changed his style more dramatically than any other musician in history. His transformations brought about seismic cultural shifts, altering the definition of what it meant to be a popular rock star. This annotated collection of illustrations provide a remarkable overview of Bowie's nearly fifty years of evolution, featuring looks by the likes of Freddie Burretti and Kansai Yamamoto, further establishing him as the fashion king of self-invention.

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Book SynopsisA recovering Mad Man throws down the ultimate challenge to his profession: Innovate or die.The ad apocalypse is upon us. Today millions are downloading ad-blocking software, and still more are paying subscription premiums to avoid ads. This $600 billion industry is now careening toward outright extinction, after having taken for granted a captive audience for too long, leading to lazy, overabundant, and frankly annoying ads. Make no mistake, Madison Avenue: Traditional advertising, as we know it, is over. In this short, controversial manifesto, Andrew Essex offers both a wake-up call and a road map to the future. In The End of Advertising, Essex gives a brief and pungent history of the rise and fall of Adland—a story populated by snake-oil salesmen, slicksters, and search-engine optimizers. But his book is no eulogy. Instead, he boldly challenges global marketers to innovate their way to a better ad-free future. With trenchant wit and razor-sh

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Book SynopsisFor thirty days, Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald’s as part of an investigation into the effects of fast food on American health. The resulting documentary earned him an Academy Award nomination and broke box-office records worldwide. But there’s more to the story, and in Don’t Eat This Book, Spurlock examines everything from school lunch programs and the marketing of fast food to the decline of physical education. He looks at why fast food is so tasty, cheap, and ultimately seductive—and interviews experts from surgeons general and kids to marketing gurus and lawmakers, who share their research and opinions on what we can do to offset a health crisis of supersized proportions. Don’t eat this groundbreaking, hilarious book—but if you care about your country’s health, your children’s, and your own, you better read it.

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Book Synopsis“A vivid picture of how what we wear on our feet can tell us what it really means to be an American.”—Vanity Fair “Expansive, thorough, and entertaining . . . a comprehensive look at how much the sneaker became a signature indicator of cool.”—The Wall Street Journal A cultural history of sneakers, tracing the footprint of one of our most iconic fashions across sports, business, pop culture, and American identity “It’s gotta be the shoes.” When Spike Lee said it to Michael Jordan in a 1989 commercial, it was with a wink and a nod—what makes MJ so good? His Nike Air Jordan IIIs, of course. But as Nicholas Smith reveals in this captivating history, Lee’s line also speaks to the sneaker’s place at the heart of American culture.  Once the athletic shoe graduated from the beaches and cr

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Book SynopsisAbsolutely splendid . . . essential for understanding why there is so much bad thinking in political life right now. —David Brooks, New York TimesHow to Think is a contrarian treatise on why we’re not as good at thinking as we assume—but how recovering this lost art can rescue our inner lives from the chaos of modern life.   As a celebrated cultural critic and a writer for national publications like The Atlantic and Harper’s, Alan Jacobs has spent his adult life belonging to communities that often clash in America’s culture wars. And in his years of confronting the big issues that divide us—political, social, religious—Jacobs has learned that many of our fiercest disputes occur not because we’re doomed to be divided, but because the people involved simply aren’t thinking.   Most of us don’t want to think. Thinking is trouble. Thinking can force us out of familiar, comforting habits, and it can complicate our relationships with like-minded friends. Finally, thinking is slow, and that’s a problem when our habits of consuming information (mostly online) leave us lost in the spin cycle of social media, partisan bickering, and confirmation bias.   In this smart, endlessly entertaining book, Jacobs diagnoses the many forces that act on us to prevent thinking—forces that have only worsened in the age of Twitter, “alternative facts,” and information overload—and he also dispels the many myths we hold about what it means to think well. (For example: It’s impossible to “think for yourself.”)   Drawing on sources as far-flung as novelist Marilynne Robinson, basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain, British philosopher John Stuart Mill, and Christian theologian C.S. Lewis, Jacobs digs into the nuts and bolts of the cognitive process, offering hope that each of us can reclaim our mental lives from the impediments that plague us all. Because if we can learn to think together, maybe we can learn to live together, too.

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Book SynopsisYou are an idiot.Don't get defensive! It's not your fault. For decades your teachers, authority figures and textbooks have been lying to you. You do not have five senses. Your tongue doesn't have neatly segregated taste-bud zones. You don't know what the pyramids really looked like. You're even pooping wrong - Jesus, you're a wreck!But it's going to be okay. Because we're here to help. Packed with more sexy facts than the Encyclopedia Pornographica, the Cracked De-Textbook will teach you about the true stars of history, why you picture everything from Velociraptors to Ancient Rome incorrectly, and finally, at long last - how to pop a proper squat. This book was built from the ground up to systematically seek out, dismantle and destroy the many untruths that years of misguided education have left festering inside of you, and leave you a smarter person...whether you like it or not. The De-Textbook is a merciless, brutal learning machine. It can't be bargaine

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Book SynopsisAn expertly curated compilation of officially published step-by-step guides on how to deal with every kind of disaster imaginable, drawn from government archives all around the world from the 1910s to today. Organized into four broad disaster-themed scenarios - Pandemics, Natural Disasters, Nuclear War and Alien Invasion - this visual guide displays the plethora of public survival advice and scare tactics proposed from all around the globe to deal with every disaster scenario that has occurred or been imagined since the early 20th century. From leaflets showing how to build an earthquake shelter to booklets providing step-by-step advice on how to protect yourself and your family during a nuclear war, and from posters showing how to minimize your chances of catching Spanish flu to documents indicating how to identify aliens, this carefully curated selection of disaster-planning documents reveals differences in public attitudes towards impending catastrophe since the 1910s and showTrade Review'A huge new pictorial history ... a masterclass in avoiding panic' - The Telegraph'Beautiful' - Creative Review'Assembles 100 years of government disaster advice from around the globe into a single volume' - Elephant'For those who approach bad news by laughing to keep from crying... In addition to humorous and ironic vintage illustrations and some dubious, outdated advice, there is useful advice too. It's up to the reader to decide which is which... If you aren't worried when you begin this book, you will be when you're done' - The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionTable of ContentsIntroduction Pandemic - Tuberculosis - Spanish Flu - Avian Flu and Hong Kong Flu - HIV/AIDS - Recent Viruses Natural Disaster - Extreme Weather - When the Earth Moves - Fighting Fire - Survive in the Wild Nuclear War - Preparation - Shelter - Blast and Fallout Alien Invasion - We Come in Peace - Is There Anyone Out There? - What is the Truth?

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Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An all-new collection of honest, hilarious, and enlightening conversations with some of the most exciting names in comedy—from lifelong comedy nerd Judd Apatow.“When I need to read an interview with a comedian while in the bathroom, I always turn to Judd Apatow for deeply personal insights into the comedic mind. Place one on your toilet today.”—Amy SchumerONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: VultureNo one knows comedy like Judd Apatow. From interviewing the biggest comics of the day for his high school radio show to performing stand-up in L.A. dive bars with his roommate Adam Sandler, to writing and directing Knocked Up and producing Freaks and Geeks, Apatow has always lived, breathed, and dreamed comedy.In this all-new collection of interviews, the follow-up to the New York Times bestselling Sick in the Head, Apatow sits down with comedy l

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Book SynopsisWe’ve pursued and achieved the modern dream of defining ourselves—but at what cost? An influential columnist and editor makes a compelling case for seeking the inherited traditions and ideals that give our lives meaning.“Ahmari’s tour de force makes tradition astonishingly vivid and relevant for the here and now.”—Rod Dreher, bestselling author of Live Not by Lies and The Benedict OptionAs a young father and a self-proclaimed “radically assimilated immigrant,” opinion editor Sohrab Ahmari realized that when it comes to shaping his young son’s moral fiber, today’s America is woefully lacking. For millennia, the world’s great ethical and religious traditions have taught that true happiness lies in pursuing virtue and accepting limits. But now, unbound from these stubborn traditions, we are free to choose whichever way of life we think is most optimal—or, more often than not, merely the easiest. All that remains are the fickle desires that a wealthy, technologically advanced society is equipped to fulfill.The result is a society riven by deep conflict and individual lives that, for all their apparent freedom, are marked by alienation and stark unhappiness.In response to this crisis, Ahmari offers twelve questions for us to grapple with—twelve timeless, fundamental queries that challenge our modern certainties. Among them: Is God reasonable? What is freedom for? What do we owe our parents, our bodies, one another? Exploring each question through the lives and ideas of great thinkers, from Saint Augustine to Howard Thurman and from Abraham Joshua Heschel to Andrea Dworkin, Ahmari invites us to examine the hidden assumptions that drive our behavior and, in doing so, to live more humanely in a world that has lost its way.

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Book Synopsis#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The extraordinary true story of four men who take the law into their own hands.   This is the story of four young boys. Four lifelong friends. Intelligent, fun-loving, wise beyond their years, they are inseparable. Their potential is unlimited, but they are content to live within the closed world of New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen. And to play as many pranks as they can on the denizens of the street. They never get caught. And they know they never will.   Until one disastrous summer afternoon.   On that day, what begins as a harmless scheme goes horrible wrong. And the four find themselves facing a year’s imprisonment in the Wilkinson Home for Boys. The oldest of them is fifteen, the youngest twelve. What happens to them over the course of that year—brutal beatings, unimaginable humiliation—will change their lives forever.

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Book SynopsisIf you’re not having fun, you’re not fully living. The author of How to Break Up with Your Phone makes the case that, far from being frivolous, fun is actually critical to our well-being—and shows us how to have more of it.“This delightful book might just be what we need to start flourishing.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Adam Grant Journalist and screen/life balance expert Catherine Price argues persuasively that our always-on, tech-addicted lifestyles have led us to obsess over intangible concepts such as happiness while obscuring the fact that real happiness lies in the everyday experience of fun. We often think of fun as indulgent, even immature and selfish. We claim to not have time for it, even as we find hours a day for what Price calls Fake Fun—bingeing on television, doomscrolling the news, or posting photos to social media, all in hopes of filling some of the emptiness we feel inside.In this follow-up to her hit book, How to Break Up with Your Phone, Price makes the case that True Fun—which she defines as the magical confluence of playfulness, connection, and flow—will give us the fulfillment we so desperately seek. If you use True Fun as your compass, you will be happier and healthier. You will be more productive, less resentful, and less stressed. You will have more energy. You will find community and a sense of purpose. You will stop languishing and start flourishing. And best of all? You’ll enjoy the process.Weaving together scientific research with personal experience, Price reveals the surprising mental, physical, and cognitive benefits of fun, and offers a practical, personalized plan for how we can achieve better screen/life balance and attract more True Fun into our daily lives—without feeling overwhelmed. Groundbreaking, eye-opening, and packed with useful advice, The Power of Fun won’t just change the way you think about fun. It will bring you back to life.

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Book SynopsisWith easygoing authority... [Fridland] offers context, and a welcoming spirit, to the many contentious realignments in our language.—The Wall Street Journal“Smart and funny—I loved it! —Mignon Fogarty, author of New York Times bestseller Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better WritingA lively linguistic exploration of the speech habits we love to hate—and why our “like”s  and “literally”s actually make us better communicatorsParanoid about the “ums” and “uhs” that pepper your presentations? Concerned that people notice your vocal fry? Bewildered by “hella” or the meteoric rise of “so”?  What if these features of our speech weren’t a sign of cultural and linguistic degeneration, but rather, some of the most dynamic and revolutionary tools at our disposal?In Like, Literally, Dude, lingu

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Book Synopsis“A refreshingly fun guide” that reads “as if you’re a fly on the wall in conservatory auditions, cutthroat competitions and the obsessive practice routines of professional musicians.” (The New York Times)Arianna Warsaw-Fan Rauch’s life-long fascination with classical music has taken her through Juilliard and into the shiny world of symphony halls and international concert tours. She’s loved classical music her whole life. But she’s also hated classical music her whole life. After all, if you can like Beyoncé without liking Bieber, you can certainly like Brahms without liking Bach—especially since they were born 148 years apart and the thing we call “classical music” is really just centuries of compositions shoved into one hodge-podge of a genre. In Declassified, Warsaw-Fan Rauch blows through the cobwebs of elitism and exclusion and invites everyone to love and hate

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Book SynopsisFrom popular Instagram artist @QuotesByChristie, an inspiring and colorful quote collection for all of your ups and downs.  Quotes are instant sympathy. A good quote says, “I’ve been there, too,” in just a few words. And the perfect quote in the perfect moment can be just the reminder you need that you’re not alone, and you’re going to get through this. That is why Christina Scotch started QuotesByChristie, her popular Instagram page—to reach out across the Internet void and embrace all of the people going through it, too. In this colorful collection, Scotch shares fan favorites and all new material to hit all of your highs and lows. Perfect for birthdays, graduations, and any other gift-able occasion, I Feel That is sure to be an inspiration for readers everywhere.

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Book Synopsis“An ardent fan letter from Hornby that makes you want to re-read Great Expectations while listening to Sign o’ the Times.” —VogueFrom the bestselling author of Just Like You, High Fidelity, and Fever Pitch, a short, warm, and entertaining book about art, creativity, and the unlikely similarities between Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and modern American rock star PrinceEvery so often, a pairing comes along that seems completely unlikely—until it’s not. Peanut butter and jelly, Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong Un, ducks and puppies, and now: Dickens and Prince.Equipped with a fan’s admiration and his trademark humor and wit, Nick Hornby invites us into his latest obsession: the cosmic link between two unlikely artists, geniuses in their own rights, spanning race, class, and centuries—each of whom electrified their different disciplines and whose leg

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Book SynopsisGLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLERPutting the old-school grease back in hockey, in the first ever written eppie!Do you have trouble sniping top corns or landing a big conny? Keep missing the net in praccy or losing all your tillys? Well boys, you might need the fundies. Canadian beauties Olly Postanin and Jacob Ardown are natural athletes, and are here to show you how to be a weapon on the ice. All the big-leaguers (like Connor McDavid and Drew Doughty, not a big deal) come to Olly and Jacob for help on hockey fundamentals (the fundies); now you can get the insider tips and tricks to become a legend yourself.   With their crucie knowledge of what makes hockey the best game in the world and all the greatest chirps, there is no other book like The Fundies. This guide to dominating the sport covers everything: history, skills development, throwing folded fives, training and choosing equipment, coaching, and all th

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Book SynopsisKeep the blues away with the power of positivity.Is the world getting you down? Struggling to find the silver lining to that cloud? Put your best paw forwards and ask yourself, “What would Snoopy do?” Learn to be more like the world’s most famous beagle. Embrace joy, champion your friends, lead the way, and spread happiness wherever you go.With original comic-strip artwork accompanied by sharp witticisms and sage advice, Be More Snoopy is the perfect gift for friends, family, and colleagues who need guidance on how to make the best of every situation.© 2020 Peanuts Worldwide LLC

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Book SynopsisBoost your confidence and become a hero!If you're looking to find a new mission in life, create the perfect cave-based hangout, or update your wardrobe, channel your inner Super Hero and ask yourself: What would Batman do?With his strength, sophistication, razor-sharp wit, and unrivaled gadget collection, Batman has all the advice you'll need to become a legend!All DC characters and elements © & (TM) DC Comics. (s21)

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A straightforward and sensible road map for earnest young women on the road to adulthood. Swifties will swoon for this.” –Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisWhat would Harry do?Famously charming, fabulously dressed, and unapologetically himself—there are so many reasons to want to be more Harry Styles. This book will show you how to channel this once-in-a-generation pop icon. Following his stratospheric levels of fame as a member of One Direction, Harry has carved out his own unique path in the industry as a solo artist, actor, and fashion icon. Harry’s approach to life, career, music, relationships, and style is inspirational to anyone who wants to subvert expectations, be authentically themselves, and treat people with kindness Be More Harry Styles is the perfect gift for Harry Styles fans.

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Book SynopsisRelive the greatest moments in the last 40 years of hardcore, punk, and metal with this incredible book by Kerrang!, alternative music’s most trusted publication.  Celebrate 40 years of Kerrang! with this year-by-year review of the greatest artists and moments in metal and alternative music. Kerrang! has an unparalleled reputation as one of the world's best-loved rock-focused publications. It continues to be at the forefront of alternative music, flying the flag for metal, hardcore, punk, and beyond, introducing millions to their new favorite bands. Anyone who’s anyone in the metal scene has featured Kerrang’s hallowed pages and this unique book chronicles these appearances. If it happened in metal, Kerrang! covered it, as confirmed in this year-by-year survey of alternative music. By highlighting the heaviest albums, the most outlandish stars, the rowdiest mosh pits and the most incredible mom

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Book SynopsisInstant New York Times Bestseller! “She was the best mother in the world,” said Princes William and Harry at Diana’s 10-year memorial. “Entertaining and persuasive,” (Publishers Weekly) this is the first big book about the private Diana, the mother of two princes.“Royal fans will devour this well-paced biography that gives new insight into the House of Windsor. You’ll tear through it by sundown and walk away thinking about the Princess of Wales and her two sons with new perspective .” –Men’s Journal   From the moments William and Harry are born into the House of Windsor, they become their young mother’s whole world.   I’ve got two very healthy, strong boys. I realize how incredibly lucky I am, Diana reminds herself every morning. But even the Princess of Wales questions,

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Book SynopsisThe music, the fans, the choreography, the clothes, the merch, the hysteria... the hair. The pop phenomenon that dominated the 1990s and 2000s has left a long-lasting mark on culture, yet no book has fully celebrated them. Maria Sherman has a deep love of boy bands and has written extensively on them for Jezebel, where she currently works, as well as in Rolling Stone, Vulture, and more. In this book, her first, she celebrates the boy band revolution with a mix of serious fandom and a tongue-in-cheek attitude. Larger Than Life begins with a brief look at the history of boy bands starting with The Beatles and touching on groups from the 1970s and early 1980s like the Jackson 5 and Menudo. Sherman then moves on the heart of the book -- the boy bands of the 80s, 90s, 2000s, and 2010s. Bands including NKOTB, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, One Direction, and K-Pop bands like BTS are given a capsule biography with spreads on solo careers (the good and the bad), one hit wonders, dating, in-fighting,

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Book SynopsisFinalist for the Library of Virginia’s People’s Choice Award  Winner of the International Poe Festival’s Saturday “Visiter” Award    As seen in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the Baltimore SunWhen life’s got you down and things aren’t going your way, who better to turn to than Edgar Allan Poe? Discover how to say 'nevermore' to your problems in this darkly comedic and refreshing self-help guide. Of all the writers anywhere, Poe might be the least likely person you'd ever turn to for advice. His life was a complete dumpster fire: he married his cousin; got fired from one job after another; constantly feuded with friends and rivals; and he was always broke. But that’s also precisely the point. Though Poe failed again and again, he also persevered. Drawing deeply on his works and life, Catheri

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