Popular culture Books

Book SynopsisDolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics is a landmark celebration of the remarkable life and career of a country music and pop culture legend. As told by Dolly Parton in her own inimitable words, explore the songs that have defined her journey. Illustrated throughout with previously unpublished images from Dolly Parton’s personal and business archives. Mining over 60 years of songwriting, Dolly Parton highlights 175 of her songs and brings readers behind the lyrics. Packed with never-before-seen photographs and classic memorabilia Explores personal stories, candid insights, and myriad memories behind the songs Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics reveals the stories and memories that have made Dolly a beloved icon across generations, genders, and social and international boundaries. Containing rare photos and memorabilia from Parton’s archives, this book is a show- stopping must-have for every Dolly Parton fan. Learn the history behind classic Parton songs like “Jolene,” “9 to 5,” “I Will Always Love You,” and more. The perfect gift for Dolly Parton fans (everyone loves Dolly!) as well as lovers of music history and country Add it to the shelf with books like Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton, The Beatles Anthology by The Beatles, and Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA study of the differing views of the conscript based on evidence along the eastern border of France. The popular idea of the swaggering military folk-hero, a potent image for the peasant-conscript, contrasts with the elitist viewof conscription as "the nation in arms". Revolutionary France gave the modern world the concept of the "nation-in-arms", a potent combination of nationalism, militarism and republicanism embodied in the figure of the conscript. But it was not a concept shared by those most affected by conscription, the peasantry, who regarded the soldier as representative of an entirely different way of life. Concentrating on the militarised borderlands of eastern France, this book examines the disjuncture between the patriotic expectations of elites and the sentiments expressed in popular songs, folktales and imagery. Hopkin follows the soldier through his life-cycle to show how the peasant recruit was separated from his previous life and re-educated in military mores; and he demonstrates how the state-sponsored rituals of conscription and the popular imagery aimed at adolescent males portrayed the army as a place where young men could indulge in adventure far from parental and communal restraints. The popular idea of moustachioed military folk-heroes contributed more to the process of turning "peasants into Frenchmen" than the mythology of the "nation-in-arms". WINNER OF THE 2002 RHS GLADSTONE PRIZE. David M. Hopkin is tutor and fellow in history at Hertford College, Oxford University.Trade ReviewThis probing study has wide significance of an understanding of popular culture, gender and national identity... the product of meticulous research and high intelligence. * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW *Opens up the subject in a boldly original way...in a sophisticated and confident work. * MODERN & CONTEMPORARY FRANCE *Table of ContentsIntroduction Images of the soldier The soldier's tale Conscripts and volunteers The serving soldier: friend and foe The veteran Conclusion: "two races of men"?

Read more less

Book SynopsisIf fashion is an expression of individuality, why do we all dress alike? Can modernity be described as the experience of 'feeling modern' and, if so, what part does fashion play? Answering these intriguing questions and many more, this pioneering book shows how the concepts of fashion and modernity are intimately linked. It argues that capitalism and identity construction as social processes both have symbiotic relationships with the fashion system. Technology, the body, nationality and gender are informed and shaped by modernity, and vice versa. Drawing on key modernist texts as well as fashion theory and practice, this book seeks broadly to cover the history of fashion and modernity, a topic that has been surprisingly overlooked. Tackling themes including court masques in seventeenth-century London, Paris couturiers and forensic laboratories in twentieth-century Washington, the authors show how fashion throughout history has been a cornerstone in the construction of a modern self.Trade Review'Fashion and Modernity offers both the conceptual framework and the kind of 'thick' historical and contemporary analyses required to move forward a number of debates in fashion studies. The contributions to this remarkable volume generate a lively, interdisciplinary exchange of perspectives, individually and collectively putting to rest any semblance of a notion of modern, western fashion history as a seamless, linear narrative.' Susan Kaiser, Professor and Chair of the Division of Textiles and Clothing, University of California at Davis.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Notes on Contributors Illustrations Introduction Christopher Breward and Caroline Evans Fashion and Modernity Elizabeth Wilson Part 1. Producing Identities 1.James Morrison (1789-1857), 'Napoleon of Shopkeepers', Millionaire Haberdasher, Modern Entrepreneur Caroline Dakers Response John Styles 2.Lee Miller and the Limits of Post-war British Modernity: Femininity, Fashion, the Problem of Biography Becky Conekin Response Carol Tulloch 3.People dress so badly nowadays: fashion and late modernity Andrew Hill Response Adam Briggs Part 2.Performing Bodies 4.Court Masques: Tableaux of Modernity in the Early 17th Century Andrea Stuart Response Susan North 5.Ambiguous Role Models : Fashion, Modernity and the Victorian Actress Christopher Breward Response Lynda Nead 6.Multiple, Movement, Model, Mode: The Mannequin Parade 1900-1929 Caroline Evans Response Andrew Bolton Part 3.Processes of Modernity 7.The Fingerprint of the Second Skin Kitty Hauser Response Esther Leslie 8.Cuttings and Pastings Alistair O'Neill Response Barry Curtis 9.entropy (fashion) and emergence (fashioning) Jamie Brassett Response Ben Highmore

Read more less

Book SynopsisAt the heart of Stripping, Sex, and Popular Culture lies a very personal story, of author Catherine Roach's response to the decision of her life-long best friend to become an exotic dancer. Catherine and Marie grew up together in Canada and moved to the USA to enroll in PhD programs at prestigious universities. For various reasons, Marie left her program and instead chose to work as a stripper. The author, at first troubled and yet fascinated by her friend's decision, follows Marie's journey into the world of stripping as an observer and analyst. She finds that this world raises complex questions about gender, sexuality, fantasy, feminism, and even spirituality. Moving from first hand interviews with dancers and others, the book broadens into a provocative and accessible examination of the current popularity of "striptease culture," with sex-saturated media imagery, thongs gone mainstream, and stripper aerobics at your local gym. Stripping, Sex, and Popular Culture scrutinizes the naked truth of a lucrative industry whose norms are increasingly at the center of contemporary society.Trade Review[Roach] neither oversimplifies nor romanticizes stripping... What makes Roach's book different is her intensely personal concern about the ramifications of stripping... she puts real faces on abstract theories. Recommended. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Marie/Foxy Part I. The Strip Club 1. Stripping: Demeaning and/or Empowering? 2. The Work of A Stripper: Six-inch Heels and Pole Tricks 3. 'A Lot of Guys Just Want to Talk' and (Other) Reality Costs of Stripping 4. Where Fantasy Becomes Reality Part II. Stripping and Popular Culture 5. Striptease Culture: Thongs for Everywoman 6. Strippers, Whores, and Sluts: 'Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics' 7. At the Feet of the Goddess: Stripping, Sex, and Spirituality Conclusion: Take It Off!

Read more less

Book SynopsisExtreme metal--one step beyond heavy metal--can appear bizarre or terrifying to the uninitiated. Extreme metal musicians have developed an often impenetrable sound that teeters on the edge of screaming, incomprehensible noise. Extreme metal circulates on the edge of mainstream culture within the confines of an obscure 'scene', in which members explore dangerous themes such as death, war and the occult, sometimes embracing violence, neo-fascism and Satanism. In the first book-length study of extreme metal, Keith Kahn-Harris draws on first-hand research to explore the global extreme metal scene. He shows how the scene is a space in which members creatively explore destructive themes, but also a space in which members experience the everyday pleasures of community and friendship.Including interviews with band members and fans, from countries ranging from the UK and US to Israel and Sweden, Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge demonstrates the power and subtlety of an often surprising and misunderstood musical form.Trade ReviewThis fascinating book... provides real insights into the margins of our culture. Times Higher Education Supplement Sharp, engaging, and staggeringly comprehensive. Extreme Metal is a must-read for metal fans and anyone interested in the study of popular music and subcultural politics in a globalizing age. -- Sam Dunn, Co-Director, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey Although its a thorough work of sociological research, looking at how scenes work differently in different countries, as well as what unites them, delving into the close-knit interactions and often isolationist perspectives that accommodate each other so uniquely and much more, anyone involved in the metal scene can recognise their own relationship with extreme metal in the book, as well as understand the bigger picture. Neuro/Vision Extra: Extreme Metal As the first book-length academic study of extreme metal music and culture, Kahn-Harris's Extreme Metal is an important - and overdue - contribution to scholarship in this field. Perfect BeatTable of Contents* Introduction: From Heavy Metal to Extreme Metal * Chapter One: The Extreme Metal Scene * Chapter Two: The Scene and Transgression * Chapter Three: Experiencing the Scene * Chapter Four: Capital, Power, Infrastructure * Chapter Five: Comparing Extreme Metal Scenes * Chapter Six: Extreme Metal and Subcultural Capital * Chapter Seven: Reflexivity, Music and Politics * Chapter Eight: The Scene and Modernity * Appendix: Details of Quoted Interviewees

Read more less

Book SynopsisFashion is everywhere. It is one of the main ways in which we present ourselves to others, signaling what we want to communicate about our sexuality, wealth, professionalism, subcultural and political allegiances, social status, even our mood. It is also a global industry with huge economic, political and cultural impact on the lives of all of us who make, sell, wear or even just watch fashion.Fashion: the key concepts presents a clear introduction to the complex world of fashion. The aim throughout is to present a comprehensive but also accessible and provocative analysis. Readers will discover how the fashion industry is structured and how it thinks, the links between catwalk, celebrity branding, media promotion and mainstream retail, how clothes mean different things in different parts of the world, and how popular culture influences fashion and how fashion shapes global culture.Illustrated with a wealth of photographs, the text is further enlivened with over 30 detailed and rich case studies - ranging across topics as diverse as the meaning of black in fashion, the rise of celebrity branding, the cult of thinness, the politics of veiling, the eroticism of shoes and the power of cosmetics. Features: Boxed chapter overviews open each chapter Bullet points summarizing key ideas conclude each chapter Chapter discussions are illustrated with integrated case material Each chapter is supported by extended Case Studies Key words are highlighted in chapters and defined in an extensive Glossary Further Reading guides the reader to other literature A timeline of Fashion Milestones provides a chronology of major events in the history of fashionTrade Review'Craik's refreshing approach and lucid analysis of the complexities of dress and fashion theory provides essential reading. The author tackles many of those all too familiar dilemmas and questions about fashion's cultural significance with bravado. A panoramic and ambitious study of dress, in all its wider meanings and manifestations.'Claire Wilcox, Senior Curator, Department of Furniture, Textiles & Fashion, V&ATable of ContentsContents Introduction: Why Study Fashion? 1. The Fashion Impulse 2. The Eurocentric Fashion System 3. Fashion Cycles, Symbols and Flows 4. Fashion, Body Techniques and Identity 5. Fashion, Aesthetics and Art 6. Fashion as a Business and Cultural Industry 7. Popular Culture and Fashion 8. The Politics of Fashion Questions for Essays and Class Discussion Annotated Guide for Further Reading Glossary Fashion Milestones Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisHair: Styling, Culture and Fashion explores the social importance of hair, wherever it grows, explaining the cultural significance of hair and hairiness, and presenting a new critical engagement with hair and its stories, histories, performances and rituals. From heads, legs and underarms, to wigs and beards, and everything in between, the presentation, manipulation and daily experience of human hair plays a central and dynamic role within fashion, self-expression and the creation of social identity. The book's diverse range of cross-cultural essays encompasses the study of hair in fashion, film, art, history, literature, performance and consumer culture. Offering an accessible mix of visual analysis, cultural commentary and critical theory, Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion will appeal to all those interested in the presentation and analysis of cultural identity and the body.Trade ReviewThis work provides an intriguing, interdisciplinary, multifaceted kaleidoscope focused on the universality of hair and its relationship to culture. These studies cover a wide spectrum, such as Hundu ritual tonsuring, African combing, salon styling, Islamic shaving, and aristocratic wigging. Overall, they provide a new lens for understanding the human condition and identity, both the exotic and personal. B. B. Chico, CHOICE MagazineTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Foreword, Caroline Cox Author's Biographies 1. Introduction: Thinking About Hair, Geraldine Biddle-Perry And Sarah Cheang Part One: Histories of Hair On the Head, Face and Body 2. Fashionable Hair In The Eighteenth Century: Theatricality and Display, Louisa Cross, 3. Roots: Hair and Race, Sarah Cheang 4. Revealing and Concealing: Notes and Observations on Eroticism and Female Pubic Hair, Jack Sargeant 5. From Style to Place: The Emergence Of The Hair Salon in the Twentieth Century, Kim Smith 6. The Big Shave: Fashions In Modern Male Facial Hair, Dene October Part Two: Hair & Identity 7. Hair And Male (Homo) Sexuality: Up Top And Down Below, Shaun Cole 8. Hair, Gender And Looking, Geraldine Biddle-Perry 9. Men's Facial Hair in Islam: A Matter of Interpretation, Faegheh Shirazi 10. Resounding Power Of The Afro Comb, Carol Tulloch 11. Concerning Blondeness: Gender, Ethnicity, Spectacle And Footballers' Waves, Pamela Church-Gibson 12. Hair, devotion and trade in India, Eiluned Edwards Part Three: Hair in Representation: Film, Art, Fashion, Literature & Performance 13. Hairpieces: Hair, Identity and Memory in the Work of Mona Hatoum, Leila McKellar 14. Hair Without a Head: Disembodiment and The Uncanny, Janice Miller 15. Hair and Fashioned Femininity in Two Nineteenth-Century Novels, Royce Mahawatte. 16. Hair control: The Feminine 'Disciplined Head', Thom Hecht 17. Hair-'Dressing' In Desperate Housewives: Narration, Characterisation, And The Pleasures Of Reading Hair, Rachel Velody 18. Hair Styling In The Fashion Magazine: Nova In The 1970s, Alice Beard Conclusion 19. Conclusion: Hair and Human Identity, Sarah Cheang and Geraldine Biddle-Perry End Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA cultural history of global electronic dance music countercultures, "Technomad" explores the pleasurable and activist trajectories of post-rave. The book documents an emerging network of techno-tribes, exploring their pleasure principles and cultural politics. Attending to sound system culture, electro-humanitarianism, secret sonic societies, teknivals and other gatherings, intentional parties, revitalisation movements and counter-colonial interventions, "Technomad" investigates how the dance party has been harnessed for transgressive and progressive ends, for manifold freedoms. Seeking freedom from moral prohibitions and standards, pleasure in rebellion, refuge from sexual and gender prejudice, exile from oppression, rupturing aesthetic boundaries, re-enchanting the world, reclaiming space, fighting for 'the right to party', and responding to a host of critical concerns, electronic dance music cultures are multivalent sites of resistance. Drawing on extensive ethnographic, netographic and documentary research, "Technomad" details the post-rave trajectory through various local sites and global scenes, with each chapter attending to unique developments in the techno counterculture: example Spiral Tribe, teknivals, psytrance, Burning Man, Reclaim the Streets, Earthdream. The book offers an original nuanced theory of resistance to assist understanding of these developments. This cultural history of hitherto uncharted territory will be of interest to students of cultural, performance, music, media, and new social movement studies, along with enthusiasts of dance culture and popular politics.Table of ContentsIntroduction; The Rave-olution? 1. Sound System Exodus: Tekno-Anarchy in the UK and Beyond 2. Secret Sonic Societies and Other Renegades of Sound 3. New Tribal Gathering: Vibe-Tribes and Mega-Raves 4. The Technooccult, Psytrance and the Millennium 5. Rebel Sounds and Dance Activism: Rave and the Carnival of Protest 6. Outback Vibes: Dancing Up Country Conclusion: Hardcore, You Know the Score

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe interrelationship between fashion and celebrity is now a salient and pervasive feature of the media world. This accessible text presents the first in-depth study of the phenomenon, assessing the degree to which celebrity culture has reshaped the fashion system. Fashion and Celebrity Culture critically examines the history of this relationship from its growth in the 19th century to its mutation during the twentieth century to the dramatic changes that have befallen it in the last two decades. It addresses the fashion-celebrity nexus as it plays itself out across mainstream cinema, television and music and in the celebrity status of a range of designers, models and artists. It explores the strategies that have enabled visual culture to recast itself in the new climate of celebrity obsession, popular culture and the art world to respond adaptively to its insistent pressures. With its engaging analysis and case studies from Lillian Gish to Louis Vuitton to Lady Gaga, Fashion and Celebrity Culture is of major interest to students of fashion, media studies, film, television studies and popular culture, and anyone with an interest in this global phenomenon.Trade ReviewFashion and Celebrity Culture explores the relationship between fashion and style that underpins contemporary celebrity culture. By tracing particular contemporary stylistic shifts as they have intersected with media technologies - photography, cinema, magazines and music - Pamela Church Gibson engages with broad social and cultural transformations in the field of popular culture. Focusing on fashion and its representation, Church Gibson offers a useful point of entry for understanding the processes and meanings that characterize celebrity culture today. * Vicki Karaminas, Associate Professor and Associate Head of the School of Design, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia *Pamela Church Gibson shows that while cinema has, from the early twentieth century forward, influenced fashion trends and often determined who would become a star, the intersection of celebrity, fashion, and high art that has developed in the last twenty years requires us to look "sideways" across the film-media-art-fashion-culture landscape...This is a very smart book in all senses. * Cynthia Baron, Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film, Affiliated Faculty in the American Studies Program, Bowling Green State University, U.S. *Table of Contents1 Introduction 2 Fashion and Celebrity Culture, Past and Present PART I: FASHION & FILM 3 Film Stars as Fashion Icons 4 Hollywood Celebrity Cover Girls 5 ‘Fashion Films': from Prêt-a-porter to A Single Man 6 Sex and The City: From Small Screen to Big Screen PART II: FASHION MEDIA & CULTURE 8 Fashion on Television: So Many Celebrities, So Little Fashion? 7 The Changing Face(s) of the Fashion Magazine and the New Media Landscape 9 Fashion, Music and Celebrity 11 Artists, Celebrity and Fashion: From Wilde and Warhol to Taylor-Wood PART III: FASHION GONE GLOBAL 10 Designers and Models become Brands 12 Other Continents, Other Celebrities, Other Fashions 13 Conclusion: The Future of Celebrity-Driven Fashion Notes References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe relationship between popular music and fashion has been a culturally significant one since the 1950s, and this book explores how music and musicians play a key role in the shaping of identity, taste and consumption. Using a range of historical and contemporary examples, this book uncovers the way in which fashion and music have worked to shape contemporary attitudes to bodies and identities.Focusing on performers as much as fans, on the mainstream as much as the underground, Fashion and Music provides a lens through which to examine themes of gender, sexuality, ageing and youth, ethnicity, body image, consumer culture, fandom and postmodernity.Trade ReviewThis book is not only entertaining, but also informative. Miller presents a current perspective on various aspects of popular music in one easy to read book, which I plan to use in the classroom. * Jessica Strubel, School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management, University of North Texas *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Fashion, Identity and Music1. Dressing Fans: Music, Clothes and Consumption 2. Gwen Loves Vivienne: Branding, Fashion and Music 3. Witchy Women: Fashioning the Womanly Body of the Female Singer-Songwriter4. White Suited Men: Style and the Marketing of the Boyband 5. Dressing your Age: Fashioning the Ageing Body of Performers and Fans 6. Styling, Race and Nation 7. Spectacle and Sexuality: Clothes, Concerts and the CarnivalesqueConclusion: Image, MusicIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisGoths represent one of the most arresting, distinctive and enduring subcultures of recent times. The dedication of those involved to a lifestyle which, from the outside, may appear dark and sinister, has spawned reactions ranging from admiration to alarm. Until now, no one has conducted a full-scale ethnographic study of this fascinating subcultural group. Based on extensive research by an 'insider', this is the first. Immersing us in the potent mix of identities, practices and values that make up the goth scene, the author takes us behind the faade of the goth mystique. From dress and musical tastes to social habits and the use of the internet, Hodkinson details the inner workings of this intriguing group. Defying postmodern theories that claim media and commerce break down substantive cultural groupings, Hodkinson shows how both have been used by goths to retain, and even strengthen, their group identity. Hodkinson provides a comprehensive reworking of subcultural theory, making a key contribution to the disciplines of sociology, cultural studies, youth studies, media studies, and popular music studies. Readable and accessible, this groundbreaking book presents a unique chance to engage with a contemporary, spectacular culture.Trade Review'I would recommend it as a valuable text that should be included on undergraduate reading lists for courses dealing with fan, music and popular cultures.'Garry Crawford, BSA'While most of us might have moved swiftly on and started wearing baggy jeans, there remains an enormous goth subculture, which Hodkinson, proud to count himself a part of it, analyses stylishly in this 'ethnographic study'.'The Guardian'Engaging.'The Daily Telegraph'A scholarly yet accessible text [that] successfully conveys what it means to be a Goth.'Sonic Seducer'The first major anthropological study of UK Goths is a priceless work. [It is a] fascinating read that I found very difficult to put down.'KaleidoscopeTable of Contents1From Participant to Researcher 2 Reworking Subculture 3Goth as a Subcultural Style 4Insiders and Outsiders 5Events, Friendships and Commitment 6Selling Goth? The Producers of Subcultures 7Buying Goth: Subcultural Shopping 8Communicating Goth: 'Traditional' Media 9Communicating Goth: On-line Media 10Concluding Thoughts Appendix: Quantitative Questionnaire Results Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisInside Clubbing puts the spotlight on club culture - in all its sweaty, visceral and seductive glory. Moving from hip-hop clubs to fetish events and beyond, the author guides us through the huge spectrum of the contemporary club experience. Drawing on interviews with clubbers from a variety of backgrounds, the author dispels myths and offers new insight into the clubbing scene. Contrary to popular perception, for example, clubbing is not just for youths. The clubbers in Inside Clubbing range from mid-twenties to mid-fifties. Many have been on the scene for years and offer a historical perspective on changes over the last decade. The range of clubs and clubbers discussed also demonstrates the diversity of club culture its more than just an ecstasy-fuelled dance scene. Taking us into queer, trance, Asian, techno, drum n bass, and sex clubs - among others - Inside Clubbing explores the real practice of clubbing. It looks at what people experience and how it affects them, as well as their values and concerns - from friendship and community to drugs, the body, and life outside the clubbing space. This book breaks new ground in offering us the most balanced and sophisticated understanding of the club scene to date.Trade Review'Inside Clubbing makes an important contribution to the understanding of contemporary leisure practices. Section one presents in beautiful, rich and evocative description, the key aspects of clubbing. Inside Clubbing is a highly significant contribution to the anthropology of leisure and pleasure, the body and emotions. It is an accessible and vivid account which breaks new ground in the analysis of contemporary clubbing practices.'Kalissa Alexeyeff, The Australian Journal of Anthropology

Read more less

Book SynopsisDeath. Sex. Money. Tricky subjects we’re taught to avoid in polite conversation. Here, the host of a hit podcast reveals how to talk about difficult things, and why it might be the most important thing we do. In Let’s Talk About Hard Things, Sale takes her quest for more honest communication into her own life. She considers her history of facing (and sometimes avoiding) difficult subjects; she reflects on race, wealth, inequality, love, grief, death, power — all the things that shape our daily lives, the things we should be talking about, but often struggle to. Through the personal stories of people whose lives have been transformed by tough conversations, we discover new ways of approaching these tricky topics with family, friends, loved ones, and strangers. Let’s Talk About Hard Things is candid, unflinching, and entertaining in its quest to make everyone more comfortable with the uncomfortable realities of life.Trade Review‘The number one driver of human happiness, across time and culture, is meaningful connection to others. The road to connection is conversations. Anna Sale is giving us the encouragement, the example, and the tools to do the one thing that can bring us closer: talk about hard things.’ -- Kelly Corrigan, host of Kelly Corrigan Wonders and bestselling author of Tell Me More‘In Let’s Talk About Hard Things, Anna Sale brings us fascinating conversations that feel both intensely personal and widely universal, then shows us how to start having them in our own lives. You will laugh, cry, nod in recognition, and by the end, feel like no topic is off limits when it comes to creating meaningful connection. I want to give a copy of this book to every family member, friend, and therapy patient I see.’ -- Lori Gottlieb, host of Dear Therapists podcast and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk To Someone‘With tremendous empathy and thoughtfulness, Anna Sale models how to have the hard conversations — about love and grief and fear and so much else. Sale is a wise guide through the most difficult human terrain, and with her help, I'm now having conversations that before this book felt impossible.’ -- John Green, New York Times bestselling author of Turtles All the Way Down and The Fault in Our Stars‘Anna Sale has a real gift for cutting through the white noise that so often overwhelms our most urgent, high-stakes conversations. She's teaching us how to listen to one another again. No one can save us from life's plot twists — and no one should — but page by page, sentence by sentence, Sale is committed to seeing us through.’ -- Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight For Our Lives‘Let’s Talk About Hard Things is a gift. Filled with personal stories, complex emotions, and insight into the thorniest of interpersonal relationships, it is a balm, a challenge, and a celebration of our desire to be known in this world.’ -- Katie Couric‘It’s not surprising to learn that Anna Sale applies the same compassion and thoughtfulness she displays as host to her writing, but it is thrilling all the same to quickly find Let’s Talk About Hard Things as inviting and comforting as any episode of Death, Sex, & Money. It’s not easy to open up about what makes us most uncomfortable, but the stories shared throughout the book and Sale’s excellent writing around them shows how vital it is that we make the effort. And while I still occasionally squirm over the reality that there is only so much that I can control in life, I am grateful for the tools Let’s Talk About Hard Things provides in helping me deal with such an unfortunate circumstance. I was already a fan of Sale's as a podcaster and person, but happy to now be a fanboy of Anna Sale the writer, too.’ -- Michael Arceneaux, New York Times bestselling author of I Can’t Date Jesus and I Don’t Want To Die Poor‘An empathetic debut … In addition to her own experiences, Sale offers no shortage of outside perspectives through interviews with former podcast guests, friends, and psychologists … Fans of Sale’s podcast will find a familiar guide in her reflective and introspective voice, and those encountering her for the first time will find this a comfort in hard times.’ * Publishers Weekly *‘[E]xplores how we can talk about difficult situations in order to better connect with family, friends, and coworkers. This debut covers five topics — death, sex, money, family, and identity — which Sale explores via stories from her own life and by interviewing a racially and economically diverse group of people. Not to be mistaken for a self-help guide, Sale’s book also analyses the structural and cultural dynamics that impede meaningful conversations. Besides listeners of her podcast, this will appeal to any adult struggling to broach these topics.’ -- Chris Wilkes * Library Journal *‘Expanding on her hit WNYC podcast, Death, Sex, & Money, journalist Sale urges readers to have difficult conversations about their lives … There are stories of divorce, the sudden loss of a young partner, alienation from one's immediate family, secret investments gone wrong, and the pain of systemic racism. The book elaborates on content that aired previously on her show and includes new interviews with friends and celebrities. Infusing it all with memoir, Sale is generous when divulging her tricky chats of yore, and always quick to acknowledge the privilege that has allowed her — a cis, heterosexual, married, white parent — to have some difficult conversations but not others. This book is a road map to navigating these sorts of conversations with friends and family, and even includes specific phrasing to try; it also offers a sense of solidarity. Simply bearing witness to the struggles of strangers is sure to leave readers feeling less alone.’ * Booklist *‘Absolutely brilliant … it’s amazing.’ -- Rebecca Seal * The Solo Collective *‘It’s not a how-to, but it’s instructive — and timely … many of us are realising that we’ve forgotten how to talk about the easy things, let alone the hard ones … As Sale shows us how supportive listening happens, and doesn’t scold anyone for not doing it better, we deepen our trust for her as a narrator: she’s dispensing not 'tough love' to the reader but empathy. By the end, we feel clearer, more known, and ready to proceed. In that way, her book is not unlike a good conversation with a friend.’ * The New Yorker *‘There’s value in tackling the tough stuff we tend to shy away from, such as mortality, intimacy and finances … The text is a compelling exhortation to have difficult discussions … The book also smartly considers not just when to talk but when to listen and when to quit entirely. Sale resists simple answers and asserts that challenging conversations are not cure-alls, even with the best of intentions and tactics. It’s a well-worn message, but one that bears repeating.’ -- Nneka McGuire * The Washington Post *

Read more less