Grand Central Publishing Summer 25 Catalog
April
History contains a plethora of insane screwups—otherwise known as SNAFUs. Coined during World War I, SNAFU is an acronym that stands for Situation Normal: All F*cked Up. In other words, “things are pretty screwed up, but aren’t they always?”
Spanning from the 1950’s to the 2000’s, Ed Helms steps in as unofficial history teacher with a loving tribute to humanity’s finest faceplants, diving into each decade’s craziest SNAFUs. From planting nukes on the moon to training felines as CIA spies to weaponizing the weather, this book will unpack the incredibly ironic decision-making and hilariously terrifying aftermath of America’s biggest mishaps.
Filled with sharp humor and lively illustrations, SNAFU is a wild ride through time that covers the hilarious, head-scratching, and occasionally inspiring blunders that have shaped our world and made historians spit-take They’re the kind of stories that not only entertain but offer fresh insights that just might prevent history from repeating itself again and again.
May
Through personal stories, history and cutting-edge science, Ocean uncovers the mystery, the wonder and the frailty of the most unexplored habitat on our planet – and the one which shapes the land we live on, regulates our climate and creates the air we breathe. The book showcase the oceans’ remarkable resilience: they are the part of our world that can, and in some cases has, recovered the fastest, if we only give them the chance.
Drawing a course across David Attenborough’s own lifetime, Ocean takes readers on an adventure-laden voyage through eight unique ocean habitats, through countless intriguing species, and through the most astounding discoveries of the last 100 years, to a future vision of a fully restored marine world, even richer and more spectacular than we could possibly hope. Ocean reveals the past, present and potential future of our blue planet. It is a book almost a century in the making, but one that has never been more urgently needed.
A Physical Education traces Casey Johnston’s journey of calorie restriction and obsessive cardio—making herself small in almost every way—to finding healing through the (unexpected) practice of lifting weights. As she progresses, carrying groceries and closing heavy doors become easier. As she diligently practices checking in with how she feels, she begins to question not only how she has treated her body, but how she sees herself and the world. This growth also fuels a deeper understanding: how the mainstream messaging she received about women’s bodies has seeped into almost every other area of her life.
Combining wit, rage, and a reporter’s eye for detail, Johnston recounts how she learned the process of rupture, rest, and repair—not just within her cells and muscles, but within her spirit. A love letter to the science of female strength, this is a book for anyone who’s ever longed to return home to their own body.
Never Date a Broke Dude opens with the definition of a broke dude: someone, regardless of gender or wealth, who is unable or unwilling to match their partner in ambition, commitment, work ethic, or drive.
In her real-world, big-sister tone, Pattie Ehsaei spills the tea on everything—from the secrets of trapped trophy wives and her dating missteps to ayahuasca-induced revelations and even murder-suicide, while transforming each jaw-dropping story into simple, actionable life advice. This four-part playbook moves from The Basics through Money, Work, and Power (or, Self-Worth), offering
- a five account system to pay off debt, fix credit, and start investing with just $100;
- career advice on how to dress well (and fund your wardrobe), work with confidence, choose the right retirement account, and negotiate raises; and
- rules to navigate finances across relationships—like who pays the bill, how to avoid financial abuse, what can and can’t be in a pre-nup, options for children’s savings accounts, and more.
As a self-proclaimed “good girl,” Tiffany was a people pleaser and an A-student, fitting into the roles that were prescribed by her Chinese American family. As a lifelong overachiever, she accomplished a thriving career as an anesthe-siologist. Yet Tiffany felt unfulfilled. She spent more time at work than at home with her family, didn’t know how to say “no” to anyone, and was governed by perfectionist standards. In Joy Prescriptions, Tiffany shares her journey to reconnect with herself. In order to feel whole, she had to drop the perfectionist trope and focus on rediscovering who she was.
Tiffany abandoned other people’s expectations and ultimately discovered how to live for her true self. She put herself first and embraced more creativity and laughter. Taking surprising chances on herself, she started a candle business, starred on reality TV, tried her hand at stand-up comedy, and became a social media influencer. Tiffany abandoned other people’s expectations and ultimately discovered how to live for her true self.
Joy Prescriptions is a must-read if you to want to add more spark and joy to your life. Tiffany offers a healthy dose of introspection and heal-ing that will release you from the constrained expectations of others and inspire you to design a joyful life that is more authentically you!
Nate Bargatze used to be a genius. That is, until the summer after seventh grade when he slipped, fell off a cliff, hit his head on a rock, and “my brain got, like, dented or something.” Before this accident, he dreamed of being “an electric engineer, or a brain doctor, or maybe a math person who does like, math things for a living.” Afterwards, a voice in his head told him, “It’s okay. You’re dumb now. All you got is standup.”* But the “math things” industry’s loss is our gain because Nate went on to become one of today’s top-grossing comedians who breaks both attendance and streaming records.
In his highly anticipated first book, Nate talks about life as a non-genius. From stories about his first car (named Old Blue, a clunky Mazda with a tennis ball for a stick shift), life as a Southerner (Northerners constantly ask him things like, do you believe in dinosaurs?), and his first apartment where a rat chewed a hole right through the wall to how his wife keeps him in line and so much more. He also reflects on such topics as Vandy football and the origins of sushi (how can a Philadelphia roll be from old-time Japan?).
Nate’s book is full of heart and it will make readers laugh out loud and nod in recognition, but it probably won’t make them think too much.
*Nate’s family disputes this entire story
Ishan Shivanand was born into an ancient lineage of yogis spanning twenty-one generations, and he spent the first twenty years of his life in a Himalayan monastery. Grounded in the traditions of yoga, meditation, martial arts, storytelling, and herbal medicine, he developed the Yoga of Immortals (YOI) protocol, which is designed to help followers combat stress, anxiety, depression, and create healthy individuals and healthy communities. The Practice of Immortality shares these lessons and practices.
In a world suffering the effects of anxiety, fear, competitiveness, and anger, Ishan encourages us to take a step back. Structured as a thoughtful narrative with practices based in the true intentions and meaning of yoga, The Practice of Immortality will help you achieve that which you never thought possible.
Skipper takes on an ambitious Moneyball-esque premise: a deep dive into the ongoing struggle for control that often takes place behind the scenes between MLB managers and the ownership groups, and now, their data analysts. In a culture still attempting to come to terms with the Digital Age, there’s a bigger story behind the evolution of authority of managing inside the major leagues.
Packed with baseball history, interviews with dozens of MLB’s current stars and veterans, and an exclusive, inside look at the day-to-day life of a manager competing for the World Series, the LA Dodgers’ Dave Roberts, Skipper is a fascinating look into the highs, the lows, and the inner workings of the changing world of professional baseball.
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Strange Trip and the publicist of the Grateful Dead, Dennis McNally, a riveting social history of everything that led up to the 1960s counterculture movement.
Few cities represent the countercultural movement of the 1960s more than San Francisco. By that decade, the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood was home to several hundred colorful refugees from the conventional, self-branded “freaks” (dubbed “hippies” by the media) who created the world’s first psychedelic neighborhood, an alchemical chamber for social transformation. Collectively, these freaks rejected a large part of the mythology underlying the traditional American identity, passing over American exceptionalism, consumerism, misogyny, and militarism in favor of creativity, mind-body connection, peace, and love of all things—humans, animals, and nature alike.
Dennis McNally, author of the New York Times bestseller A Long, Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead, is a consummate historian of the counterculture. He knows the big picture of the American bohemian tradition going back a century with a depth that is unrivaled. In THE LAST GREAT DREAM, his accessible, often riveting scholarship establishes a multi-disciplinary aesthetic, populated by some of the most colorful and trailblazing characters of these times, from Allen Ginsberg to John Cage to Judith Malina and Julian Beck of the Living Theater, to Lenny Bruce, to Ken Kesey, and scores of lesser-known yet key names. It is a who’s who of the courageous pioneers who changed America forever without spilling a drop of blood. While all of these various strands have been written about before, none of their stories have been pulled together into a larger, expansive, more connected picture in the manner that McNally accomplishes with this definitive book.
THE LAST GREAT DREAM is a history of everything that led to the 1960s counterculture, when long-simmering resistance to American mainstream values birthed the hippie. It begins with the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance, peaks with the Human Be-in in Golden Gate Park, and ends with the Monterey Pop Festival that introduced Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin to the world. It ties everything together into a gripping narrative with a cast of scores of fascinating people, and tells several micro-histories in the process, including beat poetry, visual arts, underground publishing, electronic / contemporary compositional music, experimental theater, psychedelics, and more.
Fascinating, far-reaching, and definitive, THE LAST GREAT DREAM is the ultimate guide to a generation-defining countercultural movement, an Underground 101 course for newcomers and aficionados alike.
Dennis McNally, author of the New York Times bestseller A Long, Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead, is a consummate historian of the counterculture. He knows the big picture of the American bohemian tradition going back a century with a depth that is unrivaled. In THE LAST GREAT DREAM, his accessible, often riveting scholarship establishes a multi-disciplinary aesthetic, populated by some of the most colorful and trailblazing characters of these times, from Allen Ginsberg to John Cage to Judith Malina and Julian Beck of the Living Theater, to Lenny Bruce, to Ken Kesey, and scores of lesser-known yet key names. It is a who’s who of the courageous pioneers who changed America forever without spilling a drop of blood. While all of these various strands have been written about before, none of their stories have been pulled together into a larger, expansive, more connected picture in the manner that McNally accomplishes with this definitive book.
THE LAST GREAT DREAM is a history of everything that led to the 1960s counterculture, when long-simmering resistance to American mainstream values birthed the hippie. It begins with the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance, peaks with the Human Be-in in Golden Gate Park, and ends with the Monterey Pop Festival that introduced Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin to the world. It ties everything together into a gripping narrative with a cast of scores of fascinating people, and tells several micro-histories in the process, including beat poetry, visual arts, underground publishing, electronic / contemporary compositional music, experimental theater, psychedelics, and more.
Fascinating, far-reaching, and definitive, THE LAST GREAT DREAM is the ultimate guide to a generation-defining countercultural movement, an Underground 101 course for newcomers and aficionados alike.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Master comes an intimate, original biography of tennis’s enduring champion Rafael Nadal.
After his award-winning look at Roger Federer, Christopher Clarey, one of the world’s preeminent tennis writers, focuses his lens on Nadal, the indomitable and inspiring force of nature from Spain who has been one of the most relentless competitors in any sport. The Warrior, the first major book to explore the full arc of Nadal’s now-completed career,examines his philosophy and most mind-blowing achievement: 14 French Open titles.
Nadal won big on tennis’s other surfaces en route to becoming one of the greatest players of all time: securing two Wimbledon titles on grass and six Grand Slam titles on hardcourts. But clay, the grittiest of the game’s playgrounds, is where it all came together best for his whipping forehand and gladiatorial mindset.
Clay is to Nadal what water is to Michael Phelps, which helps explain one of the most impressive sports achievements of the 21st century. Clarey, who has covered Nadal since he was 17, draws on interviews over 20 years with Nadal, his team and rivals like Federer and Novak Djokovic. But like The Master, this is not just a book about tennis. The Warrior finds much wider lessons, interlacing man and place in a unique, compelling work.
The Battle for the Black Mind is an explosive historical account of the struggle for educational justice in America. Drawing on over a decade of archival research, personal reflection, and keen sociological insight, this book traces a century of segregated schooling, examining how early efforts to control Black minds through education systems has laid the foundation for the systemic inequities we still live with today. NAACP Image Award-winning author Dr. Karida L. Brown, takes readers from the rural South to the bustling cities of the North and connects the dots between the experiences of Black students and educators across the nation. From the founding of early Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), such as Hampton, Atlanta, and Tuskegee University, to the rise of the Black freedom struggle, The Battle for the Black Mind weaves together the stories of pioneering Black leaders and the institutions they built to educate future generations.
Far from dwelling solely on oppression, this book offers powerful insight into how Black people have always fought to create environments where Black minds could thrive. Brown concludes with an urgent and empowering call to action, equipping everyday Americans with practical steps—both big and small—to ensure that Black minds can continue to flourish, even as our education system itself comes under attack.
Grounded in both historical rigor and astute social commentary, The Battle for the Black Mind speaks directly to today’s national fight over the American classroom, making it clear that the battle for Black minds is far from over. This book will resonate deeply if one comprehends the transformative power of education and is invested in understanding how education has always played a role in shaping the moral conscience of America.
Hearing the words “you need a hysterectomy” make for a particularly hard pill to swallow for many women, even though the events prior to that conversation can be fraught with pain, heavy bleeding, fibroids, or endometriosis, among a range of uterine issues. An upwards of 500,000 hysterectomies are performed every year in the U.S. alone, and approximately 20 million women ranging in ages from 18-70 have had this procedure, and yet, there are few comprehensive, up-to-date and accessible resources that provide a complete view of the hysterectomy. This leaves those considering surgery to fend for themselves to gain a clear understanding of the process. The Empowered Hysterectomy is the antidote to the lack of medically sounds resources and the overwhelming amount of misinformation surrounding this procedure.
Offered by Dr. Kameelah Phillips, a New York based, board certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist, this handbook is a comprehensive, evidence-based, and empowering guide all women need to read before a making a life-changing, irreversible decision about their health and well-being. This book will help avoid gaslighting and coercion by physicians and help women come to the table prepared and informed, better able to avoid potential pitfalls in the doctor-patient conversation around treatment options for common conditions that can lead to a hysterectomy, and elevate the discourse around our bodies for a community in need of transparency in medicine.
Dr. Phillips will discuss the ins-and-outs of the preparation for, surgical procedure, and recovery period; and also educate readers on the origins of hysterectomy, the ripple effect the procedure has had throughout our society, and offer a refresher on the female anatomy–something many women are often out of touch with. This is not a guide meant to convince readers to have surgery; Dr. Phillips will also address non-surgical options, including non-traditional holistic treatments and lifestyle modifications for managing pain.
Grace Cleary is finally home. When Grace inherits her late father’s restaurant in her enchanting childhood hometown of Maiden’s Cove – a magical Cove where rumours of mermaids abound – it seems like the perfect escape for her and her daughter from her controlling husband.
Isla was said to be a mermaid. But to Grace, Isla was her best friend, until one summer by the sea fifteen years ago tore them apart. When Grace finally calls out to the sea once more, Isla is drawn back to Maiden’s Cove, where forgiveness and peace might just be found.
The Secrets of Maiden’s Coveasks us what it means to have a home, as midnight swims, reunited friends, and a reawakened love await Grace as she fights to revive her family restaurant and forge a new life for herself and her daughter.
When it comes to punk communities across the world, the Orange County punk scene stands out as an undeniable trendsetter that helped define the sound and style of the rapidly evolving genre. From hard luck storytellers Social Distortion and multi-platinum sellers like The Offspring (one of the highest-grossing punk rock bands of all time) to cult heroes like The Adolescents (one of the former band’s greatest influences) and T.S.O.L., there’s so much insight to gain from the story of this widely-popular-though-often-misunderstood music scene.
In TEARING DOWN THE ORANGE CURTAIN, journalists Nate Jackson and Daniel Kohn explore the trajectory of punk and ska from their humble beginnings to their peak popularity years, where their cultural impact could be felt in music around the world. Delving deep into the personal and professional lives of bands like Social Distortion, The Adolescents, The Offspring, and their ska counterparts No Doubt, Sublime, Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris, and more, this book gives readers a deeper look into the very human stories of these musicians, many of whom struggled with acceptance, addiction, and brutal teenage years in suburbia.
Through many exclusive and first-hand interviews with the principal personalities, TEARING DOWN THE ORANGE CURTAIN brings the 20-year period of OC punk and third-wave ska (1978-2000) to life, focusing specifically on the historical and musical roots of this creative explosion. Thought-provoking, meticulously researched, and refreshingly candid, this book presents a compelling narrative of how a suburban wasteland turned into a hub for rock-n roll culture, just over 30 miles away from the bright lights of LA.
MSNBC anchor Jonathan Capehart is one of the most recognizable faces in cable news. But long before that success, Capehart spent his boyhood growing up without his father, shuttling back and forth between New Jersey and rural Severn, North Carolina, contemplating the complexities of race and identity as they shifted around him. It was never easy bridging two worlds; whether being told he was too smart or not smart enough, too black or not black enough, Capehart struggled to find his place.
Then, an internship at The Today Show altered the course of his life, bringing him one step closer to his dream. From there, Capehart embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Yet Here I Am takes us along that journey, from his years at Carleton College, where he learns to embrace his identity as a gay, black man surrounded by a likeminded community; to his decision to come out to his family, risking rejection; and finally to his move to New York City, where time and again he stumbles and picks himself up as he blazes a path to become the familiar face in news we know today.
Honest and endearing, Yet Here I Am is an inspirational memoir of identity, opportunity, and of finding one’s voice and purpose along the way.
Joy can feel complicated, especially to someone who is struggling. Against the very real darkness that life offers up, a chorus of “but do you have a gratitude journal?” or “have you tried yoga?” can feel isolating and dismissive. And yet, the research on resilience, joy, gratitude, hope, and posttraumatic growth proves unequivocally that these emotions are healing. When it comes to deploying that research and adapting it into actionable tools for people with a trauma history, psychology falls desperately short. To bridge this gap, Dr. MaryCatherine McDonald has reframed these concepts and created new interventions for anyone who struggles to feel at home with joy.
In The Joy Reset, Dr. McDonald helps readers identify six common barriers that prevent people from accessing joy – hypervigilance, emotional numbing, fear of loss, conditioning, guilt, and shame – and then redefines positive emotions as those tenacious, gritty, often tiny experiences that appear within the darkest moments and form the very foundation of psychological resilience. Rooted in the neurobiology that explains how and why trauma and suffering can impede our path to hope and joy, Dr. McDonald shares exercises that make joy and gratitude both bite-sized and accessible, inviting readers to welcome these emotions back in.
By emphasizing the very real ways that joy and hope show up even in our toughest moments, The Joy Reset empowers readers to find the light in the dark – no matter what.
How babies sleep is both exceedingly simple and excruciatingly complex. It is simple because it is based on a few straightforward biological principles that affect babies all over the world. It is complex because we have made it so.
Over the past century and a half, we have tried to manipulate baby sleep to fit with the rapidly changing nature of adult lives. The mismatch we have created with our babies’ biology is framed as ‘baby sleep problems’, and infants are often ‘treated’ using behavioural and clinical interventions. But it is not baby sleep that needs fixing – only our understanding of it.
In How Babies Sleep, pioneering infant sleep researcher professor Helen Ball brings together cutting-edge science, anthropological insight and practical advice to provide parents with everything they need to help them confidently – and sanely – navigate the first 365 night-times with a new baby. It will teach you how to harmonise your needs with those of your infant, and empower you to reject approaches that make you uncomfortable and experiment with strategies that work for you and your family.
Calling all studs, dykes, butches, and femmes! An exploration of lesbian identity through logs from the lesbian line, a call line for queer women.
Becky needs a ride to Pride; a caller rants to Cora about her cheating ex; Sharon wants to know: Is she really a lesbian? These are the hallmarks of the Lesbian Line. Elizabeth Lovatt was on her own journey, traversing dating apps and keeping meticulous lists of her own queer awakening, when she happened across the Lesbian Line. Curious about the single handwritten logbook tucked away in a London archive, she discovered a telephone call line for queer women seeking camaraderie, validation, a place to vent, a friend to call.
In Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line, Lovatt uncovers the lesbian history hidden in the pages of the Lesbian Line logbook, which captured calls from 1993 to 1998. With warmth and humor, she reimagines the voices of those who called and volunteered for the Lesbian Line, where a few stolen moments at a pay phone could turn into the courage to come out, find support, and imagine a happier future. In this mash-up of history, pop culture, and queer feminist theory, Lovatt boldly asks: What do we owe to our lesbian forebears? What informs lesbian identity? And how do we create a future for our community free from bias and division?
Relatable, tender, and fun, Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line amplifies pressing conversations often reserved to discussions among chosen family, online forums, rendezvous at the local gay bar, and sometimes just our own heads and hearts. Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line is a celebration of the ordinary lives of queer women and what it means to be a lesbian today, and a vital exploration of how lesbian identity continues to remake and redefine itself in the twenty-first century and where it might lead us in the future.
1861: The Lost Peace is the story of President Lincoln’s far-reaching, difficult, and most courageous decision, a time when the country wrestled with deep moral and political questions of epic proportions.
Through Jay Winik’s singular storytelling, readers will learn about the extraordinary Washington Peace Conference at the Willard Hotel to avert cataclysmic war. They will observe the charismatic and farsighted Senator JJ Crittenden, the tireless moderate seeking a middle way to peace. Lincoln himself called Crittenden “a great man” even as Lincoln jousted with him. They’ll be inside and among Lincoln’s cabinet—the finest in history—which rivaled the executive in its authority, a fact too often forgotten, and they will see a parade of statesmen frenetically grasping for peace rather than the spectacle of the young nation slowly choking in its own blood. A perfect read for the historically inclined, with haunting overtones to our current political climate.
Local reporter Wren just wants a quiet life with no surprises. Sure, her boyfriend Alex is a bit vain and controlling, and maybe their relationship isn’t as exciting as it used to be. But excitement is overrated, right?
Handyman Nick is keen to keep his head down too, while adapting to the breakdown of his relationship and learning how being a single father. All he wants is for his business to take off, to see his daughter and crack on with things.
But then, from two storeys high, Nick accidentally drops a glass window, which lands mere inches from Wren’s head. Then, from electrocutions to car malfunctions, slippages, bookcases and muggings, fate isn’t going to leave these two alone. Not until they meet.
When Wren heads to Italy on what should have been a trip for two, she has no idea that Nick is there too, looking for his estranged father. And when yet another near‑death experience finally throws them together, sparks fly.
But Nick and Wren soon find out their lives are even more entwined that they thought. Will their love survive, or will it be another near miss?
June
Pauline, a young chambermaid who works at the legendary Mapes Hotel in Reno, Nevada, is asked to step in for a colleague and clean Suite 614. Although she was told the rooms were empty, a dazed, sleepy woman appears before her. This is Mrs. Miller, aka Marilyn Monroe, whose stay in Reno coincides with the breakdown of her marriage to Arthur Miller and the filming of what was to be her last film, The Misfits.
Set in the American West in 1960 where the mustang horses run wild, an unexpected friendship unfolds between the most famous movie star in the world and a young cleaning woman whose life will be changed forever through the course of a few weeks. A testament to the enduring power of female friendship and a reimagining of a side of Marilyn Monroe that has never been seen before.
Dining Out explores how gay people came of age, came out, and fought for their rights not just in gay bars or the streets, but in restaurants, from cruisy urban cafeterias of the 1920s to mom-and-pop diners that fed the Stonewall generation to the intersectional hotspots of the early 21st century. Using archival material, original reporting and interviews, and first-person accounts, Erik Piepenburg explores how LGBTQ restaurants shaped, and continue to shape, generations of gay Americans.
Through the eyes of a reporter and the stomach of a hungry gay man, Dining Out examines the rise, impact and legacies of the nation’s gay restaurants past, present, and future, connecting meals with memories. Hamburger Mary’s, Florent, a suburban Denny’s queered by kids: Piepenburg explores how these and many other gay restaurants, coffee shops, diners and unconventional eateries have charted queer placemaking and changed the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement for the better.
In the New Mexico badlands, the skeleton of a woman is found—and the case is assigned to FBI Agent Corrie Swanson. The victim walked into the desert, shedding clothes as she went, and died in agony of heatstroke and thirst. Two rare artifacts are found clutched in her bony hands—lightning stones used by the ancient Chaco people to summon the gods.
Is it suicide or… sacrifice?
Agent Swanson brings in archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate. When a second body is found—exactly like the other—the two realize the case runs deeper than they imagined. As Corrie and Nora pursue their investigation into remote canyons, haunted ruins, and long-lost rituals, they find themselves confronting a dark power that, disturbed from its long slumber, threatens to exact an unspeakable price.
The Simpsons is an American institution. But its status as an occasionally sharp yet ultimately safe sitcom that’s still going after 36 seasons on the air undercuts its revolutionary origins. The early years of the animated series didn’t just impact Hollywood, they changed popular culture. It wasn’t a watercooler show; it was a show that altered the way we talked around the watercooler, in school hallways, and on the campaign trail, by bridging generations with its comedic sensibility and prescient cultural commentary.
In STUPID TV, BE MORE FUNNY, writer Alan Siegel reveals how the first decade of the show laid the groundwork for the series’ true influence. He explores how the show’s rise from 1990 to 1998 intertwined with the supposedly ascendent post-Cold War America, turning Fox into the juggernaut we know today, simultaneously shaking its head at America’s culture wars while finding itself in the middle of them. By packing the book with anecdotes from icons like Conan O’Brien, George Meyer and Yeardley Smith, Siegel also provides readers with an unparalleled look inside the making of the show.
Through interviews with the show’s legendary staff and whip-smart analysis, Siegel charts how The Simpsons developed its singular sensibility throughout the ‘90s, one that was at once groundbreakingly subversive for a primetime cartoon and shockingly wholesome. The result is a definitive history of The Simpsons’ most essential decade.
What if your broken foot is a warning not to accept that new job?
What if the glass ceiling over your career is one that you built (and can dismantle)?
What if you got the flu not because of ‘bad luck,’ but as a cosmic gift to keep you away from a family gathering that became a toxic bloodbath?
What if all of your chronic symptoms are hints, pointing you towards a better life, if only you could decipher the clues?
Ask Your Spirit answers these questions by teaching you how to converse directly with your spirit. The connection to this invaluable resource provides you with the most accurate and personalized guidance on health, relationships, and career dilemmas.
Unlike many spiritual books that simply help you “increase your intuition” or offer general tips on connecting to spirit guides, esteemed medical intuitive Christine Lang provides a detailed, step-by-step process for establishing a practical dialogue with the wisest part of you that’s committed to spiritual growth in this lifetime. This personalized, ongoing conversation with your inner wisdom is like having your spirit on speed dial.
The book is pragmatic with a focus on measurable results. You’ll learn how to discern between your soul’s voice and your ego’s voice so you can start trusting your spirit’s priorities, decoding its messages, and understand the expiration date of your messages. Along with client-centered success stories and testimonials from medical professionals, you’ll see exactly how these practices offer life-changing results.
Hijuelos was fascinated by the Twain-Stanley connection and eventually began researching and writing a novel that used the scant historical record of their relationship as a starting point for a more detailed fictional account. It was a labor of love for Hijuelos, who worked on the project for more than ten years; indeed, he was still revising the manuscript the day before his sudden passing in 2013.
The resulting novel is a richly woven tapestry of people and events that is unique among the author’s works. Ingeniously blending correspondence, memoir, and third-person omniscience to explore the intersection of these Victorian giants in a long-vanished world, the novel superbly channels two vibrant but very different figures, from their early days as journalists in the American West, to their admiration and support of each other’s writing, mutual hatred of slavery, social life together in the dazzling literary circles of the time, and even a mysterious journey to Cuba to search for Stanley’s adoptive father.
A compelling and deeply felt historical fantasia that utilizes the full range of Hijuelos’s gifts, as well as an unforgettable coda to a brilliant writing career.
Includes a reading group guide.
America’s best hitman was hired to kill–but when a D.C. government operation goes horribly wrong, he must rescue a teenage runaway and investigate her parents’ murders in this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller.
It begins with a hit gone wrong. Robie is dispatched to eliminate a target unusually close to home in Washington, D.C. But something about this mission doesn’t seem right to Robie, and he does the unthinkable. He refuses to pull the trigger. Now, Robie becomes a target himself and is on the run.
Fleeing the scene, Robie crosses paths with a wayward teenage girl, a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home. But she isn’t an ordinary runaway–her parents were murdered, and her own life is in danger. Against all of his professional habits, Robie rescues her and finds he can’t walk away. He needs to help her. Even worse, the more Robie learns about the girl, the more he’s convinced she is at the center of a vast cover-up, one that may explain her parents’ deaths and stretch to unimaginable levels of power.
Now, Robie may have to step out of the shadows in order to save this girl’s life…and perhaps his own.
It begins with a hit gone wrong. Robie is dispatched to eliminate a target unusually close to home in Washington, D.C. But something about this mission doesn’t seem right to Robie, and he does the unthinkable. He refuses to pull the trigger. Now, Robie becomes a target himself and is on the run.
Fleeing the scene, Robie crosses paths with a wayward teenage girl, a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home. But she isn’t an ordinary runaway–her parents were murdered, and her own life is in danger. Against all of his professional habits, Robie rescues her and finds he can’t walk away. He needs to help her. Even worse, the more Robie learns about the girl, the more he’s convinced she is at the center of a vast cover-up, one that may explain her parents’ deaths and stretch to unimaginable levels of power.
Now, Robie may have to step out of the shadows in order to save this girl’s life…and perhaps his own.
Hearing is the first sense we develop—a primary warning sense hardwired into our brains. And yet, in an increasingly noisy and distracted world, most people pay very little attention to sound. In school, we teach reading and writing, but not listening. Conscious listening is rare, and, with over half the world’s population now living in cities, billions of people never experience the rich and (we now know) health‑enhancing sounds of the natural world.
Every day, the sounds around us affect our experience and fundamentally alter our quality of life, for better or worse. In four sections—geophony, the sounds of the planet; biophony, the “great animal orchestra”; anthropophony, the sounds of humanity; and silence, a sound in its own right—this book will help readers rediscover the wonder of sound and understand how powerfully it affects us, whether we’re paying attention or not. It will also offer readers a manual for taking back responsibility for the sounds we consume and the sounds we make, so we can enhance our own happiness, effectiveness and well‑being.
Their nickname was the Magnificent Bastards and they were warriors without a war. Kept stateside after 9/11 and left floating in the Pacific during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the thousand Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment were told they were bench-warmers as America sent troops into combat. But war was waiting.
Iraq would explode in violence exactly one year after a U.S.-led Coalition swept into Baghdad and the Magnificent Bastards would find themselves at the epicenter. Yet when the battalion first arrived in the provincial capital of Ramadi, Iraq, in February of 2004, the assigned mission for the Marines and sailors would be little more than handing out candy, smiling and making friends with a conquered people. Instead, they were thrust into a savage battle where hundreds of insurgents organized a three-day offensive aimed at driving the Marines out of their city of 400,000. Along with the violence that broke out across Iraq in April of 2004, the fight in Ramadi marked the true beginning of a war that would go on for another seven years and claim thousands of American lives.
In Unremitting, journalist Gregg Zoroya tells the fast-paced, dramatic, meticulously-researched, and poignant story of the battle that truly began the Iraq War. Capturing the heroism, courage, and brutality of battle, Zoroya explores this vital part of American military history and beyond, showing how Ramadi was not just a game-changer for the Iraq War, but also for the marines, sailors, and soldiers who fought it, the trauma remaining with survivors more than two decades later.
To be a client of Gwendolyn Montgomery’s—New York’s most powerful publicist at Sublime Creative—is to be infused with a certain oomph, a mysterious glamour. She seems to have created the ideal life with her handsome new boyfriend, the perfect match. But Gwendolyn has a secret: She’s a mystical practitioner who can tap into the interdimensional, metaphysical realm of the dead known as El Intermedio. Gwendolyn has hidden her powers, buried her old life, and started anew.
After a grisly, bizarre incident at the Brooklyn Museum, Gwendolyn begins to realize that something nefarious is happening tied directly to her past, right as Fonsi Harewood comes back into her world. Fonsi is a queer Latinx psychic from the South Bronx who’s caught up in a love triangle with a ghost and his mortal ex. He’s able to communicate with the dead, having established a robust business interpreting messages from departed loved ones. And he comes with a dire warning for Gwendolyn that the barrier between humans and spirits is weakening.
Gwendolyn would prefer not to have anything to do with ghostly drama. Yet in order to get to the bottom of the spookiness derailing her life, she must face the demons she’d long left behind. Or the spirit world will be unleashed, threatening her very existence and all of New York. The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery is a sensuous, funny, mystical adventure that will leave you spellbound as you keep the pages turning.
Larry Charles’s journey is like no other in show business and that’s the way he wanted it. He broke all the rules and taboos with glee. On Fridays where he met both Larry David and Michael Richards, on Seinfeld, on Curb Your Enthusiasm, on Entourage, on Borat, Bruno, and The Dictator, on his collaboration with Bill Maher on Religulous, and his collaboration with Bob Dylan on Masked and Anonymous. And when things didn’t work out, at least he was fired by such luminaries as Robert Redford, Bob Weinstein and finally by his mentor and friend, Larry David.
Perfect for fans of Seinfeldia and lovers of comedy in general, but shockingly and surprisingly a great book even if you hate all that.
When her master is betrothed to a woman who conceals a tragic secret, Hannah Crafts, a young slave on a wealthy North Carolina plantation, runs away in a bid for her freedom up North. Pursued by slave hunters, imprisoned by a mysterious and cruel captor, held by sympathetic strangers, and forced to serve a demanding new mistress, she finally makes her way to freedom in New Jersey. Her compelling story provides a fascinating view of American life in the mid-1800s and the literary conventions of the time. Written in the 1850’s by a runaway slave, THE BONDSWOMAN’S NARRATIVE is a provocative literary landmark and a significant historical event that will captivate a diverse audience.
Are you living the life you’re meant to be living, or fulfilling somebody else’s ideas of who you should be? Would you like to learn what’s true for you underneath the programming while healing old wounds that keep you living in cycles of trauma, depression, and anxiety? Truth Medicine explains why we often feel stuck and are unable to move forward into a life of thriving, and how psychedelic psychotherapy addresses these essential questions for our well-being.
Grounded in research and experience, Truth Medicine answers frequently asked questions about psychedelic psychotherapy—what it is and how it works, and what medicines are used (primarily ketamine, with an overview of other medicines on the horizon, such as MDMA and psilocybin), contraindications, and more. Walking readers through the whole process from preparation through medicine sessions and into integration, Dr. Sapiro also shares case studies that are inspiring, engaging, and raw, for a go-to guide for anyone looking to heal. While Truth Medicine describes in detail how psychedelic psychotherapy works to bring about healing and growth, it ultimately points you back inside yourself, where your own wisdom and truth are waiting to be discovered and lived.
A laugh out loud romcom debut novel by podcast host Adrienne Gunn, set in the reality TV dating universe. For readers of If the Shoe Fits, One to Watch, and The Charm Offensive.
Thirty-five year old Edie Pepper, a rosé loving, reality TV obsessed copywriter from Chicago, dreams of plucking her soulmate from the depths of Hinge (or Tinder or Bumble). Following yet another dumpster fire of a date, Edie is consoling herself with boxed wine and E! News when Ryan Seacrest drops a bomb: Edie’s high school sweetheart has been cast as the lead in America’s most beloved reality dating show, The Key, and wow, does he look different. Charlie Bennett, Edie’s chubby cheeked, cosplay loving high school boyfriend has had a serious glow up, and is now a world traveling, extreme sports hunk.
Desperate to reclaim her One True Love, Edie DMs the show’s conniving producers, who are more than happy to shove Edie headfirst into the competition. But Charlie isn’t quite who she remembers, and he’s as desperate to hide his past as Edie is to reveal it. Further complicating matters is Peter Kennedy, The Key‘s cranky showrunner, who, despite his best efforts, finds himself drawn to Edie’s everywoman charm.
Navigating increasingly absurd dates, Edie starts to rethink everything she thought she knew about love. Is the biggest risk she’s ever taken about to culminate in disaster? Or is Edie about to secure the Happily Ever After she’s always wanted?
Find out this season on The Key.
July
At 32, Russell Green has it all: a stunning wife, a lovable six year-old daughter, a successful career as an advertising executive, and an expansive home in Charlotte. He is living the dream, and his marriage to the bewitching Vivian is at the center of it. But underneath the shiny surface of this perfect existence, fault lines are beginning to appear . . . and no one is more surprised than Russ when every aspect of the life he has taken for granted is turned upside down.
In a matter of months, Russ finds himself without a job or a wife, caring for his young daughter while struggling to adapt to a new and baffling reality. Throwing himself into the wilderness of single parenting, Russ embarks on a journey at once terrifying and rewarding — one that will test his abilities and his emotional resources beyond anything he’s ever imagined.
When a chance encounter with an old flame tempts him to take a chance on love again, he will navigate this new opportunity with trepidation and wonder. But with the loyal support of his parents, the wisdom of his older sister, Marge, and in the hard-won lessons of fatherhood, Russ will finally come to understand the true nature of unconditional love — that it is a treasure to be bestowed, not earned.
Nola Strate is being watched, again.
After an encounter with a notorious serial killer in the Pacific Northwest as a child, Nola has grown up and tried her best to forget her traumatizing night with The Hiding Man. She installed security cameras outside her Oregon home, never spoke of her experience, and now hosts Night Watch, a popular radio call-in show her semi‑famous father used to run. When coincidences lead Nola to believe that she is being stalked, and a caller on Night Watch has a live incident with an intruder in the caller’s home, the description of whom is chillingly familiar, Nola is convinced that The Hiding Man has resurfaced and is coming for her.
With a mysterious next‑door neighbor lurking in the shadows, more people getting hurt, the police not taking her concerns seriously, and evidence pointing towards her own father, Nola decides to become, like her listeners, a Night Watcher herself, and uncover the monster behind The Hiding Man’s mask.
Few diabetes books focus specifically on the day-to-day issues facing people who use insulin. Gary Scheiner provides the tools to “think like a pancreas” — to successfully master the art and science of matching insulin to the body’s ever-changing needs. Comprehensive, free of medical jargon, and packed with useful information not readily available elsewhere, such as:
- day-to-day blood glucose monitoring and management
- designing an insulin program to best match your needs and lifestyle
- how to get the best results from CGM and automated insulin delivery systems
- new insulin formulations and combinations
- detailed strategies for meeting your personal goals
- what drugs like Trulicity, Ozempic and Mounjaro mean for you and your health
- and much more
Steve Martin Writes the Written Word is a perfect introduction for new fans and a must-have for longtime fans, showcasing the longevity, range, and—above all—hilarity of the master. Filled with his singular characters and musings–Daniel Pecan Cambridge, a modern-day neurotic yearning to break free in The Pleasure of My Company, to the comedic and heartbreaking relationship between Neiman Marcus shopgirl Mirabelle and businessman Ray Porter in Shopgirl, to meditations on bad neighbors and so much more–this collection shows the breadth of Martin’s work, which is bolstered by a mix of brand-new and previously published selections of his writing for the New Yorker’s “Shouts & Murmurs” column.
A tantalizing page-turner from start to finish that will appeal to a wide range of literary appetites, Steve Martin Writes the Written Word is a brilliant tour through a singular mind.
At the age of twenty-one, college student Ben Weissenbach set out into the Alaskan wilderness armed with little more than inspiration from his literary heroes and a growing interest in climate change. What meets him there is a landscape both stark and awe-inspiring—a part of the world seen by few outside a small contingent of scientists with big personalities.
There’s Roman Dial, the larger-than-life field scientist who leads him on a five week journey into the Alaskan backcountry. There’s Kenji Yoshikawa, the isolated researcher who leaves Ben alone for eleven days to care for his remote cabin, where temperatures at night drop to -49 degrees Fahrenheit. And there’s Matt Nolan, the independent glaciologist who flies planes onto glaciers.
As Ben’s mental and physical resilience is tested, he discovers far more than his own limits; struck by the landscape’s staggering beauty and sheer indifference to humanity, Ben emerges from each experience with a new perspective on our modern relationships to technology—and a deep sense of wonder for our natural world.
Emerging first in the American South during slavery, these women were thrust into the heart of national conflicts over generations of African American life. They combined ancestral magic and hyperlocal resources to respond to Black struggles in real time, forging a secret well of health and power hidden to their oppressors. As a result, conjure informs our lives in ways remarkable and ordinary—from traditional medicines that informed the creation of Vicks VapoRub and the rise of Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Mix, to the original magic of Disney’s The Little Mermaid (2023), and the true origins of the all-American classic blue jean.
From the moment enslaved Africans first arrived on these shores, conjure was heavily regulated and even outlawed. Now, Stewart uncovers new contours of American history, sourcing letters from the enslaved, dispatches from the lore of Oshun and other African mystics. The Conjuring of America is a love letter to the real magic Black women used, their magic Black women, their herbs, food, textiles, song, and dance, used to sow rebellion, freedom, and hope.
For much of her life, Keeley Hazell has been labeled and pigeonholed. Growing up in a poor working-class family made her a certain kind of person (the kind who scrounged for chicken and chips money and once set a car on fire). Becoming a topless model after winning The Sun newspaper’s “Page 3 Idol” competition made her a certain kind of person (one with big boobs and few thoughts, to hear anyone else tell it). And as glittery as being one of the UK’s most successful glamour models may seem, Keeley’s fairytale success quickly turned into a nightmare. After becoming a victim of revenge porn and a particularly disastrous interview with a high brow British newspaper, Keeley began re-examining her life. She learned about feminism, objectification, and systemic misogyny on a wonderful journey of personal growth, and with a flick of her hair, quit modelling, walked away from a fat paycheck, and moved thousands of miles away from everything she had come to know. Reinventing herself as an actress and writer, she starred in award-winning short films, as well as horrors, dramas, and comedies before facing her most challenging job on the massive hit series Ted Lasso– rewriting what it means to be Keeley both on-screen and in real life.
EVERYONE’S SEEN MY TITS is a powerful, funny, high spirited essay collection. From growing up on a council estate and her tumultuous relationship with fame to overcoming adversity, finding feminism, and finding herself, these essays chronicle one woman’s coming-of-age and coming into herself. A personal journey with universal appeal as girls worldwide continue to battle how they are perceived, who they really are, and what they can be.
Lately, Julia Pritzker is beginning to think she’s cursed. She’s lost her adoptive parents, then her husband is murdered. When she realizes that her horoscope essentially foretold his death, she begins to spiral. She fears her fate is written in the stars, not held in her own hands.
Then a letter arrives out of the blue, informing her that she has inherited a Tuscan villa and vineyard – but her benefactor is a total stranger named Emilia Rossi. Julia has no information about her biological family, so she wonders if Rossi could be a blood relative. Bewildered, she heads to Tuscany for answers.
There, Julia is horrified to discover that Rossi was a paranoid recluse with delusions of grandeur, who believed herself to be a descendent of Duchess Caterina Sforza, a legendary Renaissance ruler. Julia is stunned by her uncanny resemblance to Rossi and even to Caterina, then she unearths eerie parallels between them, including an obsession with astrology.
Before long, Julia suspects she’s being followed, and strange things begin to happen. Not even a chance meeting with a handsome Florentine can ease her disturbed mind. When events turn deadly, she breaks with reality.
Julia’s harrowing struggle becomes a search for her identity, a race to save her sanity, and ultimately, a question of her very survival.
The Raincoats were formed in London in 1977 as an experimental punk band synonymous with their indie label, Rough Trade; in fact, Geoff Travis even said that “the whole genome of Rough Trade wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good without them.” The Raincoats went on to create what Vivien Goldman called “a new legacy of punk” and arguably became the most pioneering and challenging female band of the post-punk era while inspiring a new wave of DIY and queercore artists.
Introduced by Kurt Cobain to a new generation in the 1990s, The Raincoats were invited to tour with Nirvana, and were known as the “godmothers of grunge” and “godmothers of Riot Grrrl” before eventually becoming label mates with Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Hole, Bikini Kill, and Elastica. In the new millennium, they went on to play openings for feminist art exhibitions at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Tate Britain, as well as major festivals, and experimented with emerging DIY music technology. In the 21st-century, The Raincoats singularly inspired Bikini Kill to reform after a 20-year hiatus.
Featuring exclusive interviews and brand new photos from the Raincoats’ archives, as well as reproduced ephemera (handbills, flyers, contracts, ticket stubs, artworks, etc.), SHOUTING OUT LOUD is the first ever biography of this groundbreaking band and shows how this pioneering group of women paved the way for those that followed in their footsteps. Additionally, the book features original interviews with members of Sonic Youth, Hole, Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, Big Joanie, Liz Phair, and many more.
Meticulously researched and sweeping in scope, SHOUTING OUT LOUD is the must-have account of a band that became the linchpin of feminist music in the 20th century.
When aspiring writer Allison moved to L.A., she expected her life to finally take shape. After years of dwelling in grief over her brother’s unexpected and untimely death and allowing her mercurial parents’ feelings and desires to infect her own, she feels ready become the main character in her own story again. Yet Allison continues to feel inextricably tied to both her parents, particularly her unpredictable father, and weighed down by her the loss of her brother. In L.A., as with anywhere else, she feels lonely and adrift, unable to write and barely scraping by as an English teacher.
After a serendipitous run in with famed radio DJ Reid Steinman, an idol of her father’s and her late brother’s, Allison is rapidly drawn under his spell, while also developing an unanticipated, tangled relationship with his adult daughter, Maddie. She’s forced to balance her romance with Reid with her gnawing desire for the intoxicatingly charming Maddie, as it becomes increasingly evident that she and Allison’s late brother share more than a few qualities. As Allison’s relationships with the equally self-possessed father and daughter deepens, she struggles to establish the boundaries of her own identity.
Through candid self-awareness, keen observations, and deliciously wry humor, FIRST TIME, LONG TIME asks, what happens to a young woman’s goals when she becomes involved with a famous man whose needs seem so much louder than her own? And how might she move forward when so much in her past remains unresolved?
Brent Walker is returning home to Concord, a quaint town in central Georgia nestled close to the Savannah River. Ten years ago, after the sudden death of his wife, Brent closed his law practice, said goodbye to his parents, and moved three hundred miles away to a self-imposed exile. His father died two years ago, and now Brent’s coming back to take care of his ailing mother, hired by Southern Republic Pulp and Paper Company as an assistant general counsel.
For decades Southern Republic has invested heavily in Concord, building a paper mill and creating a thriving community, one where its employees live, work, and retire. Unlike countless other mills that have closed Southern Republic survived, becoming a model for the paper industry. But Southern Republic’s success is based largely on something called the Priority program, a highly unorthodox way to secretly control costs, one that provides a huge edge over its competition. Only the three owners of the company are aware of the program’s existence, but one of them, Christopher Bozin, has had a change of heart. Brent’s return to Concord, a move Bozin personally orchestrated, provides a chance at redemption that Bozin desperately wants before cancer takes his life. So a plan is set into motion—one that will not only criminally implicate Bozin’s two partners—it will also place Brent Walker right in the crosshairs of men who want him dead.
With only one course left available: Find and reveal the shocking secret of the list.
Before eleven seasons of record-breaking TV, two Emmy nominations, and a chart-topping podcast, Scheananigans, Scheana thought signing on to the Real Housewives‘ spin-off show, Vanderpump Rules, was a steppingstone to reaching her ultimate goal of becoming a successful actress in Hollywood. After appearing on shows like 90210, Jonas, and Victorious, Vanderpump Rules would be a piece of cake.
But from the very first season, Scheana clashed with her fellow cast members. Barbs were thrown, friendships dissolved, and Scheana was left in the rubble trying to navigate the complexities of having her life and relationships filmed for a television audience. On camera, she got used to being called every name in the book, from homewrecking whore to a pick-me and bad friend. But off camera, there’s always been a different side of Scheana, pieces of her that didn’t make it into the final edit of tidy, forty-minute television episodes.
In MY GOOD SIDE, Scheana pulls back the layers of who she really is and shares all sides of her—the good, bad, and messy—bringing readers on a wild nostalgia trip through the early days of Vanderpump Rules, while recounting jaw-dropping stories from her Hollywood black book, including setting the record straight on her relationship with Eddie Cibrian. She reveals how her outlook on love has evolved and led her to a daughter she was told she may never have. From being bullied as a kid to being bullied by the Witches of WeHo, Scheana has seen it all, and together she and her fans can laugh, cry, and reminisce on all the drama, heartbreak, and celebrations over the years.
For decades, when criminal cases of the most unprecedented nature went to trial, one woman took the stand to separate truth from fiction. EXPERT WITNESS is the extraordinary story of forensic and psychiatric pioneer Dr. Ann Burgess—inspiration for Hulu’s forthcoming docuseries Mastermind—and how she revolutionized what it means to be an expert witness in the American court system.
Written through Burgess’ singular lens of compassion and lived experience, EXPERT WITNESS pulls back the curtain on some of the biggest cases in the last thirty years—from Bill Cosby to the Menendez brothers to Larry Nassar—to reveal the deeply human stories behind the trials that captivated a nation. The book explores the role of expert witnesses in high stakes court cases, offering first-hand accounts and never-before-seen interviews with attorneys, victims, and offenders. Unlike any book before it, EXPERT WITNESS places readers inside the mind of the nation’s most prominent courtroom expert, following Burgess as she takes on one seismic case after the next and shows how powerful courtroom testimony can be.
Throughout the narrative, each case deepens the reader’s understanding of the art and science of expert testimony. And while the cases on their own are fascinating, it’s the never before told stories of the individuals at the heart of such groundbreaking cases that gives EXPERT WITNESS its powerful sense of urgency, relevance, and framework of understanding, taking readers from the women’s movement of the 1970s to the #MeToo movement of today—one of the largest social reckonings in recent history.
At its core, EXPERT WITNESS is a story of empowerment. It’s a story of compassion and the ever-increasing need for individuals to stand up and speak truth to power or to popular opinion. And it’s ultimately a story of how revolutionary one voice can be.
In between the Elvis years and the rise of the Beatles, there was no bigger act than The Everly Brothers. From 1957-1962, they were among the highest selling pop acts in the U.S., with 11 Number One singles and over 35 high- charting records in all. In that time, they developed their own brand of rock ‘n’ roll and gentle pop balladry that leaned heavily on older, close harmony styles of country music singing. “Wake Up, Little Susie,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” “Cathy’s Clown,” “Let it Be Me,” – their hits were legion and their sweet and sour Appalachian-style harmonies influenced everyone from The Beatles to Simon and Garfunkel to the Beach Boys to Crosby, Stills, and Nash. “Blood harmony” refers to the kind of close harmony seemingly only obtainable by siblings, and Don and Phil Everly were the kings of it. Anytime you hear the style of harmony you hear in, say, the Beatles’ “Please Please Me,” you are hearing the sound (and impact) of The Everly Brothers.
The Everly Brothers—Don and Phil—are inducted members of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame, and progenitors of the hybrid Americana roots music format. Yet the duo have remained the only original, founding inductees of the Rock Hall without a penetrating, substantial biography. What books there have been—most published 30-40 years ago, reflecting perspectives of that time—have been either fan-written and surface-skimming or approached the Everlys with particular emphasis on their discography, more than their lived experiences.
Blood Harmony: The Everly Brothers Story is the first biography that’s focused on the dramatic, complicated relationship of these two famous and strikingly talented brothers, and explores how the evolution of their relationship played out in the much- loved music they created—through some sixty years of performing. Their story is the story of American music, from their rural Kentucky origins to massive international fame, falling out of fashion in the wake of the rise of rock bands and singer-songwriters, and their many comebacks.
Written with reverence and insight, and featuring dozens of brand new and archival interviews with those who knew them best, as well as long-lost global reporting, Blood Harmony is a fitting ode to the brothers who made a huge impact on the modern music scene, celebrating how their creative “blood harmony” evolved to become an entry point into country music for millions around the world.
If you told Aiden Arata in 1995 that the internet would one day crown her the “meme queen of depression” and mega corporations would fly her to conferences to speak about commodifying one’s emotions for views, she would have asked you what a meme was. Now, in her highly anticipated debut, she brings us raw reportage from that liminal space between online and offline worlds, illuminating how we got here and where to go next.
In this collection of kaleidoscopic essays, Aiden artfully explores what it means to exist on the internet, from fan fic forums to TikTok. She exposes influencer grifts from the perspective of a grifter, digs into the alluring aesthetic numbness of stay-at-home girlfriend content creators, and interrogates our online fetishization of doom to grapple with the real-world apocalypse. In her own words, “In some ways, the internet feels like a neutral energy in the way that money is a neutral energy, only as virtuous or wicked as the person using it. But then you have to follow that line of inquiry somewhere annoying like, Am I using it for good?”
YOU HAVE A NEW MEMORY is a deeply human inventory of the digital sphere, a searing analysis of the present and a prescient assessment of the future. Aiden is the wry, unexpected voice we need to navigate existing simultaneously as creators, consumers, and products in our increasingly braver and newer world.
Every Thursday night, former country music heartthrob Luke Randall has to sing “Another Love Song.” God, he hates that song. But performing his lone hit at an interstate motel lounge is the only regular money he still has. Following another lackluster performance at the rock bottom of his career, Luke receives the opportunity of his dreams, opening for his childhood idol—90’s era Black country music star, JoJo Lane, who’s being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But the concert is in Arcadia, Arkansas, the small hometown he swore he’d never see again. Going back means facing a painful past of abuse and neglect. It also means facing JoJo’s daughter, August Lane—the woman who wrote the lyrics he’s always claimed as his own.
August also hates that song. But she hates Luke Randall even more. When he shows up ten years too late to apologize for his betrayal, she isn’t interested in making amends. Instead, she threatens to expose his lies unless he co-writes a new song with her and performs it at the concert, something she hopes will launch her out of her mother’s shadow and into a songwriting career of her own. Desperate to keep his secret, Luke agrees to put on the rogue performance, despite the risk of losing his shot at a new record deal.
When Luke’s guitar reunites with August’s soulful alto, neither can deny that the passionate bond they formed as teenagers is still there. As the concert nears, August will have to choose between an overdue public reckoning with the boy who betrayed her, or trusting the man he’s become to write a different love song.
Everything in your life comes down to how connected you are to your own body. Your relationships, your career, even your self-worth and self-respect are all a reflection of the relationship you have with your body. When things feel out of alignment, overwhelming or “too much,” it’s a sign that you’ve already lost communication with yourself and the physical sensations within your body that let you know something is not right. The challenge is that many of us have difficulty even fathoming what a healthy relationship with our body is. We are overscheduled, overcommitted, and overwhelmed, making it difficult to pay attention to what is happening in the present moment. When the body has been a source of pain, anguish, and trauma, it feels impossible to return to it in a positive way. Many of us have spent years disconnected from our physical sensations, and the thought of reestablishing a healthy connection to the body feels impossible and we don’t even know where to begin.
Enter BodyTalk, a unique guide to reestablishing connection to your body in order to process difficult emotions, improve mental health, and feel secure in your own skin. Through daily movement exercises and mindful reflection, readers can easily reestablish healthy boundaries and relationships with their own bodies in order to move through challenging emotions and feelings, as well as begin to find balance and a sense of vitality.
Over 365 days, you will be guided into more awareness as you’re gently challenged to connect and communicate with your body. Through a combination of movement exercises and body-centered journal prompts, you can find your way back to yourself — your worth, value, confidence, even identity.
Bestselling author and psychologist Thomas Armstrong’s exploration and celebration of neurodivergence, completely revised with the most up-to-date research and insights.
From ADHD and dyslexia to autism, the number of diagnosis categories listed by the American Psychiatric Association has tripled in the last fifty years. With so many people affected, it is time to revisit our perceptions of people with disabilities.
Bestselling author, psychologist, and educator Thomas Armstrong illuminates a new understanding of neuropsychological disorders. He argues that if they are a part of the natural diversity of the human brain, they cannot simply be defined as illnesses. Armstrong explores the evolutionary advantages, special skills, and other positive dimensions of these conditions, including: autism, ADHD, dyslexia, schizophrenia, anxiety, intellectual disabilities, and mood disorders. With an emphasis on positive niche construction for each area, The Power of Neurodiversity is a manifesto as well as a keen look at disability, as well as a must-read for parents, teachers, and anyone who is looking to learn more about neurodivergence.
August
From the author of the critically acclaimed Madame Restell and Get Well Soon, Jennifer Wright, a provocatively written biography on Mamie Fish, also known as “The Ruler of the 400” and “The Theme Party Queen of the Gilded Age,” that explores how women like Fish used parties and social gatherings to gain power and prestige
Marion Graves Anthon Fish, known by the nicknames “Mamie” and “The Fun-Maker,” threw the most epic parties in American history. Whether hosting at her Upper East Side townhouse, Hudson River highlands retreat, or oceanside mansion in Newport, RI, this Gilded Age icon brought it: lavish decor; highly specific themes; A-list invitees; booze; pranks; music; surprises; large animal guest stars. If you were a member of New York high society in the Peak Age of Innocence Era, you simply had to be on Mamie Fish’s guest list. There was no exile like exclusion from her parties—and no honor more exciting (or terrifying) than attending one hosted by a woman who might greet you by saying, “make yourself at home. No one wishes you were there more than I do.”
At one party, Mamie required her very rich and dignified guests to dress up as dolls and speak exclusively in baby talk. Others featured fairy tale dress codes, hay rides and pitchforks, elephants who rumbled across the ballroom while guests fed them peanuts, and dogs in diamond necklaces who dined on foie gras at the table as honored guests. Mamie Fish understood that people didn’t just need the formality of prior generations — they needed wit and whimsy. They needed fun.
Make no mistake, however: Mamie Fish’s story is about so much more than partying. In GLITZ, GLAM, AND A DAMN GOOD TIME readers will learn all about how Fish and her friends shaped the line of history, exerting their influence on business, politics, family relationships, and social change through elaborate social gatherings. In a time when women couldn’t even own property, let alone run for office, if women wanted any of the things men got outside the home—glory, money, attention, social networking, leadership roles—they had to do it by throwing a decadent soiree or chairing a cotillion. For a hostess like her, the Gilded Age presented unprecedented opportunity: a proliferation in manufacturing, which made all kinds of glittering decor available on short notice for the first time; a wild accrual of wealth at the top of high society, which gave hosts and guests alike the means to go BIG on revelry; and most important, a country rapidly shifting away from the communitarian ideals on which it was founded, for better and for worse. A brilliant strategist and kingmaker in her own right, Fish knew the power of a good party better than just about any woman who has ever lived.
To ensure people would hear and remember what she had to say, Mamie Fish lived her whole life at Volume 10, becoming famous not by playing the part of a saintly helpmeet, but by letting her demanding, bitchy, hilarious, dramatic freak flag fly. And it’s time to let modern readers in on the fun, the fabulousness, and the absolute ferocity that is Ms. Stuyvesant Fish—and her inimitable legacy.
But when his mother’s modest income couldn’t cover Roderick’s prosthetics, she made another impossible decision: to leave her demanding job working for the US Navy and go on unemployment. That way California Children’s Services would pay for Roderick’s prosthetics that would enable him to walk. Roderick and his mother were left homeless and moved from California to Alabama. All the while she instilled in him the lessons of gratitude, love, and patience that aided him as he built confidence in his disability and pursued his passion: sports.
Roderick was still homeless in Alabama when he met coaches from the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which helps athletes with disabilities. They gave him his running legs, and his life quickly changed for the better. He learned how to swim, how to challenge his body, and how to be a fierce competitor and athlete—all with him mom cheering from the sidelines.
Iron Will is the story of an athlete with an indomitable spirit and proof that an athlete’s mindset is about more than physical and mental endurance. It’s about enduring love, support, and the willingness to try.
But soon after Khadijah completes her grueling training and boards her ship, finds herself in even more traumatic situations among strangers far from home. Surrounded by men in the sonar room, she struggles to maintain her dignity day after day while dealing with near-constant sexual harassment, weeks-long demeaning labor assignments, and overt racism from her coworkers. At first, she tries to bring honor to herself, her family, her division, and the navy, taking pride in her work while studying to become an officer and leaning on poetry to lift her spirits. Queen begins to wonder the issues she is faced with are worth what she was promised.
Queen must conceal a miscarriage, a subsequent pregnancy, and domestic violence while enlisted. She must decide where her loyalties lie: the life that was prescribed to her, or the new, unknown life that awaits her? Masterfully penned, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a searing chronicle about family, survival and autonomy, and one woman’s attempt to content with a workplace that is hostile to women.
The Depression Cure will change the way we think about and manage depression. Dr. Stephen Ilardi sheds light on our current predicament and reminds us that our bodies were never designed for the sleep‑deprived, poorly nourished, frenzied pace of twenty‑first century life. Inspired by the extraordinary resilience of aboriginal groups like the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea, Dr. Ilardi prescribes an easy‑to‑follow, clinically proven program that harks back to what our bodies were originally made for and what they continue to need with these six components:
· Nutrition
· Fighting Rumination
· Antidepressant Exercise
· Light Box Therapy
· Getting Connected
· Healthy Sleep Habits
Since the first edition of The Depression Cure was published, depression rates have continued to skyrocket especially after the upheaval of the COVID‑19 pandemic. Worldwide, depression and anxiety increased by 25%. In 2020, nearly 20 million adults in the US suffered from a depressive episode. And one in four Americans suffer from major depression at some point in their lives. The Depression Cure‘s holistic approach has shown to produce positive results at a hope-inspiring rate, even for those who were not improved by traditional medication.
In LEVIATHAN BEACH the thin veil between fantasy and reality ceases to exist. Thomas’ concerns with war, labor, sex and the shared prospects of biological life on this planet depict human beings as minimum wage plovers in the title story, whereas disgruntled green anoles become a child’s potential salvation in “Cold War Kirby.” In “Xscape from the Dark Dimension” a young girl takes on the skin of a demon, while in “Half an Inch at Best” a group of soldiers get more than they bargained for out of sexual tourism. A lonely divorcee travels the world to perform assisted suicides in “The Ferryman is Now Accepting Visa,” and in “Monday,” two medics may finally learn to love each other over a Socratic dialogue in the front of an ambulance. With brilliant, often humorous prose, Joseph Earl Thomas approaches his subject matter with scalpel-like precision, revealing profound truths and posing incisive questions at the level of the speculative and the hyper-real.
Both solemn and searching, scathing and indignant, Thomas reflects on the multi-headed Leviathan of the present with great curiosity about life and little respect for mere tolerance, asking what it means to dream of a better future when the world has been crumbling around you.
Great films are born of great collaborations, and Sunset Boulevard represents one of the most extraordinary confluences of cinematic talent in film history, but its production was surprisingly fraught, filled with unexpected twists. Why was William Holden, who had never caught fire as a leading man, hired to play Joe Gillis after the fastest‑rising star in the business dropped out at the last minute? After Mae West and Mary Pickford turned down the now iconic role of Norma Desmond, how did Billy Wilder convince Gloria Swanson, who had long been absent from Hollywood at this point, to leave her low‑paying job as a TV talk show host to join the cast? From the writers’ room during Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett’s final collaboration to the moment when the film won three Academy Awards, scholar and former Rolling Stone staffer David M. Lubin takes readers on a fascinating journey through film history that proves, once and for all, why Sunset Boulevard is one of the most iconic films in cinematic history.
By exploring the history of Sunset Boulevard in time for the movie’s 75th anniversary, from its inception to its making to its present-day legacy, Ready for My Closeup breathes life into a beloved masterpiece of American cinema, not only marking its influential place in film history, but also proving how prescient it really was in terms of the human costs of relentless technological change and our obsessive quest for fame, youth, and immortality.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner returns with the 4th installment in her bestselling Frankie Elkin series, in which Frankie is called to Tucson, Arizona, to find a missing Afghan refugee, whose friend suspects she is in grave danger, before it is too late.
A young mother haunted by war, determined to make a fresh start. But sometimes, the sins of the past aren’t so easy to escape.
Recent Afghan refugee Sabera Ahmadi was last seen exiting her place of work three weeks ago. The local police have yet to open a case, while her older, domineering husband seems unconcerned. Sabera’s closest friend, however, is convinced Sabera would never willingly leave her three‑year old daughter. At her insistence, missing persons expert Frankie Elkin agrees to take up the search through the broiling streets of Tucson. Just in time for a video of the young mother to surface—showing her walking away from the scene of a brutal double murder.
Frankie quickly realizes there’s much more to the Ahmadi family than meets the eye. The father Isaad is a brilliant mathematician, Sabera a gifted linguist, and their little girl Zahra—she has an uncanny ability to remember anything she sees. Which given everything that has happened during the girl’s short life, may be a terrible curse. When Isaad also disappears under mysterious circumstances and an attempt is made on Zahra’s life, Frankie realizes she must quickly crack the code of this family’s horrific past.
Someone is coming for the Ahmadis. And violence is clearly an option. When everything is on the line, how far would you go to protect the ones you love?
Frankie is about to find out.
Seven years ago, Quinn finally dared to transform from a seal into a human and took her first steps on land. As a selkie, she is both a daughter of land and sea. But when a human stole her pelt, he stole her freedom as well, forcing Quinn to become his wife and bear his children. As legend tells, capturing a selkie will bring you luck, and she became a coveted prize.
Constrained to a life that was no longer her own, Quinn longed for nothing more than to find her pelt and seize her freedom. Then one day, her eldest daughter hands Quinn her pelt and without a second thought, Quinn snatches it and escapes to the sea. But she’s no longer used to swimming and doesn’t know where her herd has gone. And after an almost disastrous encounter with her former husband, leaving her severely injured, Quinn doesn’t even have the strength to go searching.
Instead, she finds herself taking shelter on a nearby island with a lighthouse and three lighthouse keepers. Quinn doesn’t trust humans anymore and wants to stay hidden from the keepers. But she can’t survive on her own either. Can she learn to trust these humans and shed her hatred of all humankind? Or will she give into her fears and accept the monstrous fate that others have bestowed upon her?
When I blink, my eyelashes brush against scratchy cloth. My fingers twitch, numb and distant. In the distance, sirens wail. I’m in the hospital.
I should be safe here, but I know I’m not. The last thing I remember is running, seeing an arm raised to strike… Why would anyone want to kill me?
Desperately, I piece together my scattered memories. I’m standing with my husband on sugar-white sand, our rings glinting in the sunlight. I’ll get better, and I’ll go home to him, and he will protect me.
But when he visits, his new girlfriend is on his arm. He tells me we got divorced three years ago, and my world falls apart. What else have I forgotten?
The only way I can keep myself safe is to uncover the answers buried deep in my mind. But as I talk to my visitors—listening to the gentle tones of the doctors and nurses, grateful for the care of my friends and family—I start to see the lies that contradict what I remember of my life.
They say it’s just my broken memory. But I know the shocking truth: I can’t trust a word anyone says…
In the years since the first edition was published, integrative medicine has come more to the fore, and this includes oncology. It’s a necessary step: when it comes to cancer, conventional doctors are trained to treat their patients exclusively with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy– methods that are grueling on the whole body that don’t treat beyond the tumor or the cancer itself. The focus is on the disease, not the whole person‑‑and because of this, the outcomes in conventional medicine can be bleak.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy’s whole‑person approach to treating cancer has helped thousands of patients. Now fully revised and updated to reflect the most recent advances in medicine, The Cancer Revolution shares Dr. Connealy’s methods, showing you how to get to the root causes of cancer and the practical steps you can take to get back on the path to healing.
Chemotherapy and radiation have their place in treatment, but in many cases, they are simply not enough, because cancer isn’t caused by one thing, but by many different factors. All of these causes must be addressed, not just the tumor. With a new 14-Day Anticancer Wellness Plan, as well as fully updated info on bolstering your immune system and detoxifying so your body can be at its strongest, The Cancer Revolution will equip you to make impactful, achievable lifestyle choices that fight the root of the disease, and that offer hope for recovery and a cancer‑free life.
Everyone—especially young children, teenagers and young adults—now reports higher levels of anxiety than ever before. Yet there’s no playbook for parenting today. From the climate crisis to gun violence to political upheaval to racism, parenting in these times means bearing witness to chronic levels of uncertainty amidst societal and planetary transformation. Many are succumbing to fears and despair by becoming cynical “Doomers” (those who are extremely pessimistic or fatalist about global problems such as climate change and pollution).
In Raising Anti‑Doomers, psychotherapist Ariella Cook‑Shonkoff reveals that Doomerism is nothing more than fear or despair gone wild. We have a choice in breeding this response further into our culture—or not. Her book helps parents help themselves, and in doing so, help children, and future generations. By guiding parents through emotional reflections and reckonings, supporting the development of a personal climate identity and moving towards action and engagement as individuals and families, this book offers hope at a time when we are desperately in need. Ultimately, when we reset our parenting dials to respond to present day needs and circumstances, we breathe hope back into the world, in the form of raising resilient generations to come.
Beatrice Barnard doesn’t believe in magic. She definitely doesn’t believe the predictions of the celebrity psychic who claims that she will experience seven miracles and soon after she will die. When she discovers her husband is cheating on her, Bea flees to Skerry Island, off the Pacific Northwest coast, in desperate need of solitude—taking her husband’s birthday vacation by herself. Immediately upon arrival, she finds her life on the line as a rogue woodchopper blade almost kills her. Her survival feels like a miracle.
And then things get more miraculous when she discovers her twin sister, Cordelia, whom she never knew about, and her mother Astrid, who supposedly died when Beatrice was two years old. Astrid and Cordelia reveal that Beatrice (given name Beatrix) is an immensely powerful witch who can commune with the dead, like all the local Holland family witches. When their twin magic is joined, it shines like a beacon to the Velamen family, whose malevolent spirits are locked in an age-old struggle for magical dominance over the Hollands.
Beatrice doesn’t know what to believe, but she begins to fear that the seven predicted miracles may occur, and that her imminent death will rip her away from her rediscovered family. Beatrice resolves to learn everything she can about her own power, in the hope of saving herself. But when her niece, Minna, goes missing, Bea’s own life suddenly seems much less important. Beatrice must join her mother and her sister to save Minna even if she dies in the process.
Screen time and education influencer known as The Gamer Educator takes the judgment out of parenting alongside screens and gaming, carving a new, well-researched path to managing screen time that is actionable and beneficial for the entire family.
Parents are feeling mounting pressure to minimize screen time, but are struggling to do so in our technologically driven world. In contrast to the fear and pressure parents are facing, Ash Brandin’s Power On offers a calm and reassuring message that keeps the wellbeing of the whole family in mind.
Power On powerfully reframes our current dialogue around technology, beginning with the morality placed on screen time and leisure, and the systemic factors contributing to screen time that are being placed at the feet of exhausted caregivers. Brandin replaces fear with empowerment, giving caregivers tools and strategies for safely incorporating tech into their children’s lives guiding children to having a healthy relationship with screens, with easy to implement approaches such as:
- The ABCs of the Screentime Management Elements – Access, Behavior, Content
- The Managing Online Safety S.T.A.R. – Settings, Time, Ads/App Store, Restriction
- N.I.C.E. Screentime Boundaries – Needs, Input, Consistent, Enforceable
- And several other sets of steps, tools, and strategies to understand, manage, and effectively utilize tech in parenting.
With today’s parenting advice being awash with unhelpful negative judgements on screens and little realistic actionable advice, Ash Brandin provides timely, well‑informed, realistic advice that will empower readers to find a balance with screen time that works for everyone in the family.