Showing titles in Popular Culture

The definitive, revelatory biography of Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee, a writer and entrepreneur who reshaped global pop culture—at a steep personal cost HUGO AWARD FINALIST EISNER AWARD NOMINEE “True Believer is in every imaginable way the biography that Stan Lee deserves—ambitious...

We are never really taught how to make sense of the torrent of news we face every day, writes Alain de Botton (author of the best-selling The Architecture of Happiness), but this has a huge impact on our sense of what matters and of how we should lead our lives. In his dazzling new book, de Botton takes twenty-five archetypal news stories - including an airplane crash, a murder, a celebrity interview and a political scandal - and submits them to unusually intense analysis with a view to helping us navigate our news-soaked age.

“Engrossing and suspenseful." —The New York Times “Expertly pulls readers in.” —The Guardian “Smith sharply chronicles the revolutionary moment.” — Financial Times The origin story of the post-truth age: the candid inside tale of two online media rivals, Nick Denton of Gawker...

Following her success with Playboy Swings, Patty Farmer looks at Playboy’s relationship with comedians and cartoonists in her new book Playboy Laughs. Playboy Laughs invites listeners onto the sets of the organization’s groundbreaking TV shows, Playboy Penthouse and Playboy After Dark. These popular variety series brought top-tier comedians, impressionists, and monologists—as well as the finest musicians—into people’s homes each week.

Gyles Brandreth presents the quiz show with scandal on its mind Hosted by the least discreet man in Britain, broadcaster and national treasure Gyles Brandreth, Whispers is the panel game that celebrates all things scurrilous and salacious. Running the gauntlet of gossip are two teams of two...

There is far more to Switzerland than beautiful scenery, chocolate, watches, faceless bankers, and spotless cities. The real Switzerland is full of surprises and anything but bland. This small, rugged, landlocked country at the heart of Europe has been a confederation since the first three cantons came together in a defensive alliance in 1291. Four national languages are spoken within its borders. Its present 26 cantons are largely autonomous and retain their individual characters.

The '90s was the decade when British culture reclaimed its position at the artistic centre of the world. Not since the 'Swinging Sixties' had art, comedy, fashion, film, football, literature and music interwoven into a blooming of national self-confidence. It was the decade of Lad Culture and Girl Power, of Blur vs Oasis. When fashion runways shone with British talent, Young British Artists became household names, football was 'coming home' and British film went worldwide.

Brian Cox and Robin Ince present a witty, irreverent look at the world according to science. The Infinite Monkey Cage has become one of BBC Radio 4’s most popular science-based programmes. In each episode physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince delve into a particular field of science, with the help of guests from the worlds of science, academia, and entertainment.

Stephen Fry presents this intriguing programme charting the history of knowledge, how technology changes our relationship with it, and how we know what we knowKnowledge. The Google generation thinks it doesn’t need to carry much of it around in its head any more. Much has already been written about the internet changing the way we think and learn. But is knowledge less valuable than it used to be?

“[Don Lattin] has created a stimulating and thoroughly engrossing read.” —Dennis McNally, author of A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead, and Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America It is impossible to overstate the cultural significance of...

A major new history of one of the seminal years in the postwar world, when rebellion and disaffection broke out on an extraordinary scale. The year 1968 saw an extraordinary range of protests across much of the western world. Some of these were genuinely revolutionary—around ten million French...

Rolling Stone Best Music Books of the Year "Definitive...Not just for Talking Heads fans—it’s a masterful dive into downtown New York in the 70s, and the changing face of rock music.”—Town & Country "Riveting"—New York Post "A masterful achievement." —Booklist (starred review) On the...

The inspiration for seasons one and two of the hit Netflix series Sex/Life One woman's secret journal completely changes her marriage in this hilarious and biting memoir. School psychologists aren't supposed to write books about sex. Doing so would be considered 'unethical' and 'a fireable...

The defining, behind-the-scenes chronicle of one of the most extraordinary, beloved, and dominant pop cultural entities in America’s history -- Marvel Comics – and the outsized personalities who made Marvel including Martin Goodman, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby. “Sean Howe’s history of...

Every aspect of human behaviour is part of a story – by understanding the stories, you can understand life itself. Read by the author, Ben Ambridge. 'Fascinating, entertaining and deeply smart' – Will Storr, bestselling author of The Status Game Wars, pandemics, Brexit, Elon Musk, the...

A fiercely intelligent, funny, and much-needed reality check on the state of heterosexual women. The Last Straight Woman is a call to set aside the baggage of what female heterosexuality evokes, in favour of a definition of what it actually entails: women liking men. No more, no less. That a...

Bloomsbury presents Daredevil: Born Again by Chris Ryall, read by Seth Podowitz. Explore the Stories Behind the Legends What happens when a hero loses everything? In Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil: Born Again, the comic’s titular hero has his life destroyed after his most...

Four more series of Brian Cox and Robin Ince’s multi award-winning science/comedy show - including the 100th episode and 'The Infinite Moonkey Cage', a special hour-long episode celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo moon landings. One of BBC Radio 4’s most popular programmes, The Infinite Monkey Cage sees Physicists Robin Ince and Brian Cox taking a witty, irreverent look at the world through Scientists’ eyes.

One of the most influential economists of the decade-and the New York Times bestselling author of The Great Stagnation-boldly argues that just about everything you've heard about food is wrong. Food snobbery is killing entrepreneurship and innovation, says economist, preeminent social...

The Queer Art of Failure is about finding alternatives - to conventional understandings of success in a heteronormative, capitalist society; to academic disciplines that confirm what is already known according to approved methods of knowing; and to cultural criticism that claims to break new ground but cleaves to conventional archives.