Showing titles in Popular Culture

In between the partying, the drugs, the love affairs, the 'squalid overboogie' of it all, Eve Babitz made time to chronicle the world as she saw it in works like Eve's Hollywood; Slow Days, Fast Company and Sex and Rage. But Babitz considered her letters 'the kind of writing I do best,' calling...

Uncover the dark folklore of shape-shifters and lycanthropy to confront our primal terror of the beast within. Perfect for a late-night drive or an eerie commute, this captivating historical dive explores human-animal transformations across centuries. Journey from prehistoric shamanic rituals to...

Shatter Hollywood myths with the gritty historical reality of the working-class cowboys who built the American West. Perfect for a thought-provoking commute, this immersive deep dive reveals a harsh landscape where fourteen-hour days, sore muscles, and unforgiving weather replaced polished...

An anthology of brand-new poems inspired by Taylor Swift songs, from a powerhouse group of contemporary poets, including Kate Baer, Maggie Smith, and Joy Harjo. Let the decoding begin! With a record-breaking four Grammy awards for Album of the Year, Taylor Swift stands alone in the world of pop...

Discover the rich cultural history of tabletop gaming, where ancient civilizations encoded fate into strategy and play. Perfect for an engaging daily commute, this immersive historical journey reveals why humans continually return to small wooden tokens and cardboard grids. From dusty temple...

Myths of Masculinity and American Film examines ideologies of white American manhood that permeated United States culture between 1974 and 2016—the period in which the boys of Generation X grew into adulthood. Stephen R. Duncan argues that the mass media of movies and television, along with...

Discover how one 3,000-year-old story shaped the books we read, the movies we watch, the games we play, and our very idea of what it means to be a hero. Homer’s Odyssey is one of the greatest adventure stories ever told. Filled with shipwrecks, monsters, gods, temptation, cunning, and one...

Explore the fascinating psychology of taboo linguistics to uncover why forbidden words secretly control human emotions. Whether you are seeking a thought-provoking companion for your daily commute or looking to satisfy your deep curiosity about human nature, this eye-opening journey reveals the...

Ditch the subtitles and decode your favorite K-Pop lyrics with this immersive Korean language learning audio course. Transform your daily commute into an engaging, high-energy journey through the vibrant world of idol culture and hit television dramas. Whether you are streaming late-night...

'A blast' - Ian Rankin 'A joyous celebration of 80s action cinema' - Robbie Collin, Telegraph From the editor of Empire magazine, this is the behind-the-scenes story of the golden age of the action movie, the stars who ruled 80s and 90s Hollywood and the beloved films – from Die Hard to The...

The first chemists were Sri Lankan steel forgers in the first century BCE, alchemists who emerged in Roman Egypt; herbalists in Tang Dynasty China and engineers in eighth-century South America. The Enlightenment is usually credited with the origins of chemistry. But in truth, the science...

'Amazingly well researched, fabulously informative and an awful lot of fun. If you love Japanese culture or are just curious to know more I can't recommend this book highly enough' Jonathan Ross 'A nerd- and generalist-friendly look at how Japan shaped the post-World War II world, from toys to...

All I Ever Wanted Was to Be Hot is a funny, provocative retrospective on the last thirty years of Western beauty standards. From the Pussycat Dolls to Victoria’s Secret, The Girls of the Playboy Mansion to Lara Bingle, the media of the 2000s was littered with high profile examples of hotness as the highest form of social currency. Is it any wonder a girl growing up in that era might believe “good looks” were as integral to womanhood as having a pulse?

**Narrated by the Author!** “A blazingly smart, thoughtful, funny, and moving book about the endless hope—and the occasional limits—of human transformation.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and All the Way to the River From New York Times bestselling author Benoit...

More than half of American adults and more than 75 percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This level of belief rivals that of belief in God. American Cosmic examines the mechanisms at work behind the thriving belief system in extraterrestrial life, a system that is changing and even supplanting traditional religions.

Known to mankind since prehistoric times, opium is arguably the oldest and most widely used narcotic. Opium: A History traces the drug's astounding impact on world culture - from its religious use by prehistoric peoples to its influence on the imaginations of the Romantic writers; from the earliest medical science to the Sino-British opium wars. 

A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist pulls back the curtain on the extraordinary inner lives of America’s most obsessive sports fans. There are fans, and then there are fanatics. In this wondrously immersive look at American sports fandom, George Dohrmann travels the country to find out what...

From Entertainment Weekly writer and debut author Samantha Highfill, a definitive and deliciously nostalgic look into the creation and legacy of the hit show The Vampire Diaries, as told by its cast, crew, and creators. In 2009, the CW released a show about grief, love, redemption, and, oh yeah...

In this beautifully crafted book, Freddy Cristobal Dominguez makes a provocative case for Dylan as a historian, offering a deep consideration of the musician's historical influences and practices. Utilizing interviews, speeches, and the close analysis of lyrics and live performances, Bob Dylan in the Attic is the first book to consider Dylan's work from the point of view of historiography.

In his best-selling How to Be Right, James provided an invigorating guide to how to talk to people with bad opinions. And yet the question he always gets asked is: 'if you're so sure about everything, haven't you ever changed your mind?' In an age of us vs them, tribal loyalties and bitter divisions, the ability to change our minds may be the most important power we have. In this intimate, personal new book, James' focus shifts from talking to other people to how you talk to yourself about what you really think.