College Hacks


Keith Bradford - 2015
    Filled with hundreds of ways to simplify nearly every college situation, this guide tells you just what to do when your professor assigns you a twenty-page paper or you run out of clean dishes in your dorm room (chip bag bowl, anyone?).So stop making college harder than it should be! With these everyday hacks, you'll breeze through each semester as you finish assignments and tasks quicker than ever before!

Family Don't End with Blood: Cast and Fans on How Supernatural Has Changed Lives


Lynn S. Zubernis - 2017
    The three-time People’s Choice Award winner for Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Show and Tumblr’s 2015 Most Reblogged “Live Action TV” show has made a name for itself by supporting and encouraging its fans to “always keep fighting,” a main theme echoed in the show, and demonstrating the inspiring truth to a memorable line from early in the show’s run: “Family don’t end with blood.”In twenty powerful chapters written by Supernatural’s actors and fans, including series lead Jared Padalecki, Family Don’t End with Blood: How Supernatural Has Changed Lives examines the far reach of the show’s impact over the last eleven years. Supernatural has encouraged fans to change their lives, from getting “sober for Sam” to escaping a cult to pursuing lifelong dreams. But fans aren’t the only ones who have been changed. The actors who bring the show to life have also found, in the show and its community, inspiration, courage, and the strength to keep going when life seemed too hard.In keeping with the show’s message to “always keep fighting,” and to support the important work of combatting stigma and encouraging those who are struggling to speak out, a portion of the proceeds from the book will be donated to charity Attitudes in Reverse, whose mission is to educate young people about mental health and suicide prevention.Contributors from Supernatural’s cast include:Jared Padelecki (“Sam Winchester”)Jim Beaver (“Bobby Singer”)Ruth Connell (“Rowena MacLeod”)Osric Chau (“Kevin Tran”)Rob Benedict (“Chuck Shurley aka God”)Kim Rhodes (“Sheriff Jody Mills”)Briana Buckmaster (“Sheriff Donna Hanscum”)Matt Cohen (“Young John Winchester”)Gil McKinney (“Henry Winchester”)Rachel Miner (“Meg Masters”)Edited by Lynn S. Zubernis, a clinical psychologist, professor, and passionate Supernatural fangirl, Family Don’t End with Blood provides an insightful and often uplifting look into the way international fan communities become powerful, positive forces in the lives of so many.

The Shift: The True Story Of How One Businesswoman Left Everything Behind And Changed The Lives Of Thousands


MaryAnne Connor - 2012
    You can only resist God's call for so long. Ask Moses, ask Paul… ask MaryAnne Connor. As the owner of a successful real estate marketing firm, MaryAnne Connor, appeared to have it all. A happy marriage, the respect of her peers and a thriving career. But denial was her stronghold, and her enemy. She suffered from chronic pain, a dependency on pain medication and her marriage was failing. And then there were God's whispers. They were getting louder. He wanted her to shift to a life of helping others. But how could He use her when she was so broken? After years of resistance, she surrendered to His call, left everything behind and stepped onto the darkest streets of her city. There she found a kinship with other broken-hearted souls and the burning desire to help the poor and hungry. And so the genesis of NightShift Street Ministries began, along with an incredible series of miracles to conquer every obstacle put in her path. Purchase The Shift today, walk in MaryAnne’s footsteps and take a remarkable journey to a place of love, hope & purpose.

White Christmas: The Story of an American Song


Jody Rosen - 2003
    By the time Bing Crosby introduced the tune in the winter of 1942, it had evolved into something far grander: the stately yuletide ballad that would become the world's all-time top-selling and most widely recorded song. In this vividly written narrative, Jody Rosen provides both the fascinating story behind the making of America's favorite Christmas carol and a cultural history of the nation that embraced it. Berlin, the Russian-Jewish immigrant who became his adopted country's greatest pop troubadour, had written his magnum opus -- what one commentator has called a "holiday Moby-Dick" -- a timeless song that resonates with some of the deepest themes in American culture: yearning for a mythic New England past, belief in the magic of the "merry and bright" Christmas season, longing for the havens of home and hearth. Today, the song endures not just as an icon of the national Christmas celebration but as the artistic and commercial peak of the golden age of popular song, a symbol of the values and strivings of the World War II generation, and of the saga of Jewish-American assimilation. With insight and wit, Rosen probes the song's musical roots, uncovering its surprising connections to the tradition of blackface minstrelsy and exploring its unique place in popular culture through six decades of recordings by everyone from Bing Crosby to Elvis Presley to *NSYNC. White Christmas chronicles the song's legacy from jaunty ragtime-era Tin Pan Alley to the elegant world of midcentury Broadway and Hollywood, from the hardscrabble streets where Irving Berlin was reared to the battlefields of World War II where American GIs made "White Christmas" their wartime anthem, and from the Victorian American past that the song evokes to the twenty-first-century present where Berlin's masterpiece lives on as a kind of secular hymn.

Grunge


Thurston Moore - 2009
    Together with flannelsporting, music-obsessed communities emerging (in the late 1980s and early 1990s) from the chilly Pacific Northwest, Nirvana, Sound Garden, and Pearl Jam changed the scene with wild aggressive sounds and truly alternative records.Author Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth)—who introduced Kurt Cobain t David Geffen (Geffen Records), a meeting that resulted in Nirvana’s first major debut, Nevermind, in September 1991, which by December was selling 400,000 copies a week—writes about the discovery of Seattle punk youth, the seminal bands that defined the movement, the exploitation of the subculture, and the backlash of grunge, as well as the death of his longtime collaborator and intimate Cobain.

The Wild Girls Club: Tales from Below the Belt


Anka Radakovich - 1994
    Dating services. Singles cruises. Aphrodisiacs. Homemade videos. Escort services. If it's about love, lust, or being shamelessly single, Anka puts her raw and raucous spin on the naked facts of life in the '90s.BACHELOR PADS: YOUR PLACE OR MINE?The goal of this type of dwelling is to put us in the mood. Hence, the decor combines all the ambiance of a furniture showroom with the comfort of a car's backseat. Women do not find this romantic."IRREVERENT.--PeoplePARTY ETIQUETTE: MISSED MANNERSWomen go to parties hoping to see Prince Charming across a crowded room. But sometimes all we spot is a man dancing with underwear on his head, making gastrointestinal sounds with his armpits."A VICARIOUS THRILL...EXPLICIT AND FUNNY."--USA TodayTHE GOODBYE GIRL: DUMPING THE BOYFRIENDThe most noble way to cut someone loose is, of course, in person. This has its drawbacks, however, including the possibility that the dumpee might think you are kidding and return five minutes later with a quart of milk."EROTIC."--New York MagazineGIRL TALK: TALES FROM BELOW THE BELTWhat makes our gatherings different from boys' night out is that nothing is too personal to say. And nobody drinks ten beers and throws up."The Cynthia Heimel of the slacker set, she's smart and progressive....Radakovich has wit to burn."--Entertainment Weekly

Dancers' Body Book


Allegra Kent - 1984
    How do they stay slender and willowy while maintaining the extraordinary energy it takes to perform night after night? Can a nondancer or an amateur attain a dancer's figure and a dancer's vitality? And keep it?Here, in The Dancers' Body Book, the legendary ballerina Allegra Kent discloses the health, weight-watching, and relaxation secrets of some of the world's greatest ballet dancers -- from Suzanne Farrell and Fernando Bujones to Darci Kistler and Madame Alexandra Danilova. Combining them with two well-balanced diets -- one to lose weight by and one to live by -- and an exercise regimen that can be tailored to the individual, she provides a fabulous fitness program for everyone who longs to be slimmer, healthier, and more energetic.Fourteen varied menus incorporate delicious recipes from the dancers themselves (such as Jacques D'Amboise's Wonderful Dinner Salad and Dierdre Carberry's Almond Meringue Kisses), along with calorie guides and advice on how to create additional menus using your own favorite dishes. Helpful discussions on sports and exercise systems -- ranging from jogging and swimming to the sophisticated "Pilates" workout -- are also included, and in a special chapter entitled "A Healthy Outlook," the dancers talk candidly on such issues as smoking, anorexia, vitamins, doctors, massage, junk foods, fad diets, and injuries.Dancers take meticulous care of all their equipment because training and performance depend on it. Of course, the most essential piece of equipment, the body, needs the most care of all, and that is what this book is about: how to take care of the world's greatest machine.Allegra Kent joined the New York City Ballet at the age of fifteen and was a principal dancer with the company for thirty years, during which time she created a number of starring roles in ballets by Balanchine and Robbins. The mother of two daughters and a son, she is also the author of Allegra Kent's Water Beauty Book.

Faith to Foster


T.J. Menn - 2016
    Foster children live in nearly every community, waiting in silent anonymity for someone to welcome them into their life.Sometimes all it takes is exposure to prompt change.Faith to Foster is a candid and vulnerable look into the life of ordinary foster parents TJ and Jenn Menn. It is a comprehensive journey chronicling their decision making process, how the children arrived, the birth parents' struggle to rehabilitate, help from friends and family, emotional goodbyes, and how faith in Jesus empowered them through it all. This is a story they wished they'd read before starting their foster parenting adventure.TJ and Jenn share of their experiences and feelings in a way that encourages readers to serve their neighbors. Faith to Foster reminds Christians how God can use them to make a difference in their community. He can strengthen our congregations to change lives and redeem innocent children from harmful situations.Indeed, Faith to Foster inspires believers to rely on the mighty power of our God as they seek to change their neighborhoods one child at a time.

STFU, Parents: The Jaw-Dropping, Self-Indulgent, and Occasionally Rage-Inducing World of Parent Overshare


Blair Koenig - 2013
    You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cringe at detailed descriptions of baby’s first blowout, but one thing’s for sure: You’ll never look at parenting the same again.

Nowhere Like Home: Misadventures in a Changing World


Jamie Alexander - 2012
    Spurred on by what he encountered among the Dayak tribespeople of the Krayan, he made a decision to discover the truth of the world around him, however uncomfortable that truth would turn out to be. From the killing fields of Indonesia to the refugee camps of Palestine, this is the remarkable true story of how this decision came to define his life, seeing him visit some of the least accessible and most volatile places on earth, often armed with little more than a set of disarmingly rosy cheeks and a quirky sense of humour. Exciting, thought-provoking, and occasionally disturbing, Nowhere Like Home forces us to question not only the reasons people travel, but also the very foundations of modern society.

Who Was Napoleon?


Jim Gigliotti - 2018
    But he found his life's calling after graduating from military school. Napoleon went on to become a brilliant military strategist and the emperor of France. In addition to greatly expanding the French empire, Napoleon also created many laws, which are still encoded in legal systems around the world.

A Friday Night Lights Companion: Love, Loss, and Football in Dillon, Texas


Leah WilsonPaula Rogers - 2011
    Its rich, interesting characters and honestly portrayed relationships make the show’s portrait of West Texas life compelling and relatable in ways that have nothing—and everything—to do with touchdowns.A Friday Night Lights Companion celebrates the show, its fearlessness, and what it’s meant to those who love it.• Dave Campbell’s Texas Football managing editor Travis Stewart provides a moving tribute to the power of high school football, by way of unlikely hero Matt Saracen• Jonna Rubin shares the lessons she’s learned from the best marriage on television: Eric and Tami Taylor’s (lesson number one: drink more wine)• Television Without Pity writer Jacob Clifton offers a meditation on one of Friday Night Lights’ most fundamental values: being a part of something bigger than yourself• The Washington Post’s Jen Chaney reminds us what we love most about all our favorite Dillon residents, from Tim Riggins to Buddy Garrity to Jess Merriweather• And more writing and reflections on Friday Night LightsA Friday Night Lights Companion takes you from series pilot to series finale, through all five masterfully crafted seasons’ worth of love, loss, family, and football.

Can You Feel the Silence?: Van Morrison


Clinton Heylin - 2002
    Based on more than 100 interviews, this intelligent profile explores Morrison's roots; the hard times he went through in London, New York, and Boston; the making of his seminal albums Moondance and Astral Weeks; and the disastrous business arrangements that left Morrison hungry and penniless while his songs were topping the charts. Detailed are the breakdown of Morrison's marriage, the creative drought that followed, and his triumphant reemergence. In addition, this biography attempts to explain the forbidding aspects of Morrison's persona, such as paranoia, hard drinking, misanthropy, as well as why, in the words of his one-time singing partner Linda Gail Lewis, Morrison's music "brings happiness to other people, not him." Also included is a Van Morrision sessionography that spans 1964 to 2001.

True Believers: The Tragic Inner Life of Sports Fans


Joe Queenan - 2003
    But why do people root so passionately for tragically inept teams like the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago Cubs, and the Philadelphia Phillies? Why do people organize their emotional lives around lackluster franchises such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, the San Diego Padres, and the Phoenix Suns, none of whom have ever won a single championship in their entire history? Is it pure tribalism? An attempt to maintain contact with one's vanished childhood?In True Believers, humorist and lifelong Philly fan Joe Queenan answers these and many other questions, shedding light on--and reveling in--the culture and psychology of his countless fellow fans.

'74 and Sunny


A.J. Benza - 2015
    Benza’s distinctive blend of wit, dry humor, and genuine tenderness shines through this candid, compelling memoir about the summer of 1974 when his shy, effeminate cousin comes to live with A.J.’s family, which is dominated by his short-tempered, outspoken, hyper-masculine father. At its core, A.J.’s story is about learning that being exactly who you were meant to be is the only thing that matters. Through anecdotes of fishing with his father, playing tackle football, and conquering neighborhood bullies, he tells a story of triumph and acceptance, of a loving but rough around the edges family that puts aside its prejudices to welcome with open arms a young boy struggling to understand his sexuality and ultimately accept himself. In a sometimes raw and always endearing voice, ’74 and Sunny is a revelatory account of a life-defining summer on Long Island, when tolerance wins over ignorance, family neutralizes fear, and love triumphs over all. For anyone who’s navigated the choppy seas of adolescence, this story about redefining what it means to be a man, and learning to accept those whom we might fail to understand will surely resonate.