Ways of Seeing


John Berger - 1972
    First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times critic commented: "This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures." By now he has."Berger has the ability to cut right through the mystification of the professional art critics . . . He is a liberator of images: and once we have allowed the paintings to work on us directly, we are in a much better position to make a meaningful evaluation" —Peter Fuller, Arts Review"The influence of the series and the book . . . was enormous . . . It opened up for general attention to areas of cultural study that are now commonplace" —Geoff Dyer in Ways of TellingWinner of the 1972 Booker Prize for his novel, G., John Peter Berger (born November 5th, 1926) is an art critic, painter and author of many novels including A Painter of Our Time, From A to X and Bento’s Sketchbook.

Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals


Hal Herzog - 2010
    Herzog’s groundbreaking research on animal rights activists, cockfighters, professional dog-show handlers, veterinary students, and biomedical researchers. Blending anthropology, behavioral economics, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy, Herzog carefully crafts a seamless narrative enriched with real-life anecdotes, scientific research, and his own sense of moral ambivalence.Alternately poignant, challenging, and laugh-out-loud funny, this enlightening and provocative book will forever change the way we look at our relationships with other creatures and, ultimately, how we see ourselves.

POPism: The Warhol Sixties


Andy Warhol - 1980
    In the detached, back-fence gossip style he was famous for, Warhol tells all—the ultimate inside story of a decade of cultural revolution.

The Victorian Internet


Tom Standage - 1998
    Generations of innovators tried and failed to develop speedier messaging devices. But in the mid-1800s, a few extraordinary pioneers at last succeeded. Their invention--the electric telegraph--shrank the world more quickly than ever before.A colorful tale of scientific discovery and technological cunning, The Victorian Internet tells the story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact, and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it. By 1865 telegraph cables spanned continents and oceans, revolutionizing the ways countries dealt with one another. The telegraph gave rise to creative business practices and new forms of crime. Romances blossomed over the wires. Secret codes were devised by some users, and cracked by others. The benefits of the network were relentlessly hyped by its advocates and dismissed by its skeptics. And attitudes toward everything from news gathering to war had to be completely rethought. The telegraph unleashed the greatest revolution in communications since the development of the printing press. Its saga offers many parallels to that of the Internet in our own time--and is a fascinating episode in the history of technology.

Reading National Geographic


Catherine A. Lutz - 1993
    This account of an American institution explores the possibility that the magazine, in purporting to teach about distant cultures, actually tells us much more about our own. Lutz & Collins go inside the Nat'l Geographic Society to investigate how its photographers, editors & designers select images & text to produce representations of 3rd World cultures. Thru interviews with editors, they describe the process as one of negotiating standards of balance, objectivity, informational content & visual beauty. Then, in a close reading of some 600 photos, they examine issues of race, gender, privilege, progress & modernity thru an analysis of the way such things as color, pose, framing & vantage point are used in representations of non-Western peoples. Finally, interviewing readers, they assess how the magazine's cultural narratives are received & interpreted, & identify a tension between the desire to know about other peoples' ways & the wish to validate middle-class American values. The result is a complex portrait of an institution & its role in promoting a kind of conservative humanism that acknowledges universal values & celebrates diversity while allowing readers to relegate non-Western peoples to earlier stages of progress. We see the magazine & the Society as a middlebrow arbiter of taste, wealth & power. We get a telling glimpse into middle-class culture & all the wishes, assumptions & fears it brings to bear on armchair explorations of the world.

The Anthropology of Religion


Fiona Bowie - 2000
     Provides students with a complete introduction to the anthropology of religion Uses worldwide ethnographies to illustrate the theory Includes extensive bibliographies and a list of films and videos that encourage students to explore the field further Encourages students to see that anthropology is not just about reading or doing fieldwork, but offers an enriching way of looking at the world Each chapter introduces the central theoretical ideas in the anthropology of religion and illustrates them with specific case studies, such as witchcraft in Cameroon, shamanism in the Arctic, or women's initiation ceremonies Links contemporary ideas and practices with the work of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholars.

Life and Death on Mt. Everest: Sherpas and Himalayan Mountaineering


Sherry B. Ortner - 1999
    Everest. Members of a French climbing expedition, sensitive perhaps about leaving the bodies where they could not be recovered, rolled them off a steep mountain face. One body, however, crashed to a stop near Sherpas on a separate expedition far below. They stared at the frozen corpse, stunned. They said nothing, but an American climber observing the scene interpreted their thoughts: Nobody would throw the body of a white climber off Mt. Everest.For more than a century, climbers from around the world have journ-eyed to test themselves on Everest's treacherous slopes, enlisting the expert aid of the Sherpas who live in the area. Drawing on years of field research in the Himalayas, renowned anthropologist Sherry Ortner presents a compelling account of the evolving relationship between the mountaineers and the Sherpas, a relationship of mutual dependence and cultural conflict played out in an environment of mortal risk.Ortner explores this relationship partly through gripping accounts of expeditions--often in the climbers' own words--ranging from nineteenth-century forays by the British through the historic ascent of Hillary and Tenzing to the disasters described in Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. She reveals the climbers, or sahibs, to use the Sherpas' phrase, as countercultural romantics, seeking to transcend the vulgarity and materialism of modernity through the rigor and beauty of mountaineering. She shows how climbers' behavior toward the Sherpas has ranged from kindness to cruelty, from cultural sensitivity to derision. Ortner traces the political and economic factors that led the Sherpas to join expeditions and examines the impact of climbing on their traditional culture, religion, and identity. She examines Sherpas' attitude toward death, the implications of the shared masculinity of Sherpas and sahibs, and the relationship between Sherpas and the increasing number of women climbers. Ortner also tackles debates about whether the Sherpas have been spoiled by mountaineering and whether climbing itself has been spoiled by commercialism.

Spring Training: An Insta-Love, DDlg, First Time Romance


Amy Cummings - 2019
    BIG everywhere and in every way. A young and inexperienced college student, assigned to interview him for the university newspaper. Sparks fly when all-star Stone Jacobs meets his sweet Olivia. Stone… “I know I should leave her alone. It’s best to just walk away. I have a hundred and sixty-eight games to play all over the country. I’m under contract. I can’t get distracted by some little college girl. But Olivia isn’t just any girl. She’s the prettiest, sweetest, most innocent and submissive girl I’ve ever met. Something about her awakens all of my daddy instincts. I can’t resist. She shreds all my defenses. I have to be careful, though. She needs to focus on school. She’s worked hard to get where she’s at. She doesn’t need some athlete to derail her plans. Besides, I’m not sure she can handle me. She’s never been with a man. If I’m her first…well, poor girl. I can’t just decimate her and then leave her. I have to stay strong. I must resist.” Olivia… “Stone is the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen. The way he looks in that baseball uniform. The way those muscles ripple just beneath the fabric. Yes, please. Yummy. Surely he doesn’t want me, though. I’m the poor girl from the wrong-side-of-the-tracks. A Plain Jane that all the guys overlook. But there seems to be something to this. He’s protective toward me. Almost paternal. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say loving! One thing I know—Stone is the man of my dreams. I want him to be my first. Even if he has to leave me afterward and we go on with our separate lives, I need Stone Jacobs to take me, to break me in. I need to experience him.” Spring Training is a fast moving, Insta-love romance. It is a standalone story with a guaranteed HEA and a hot, caring yet stern Alpha Daddy and a sweet, inexperienced, never-been-touched young woman. It features consenting adults and contains DDlg themes and light spanking (but is NOT an Age Play, ABDL tale). With plenty of steamy scenes, this one is strictly for ADULTS ONLY.

Blind Rage


Michael W. Sherer - 2016
    Blinded in the accident, she hires a "seeing-eye guy" as her assistant. On her first day back she gets emails from "Dad," asking her to find and upload computer files. But the emailer isn't the only one who wants whatever's in those files, and suddenly people around her start dying violently. Tess wonders how much her Uncle Travis, a former assassin for the Army Special Forces, knows about the files. He returned from a mission a year earlier to guard the family from a potential threat. And since he was on watch at the time, she also wonders what he knows about the accident that took both her sight and her parents' lives. In a race against time, Tess and her companion Oliver must learn the secret of the mysterious computer files before the killers stalking her get their hands on technology that could change the balance of world power.

Caught By The Bad Boys


Raathi Chota - 2016
    Yet all she wants is to get into Yale, far away from everyone, the incidents, the heartbreaker and the bullies. Four popular boys, suspicious about Lana, reignite an old bet that her 'true' self will be exposed as time goes on.One night in Lana's life changes everything. The only people to help her are her tormentors. This causes the boys to have more questions, fights, and arguments more frequently. The more people involved, the more questions arise, secrets reveal themselves, trust is shattered, feelings become blurred and friendship is ripped apart. While Lana sees, the good and forgives easily, others search for the bad to try and defeat it. People cross our path for a reason but for a second chance, it does not always mean to have a happy ending.

Splendid Slippers: A Thousand Years of an Erotic Tradition


Beverley Jackson - 1998
    The author's vast collection of historical and contemporary photographs, plus 40 full-color -portraits- of her most prized slippers, creates a uniquely poignant and evocative panorama.

Appalachia


John Alexander Williams - 2002
    Along the way, he explores Appalachia's long-contested boundaries and the numerous, often contradictory images that have shaped perceptions of the region as both the essence of America and a place apart.Williams begins his story in the colonial era and describes the half-century of bloody warfare as migrants from Europe and their American-born offspring fought and eventually displaced Appalachia's Native American inhabitants. He depicts the evolution of a backwoods farm-and-forest society, its divided and unhappy fate during the Civil War, and the emergence of a new industrial order as railroads, towns, and extractive industries penetrated deeper and deeper into the mountains. Finally, he considers Appalachia's fate in the twentieth century, when it became the first American region to suffer widespread deindustrialization, and examines the partial renewal created by federal intervention and a small but significant wave of in-migration. Throughout the book, a wide range of Appalachian voices enlivens the analysis and reminds us of the importance of storytelling in the ways the people of Appalachia define themselves and their region.

Destroy Your Student Loan Debt: The Step-by-Step Plan to Pay Off Your Student Loans Faster


Anthony Oneal - 2020
    Debt sucks. Period. And that includes student loan debt. No matter what you believed—or were told—when you took out your loans, you need to get serious about getting rid of your debt fast, because it’s costing you more than you know. That’s why bestselling author Anthony ONeal wrote this motivating 64-page Quick Read—to show you why you need to dump your debt fast and how to do it.If you have student loan debt and have never heard of Ramsey Solutions or the 7 Baby Steps, this 64-page Quick Read is for you. Anthony will walk you step-by-step through Baby Steps 1 and 2 to show you how to dump your debt forever. You’ll learn:The ugly truth about how debt hurts youThe importance of an emergency fund and how to budget (Baby Step 1)The power of the debt snowball (Baby Step 2)Exactly what to do to pay off your student loans fasterHow to control your money so it doesn’t control youYou’ll also hear stories from real people about how they paid off their debt fastYou don’t need relief from your debt, you need to get mad at it. Because the truth is, when you get mad enough, you can pay off your loans faster than you ever thought possible—and take control of your money, and your life, for good! Don’t let anything stand in the way of your future. This plan has helped millions get out of debt and you’re next. You can do this!(Ramsey Press)

I Shimmer Sometimes, Too


Porsha Olayiwola - 2019
    These poems dip their hands deep into the fabric of black womanhood, pulling out all of its threads. This book establishes Porsha O firmly in the lineage of black queer poetics, pulling equally from Audre Lorde and Danez Smith. This is a book of gentle breaking and inventive reconstruction. This is a book of self-care, and community-care--the pursuit of building a world that will keep you alive.

Can't Let You Go


S.J. Black - 2019
     Having bullied her since their first year in high school, April never thought she would ever see Aaron Cole's dark hazel eyes staring into hers, taunting her. However, fate has other plans... “You wouldn’t dare,” she whispered, in a deathly tone. Aaron watched her shamelessly, with a glint in his eyes. “I would,” he mouthed to her. “This isn’t going to go away just because you want it to, April,” he hissed. “Well, I’ll have a great time trying, you piece of shit. Don’t even think of coming near me,” she said. “Well, that’s going to be a tad difficult,” he said, sniffing slightly as he released his hand and placed both hands on the table. If he was attempting to intimidate her, she wasn’t giving him the satisfaction. Both of these former enemies have started the same college together, stuck on the same campus. April is determined to ignore him, Aaron won't let her. Will their relationship progress from hate to love? Will Aaron ever let April go? Can't Let You Go - S.J. Black