Angry Optimist
Angry Optimist

Author: Lisa Rogak

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2014-09-09

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 1466841060

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A New York Times Bestseller Since his arrival at The Daily Show in 1999, Jon Stewart has become one of the major players in comedy as well as one of the most significant liberal voices in the media. In Angry Optimist, biographer Lisa Rogak charts his unlikely rise to stardom. She follows him from his early days growing up in New Jersey, through his years as a struggling standup comic in New York, and on to the short-lived but acclaimed The Jon Stewart Show. And she charts his humbling string of near-misses—passed over as a replacement for shows hosted by Conan O'Brien, Tom Snyder, and even the fictional Larry Sanders—before landing on a half-hour comedy show that at the time was still finding its footing amidst roiling internal drama. Once there, Stewart transformed The Daily Show into one of the most influential news programs on television today. Drawing on interviews with current and former colleagues, Rogak reveals how things work—and sometimes don't work—behind the scenes at The Daily Show, led by Jon Stewart, a comedian who has come to wield incredible power in American politics.

The Truth Behind a Series of Unfortunate Events
The Truth Behind a Series of Unfortunate Events

Author: Lois H. Gresh

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Published: 2015-08-11

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 1250093767

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The ultimate companion guide to A Series of Unfortunate Events--a must for fans of Lemony Snicket. A Series of Unfortunate Events is one of the most popular children's series in the world and will be a major motion picture starring Jim Carrey and Meryl Streep coming this 2004 holiday season. Now comes The Truth Behind a Series of Unfortunate Events, the ultimate companion guide to Lemony Snicket's fun and wildly successful novels. Digging beneath the surface, Lois Gresh uses science, history and little known facts to dig deep into the world of A Series of Unfortunate Events and provide young readers everywhere with how-to hints and tips, quizzes, cool anecdotes, fun facts and information on everything Lemony. Including: *Facts about handwriting analysis and forgery *Killer leeches, crabs, fungi and peppermint--all you need to know *The truth about hypnosis--and how to use it! *Real child inventors and their amazing inventions *How to build a telephone, a hot air balloon and an automatic harmonica *Are you as smart as Violet & Claus--the ultimate quiz *And much more! The ultimate renegade book report on A Series of Unfortunate Events, this reader's guide is a must for millions of young fans everywhere.

Beyond the Rift
Beyond the Rift

Author: Peter Watts

Publisher: Tachyon Publications

Published: 2013-11-12

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1616961260

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Skillfully combining complex science with finely executed prose, these edgy, award-winning tales explore the always-shifting border between the known and the alien. The beauty and peril of technology and the passion and penalties of conviction merge in stories that are by turns dark, satiric, bold, and introspective. A seemingly humanized monster from John Carpenter’s The Thing reveals the true villains in an Antarctic showdown. An artificial intelligence shields a biologically-enhanced prodigy from her overwhelmed parents. A deep-sea diver discovers that her true nature lies not within the confines of her mission but in the depths of her psyche. A court psychologist analyzes a psychotic graduate student who has learned to reprogram reality itself. A father tries to hold his broken family together in the wake of an ongoing assault by sentient rainstorms. Gorgeously saturnine and exceptionally powerful, these collected fictions are both intensely thought-provoking and impossible to forget.

Peter Watts Is An Angry Sentient Tumor
Peter Watts Is An Angry Sentient Tumor

Author: Peter Watts

Publisher: Tachyon Publications

Published: 2019-11-12

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1616963204

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With over fifty unpredictable, scathing, hilarious, and more-than-occasionally moving essays about science, politics, family, pop culture, religion and more, Peter Watts — Hugo Award-winning author, former marine biologist, and “angry sentient tumor” (via Annalee Newitz, author of Autonomous) — shows why he is the savage dystopian optimist whom you can’t look away from ... even when you probably should. [STARRED REVIEW] “Irreverent, self-depreciating, profane, and funny, showcasing a Hunter S. Thompson–esque studied rage and dissatisfaction with the status quo combined with the readability and humor of John Scalzi.” —Booklist Which of the following is true? Peter Watts is banned from the U.S. Watts almost died from flesh-eating bacteria. A schizophrenic man living in Watts’s backyard almost set the house on fire. Watts was raised by Baptists who really sucked at giving presents. Peter Watts said to read this book. Or else. With Watts's infamous penchant for blunt, honest, and deep reflection, these retrospective essays provide a view inside his head and even into his heart.

Dancing With Jesus
Dancing With Jesus

Author: Doug Curnayn

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2012-09

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 1479723444

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This book explores subjects like faith, works, politics, evolution, creation, racism, abortion, sexual, drug, and alcohol addiction, charismatic and traditional beliefs, miracles, why believe the Bible, does God exist, the carnal man, the Christian man, the rise of militant homosexuals, what was the Beginning, and does God send people to hell who don't have Jesus in their heart even if they never heard of Him? "Dancing with Jesus" by Doug Curnayn will show you new ways of thinking that you may not have considered before. It just may cause you to realize that you re not a real Christian, but only a religious person who thinks you are one. It could show you the way to the salvation of your eternal soul. You owe it to yourself to check it out. Don't pretend your way to hell. Be sure of your salvation. It's the most important thing you will ever do. Even if you don't need this book, go ahead and buy it, and give it to someone who does need it.

Typically Jewish
Typically Jewish

Author: Nancy Kalikow Maxwell

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0827617925

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Is laughter essential to Jewish identity? Do Jews possess special radar for recognizing members of the tribe? Since Jews live longer and make love more often, why don't more people join the tribe? "More deli than deity" writer Nancy Kalikow Maxwell poses many such questions in eight chapters--"Worrying," "Kvelling," "Dying," "Noshing," "Laughing," "Detecting," "Dwelling," and "Joining"--exploring what it means to be "typically Jewish." While unearthing answers from rabbis, researchers, and her assembled Jury on Jewishness (Jewish friends she roped into conversation), she--and we--make a variety of discoveries. For example: Jews worry about continuity, even though Rabbi Mordechai of Lechovitz prohibited even that: "All worrying is forbidden, except to worry that one is worried." Kvell-worthy fact: About 75 percent of American Jews give to charity versus 63 percent of Americans as a whole. Since reciting Kaddish brought secular Jews to synagogue, the rabbis, aware of their captive audience, moved the prayer to the end of the service. Who's Jewish? About a quarter of Nobel Prize winners, an estimated 80 percent of comedians at one point, and the winner of Nazi Germany's Most Perfect Aryan Child Contest. Readers will enjoy learning about how Jews feel, think, act, love, and live. They'll also schmooze as they use the book's "Typically Jewish, Atypically Fun" discussion guide.

Dogs Who Serve
Dogs Who Serve

Author: Lisa Rogak

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2016-10-18

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1250080622

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Military Working Dogs have played a vital role in the United States armed forces throughout history. In "Dogs Who Serve, Lisa Rogak profiles these heroic dogs and their handlers in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and even the Coast Guard. She chronicles their path to service, from puppyhood to training, then through their career in the field and on to retirement and adoption.

The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go
The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go

Author: Amy E. Reichert

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2018-05-15

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1501154958

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Three generations. Seven days. One big secret. The author of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake unfolds a mother-daughter story told by three women whose time to reckon with a life-altering secret is running out. Gina Zoberski wants to make it through one day without her fastidious mother, Lorraine, cataloguing all her faults, and her sullen teenage daughter, May, snubbing her. Too bad there’s no chance of that. Her relentlessly sunny disposition annoys them both, no matter how hard she tries. Instead, Gina finds order and comfort in obsessive list-making and her work at Grilled G’s, the gourmet grilled cheese food truck built by her late husband. But when Lorraine suffers a sudden stroke, Gina stumbles upon a family secret Lorraine's kept hidden for forty years. In the face of her mother’s failing health and her daughter’s rebellion, this optimist might find that piecing together the truth is the push she needs to let go...

What We Talk About When We Talk About Cities (And Love)
What We Talk About When We Talk About Cities (And Love)

Author: Andy Merrifield

Publisher: OR Books

Published: 2018-11-01

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1682191443

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In often dreamlike peregrinations around his home towns of Liverpool, London and New York Andy Merrifield reflects on what cities mean to us and how they shape the way we think. As he wanders, Merrifield’s reveries circle questions: Can we talk about cities in the absolute, discovering their essence beneath the particulars? Is it possible truly to love or hate a city, to experience it carnally or viscerally? Might we find true love in the city? Merrifield does find love in the city: with his future wife, whom he takes on a date to see his hero Spalding Gray’s “It’s a Slippery Slope” at London’s South Bank and soon after moves in with, to a tiny place in Bloomsbury where they celebrate the brilliance of new romance by painting the walls turquoise and gold. And for the fellow urbanist Marshall Berman, another working class boy who went up to Oxford. Berman takes Merrifield under his wing and shows him the thrills available in Dostoevsky and Marx over cups of coffee in ordinary cafes on New York City’s Upper West Side. The mood music to these love affairs is provided by a rich repertoire of intellects, from Jane Jacobs to Mike Davis, from Louis Malle to Walter Benjamin. John Lennon, a pupil, like Merrifield, at Quarry Bank school in Liverpool, enters the story; so too the novelist and critic John Berger. And providing tonality throughout is the stripped down, razor honed talk about love in the stories of Raymond Carver. Andy Merrifield is the author of ten books including works on urbanism and social theory such as The New Urban Question and Magical Marxism, biographies of Henri Lefebvre, Guy Debord and John Berger, a popular travelogue, The Wisdom of Donkeys, and a manifesto for liberated living, The Amateur. His journalism has appeared in the Nation, Harper’s, Adbusters, New Left Review, Dissent, the Brooklyn Rail, and Radical Philosophy.