David Nasaw has written a sparkling social history of twentieth-century show business and of the new American public that assembled in the city's pleasure palaces, parks, theaters, nickelodeons, world's fair midways, and dance halls. The new amusement centers welcomed women, men, and children, native-born and immigrant, rich, poor and middling. Only African Americans were excluded or segregated in the audience, though they were overrepresented in parodic form on stage. This stigmatization of the African American, Nasaw argues, was the glue that cemented an otherwise disparate audience, muting social distinctions among "whites," and creating a common national culture.
Luke is allergic to everything. He spends his days in a sterile safe-haven designed to keep out all light and dirt, while everything he knows about the world comes from books, movies, the internet and whatever his best-friend Julie tells him. He would do anything to go outside. Julie, brilliant and kind, could be out changing the world. Unfortunately, she’s too afraid of airplane crashes, highway accidents, and potentially life-threatening bacteria to leave her hometown, her pointless waitress job, or Luke. Charlotte’s boyfriend dropped dead from a brain hemorrhage. She disappeared for awhile, but now she’s decided that she misses her friends. David has just been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Consequently, he’s no longer wants to spend his days making pizza to pay for school. His priorities in life are changing; he just doesn’t know how, yet. Leanne has just discovered that she may or may not have magic powers. When this motley bunch befriends a lottery winner with a generous heart, they all embark on a hysterical and heartwarming journey in search of the healer who just might be able to cure Luke, and perhaps give them the answers they didn’t know they were looking for.
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: The New York Times * NPR * Vogue * Gay Times * Artforum * “Gay Bar is an absolute tour de force.” –Maggie Nelson "Atherton Lin has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-esque range for discussing gay sex.” –New York Times Book Review As gay bars continue to close at an alarming rate, a writer looks back to find out what’s being lost in this indispensable, intimate, and stylish celebration of queer history. Strobing lights and dark rooms; throbbing house and drag queens on counters; first kisses, last call: the gay bar has long been a place of solidarity and sexual expression—whatever your scene, whoever you’re seeking. But in urban centers around the world, they are closing, a cultural demolition that has Jeremy Atherton Lin wondering: What was the gay bar? How have they shaped him? And could this spell the end of gay identity as we know it? In Gay Bar, the author embarks upon a transatlantic tour of the hangouts that marked his life, with each club, pub, and dive revealing itself to be a palimpsest of queer history. In prose as exuberant as a hit of poppers and dazzling as a disco ball, he time-travels from Hollywood nights in the 1970s to a warren of cruising tunnels built beneath London in the 1770s; from chichi bars in the aftermath of AIDS to today’s fluid queer spaces; through glory holes, into Crisco-slicked dungeons and down San Francisco alleys. He charts police raids and riots, posing and passing out—and a chance encounter one restless night that would change his life forever. The journey that emerges is a stylish and nuanced inquiry into the connection between place and identity—a tale of liberation, but one that invites us to go beyond the simplified Stonewall mythology and enter lesser-known battlefields in the struggle to carve out a territory. Elegiac, randy, and sparkling with wry wit, Gay Bar is at once a serious critical inquiry, a love story and an epic night out to remember.
I'm underneath the bed, hardly poking out my head. It's a squeeze and hurts my knees, but I don't care. Can you guess, do you know, why I whisper soft and low? Something out there is very scary. And it's coming this way.
Murray Tepper would say that he is an ordinary New Yorker who is simply trying to read the newspaper in peace. But he reads while sitting behind the wheel of his parked car, and his car always seems to be in a particularly desirable parking spot. Not surprisingly, he is regularly interrupted by drivers who want to know if he is going out. Tepper isn’t going out. Why not? His explanations tend to be rather literal: the indisputable fact, for instance, that he has twenty minutes left on the meter. Tepper’s behavior sometimes irritates the people who want his spot. (“Is that where you live? Is that car rent-controlled?”) It also irritates the mayor—Frank Ducavelli, known in tabloid headlines as Il Duce—who sees Murray Tepper as a harbinger of what His Honor always calls “the forces of disorder.” But once New Yorkers become aware of Tepper, some of them begin to suspect that he knows something they don’t know. And an ever-increasing number of them are willing to line up for the opportunity to sit in his car with him and find out. Tepper Isn’t Going Out is a wise and witty story of an ordinary man who, perhaps innocently, changes the world around him. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Calvin Trillin's Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin.
Architectural photographer Keister and Cronin, the former associate editor of American Cemetary, present a tour of mausoleums located in such cities as Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco. Captions describe the architectural style, the life of
“A twisty, captivating, edge-of-your-seat read.” —Megan Miranda, bestselling author of All the Missing Girls “Creepy and oh so clever!” —Alice Feeney, bestselling author of Sometimes I Lie A woman is forced to question her own identity in this riveting and emotionally charged thriller by the blockbuster bestselling author of The Good Girl, Mary Kubica Jessie Sloane is on the path to rebuilding her life after years of caring for her ailing mother. She rents a new apartment and applies for college. But when the college informs her that her social security number has raised a red flag, Jessie discovers a shocking detail that causes her to doubt everything she’s ever known. Finding herself suddenly at the center of a bizarre mystery, Jessie tumbles down a rabbit hole, which is only exacerbated by grief and a relentless lack of sleep. As days pass and the insomnia worsens, it plays with Jessie’s mind. Her judgment is blurred, her thoughts are hampered by fatigue. Jessie begins to see things until she can no longer tell the difference between what’s real and what she’s only imagined. Meanwhile, twenty years earlier and two hundred and fifty miles away, another woman’s split-second decision may hold the key to Jessie’s secret past. Has Jessie’s whole life been a lie or have her delusions gotten the best of her? Don't miss Mary Kubica's chilling upcoming novel, She's Not Sorry, where an ICU nurse accidentally uncovers a patient's frightening past... Look for these other edge-of-your-seat thrillers by New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica: The Good Girl Pretty Baby Don’t You Cry Every Last Lie The Other Mrs. Local Woman Missing Just The Nicest Couple She's Not Sorry
In an attempt to make sense of the complex process of adaptation that Chinese enterprises must go through in the course of “going out”, this book provides a multidimensional analysis of the driving forces, legal and systemic hurdles, as well as the risks and opportunities that Chinese enterprises must consider as they seek greater fortunes beyond their own borders. Comprehensive surveys conducted on a range of enterprises provide the foundation for an overview of the current state of Chinese companies operating overseas and developing trends in their overseas investment. Specific topics include key challenges that companies face, their strategies and ultimate goals, as well as their practical experience in investing abroad, especially in Belt and Road countries. Also included are the insightful views of experts, scholars and entrepreneurs with a wealth of experience in transnational investment in areas related to the globalization of Chinese enterprises, including regional investment risk, overseas talent strategies, legal and compliance issues, and even the role of technology and the Internet in cross-border e-commerce, just to name a few. It is our hope that this book will help readers better understand the current state of Chinese enterprises expanding globally, but even more importantly, we hope to provide valuable information for individual enterprises looking to “go out”, helping them clarify their investment strategies, make the most of opportunities, manage challenges and take their business to the next level.
