A GRIPPING, FEARLESS EXPLORATION OF MASCULINITY The effects of traditionally defined masculinity have become one of the most prevalent social issues of our time. In this engaging and provocative new book, beloved actor, director, and social activist Justin Baldoni reflects on his own struggles with masculinity. With insight and honesty, he explores a range of difficult, sometimes uncomfortable topics including strength and vulnerability, relationships and marriage, body image, sex and sexuality, racial justice, gender equality, and fatherhood. Writing from experience, Justin invites us to move beyond the scripts we’ve learned since childhood and the roles we are expected to play. He challenges men to be brave enough to be vulnerable, to be strong enough to be sensitive, to be confident enough to listen. Encouraging men to dig deep within themselves, Justin helps us reimagine what it means to be man enough and in the process what it means to be human.
A Man for All Seasons dramatises the conflict between King Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More. It depicts the confrontation between church and state, theology and politics, absolute power and individual freedom. Throughout the play Sir Thomas More's eloquence and endurance, his purity, saintliness and tenacity in the face of ever-growing threats to his beliefs and family, earn him status as one of modern drama's greatest tragic heroes. The play was first staged in 1960 at the Globe Theatre in London and was voted New York's Best Foreign Play in 1962. In 1966 it was made into an Academy Award-winning film by Fred Zinneman starring Paul Scofield."A Man for All Seasons is a stark play, sparse in its narrative, sinewy in its writing, which confirms Mr Bolt as a genuine and solid playwright, a force in our awakening theatre." (Daily Mail)
"And who among us would deny Jane Austen her happy endings or insist that Cary Grant and Irene Dunne should get back together at the end of The Awful Truth? There are tragedies and there are comedies, aren't there? And they are often more the same than different, rather like men and women, if you ask me. A comedy depends on stopping the story at exactly the right moment." Mia Fredrickson, the wry, vituperative, tragic comic, poet narrator of The Summer Without Men, has been forced to reexamine her own life. One day, out of the blue, after thirty years of marriage, Mia's husband, a renowned neuroscientist, asks her for a "pause." This abrupt request sends her reeling and lands her in a psychiatric ward. The June following Mia's release from the hospital, she returns to the prairie town of her childhood, where her mother lives in an old people's home. Alone in a rented house, she rages and fumes and bemoans her sorry fate. Slowly, however, she is drawn into the lives of those around her—her mother and her close friends,"the Five Swans," and her young neighbor with two small children and a loud angry husband—and the adolescent girls in her poetry workshop whose scheming and petty cruelty carry a threat all their own. From the internationally bestselling author of What I Loved comes Siri Hustvedt's provocative, witty, and revelatory novel about women and girls, love and marriage, and the age-old question of sameness and difference between the sexes.
What is it that makes a man strap himself into an automobile and drive it hundreds of laps around a track at speeds surpassing 200 miles per hour? Critically acclaimed journalist G. Wayne Miller decided to find out by spending a year on the NASCAR circuit with Roush Racing's legendary owner Jack Roush and his four title-contending Winston Cup drivers: Mark Martin, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth, and Kurt Busch. Miller plumbs the allure of speed and the exploding popularity of stock-car racing through the dramatic 2001 season, which opened with the most famous Daytona 500 in history, when NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt died as his car slammed into the wall on the final turn. Miller takes us inside the minds and behind the wheels of the of the hottest drivers of the past two seasons, as they cope with the thrills and the dangers along the way to the Cup. Miller also takes us inside Roush Racing, a $125 million business, showing a side of NASCAR that few fans ever get to see. For longtime fans and curious newcomers alike, Men and Speed takes you for a wild ride through the fastest sport in the land.
Slavery is back. America, 1962. Having lost a war, America finds itself under Nazi Germany and Japan occupation. A few Jews still live under assumed names. The 'I Ching' is prevalent in San Francisco. Science fiction meets serious ideas in this take on a possible alternate history.
ABOUT THE BOOK Chances are, you heard about Mad Men before you watched it. Seemingly out of the blue, drinking during the day was cool again, fashion from the 60s was back in stores, and a handsome man in a suit was hosting Saturday Night Live. Enough people likely expressed shock, and perhaps even disdain, that youd never seen the show. So you sat down and watched an episode. Then another. And then another. We understand. Youve become obsessed, and so have we. Mad Men is one of those few shows that comes along every few years and turns everything on its head. When it initially premiered in 2007, few could foresee how much of a cultural impact it would have on television, especially since it was shown on a channel known for televising old movies. AMC took a leap of faith on the series though, even after it was already turned down by both HBO and Showtime, in the hopes that quality would win out over formulaic mass appeal. Whats ironic is that by not trying to have mass appeal, Mad Men spoke to the masses. Suddenly there was a cool, smart, and glamorous show on cable TV that didnt pander to those who obsessed over cheaper reality television, and people started to talk. Critics began acclaiming the show, saying it was the series that breaks new ground by luxuriating in the not-so-distant past, and not soon after, the creators picked up a Golden Globe for best drama. In short, Mad Men had become a sensation. But what exactly was it about the show that made it so addicting? Perhaps it was that the characters had depth, that we truly and deeply cared about them even as they ran themselves into ruin. Maybe it was the beauty of the authentic costumes, or the hazy, romantic glow of the sets. Or perhaps, though wed hate to admit it to ourselves, it was that these characters imbibed without restraint in ways that we never could, with three-martini lunches and nooners with girls in the Village, smoking packs a day and soaking up power as though it was a birthright. The characters of Mad Men live life in ways that we never will, simply because were born in the wrong era. Luckily for us, the show is engrossing enough that we can pretend. MEET THE AUTHOR Lauren was raised in Charlotte, North Carolina and graduated from North Carolina State University in May 2011. A few months later, she found herself in New York City, working in publishing and writing on the side, a dream come true! When Lauren is not reading, writing, or thinking about reading and writing, she is exploring the city with friends or finding new yoga classes to take. She loves traveling and going to concerts, or even combining the two and attending music festivals. EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK Mad Men: A term coined in the late 1950s to describe the advertising executives of Madison Avenue. They coined it. Donald Draper is at the center of the glamorous world that is advertising in 1960s New York City. Always seen with a scotch in hand through a haze of cigarette smoke, Draper is the Creative Director of Sterling Cooper, and a bit of a womanizer. His corner office is often where he gets ready for the day, since he didnt make it home that night to his wife, Betty. Betty, however, is ever much the loving and trusting wife that society demands her to be, even though she experiences nervous ticks that show that her suspicions might one day surface. While life for Betty might be calm and quiet in the suburbs, life in the city is anything but. Sterling Cooper is where executives rise to power, or fall to the wayside, depending on how they play their cards. The women who assist the men are playthings and nothing more; when the executives egos get bruised, they turn to the women to bring them back up again. One particular executive, Pete Campbell, has eyes for an upper management position, and is willing to do just about anything to get there.
A phenomenal account, newly updated, of how twelve innovative television dramas transformed the medium and the culture at large, featuring Sepinwall’s take on the finales of Mad Men and Breaking Bad. In The Revolution Was Televised, celebrated TV critic Alan Sepinwall chronicles the remarkable transformation of the small screen over the past fifteen years. Focusing on twelve innovative television dramas that changed the medium and the culture at large forever, including The Sopranos, Oz, The Wire, Deadwood, The Shield, Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 24, Battlestar Galactica, Friday Night Lights, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad, Sepinwall weaves his trademark incisive criticism with highly entertaining reporting about the real-life characters and conflicts behind the scenes. Drawing on interviews with writers David Chase, David Simon, David Milch, Joel Surnow and Howard Gordon, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, and Vince Gilligan, among others, along with the network executives responsible for green-lighting these groundbreaking shows, The Revolution Was Televised is the story of a new golden age in TV, one that’s as rich with drama and thrills as the very shows themselves.
ABOUT THE BOOK Set in 1963, one of the most turbulent years of the 1960s, AMCs Mad Men Season 3 delves into controversial topics such as racism, homosexuality, drug use, infidelity, and the assassination of President Kennedy in a shocking, yet stylish manner. It ups the ante on the built-up tensions of the previous two seasons and explodes into bloodshedliteral and non-literalfor every character involved. In seasons one through three, the series centers around the fictitious Madison Avenue advertising firm Sterling Cooper (which was based off a real ad agency from the 1960s), but the third season finds the companys principals answering to higher powers. Viewers learn in the very first episode that Sterling Coopers been purchased by British advertising powerhouse Putnam, Powell, and Lowe. The Brits have put one of their own in the trenches in an effort to curtail Sterling Coopers infamous atmosphere of boozing, slacking off, and sleeping around. MEET THE AUTHOR An obsession with Chicago's vibrant dining and drinking scenes drove Audarshia Townsend to first write for respected publications like Essence, Chicago Reader and the Chicago Defender. She also has written lifestyle features for the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Upscale magazine. Audarshia continues to write cocktail-, dining- and lifestyle-oriented stories for Dining Chicago, Michigan Avenue Magazine and Playboy (as well as appears regularly on WCIU-TV's "You & Me This Morning" and "The G Spot Radio Show"). EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK In the Mad Men Season 3 premiere opening scenes, viewers learn why Don Draper (Jon Hamm) was named Dick Whitman by his birth mother. Its an important, yet unsexy flashback for the shows resident hunk, as the audience discovers what made him desperate enough to steal a dead mans identity in the first place. Dons darkest secret played an important role in the first two seasons, and while he manages to keep it hidden from everyone (save his boss and a scheming co-worker), it blows up in his face by the end of the third season. But this is Don Draper were talking about: the Old Fashioned guzzling, womanizing, chain-smoking, strutting creative director of Madison Avenue advertising agency Sterling Cooper. To the outside world he appears fearless, from his smooth and effortless way of handling clients to his brazen affairs with beautiful womenincluding his daughters elementary school teacher. The viewers, of course, are truly the only ones who get him, and find themselves torn between cheering him on as he tries to save his company and booing him when he cheats once again. CHAPTER OUTLINE Quicklet on Mad Men Season 3 + About the TV Show + About the Director and Producer + Overall Summary + Episode-by-Episode Commentary & Summary + ...and much more Mad Men Season 3
A successful television reporter discovers that family is more important than fame and fortune in this hilarious and heartwarming family drama from bestselling author ReShonda Tate Billingsley. Raedella Rollins left the dusty town of Sweet Poke, Arkansas, on a Texas-bound bus with four mismatched suitcases, a newsroom job offer, and a promise to herself: never look back. Now, less than a decade later, she’s a top-rated talk show host, a celebrity news anchor, and fiancée to Houston’s star councilman. The future looks bright for Rae, and Sweet Poke is nothing more than a distant memory. But now that she’s reached the top, her ragtag family comes knocking. Mama Tee, the grandmother who raised her, calls with unwelcome family updates; and Shondella, her jealous older sister, guilts her into sending money. To Rae, nothing could be worse than an unexpected reunion with her over-the-top relatives. But when her picture-perfect life turns out to be an illusion, Rae's family calls her back to Sweet Poke and to the life she left behind. Can Rae let go of the pain of her childhood and open her heart to the healing that only faith and family can provide?
