Reading the Comments
Reading the Comments

Author: Joseph M. Reagle, Jr.

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2015-05-01

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0262328887

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What we can learn about human nature from the informative, manipulative, confusing, and amusing messages at the bottom of the web. Online comment can be informative or misleading, entertaining or maddening. Haters and manipulators often seem to monopolize the conversation. Some comments are off-topic, or even topic-less. In this book, Joseph Reagle urges us to read the comments. Conversations “on the bottom half of the Internet,” he argues, can tell us much about human nature and social behavior. Reagle visits communities of Amazon reviewers, fan fiction authors, online learners, scammers, freethinkers, and mean kids. He shows how comment can inform us (through reviews), improve us (through feedback), manipulate us (through fakery), alienate us (through hate), shape us (through social comparison), and perplex us. He finds pre-Internet historical antecedents of online comment in Michelin stars, professional criticism, and the wisdom of crowds. He discusses the techniques of online fakery (distinguishing makers, fakers, and takers), describes the emotional work of receiving and giving feedback, and examines the culture of trolls and haters, bullying, and misogyny. He considers the way comment—a nonstop stream of social quantification and ranking—affects our self-esteem and well-being. And he examines how comment is puzzling—short and asynchronous, these messages can be slap-dash, confusing, amusing, revealing, and weird, shedding context in their passage through the Internet, prompting readers to comment in turn, “WTF?!?”

Don't Read the Comments
Don't Read the Comments

Author: Eric Smith

Publisher: Harlequin

Published: 2020-01-28

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1488056560

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"Wonderfully geeky and deeply compassionate." —Marieke Nijkamp, #1 New York Times bestselling author In this charming novel by Eric Smith, two teen gamers find their virtual worlds—and blossoming romance—invaded by the real-world issues of trolling and doxing in the gaming community. We all need a place to escape the real world. For Divya and Aaron, it’s the world of online gaming. While Divya trades her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay rent, Aaron plays as a way to fuel his own dreams of becoming a game developer—and as a way to disappear when his mom starts talking about medical school. After a chance online meeting, the pair decides to team up. But they soon find themselves the targets of a group of internet trolls, who begin launching a real-world doxxing campaign, threatening Aaron’s dream and Divya’s actual life. They think they can drive her out of the game, but Divya’s whole world is on the line… And she isn’t going down without a fight. Looking for more from Eric Smith? Don't miss You Can Go Your Own Way!

The Reading List
The Reading List

Author: Sara Nisha Adams

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2021-08-03

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 0063025302

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A BEST OF SUMMER READ ACCORDING TO NEWSWEEK, PARADE MAGAZINE, NBC NEWS, LITHUB, AND POPSUGAR! "The most heartfelt read of the summer...a surprising delight of a novel."--Shondaland An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb. Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in Wembley, in West London after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries. Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home. When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.

Reading Picture Books with Children
Reading Picture Books with Children

Author: Megan Dowd Lambert

Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing

Published: 2015-11-03

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1580896626

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A new, interactive approach to storytime, The Whole Book Approach was developed in conjunction with the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and expert author Megan Dowd Lambert's graduate work in children's literature at Simmons College, offering a practical guide for reshaping storytime and getting kids to think with their eyes. Traditional storytime often offers a passive experience for kids, but the Whole Book approach asks the youngest of readers to ponder all aspects of a picture book and to use their critical thinking skills. Using classic examples, Megan asks kids to think about why the trim size of Ludwig Bemelman's Madeline is so generous, or why the typeset in David Wiesner's Caldecott winner,The Three Pigs, appears to twist around the page, or why books like Chris Van Allsburg's The Polar Express and Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar are printed landscape instead of portrait. The dynamic discussions that result from this shared reading style range from the profound to the hilarious and will inspire adults to make children's responses to text, art, and design an essential part of storytime.

You Can Go Your Own Way
You Can Go Your Own Way

Author: Eric Smith

Publisher: Harlequin

Published: 2021-11-02

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0369702875

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"A sweetly charming love story that leaves the reader with a lasting sense of hope.” —Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star "The perfect novel to snuggle up with.” —Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read A heartwarming and thoughtful enemies-to-lovers rom-com about two teens—one trying to save his family's failing pinball arcade, the other working for her tech genius dad who wants to take it over—who get trapped together in a snowstorm. Adam Stillwater is in over his head. But the pinball arcade is the only piece of his dad that Adam has left, and he’s determined to protect it from Philadelphia’s newest tech mogul, who wants to turn it into another one of his cold, lifeless gaming cafés. Whitney Mitchell doesn’t know how she got here. Her parents split up. Her boyfriend dumped her. And now she’s spending her senior year running social media for her dad’s chain of super successful gaming cafés—which mostly consists of trading insults with that decrepit old pinball arcade across town. But when a huge snowstorm hits, Adam and Whitney find themselves trapped inside the arcade. Cut off from their families, their worlds, and their responsibilities, the tension between them seems to melt away, leaving something else in its place. But what happens when the storm ends?

There Is a Tribe of Kids
There Is a Tribe of Kids

Author: Lane Smith

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Published: 2016-05-03

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 1626727562

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Winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal When a young boy embarks on a journey alone . . . he trails a colony of penguins, undulates in a smack of jellyfish, clasps hands with a constellation of stars, naps for a night in a bed of clams, and follows a trail of shells, home to his tribe of friends. If Lane Smith's Caldecott Honor Book Grandpa Green was an homage to aging and the end of life, There Is a Tribe of Kids is a meditation on childhood and life's beginning. Smith's vibrant sponge-paint illustrations and use of unusual collective nouns such as smack and unkindness bring the book to life. Whimsical, expressive, and perfectly paced, this story plays with language as much as it embodies imagination, and was awarded the 2017 Kate Greenaway Medal. This title has Common Core connections.

Distress to De-Stress
Distress to De-Stress

Author: Vikas Kakwani

Publisher: Notion Press

Published: 2019-01-10

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1684665264

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“I KNOW YOU HAVE STRESS.” How do I know? Simple. Because, you are alive. Also, you have picked up this book. Wars, famine and plague were the prime causes of human misery in the centuries gone by. Over the last couple of decades, we have been able to ward off diseases, income levels and life expectancy have increased, and the world has seen its most peaceful time ever. But, instead of being happy and joyful we are stressed – a lot. Why did that happen? The change over the last few years had been rapid, and none of us were ready for it. We embraced everything that the changing world threw at us without realizing the deep impact it had caused. It is time to pause, reflect and take action before stress becomes the plague of this century. Why is stress becoming the cause of misery and ailments in this era? What is stress exactly, and what are its major causes? How does social networking in the virtual world create stress? How can one manage stress to mitigate its effect? All these questions and many more get answered in this book that helps you identify your causes of distress and help you de-stress.

My Confessional
My Confessional

Author: Janet Devlin

Publisher:

Published: 2020-06-25

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9781913172244

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In 2011, Janet Devlin wowed X-Factor judges and charmed the nation with her unique vocals and performances. She consistently received the highest consecutive public vote out of all the contestants and gained a place on the live arena tour. But rather than this steering her towards greater musical success, Janet faced numerous challenges which almost cost her her career... "Believe it or not, you're holding my life in your hands. Not the picture-perfect version we've all become accustomed to, thanks to social media. This is my life as I've lived it - no filters.Each chapter in this book unlocks the truth behind a song from my album Confessional. They span ten years of intense self-discovery married with a lot of self-sabotage. My broken brain has taken me to dark places both in my own head and in the real world. But, with destruction comes creation. I genuinely hope that My Confessional does not personally resonate with you and that you've not been to the same Hell that I've come to call Home, but if you have let my life be proof that it all works out in the end. I see now that the world is truly what we make of it and that everything happens for a reason. Or, at least, that's what I tell myself. Here lyeth my confessional of the sins I want so much to be free from and to finally forgive myself for what I've done. I confess.Janet Devlin"

The Violets of March
The Violets of March

Author: Sarah Jio

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2020-03-19

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1409190803

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The island has a way of calling you home... Ten years ago, Emily Watson was on top of the world: a best-selling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of a magazine, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after. Now her perfect life has crumbled and Emily is left to pick up the pieces. So when her great-Aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on her beloved Bainbridge Island, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. As she begins researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal a startling secret that could change her life forever... A heart-breaking story of love, hope and second chances, from the international bestselling author of All the Flowers in Paris

Half an Hour from Paris
Half an Hour from Paris

Author: Annabel Simms

Publisher:

Published: 2021-05

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781843681830

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Following the format of the small classic An Hour from Paris, and written with the same delight in the little-known treasures of the Ile de France, comes Annabel Simm's latest guidebook, Half an Hour from Paris. Simms presents 10 new destinations easy to reach from central Paris, each with a carefully planned walk, ample meanderings through the cultural, historical and social milieu, comprehensive practical information and clear, detailed maps. This new edition has been updated and is now in full color.