Cool Comfort
America's Romance with Air-Conditioning
Written by Marsha Ackermann

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: July 6, 2010
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 978-1-58834-279-9 (1-58834-279-4)

The year 2002 marked the 100th anniversary of the first installation of air-conditioning. During the past century, it has become a staple of American life; 83% of US homes are now air-conditioned. In this engaging social history, Marsha Ackermann explores how the idea of “cooling” became firmly embedded in the social... Read more >

Nonconformity
Writing on Writing
Written by Nelson Algren
Afterword by Daniel Simon
Noted by C.S. O'Brien

Format: Trade Paperback, 144 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: November 4, 1997
Price: $9.95
ISBN: 978-1-888363-62-3 (1-888363-62-2)

The struggle to write with deep emotion is the subject of this extraordinary book, the previously unpublished credo of one of America's greatest 20th-century writers.

“You don’t write a novel out of sheer pity any more than you blow a safe out of a vague longing to be rich,” writes Nelson Algren... Read more >

I Love Lucy Book

Written by Bart Andrews

Format: Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Main Street Books
On Sale: August 13, 1985
Price: $23.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-19033-6 (0-385-19033-6)

Foreword by Jess Oppenheimer. This classic book traces the history of the popular comedy series, offers plot summaries, cast listings, ratings, and original air dates for all 179 episodes, and shares behind-the-scenes information about the show. Also includes researched notes on how the program was created, written, and filmed plus an... Read more >

Rise of the Videogame Zinesters
How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form
Written by Anna Anthropy

Format: Trade Paperback, 208 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: March 20, 2012
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-60980-372-8 (1-60980-372-8)

Part critical essay, part manifesto, part DIY guide, and altogether unprecedented, Anna Anthropy’s Rise of the Videogame Zinesters shows why the multi-billion dollar videogame industry needs to change--and how a new generation of artists can change it.

In Rise of the Videogame Zinesters, pixel-provocateur Anthropy launches the first intergalactic offensive against the... Read more >

Saul Steinberg
A Biography
Written by Deirdre Bair

Format: Hardcover, 752 pages
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
On Sale: November 20, 2012
Price: $40.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-52448-3 (0-385-52448-X)

From National Book Award winner Deirdre Bair, the definitive biography of Saul Steinberg, one of The New Yorker's most iconic artists.

The issue date was March 29, 1976. The New Yorker cost 75 cents. And on the cover unfolded Saul Steinberg's vision of the world: New York City, the Hudson River, and... Read more >

Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste
A Lester Bangs Reader
Written by Lester Bangs
Edited by John Morthland

Format: Trade Paperback, 432 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: August 12, 2003
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-71367-5 (0-375-71367-0)

Before his untimely death in 1982, Lester Bangs was inarguably the most influential critic of rock and roll. Writing in hyper-intelligent Benzedrine prose that calls to mind Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson, he eschewed all conventional thinking as he discussed everything from Black Sabbath being the first truly Catholic band... Read more >

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung
The Work of a Legendary Critic: Rock'N'Roll as Literature and Literature as Rock 'N'Roll
Written by Lester Bangs

Format: Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: September 12, 1988
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-72045-4 (0-679-72045-6)

The paperback edition of the wild and brilliant writings of Lester Bangs—the most outrageous and popular rock critic of the 1970s—edited and with an introduction by the reigning dean of rock critics, Greil Marcus. Read more >

The Erotic Engine
How Pornography has Powered Mass Communication, from Gutenberg to Google
Written by Patchen Barss

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Anchor Canada
On Sale: June 21, 2011
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-66737-1 (0-385-66737-X)

Pornography: The force for change that has been written out of the history of world culture.

From cave painting to photography to the internet, pornography has always been at the cutting edge in adopting and exploiting new developments in mass communication. And in so doing, it has helped to promote and propel... Read more >

Joseph P. Kennedy Presents
His Hollywood Years
Written by Cari Beauchamp

Format: Trade Paperback, 528 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 9, 2010
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-47522-0 (0-307-47522-0)

Joseph P. Kennedy’s reputation as a savvy businessman, diplomat, and sly political patriarch is well-documented. But his years as a Hollywood mogul have never been fully explored until now.

In Joseph P. Kennedy Presents, Cari Beauchamp brilliantly explores this unknown chapter in Kennedy’s biography. Between 1926 and 1930, Kennedy positioned himself... Read more >

My Song
A Memoir of Art, Race, and Defiance
Written by Harry Belafonte and Michael Shnayerson

Format: Trade Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 13, 2012
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-47342-4 (0-307-47342-2)

An eloquently told personal account of an era of enormous cultural and political change, which reveals Harry Belafonte as not only one of America’s greatest entertainers, but also one of our most profoundly influential activists.

Harry Belafonte spent his childhood in both Harlem and Jamaica, where the toughness of the city and... Read more >

My Song
A Memoir
Written by Harry Belafonte and Michael Shnayerson

Format: Hardcover, 480 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: October 11, 2011
Price: $30.50
ISBN: 978-0-307-27226-3 (0-307-27226-5)

Harry Belafonte is not just one of the greatest entertainers of our time; he has led one of the great American lives of the last century. Now, this extraordinary icon tells us the story of that life, giving us its full breadth, letting us share in the struggles, the tragedies, and... Read more >

Extra Lives
Why Video Games Matter
Written by Tom Bissell

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: June 14, 2011
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-47431-5 (0-307-47431-3)

Tom Bissell is a prizewinning writer who published three widely acclaimed books before the age of thirty-four. He is also an obsessive gamer who has spent untold hours in front of his various video game consoles, playing titles such as Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, BioShock, and Oblivion for, literally... Read more >

Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams
The Story of Black Hollywood
Written by Donald Bogle

Format: Trade Paperback, 432 pages
Publisher: One World/Ballantine
On Sale: January 31, 2006
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-345-45419-5 (0-345-45419-7)

In Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, Donald Bogle tells–for the first time–the story of a place both mythic and real: Black Hollywood. Spanning sixty years, this history uncovers the audacious manner in which many blacks made a place for themselves in an industry that originally had no place for them.

Through interviews... Read more >

Gig
Americans Talk About Their Jobs
Edited by John Bowe, Marisa Bowe and Sabin Streeter

Format: Trade Paperback, 688 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: August 21, 2001
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-609-80707-1 (0-609-80707-2)

Taking their cue from Studs Terkel's book Working, the editors of word.com have produced a book that provides real insight into how people work and how they describe their jobs. Composed of more than 120 monologues Gig allows disparate people—from a wide variety of occupations and locations—to describe their day to... Read more >

The World in Vogue
People, Parties, Places
Edited by Hamish Bowles and Alexandra Kotur

Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: November 17, 2009
Price: $75.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-27187-7 (0-307-27187-0)

This one-of-a-kind book of 300 photographs of some of the most celebrated actors, artists, models, First Ladies, and social figures draws on stories that have appeared in the pages of Vogue over the past four decades, as well as photographs from those stories that have never been published. These trendsetters and... Read more >

Whatever You Say I Am
The Life and Times of Eminem
Written by Anthony Bozza

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
On Sale: September 28, 2004
Price: $13.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5380-3 (1-4000-5380-3)

"...the first bona fide biography of the bad-boy rapper....Bozza links the melding of black and white cultures so evident throughout rock history to the intricate confluence of race in Eminem...." —Library Journal

On assignment for his first cover story for Rolling Stone magazine, the very first national cover story on Eminem, Anthony... Read more >

The Publisher
Henry Luce and His American Century
Written by Alan Brinkley

Format: Trade Paperback, 576 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 5, 2011
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-74154-1 (0-679-74154-2)

Pulitzer Prize Finalist

Acclaimed historian Alan Brinkley gives us a sharply realized portrait of Henry Luce, arguably the most important publisher of the twentieth century.

As the founder of Time, Fortune, and Life magazines, Luce changed the way we consume news and the way we understand our world. Born the son of missionaries... Read more >

Queens Reigns Supreme
Fat Cat, 50 Cent, and the Rise of the Hip Hop Hustler
Written by Ethan Brown

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: November 22, 2005
Price: $12.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-9523-0 (1-4000-9523-9)

Based on police wiretaps and exclusive interviews with drug kingpins and hip-hop insiders, this is the untold story of how the streets and housing projects of southeast Queens took over the rap industry.

For years, rappers from Nas to Ja Rule have hero-worshipped the legendary drug dealers who dominated Queens in the... Read more >

Gods Like Us
On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame
Written by Ty Burr

Format: Hardcover, 448 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: September 18, 2012
Price: $28.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-37766-1 (0-307-37766-0)

WITH 8 PAGES OF BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS

How—and why—do we obsess over movie stars? How does fame both reflect and mask the person behind it? How have the image of stardom and our stars’ images altered over a century of cultural and technological change? Do we create celebrities, or do they create us?

Ty... Read more >

Robert Redford
The Biography
Written by Michael Feeney Callan

Format: Trade Paperback, 608 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: May 15, 2012
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-47596-1 (0-307-47596-4)

Robert Redford is among the most widely admired Hollywood stars of his generation, renowned for his iconic roles as the Sundance Kid, Bob Woodward and Jay Gatsby, and celebrated for his fierce commitment to environmental causes, independent filmmaking, and his Sundance Film Festival. Yet only now, in this revelatory biography written... Read more >

Robert Redford
The Biography
Written by Michael Feeney Callan

Format: Hardcover, 496 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: May 3, 2011
Price: $28.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-45055-9 (0-679-45055-6)

The long-anticipated biography of Robert Redford.

Among the most widely admired Hollywood stars of his generation, Redford has appeared onstage and on-screen, in front of and behind the camera, earning Academy, Golden Globe, and a multitude of other awards and nominations for acting, directing, and producing, and for his contributions to the... Read more >

Too Brief a Treat
The Letters of Truman Capote
Written by Truman Capote
Edited by Gerald Clarke

Format: Hardcover, 512 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: September 21, 2004
Price: $27.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-50133-3 (0-375-50133-9)

Truman Capote was hailed as one the most meticulous writers in American letters–a part of the Capote mystique is that his precise writing seemed to exist apart from his chaotic life. While the measure of Capote as a writer is best taken through his work, Capote the person is best understood... Read more >

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
The Apollo Theater and American Entertainment
Edited by Richard Carlin and Kinshasha Holman Conwill
Foreword by Smokey Robinson

Format: Hardcover, 264 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: April 27, 2010
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-58834-269-0 (1-58834-269-7)

*An Outstanding Academic Title of 2011 — Choice Magazine

Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment celebrates the seventy-five year history of the Apollo Theater, Harlem’s landmark performing arts space and the iconic showplace for the best in jazz, blues, dance, comedy, gospel, R & B... Read more >

Such Sweet Thunder
A Novel
Written by Vincent O. Carter

Format: Trade Paperback, 440 pages
Publisher: Zoland Books
On Sale: June 13, 2006
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-58195-217-9 (1-58195-217-1)

This unique and compelling novel deserves a place of prominence in American literature. Completed in 1963, read and widely admired in manuscript by a network of expatriate American artists strung across Europe, it was never published during Vincent Carter’s lifetime. In 2003, Steerforth Press published the text in its entirety, knowing... Read more >

The Reel Civil War
Mythmaking in American Film
Written by Bruce Chadwick

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: December 3, 2002
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-70832-9 (0-375-70832-4)

During the late nineteenth century, magazines, newspapers, novelists, and even historians presented a revised version of the Civil War that, intending to reconcile the former foes, downplayed the issues of slavery and racial injustice, and often promoted and reinforced the worst racial stereotypes. The Reel Civil War tells the history of... Read more >