Tales From Development Hell (New Updated Edition)
The Greatest Movies Never Made?
Written by David Hughes

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Titan Books
On Sale: February 28, 2012
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-85768-723-4 (0-85768-723-9)

A compulsively readable journey into the area of movie-making where all writers, directors and stars fear to tread: Development Hell, the place where scripts are written, actors hired and sets designed... but the movies rarely actually get made!

Whatever happened to Darren Aronofsky’s Batman movie starring Clint Eastwood? Why were there... Read more >

The Most Expensive Game in Town
The Rising Cost of Youth Sports and the Toll on Today's Families
Written by Mark Hyman

Format: Hardcover, 176 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: March 20, 2012
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0136-3 (0-8070-0136-8)

Building on the eye-opening investigation into the damaging effects of the ultra-competitive culture of youth sports in his previous book, Until It Hurts, Mark Hyman’s new book looks at the business of youth sports, how it has changed, and how it is affecting young Americans. Examining the youth sports economy from... Read more >

More Than a Game

Written by Phil Jackson and Charley Rosen

Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: April 3, 2001
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-58322-060-3 (1-58322-060-7)

More than a Game is the odyssey of Jackson’s journey–from New York Knick and world champion, to CBA coach, to six-time Chicago Bulls world champion, to this year’s L.A. Lakers world champion–and the lessons in leadership he learned each step of the way. It is the tale of Rosen’s journey as... Read more >

Beats Rhymes & Life
What We Love and Hate About Hip-Hop
Written by Ytasha Womack
Edited by Kenji Jasper
Foreword by Michael Eric Dyson

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
On Sale: May 15, 2007
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-7679-1977-7 (0-7679-1977-7)

Our generation made hip-hop. But hip-hop also made us. Why are suburban kids referring to their subdivision as “block”? Why has the pimp become a figure of male power? Why has dodging the feds become an act of honor long after one has made millions as a legitimate artist? What happens... Read more >

Decoded

Written by Jay-Z

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
On Sale: November 1, 2011
Price: $25.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8115-5 (0-8129-8115-4)

Expanded paperback edition of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller features 16 pages of new material, including 3 new songs decoded.

Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one... Read more >

Decoded

Written by Jay-Z

Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
On Sale: November 16, 2010
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6892-0 (1-4000-6892-4)

Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time.

“Hip-hop’s renaissance man drops a classic. . . . Heartfelt, passionate... Read more >

The Real All Americans

Written by Sally Jenkins

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: August 12, 2008
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-7679-2624-9 (0-7679-2624-2)

Sally Jenkins, bestselling co-author of It's Not About the Bike, revives a forgotten piece of history in The Real All Americans. In doing so, she has crafted a truly inspirational story about a Native American football team that is as much about football as Lance Armstrong's book was about a bike.


If... Read more >

Sleeping With Extra-Terrestrials
The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety
Written by Wendy Kaminer

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 10, 2000
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-75886-0 (0-679-75886-0)

In Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials, social critic Wendy Kaminer illuminates the various ways in which society has come to value emotion over reason, faith over fact, and argues that declarations of intense belief have largely taken the place of rational discourse. In a world in which "How do you feel," seems to... Read more >

Ball of Fire
The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball
Written by Stefan Kanfer

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 9, 2004
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-72771-9 (0-375-72771-X)

As a movie actress Lucille Ball was, in her own words, “queen of the B-pluses.” But on the small screen she was a superstar—arguably the funniest and most enduring in the history of TV. In this exemplary biography, Stefan Kanfer explores the roots of Lucy’s genius and places it in the... Read more >

Groucho
The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx
Written by Stefan Kanfer

Format: Trade Paperback, 496 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: May 8, 2001
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-70207-5 (0-375-70207-5)

This definitive biography of one of the world’s greatest comedians unflinchingly yet affectionately uncovers the man behind the cigar.

Here is the amazing career of the man the world recognized as Groucho: the improbable disasters of the vaudeville years; the Marx Brothers, an act so funny W.C. Fields refused to follow it... Read more >

Frank
The Voice
Written by James Kaplan

Format: Trade Paperback, 800 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: November 1, 2011
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-7679-2423-8 (0-7679-2423-1)

Frank Sinatra was the best-known entertainer of the twentieth century—infinitely charismatic, lionized and notorious in equal measure. But despite his mammoth fame, Sinatra the man has remained an enigma. Now James Kaplan brings deeper insight than ever before to the complex psyche and turbulent life behind that incomparable voice, from Sinatra’s... Read more >

Yo' Mama's Disfunktional!
Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America
Written by Robin D.G. Kelley

Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: September 17, 1998
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0941-3 (0-8070-0941-5)

In this vibrant, thought-provoking book, Kelley, “the pre-eminent historian of black popular culture writing today” (Cornel West) shows how the multicolored urban working class is the solution to the ills of American cities. He undermines widespread misunderstandings of black culture and shows how they have contributed to the failure of social... Read more >

Bang Your Head
The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal
Written by David Konow

Format: Trade Paperback, 496 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
On Sale: November 12, 2002
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-609-80732-3 (0-609-80732-3)

“Bang your head! Metal Health’ll drive you mad!”—Quiet Riot

Like an episode of VH1’s Behind the Music on steroids, Bang Your Head is an epic history of every band and every performer that has proudly worn the Heavy Metal badge. Whether headbanging is your guilty pleasure or you firmly believe that this... Read more >

Impolite Interviews

Written by Paul Krassner

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: September 7, 1999
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-888363-92-0 (1-888363-92-4)

Krassner’s Impolite Interviews delivers 21 of the most compelling encounters you will ever witness, from a 1959 interview with author Alan Watts to Timothy Leary in 1995 just weeks before he died, from Norman Mailer talking about sex to Jerry Garcia recounting what it was like to play the Pyramids. Each... Read more >

One Hand Jerking
Reports From an Investigative Journalist
Written by Paul Krassner
Afterword by Lewis Black
Foreword by Harry Shearer

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: November 1, 2005
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-58322-696-4 (1-58322-696-6)

Counterculture legend Paul Krassner gazes on the fires of pop culture, politics and celebrity and returns unscathed to help us make sense of our senseless world, with an introduction by Lewis Black (The Daily Show) and a foreword by Harry Shearer (The Simpsons, Le Show).

From cults to pornography, from Charles Manson... Read more >

1968
The Year That Rocked the World
Written by Mark Kurlansky

Format: Trade Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: January 11, 2005
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-345-45582-6 (0-345-45582-7)

In 1968: The Year That Rocked the World, award-winning author Mark Kurlansky has written his most ambitious work to date: a singular and definitive look at a pivotal moment in history.

With 1968, Mark Kurlansky brings to life the cultural and political history of that world-changing year of social upheaval. 1968 is... Read more >

Classic Candy
America's Favorite Sweets, 1950-80
Written by Darlene Lacey

Format: Trade Paperback, 80 pages
Publisher: Shire
On Sale: May 21, 2013
Price: $9.95
ISBN: 978-0-7478-1243-2 (0-7478-1243-8)

Candy may well have its origins in medicine (think peppermint sticks), and many Americans still think of candy as an edible salve with which to cure and to celebrate. Today, Americans consume more than 600 billion pounds of the sugary stuff each year. From classics such as the Hershey bar and... Read more >

Country of Exiles

Written by William R. Leach

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: May 30, 2000
Price: $14.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-75865-5 (0-679-75865-8)

In Country of Exiles, William Leach, whose Land of Desire was a finalist for the National Book Award, explores the troubling effects of our national love affair with mobility. He shows us how the impulse to pull up stakes and find a new frontier has always battled with the need to... Read more >

A Fine Romance
Jewish Songwriters, American Songs
Written by David Lehman

Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Schocken
On Sale: October 6, 2009
Price: $23.00
ISBN: 978-0-8052-4250-8 (0-8052-4250-3)

In A Fine Romance, David Lehman looks at the formation of the American songbook—the timeless numbers that became jazz standards, iconic love songs, and sound tracks to famous movies—and explores the extraordinary fact that this songbook was written almost exclusively by Jews.

An acclaimed poet, editor, and cultural critic, David Lehman hears... Read more >

Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer

Written by Tom Lehrer

Format: Trade Paperback, 160 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: October 12, 1981
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-394-74930-3 (0-394-74930-8)

The subversive songs of Tom Lehrer, the sardonic piano-wielding fugitive from Harvard, have corrupted generations of Americans since he first began recording and performing in the 1950s. His uniquely depraved wit has been forced again on an unsuspecting public via Tomfoolery, the stage revue based on his ever-trenchant observation of the... Read more >

The Mansion of Happiness
A History of Life and Death
Written by Jill Lepore

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 26, 2013
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-47645-6 (0-307-47645-6)

Renowned Harvard scholar and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore has written a strikingly original, ingeniously conceived, and beautifully crafted history of American ideas about life and death from before the cradle to beyond the grave.

How does life begin? What does it mean? What happens when we die? “All anyone can... Read more >

The Mansion of Happiness
A History of Life and Death
Written by Jill Lepore

Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: June 5, 2012
Price: $27.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-59299-6 (0-307-59299-5)

Renowned Harvard scholar and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore has composed a strikingly original, ingeniously conceived, and beautifully crafted history of American ideas about life and death from before the cradle to beyond the grave.

How does life begin? What does it mean? What happens when we die? “All anyone can... Read more >

Top of the Rock
Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV
Written by Warren Littlefield and T. R. Pearson

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: February 12, 2013
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-73976-6 (0-307-73976-7)

Top of the Rock is an absorbing insiders’ account of an incredible time and place in television history: the years when Must See TV—led by Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends, ER, and Law & Order—made NBC an unstoppable success. Here the story is vividly told through the words of the actors, writers, producers... Read more >

Top of the Rock
Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV
Written by Warren Littlefield and T. R. Pearson

Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
On Sale: May 1, 2012
Price: $27.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-53374-4 (0-385-53374-8)

Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier, ER, Cheers, Law & Order, Will & Grace. . . . Here is the funny, splashy, irresistible insiders’ account of the greatest era in television history—told by the actors, writers, directors, producers, and the network executives who made it happen . . . and watched it all fall... Read more >

America's Public Holidays, 1865-1920

Written by Ellen M. Litwicki

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: March 17, 2003
Price: $21.95
ISBN: 978-1-58834-061-0 (1-58834-061-9)

From the revered Memorial Day to the forgotten Lasties Day, America’s Public Holidays is a timely and thoughtful analysis of how the civic culture of America has been fashioned. By analyzing how holidays became a forum for expressing patriotism, how public tradition has been invented, and how the definition of America... Read more >