Best Pornography

Painstakingly honest, this chilling memoir reveals how a teenager became immersed in the bizarre life of legendary porn star John Holmes. The 2003 movie Wonderland vivified Schiller's teenage experience under the thrall of a drug-addled porn star in L.A. in the late 1970s, while this long docudrama expands on that raw era to include her peripatetic, dysfunctional upbringing and aftermath as a survivor. The daughter of a Vietnam vet and a German woman he met and married overseas, Schiller spent her early years moving around to accommodate her father's military career, especially between New Jersey and the suburbs of Miami. Instead, Schiller, who met Holmes in 1976 when she was just 15, details their five-year love affair, the stability he provided in the wake of her troubled childhood, and the deterioration of their relationship after Homes became addicted to cocaine and was ultimately arrested.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Just wow this certainly had my attention a intense case of Stockholm syndrome as dawn same name as me shares a birthday with my significant other and came from New Jersey where I live consider my mind blown as this story takes readers from the happiest of times to the worst of times with a legendary porn star as he corrupts her innocence and ruins her for his enjoyment."
"Starting cautiously with a sample first, I was drawn in by the frank, consistent and honest writing by the author, Dawn Schiller, and I bought this book with great interest."
"For anyone interested in the long term effects of dysfunctional childhoods, look up the sobering long-term study - Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, through the Center for Disease Control's website."
"It gives great detail into her early family life and how at 15, she met John Holmes who would ultimately bring her great love and everlasting pain."
"One that any love-struck teenager can relate to when after the fairy tale has worn off, it's a nightmare."
"Without much in the way of parental supervision or familial support, she found herself in the sights of the landlord of the people she was "crashing" with. You have to take memoirs with a grain of salt, but she is pretty good in depicting her personal thoughts as she was taken down that "road," and why she made her choices."

This book explains the neurological reasons porn is addictive, helps individuals learn how to be free of porn, and offers real help to the parents and the spouses of porn users. "The Porn Myth can help you to separate the myths from the facts about porn and to reclaim real love. Matt Fradd is the founder and executive director of The Porn Effect , a website dedicated to exposing the reality behind the fantasy of porn and offering help.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I'm halfway through this book and I'm already blown away by the amount of insight I've been able to gain into the problem of porn in today’s culture. Matt Fradd does an excellent job of providing a comprehensive historical background of the porn industry, as well as solid research to back its effects (e.g., erectile dysfunction, relationship problems, physiological/neurological brain changes similar to drug addiction that result in the need for a more extreme “fix”…the list goes on). As a parent I was particularly interested in protecting my children from the problems porn forces us to face, and after sifting through the book I have been given a solid foundation that I believe will help me foster a healthy and realistic understanding of human sexuality."
"My copy of the Porn Myth just arrived this afternoon, and without even noticing I am sixty pages deep. The Porn Myth has the ability to educated and inform a generation."
"Packed with statistics and studies, Matt Fradd doesn't shy away from the truth of how pornography dehumanizes modern women and men."
"nice book...prompt seller!"
"For anyone struggling with porn addiction, this book is for you."
"Porn myth is very informative and insightful as well as educational."
"Very good, balanced and we'll researched."
"Chapters are poorly organized, mixing opinion, anecdotes, and scientific references, all the while failing to construct a specific argument. Anyone who remembers Lit 101 and/or Philosophy 101 will recognize the failure of the author to construct a compelling work of non-fiction."

Astonishingly, the average age of first viewing porn is now 11.5 years for boys, and with the advent of the Internet, it’s no surprise that young people are consuming more porn than ever. As porn culture has become absorbed into pop culture, a new wave of entrepreneurs are creating porn that is even more hard-core, violent, sexist, and racist. The author's appropriation of addiction terminology—viewers are called users, habitual viewing is an addiction, and pornography featuring teenagers is called Pseudo-Child Pornography or PCP—is distracting and suggests that rhetorical tricks are needed because solid argumentation is lacking. What we do know is that we are surrounded by images that degrade and debase women and that for this the entire culture pays a price.” Generously referenced, Dines' screed carefully builds her case that pornography's pernicious influence is a factor in the rise in brutishness and sexual violence, focusing specifically on how heterosexual pornography negatively impacts women.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"After reading this book I understand the problems porn creates in our society."
"Only weakness is that there is some boring rambling about the history of how pornography first took hold in the country with Playboy Magazine..."
"Disturbing."
"Great book, really unveils the insidious nature of porn."
"Has a lot of insitghtful views on Pornography and the growing industry of adult entertainment."
"Well written and and really highlights the effect the porn industry has on society."
"From there I read an article revealing that 47% of Japanese women report no interest in sex, and plan to never marry or have children. The first one made sense to me; it's hard to have a spicy evening if your lover takes an iPad to bed, and then rolls over to send a few final messages and Tweets into a phone before passing out. The author deftly outlines how male sexual understanding is shaped through observation of porn-style sex from an early age. This isn't stealing dad's nudie magazine or watching an old grainy Hustler tape; this is one image after the other, with the option to increase the violence or kink as tastes evolve over time. At that early age, the stars have to be willing to do almost anything, and are violently degraded and physically hurt for hours -- so much so that 90% don't make a second film. She also states that men are also left vulnerable, and insecure about sexual capabilities when using porn stars as a means of measurement. Segments of stories from stars like Jenna Jameson and Sasha Grey, both of whom radically changed the industry before ditching it, further underscores the potency of her assertions."
"This is one of the most informative, eye-opening books about the porn industry that I've found."
Best Sociology

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. ''[A] compassionate, discerning sociological analysis...Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he's done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans. ( Jennifer Senior, New York Times ). ''[ Hillbilly Elegy ] is a beautiful memoir but it is equally a work of cultural criticism about white working-class America....[Vance] offers a compelling explanation for why it's so hard for someone who grew up the way he did to make it...a riveting book.''. ''[An] understated, engaging debut...An unusually timely and deeply affecting view of a social class whose health and economic problems are making headlines in this election year.''. ''Vance compellingly describes the terrible toll that alcoholism, drug abuse, and an unrelenting code of honor took on his family, neither excusing the behavior nor condemning it...The portrait that emerges is a complex one...Unerringly forthright, remarkably insightful, and refreshingly focused, Hillbilly Elegy is the cry of a community in crisis.''. ''A beautifully and powerfully written memoir about the author's journey from a troubled, addiction-torn Appalachian family to Yale Law School, Hillbilly Elegy is shocking, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and hysterically funny. It's also a profoundly important book, one that opens a window on a part of America usually hidden from view and offers genuine hope in the form of hard-hitting honesty. From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class through the author’s own story of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for over forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J.D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Drugs, crime, jail time, abusive interactions without any knowledge of other forms of interaction, children growing up in a wild mix of stoned mother care, foster care, and care by temporary "boyfriends," and in general, an image of life on the edge of survival where even the heroes are distinctly flawed for lack of knowledge and experience of any other way of living. Second, the author's growing realization, fully present by the end of the work, that while individuals do not have total control over the shapes of their lives, their choices do in fact matter—that even if one can't direct one's life like a film, one does always have the at least the input into life that comes from being free to make choices, every day, and in every situation. I hate to fall into self-analysis and virtue-signaling behavior in a public review, but in this case I feel compelled to say that the author really did leave with me a renewed motivation to make more of my life every day, to respect and consider the choices that confront me much more carefully, and to seize moments of opportunity with aplomb when they present themselves."
"I never heard of the author until I saw him on Morning Joe a few days ago but I looked him up and read several articles he wrote for various publications so I bought his book. He suggests that tribalism, mistrust of outsiders and "elites," violence and irresponsibility among family members, parents without ethics and a sense of responsibility, terrible work ethics, and an us-against-them mentality is dooming the people who live that way to becoming poorer, more addicted, and more marginalized."
"I grew up without running water in Boone County, WV, and wound up with a degree from Harvard Law School."
"I escaped inner city Baltimore (see The Wire) due to luck, the ability to do well in school and a few good teachers.Instead of trying to describe my early life to my family and friends, I will give them this book."
Best Gerontology

In The Longevity Economy , Coughlin provides the framing and insight business leaders need to serve the growing older market: a vast, diverse group of consumers representing every possible level of health and wealth, worth about $8 trillion in the United States alone and climbing. In The Longevity Economy , he not only defines that better narrative--he shows businesses how to lead in creating it and how to profit from the opportunities it provides. The magnificent result--at once forward-looking, hilariously irreverent, and engaging--serves as an indispensable road map for how to take full advantage of life's ever-lengthening third act. Longer lifespans will revolutionize the way we live and offer incredible new opportunities, but will also require a new rigor in the way people plan and save for their later years. The Longevity Economy doesn't just make you rethink the role of consumer insights and trends, it forces you to re-imagine their impact." Increasingly, inclusive design is where businesses are heading because 'the golden years' are where true gold lies in the new, longevity economy. Joseph Coughlin is the founder and director of the MIT AgeLab, a multidisciplinary research program created to understand the behavior of the 50+ population, the role of technology in their lives, and the opportunity for innovation to improve the quality of life for older adults and their families.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Amazing book."
"There is a powerful message that Joe Coughlin delivers in his new book, that continues what Daniel Kahneman and Yuval Noah Harari have articulated. Coughlin uses this key understanding of the human mind's working to dismantle the "narrative" we have been using about old age. Once old age is framed in our minds as frail and incompetent, it leaves no room for any other way of thinking about vast and an ever growing swath of society. One is when the author is speaking about females being decision makers on key aspects of managing family affairs such as health care and doctors. The narrative power of males being the "deciders in chief' was too deeply rooted to even tolerate this counter observation. Thus we are creating communes where people with experience, wisdom, vitality and a whole lot to offer are no longer active part of the larger society. It is full colorful anecdotes including the author's experiences at MIT, the US Government and working with companies all around the world."
"It isn’t just big, he suggests, “It’s so enormous, it’s as though a new [begin italics] continent [end italics] were rising out of the sea, filled with more than a billion air-breathing consumers just begging for products that fulfill their demands.” Welcome to the Longevity Economy. First, the emerging population of older adults isn’t just big."
"Superb book, flows with great stories and brilliant insights."
Best Poverty Studies

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. ''[A] compassionate, discerning sociological analysis...Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he's done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans. ( Jennifer Senior, New York Times ). ''[ Hillbilly Elegy ] is a beautiful memoir but it is equally a work of cultural criticism about white working-class America....[Vance] offers a compelling explanation for why it's so hard for someone who grew up the way he did to make it...a riveting book.''. ''[An] understated, engaging debut...An unusually timely and deeply affecting view of a social class whose health and economic problems are making headlines in this election year.''. ''Vance compellingly describes the terrible toll that alcoholism, drug abuse, and an unrelenting code of honor took on his family, neither excusing the behavior nor condemning it...The portrait that emerges is a complex one...Unerringly forthright, remarkably insightful, and refreshingly focused, Hillbilly Elegy is the cry of a community in crisis.''. ''A beautifully and powerfully written memoir about the author's journey from a troubled, addiction-torn Appalachian family to Yale Law School, Hillbilly Elegy is shocking, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and hysterically funny. It's also a profoundly important book, one that opens a window on a part of America usually hidden from view and offers genuine hope in the form of hard-hitting honesty. From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class through the author’s own story of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for over forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J.D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Drugs, crime, jail time, abusive interactions without any knowledge of other forms of interaction, children growing up in a wild mix of stoned mother care, foster care, and care by temporary "boyfriends," and in general, an image of life on the edge of survival where even the heroes are distinctly flawed for lack of knowledge and experience of any other way of living. Second, the author's growing realization, fully present by the end of the work, that while individuals do not have total control over the shapes of their lives, their choices do in fact matter—that even if one can't direct one's life like a film, one does always have the at least the input into life that comes from being free to make choices, every day, and in every situation. I hate to fall into self-analysis and virtue-signaling behavior in a public review, but in this case I feel compelled to say that the author really did leave with me a renewed motivation to make more of my life every day, to respect and consider the choices that confront me much more carefully, and to seize moments of opportunity with aplomb when they present themselves."
"I never heard of the author until I saw him on Morning Joe a few days ago but I looked him up and read several articles he wrote for various publications so I bought his book. He suggests that tribalism, mistrust of outsiders and "elites," violence and irresponsibility among family members, parents without ethics and a sense of responsibility, terrible work ethics, and an us-against-them mentality is dooming the people who live that way to becoming poorer, more addicted, and more marginalized."
"I grew up without running water in Boone County, WV, and wound up with a degree from Harvard Law School."
"I escaped inner city Baltimore (see The Wire) due to luck, the ability to do well in school and a few good teachers.Instead of trying to describe my early life to my family and friends, I will give them this book."
Best Anthropology

From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas. Tackling evolutionary concepts from a historian’s perspective, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind , describes human development through a framework of three not-necessarily-orthodox “Revolutions”: the Cognitive, the Agricultural, and the Scientific. His ideas are interesting and often amusing: Why have humans managed to build astonishingly large populations when other primate groups top out at 150 individuals? Because our talent for gossip allows us to build networks in societies too large for personal relationships between everyone, and our universally accepted “imagined realities”--such as money, religion, and Limited Liability Corporations—keep us in line. Though the concepts are unusual and sometimes heavy (as is the book, literally) Harari’s deft prose and wry, subversive humor make quick work of material prone to academic tedium. He’s written a book of popular nonfiction (it was a bestseller overseas, no doubt in part because his conclusions draw controversy) landing somewhere in the middle of a Venn diagram of genetics, sociology, and history. An engrossing read.” (Dan Ariely, New York Times Bestselling author of Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality , and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty ). “Yuval Noah Harari’s celebrated Sapiens does for human evolution what Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time did for physics.… He does a superb job of outlining our slow emergence and eventual domination of the planet.” ( Forbes ). “Writing with wit and verve, Harari…attempts to explain how Homo sapiens came to be the dominant species on Earth as well as the sole representative of the human genus.… Provocative and entertaining.” ( Publishers Weekly ). “In this sweeping look at the history of humans, Harari offers readers the chance to reconsider, well, everything, from a look at why Homo sapiens endured to a compelling discussion of how society organizes itself through fictions.” ( Booklist Best Books of the Year).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Parts of it were downright fascinating such as "imagination" being a keystone to human activity, e.g. corporations, money, and religion. Finally he keeps touching on the fact that animals have paid a terrible price for the rise of sapiens. Incidentally our family has a farm background and I eat no chicken, turkey, pork, or beef. Now I didn't give the book five stars because he makes positive references to the misguided but widely read Jared Diamond. Let me emphasize that on this snowy March day the cat and I are both glad we don't need to go out and scavenge something off the frozen earth."
"A standard history of the human race begins with Paleolithic proto-humans, traces the development of modern man or homo sapiens sapiens, then chronicles the beginnings and expansions of human civilization from agriculture to the present. He asks how "An Animal of No Significance" managed to become the dominant life form, and whether that animal's learning to produce his own food and then to further harness the natural world to his will through science were boons or setbacks, both for that animal and for the rest of the biosphere."
"An interesting book and very enjoyable to read."
"And at least for me, a fresh set of insights about the Agricultural Revolution - it was an accident, we can't go back, and if it hadn't happened we'd lack anything we call civilization. Also, our entire economic system - money, capitalism, et al, is another delusion that requires our faith in order to survive. The book can be generously called a set of personal meditations of history and human nature, but done with little research and even scanter evidence."
Best Philanthropy & Charity

This bold, contrarian view, backed up by exhaustive research, introduces our near-term future, where exponentially growing technologies and three other powerful forces are conspiring to better the lives of billions. Examining human need by category—water, food, energy, healthcare, education, freedom—Diamandis and Kotler introduce dozens of innovators making great strides in each area: Larry Page, Steven Hawking, Dean Kamen, Daniel Kahneman, Elon Musk, Bill Joy, Stewart Brand, Jeff Skoll, Ray Kurzweil, Ratan Tata, Craig Venter, among many, many others. "This engaging book is a needed corrective, a whirlwind tour of the latest developments in health care, agriculture, energy, and other fields as well as an introduction to thinkers and innovators such as Daniel Kahneman, Ray Kurzweil, and Craig Ventor."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Abundance by Peter Diamandis revolves around the concept that our perception on life is based off of our own experiences, but collectively taken life has improved in many categories such as lifespan, economic wages, & number of conflicts in a given time period."
"It is an excellent place to start for anyone. interested in exponential technologies, the. future, artificial intelligence, global social. issues or business."
"A must read for all generations, I couldn't put the book down...."
"We think the world today is worst than ever, this book will tell you how we are wrong, how we are better now and how Technologies are shaping our future, a future of abundance."
"The authors rightly point out that if you study any period of human existence on planet Earth, you will see both incredible advancements and terrible tragedies. Diamandis and Kotler define abundance as having a life of possibilities where the day is spent dreaming and doing as opposed to scrapping and scraping just to get by. The bulk of the book describes how science and technology will be used to address each of the challenges identified in the tiers of the abundance pyramid. Its contents leave the reader full of hope that science and technology will solve our problems and better life on the planet."
"Anything that is abundant, has zero scarcity, and therefore zero market value (anything multiplied by zero equals zero - consider oxygen, important, abundant, and zero market value in ordinary circumstances). Thus while we are developing technology that is capable of delivering abundance, that abundance is invalidating our dominant social valuation paradigm (money and markets). There is a flip side to this concept also, which is that there is zero market incentive to ever deliver true abundance (abundance that reaches every person on the planet), and there is in fact massive monetary incentive to prevent such abundance ever being created. Thus the question really is, what sort of social political and technical institutions are required to provide security and freedom in an age of abundance (which abundance includes longevity)."
"Yes, the future is better than you think."
Best Social Work

Fast Food Nation points the way but, to resurrect an old fast food slogan, the choice is yours.”— Los Angeles Times. Eric Schlosser’s exposé revealed how the fast food industry has altered the landscape of America, widened the gap between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and transformed food production throughout the world. In a new afterword for this edition, Schlosser discusses the growing interest in local and organic food, the continued exploitation of poor workers by the food industry, and the need to ensure that every American has access to good, healthy, affordable food. “Schlosser shows how the fast food industry conquered both appetite and landscape.”— The New Yorker. In this fascinating sociocultural report, Schlosser digs into the deeper meaning of Burger King, Auggie's, The Chicken Shack, Jack-in-the-Box, Little Caesar's and myriad other examples of fast food in America. Frequently using McDonald's as a template, Schlosser, an Atlantic Monthly correspondent, explains how the development of fast-food restaurants has led to the standardization of American culture, widespread obesity, urban sprawl and more. In a perky, reportorial voice, Adamson tells of the history, economics, day-to-day dealings and broad and often negative cultural implications of franchised burger joints and pizza factories, delivering impressive snippets of information (e.g., two-thirds of America's fast-food restaurant employees are teenagers; Willard Scott posed as the first Ronald McDonald until higher-ups decided Scott was too round to represent a healthy restaurant like McDonald's). According to Schlosser, most visits to fast-food restaurants are the culinary equivalent of "impulse buys," i.e., someone is driving by and pulls over for a Big Mac.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The book starts off by explaining how the fast food industry came to be the American symbol. Schlosser took many tours through slaughterhouses and interviewed many former employees that have been burned out from the tortuous conditions. Schlosser says that, "Everyday in the United States, roughly 200,000 people are sickened by food borne disease, 900 are hospitalized, and 14 die". His main message presented was how the fast food industry is affecting society. Having more people know about what is really behind the Big Mac and the Whopper will help society understand what they are eating and how it can affect them."
"I bought Fast Food Nation through Amazon seller as a used book."
"It offers an amazing insight of the entire meet industry."
"Regardless if you never eat at a FF joint, the food we eat is processed in the same slick, fast food procedure."
"Beginning in the late 1980s, a series of food safety scandals opened people's eyes to the way their food was being produced, each one drawing the curtain back a little further on a food system that had changed beyond recognition. In the wake of these food safety scandals, the conversation about food politics that briefly flourished in the 1970s was picked up again in a series of books, articles, and movies about the consequences of industrial food production. Beginning in 2001 with the publication of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, a surprise best-seller, and, the following year, Marion Nestle's Food Politics, the food journalism of the last decade has succeeded in making clear and telling connections between the methods of industrial food production, agricultural policy, food-borne illness, childhood obesity, the decline of the family meal as an institution, and, notably, the decline of family income beginning in the 1970s. The picture of the food economy Schlosser painted resembles an upside-down version of the social compact sometimes referred to as "Fordism": instead of paying workers well enough to allow them to buy things like cars, as Henry Ford proposed to do, companies like Wal-Mart and McDonald's pay their workers so poorly that they can afford only the cheap, low-quality food these companies sell, creating a kind of nonvirtuous circle driving down both wages and the quality of food."
Best Emigration & Immigration

With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties. A Look Inside The Warmth of Other Suns The author's father as a Tuskegee Airman George Starling as a young manThe author's mother at Meridian Hill The author’s mother at Howard University with friends A migrant man studying a mapA migrant man packing his suitcaseIda Mae Brandon Gladney as a young womanRobert Joseph Pershing Foster as a young physician Starred Review.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper writer, has now come back to write a fascinating and sweeping book on what she calls ""the biggest underreported story of the twentieth century." Of course we all know the tale of the "Dust Bowl" and the "Okies", as captured by Steinbeck in words, by Dorothea Lange in photographs, and even in song by Woody Guthrie. The title of this book is taken from Richard Wright's "Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth": "I was taking a part of the South to transplant in alien soil, to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns, and, perhaps, to bloom." Our families became friends, as also "Miz Edna's" husband had served in New Guinea with my father (as a cook, however, remember the WWII Army was still segregated) ."
"It does a commendable job of presenting the sweep of history while also telling individual stories of those who left brutal conditions for better lives elsewhere."
"I am awed by the sacrifice and courage displayed by my mother who made the decision to leave her family in Alabama to give us a chance to realize our greatest potential by driving north to start a new life."
"This collection of stories takes the reader through the history of the black migration from the South to the North and lays out in clear terms the challenges blacks faced and provides a foundational understanding of the challenges blacks continue to face in America today."
"This book was well articulated by a very pleasant-voice lady."
"I knew very little about this period in our history, and as a result of this book, I've sought out more information."
"This book, by focusing on the stories few individuals citizens, transcendentally captures both the unspeakable tragedy of Jim Crow, and the remarkable faith and sheer fortitude of those making the journey north (I'll never forget Ida Mae!!)."
Best Special Groups

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. ''[A] compassionate, discerning sociological analysis...Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he's done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans. ( Jennifer Senior, New York Times ). ''[ Hillbilly Elegy ] is a beautiful memoir but it is equally a work of cultural criticism about white working-class America....[Vance] offers a compelling explanation for why it's so hard for someone who grew up the way he did to make it...a riveting book.''. ''[An] understated, engaging debut...An unusually timely and deeply affecting view of a social class whose health and economic problems are making headlines in this election year.''. ''Vance compellingly describes the terrible toll that alcoholism, drug abuse, and an unrelenting code of honor took on his family, neither excusing the behavior nor condemning it...The portrait that emerges is a complex one...Unerringly forthright, remarkably insightful, and refreshingly focused, Hillbilly Elegy is the cry of a community in crisis.''. ''A beautifully and powerfully written memoir about the author's journey from a troubled, addiction-torn Appalachian family to Yale Law School, Hillbilly Elegy is shocking, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and hysterically funny. It's also a profoundly important book, one that opens a window on a part of America usually hidden from view and offers genuine hope in the form of hard-hitting honesty. From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class through the author’s own story of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for over forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J.D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Drugs, crime, jail time, abusive interactions without any knowledge of other forms of interaction, children growing up in a wild mix of stoned mother care, foster care, and care by temporary "boyfriends," and in general, an image of life on the edge of survival where even the heroes are distinctly flawed for lack of knowledge and experience of any other way of living. Second, the author's growing realization, fully present by the end of the work, that while individuals do not have total control over the shapes of their lives, their choices do in fact matter—that even if one can't direct one's life like a film, one does always have the at least the input into life that comes from being free to make choices, every day, and in every situation. I hate to fall into self-analysis and virtue-signaling behavior in a public review, but in this case I feel compelled to say that the author really did leave with me a renewed motivation to make more of my life every day, to respect and consider the choices that confront me much more carefully, and to seize moments of opportunity with aplomb when they present themselves."
"I never heard of the author until I saw him on Morning Joe a few days ago but I looked him up and read several articles he wrote for various publications so I bought his book. He suggests that tribalism, mistrust of outsiders and "elites," violence and irresponsibility among family members, parents without ethics and a sense of responsibility, terrible work ethics, and an us-against-them mentality is dooming the people who live that way to becoming poorer, more addicted, and more marginalized."
"I grew up without running water in Boone County, WV, and wound up with a degree from Harvard Law School."
"I escaped inner city Baltimore (see The Wire) due to luck, the ability to do well in school and a few good teachers.Instead of trying to describe my early life to my family and friends, I will give them this book."
Best Folklore & Mythology

The world-renowned classic that has enthralled and delighted millions of readers with its timeless tales of gods and heroes. Fans of Greek mythology will find all the great stories and characters here--Perseus, Hercules, and Odysseus--each discussed in generous detail by the voice of an impressively knowledgeable and engaging (with occasional lapses) narrator.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Always been a fan of Greek Mythology, now I can listen to it whenever I want."
"It's a classic for good reason."
"Exactly what my daughter needed for her class."
"Required for freshman English class."
"This book gives you details about the gods that you didn't know you wanted to know!"
"Edith Hamilton's classic."
"Needed this For my English IS class and it provided spot on and flawless information over Greek mythology down to the core."
Best Violence in Society

Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. "Junger has raised one of the most provocative ideas of this campaign season--and accidentally written one of its most intriguing political books. "― The New York Times "There are three excellent reasons to read Sebastian Junger's new book: the clarity of his thought, the elegance of his prose, and the provocativeness of his chosen subject. "Compelling...Junger...offers a starting point for mending some of the toxic divisiveness rampant in our current political and cultural climate. "TRIBE is a fascinating, eloquent and thought-provoking book..packed with ideas...It could help us to think more deeply about how to help men and women battered by war to find a new purpose in peace. Sebastian Junger is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tribe , War , The Perfect Storm , Fire, and A Death in Belmont .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Upon reading Junger’s article in a recent Vanity Fair article on the affects of PTSD (it’s not exclusive to just war veterans, by the way), I was under the assumption that a large portion of this book would be dedicated to that. It’s an eye-opening letter to the American public that politely reminds us that we’ve lost our way when it comes to being a closer knit community as a whole. The young Junger, afraid of being mugged for his supplies, lies and tells the man that he has just a little food to last him."
"One of his central themes is the idea that soldiers in combat situations have such an intense experience of interdependency, solidarity and community that they often struggle upon returning to civilian life in the US, in which there rarely is any similar sort of community to which they can belong."
"From the devastating news of schools shootings, wars that appear on the surface to have little relevance 'back home', and financial injustices that literally rob society; these are at once at the top of our news streams, and almost as quickly dismissed as aberrations. He addresses everything from how we inappropriately treat our soldiers, the unbalanced attention to criminal acts within our society, and the fundamental social needs that are shown to be more powerful than war and catastrophe."
"Junger takes us on a journey of human community, using the stories of cultures and soldiers throughout history to provide guidance on how we can live better together in the future."
Best Media Studies

As seen in the new movie The Post, here is the. captivating, inside story of the woman who helmed the Washington Post during one of the most turbulent periods in the history of American media. In lieu of an unrevealing Famous-People-I-Have-Known autobiography, the owner of the Washington Post has chosen to be remarkably candid about the insecurities prompted by remote parents and a difficult marriage to the charismatic, manic-depressive Phil Graham, who ran the newspaper her father acquired. Katharine's account of her years as subservient daughter and wife is so painful that by the time she finally asserts herself at the Post following Phil's suicide in 1963 (more than halfway through the book), readers will want to cheer.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"An engaging book about an amazing Lady."
"I bought this book after the sale of Washington Post."
"Katherine did a spell-binding history of her life in the land of wealth and prestigue, showing it to be one of just plain Jane and how she literally uplifter herself into one of grandeur."
"A wonderful book that brings the excitement, and the changes in our country alive, through Katherine Graham's recollections."
"THOUGHT IT WOULD BE BORING, WAS I EVER WRONG; ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING; LEARNED SO MUCH MORE ABOUT PUBLISHING A PAPER, UNIONS, ETC AND THIS WONDERFUL WOMANS LIFE; YOU WILL NOT BE BORED;"
"Loads of recent history and a real glimpse into the workings of the newspaper business ."
Best Disaster Relief

Five Days at Memorial , the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing. Fink, a Pulitzer Prize winner for her reporting on Memorial in the New York Times Magazine, offers a stunning re-creation of the storm, its aftermath, and the investigation that followed (one doctor and two nurses were charged with second-degree murder but acquitted by a grand jury). She evenhandedly compels readers to consider larger questions, not just of ethics but race, resources, history, and what constitutes the greater good, while humanizing the countless smaller tragedies that make up the whole. --Keir Graff Five Days at Memorial is Sheri Fink’s elaborately researched chronicle of life, death, and the choices in between at a New Orleans hospital immediately following Hurricane Katrina.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"When making decisions in a chaotic disaster situation, it would be helpful to have at least a minimal understanding of the job that the people you are directing do."
"I used to work in a hospital as a pharmacy tech,I recognized the narcotics the author mentions in the book."
"If this book had been 50 pages shorter, I would have given it 5 Stars."
"I almost feel bad giving this book 4 instead of 5 stars considering the incredible amount of research and effort that has gone into its composition, but as a reader, I found this book to be tedious in certain parts, and in need of some editing. For academic and research purposes, I think this book is a masterpiece because it contains such minute detail, but for a casual reader like me, who wanted to gain some insight into this particular event, the book is just too drawn out."
"What happens when you work for five days in unbelievable circumstances, with no air conditioning, no power, little or no sleep, reduced staff, and many critically ill patients? After the complete coverage on Katrina, including the chilling human and political ramifications, she explores what has been done, or not done, for planning for future events in Louisiana and several other states."
"I lived in New Orleans for 9 years prior to Hurricane Katrina, so the story hit me pretty hard."
Best Children's Studies

Based on a true story, Call Me Tuesday recounts, with raw emotion, a young girl's physical and mental torment at the mercy of the monster in her mother's clothes--a monster she doesn't know how to stop loving. - Jayne L. Williams MS LPC, Mental Health Therapist & former Assistant Professor, Saint-Mary-of-the Woods College "A compelling portrayal of grief gone horribly wrong." - Alexandra Levit, a former nationally syndicated columnist for the Wall Street Journal, current writer for the New York Times, and bestselling author "This story was like a blueprint and a guidance for all children who have suffered from their loved ones." - David Lloyd, The Virtual Muser eBook Review "Despite the disturbing subject matter, the writing is well-crafted but never emotionally manipulative or maudlin, which made this a surprisingly enjoyable read." Call Me Tuesday is my small attempt to make as many people as possible aware that extreme maltreatment of a child at the hands of a parent does actually happen, an ugly truth I feel everyone needs to know.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book is very well written without going into extreme graphics about the abuse that was suffered."
"I loved this story and I wished I could hug this person! Now I'm on to the sequel Call Me Cockroach."
"I can't imagine a child having gone through so much torture."
"As a fellow survivor of physical and mental abuse I felt a rage toward her parents like I haven't felt in a long time."
"It is time for people in positions of power to stand up and help these children."
"I enjoyed it."
"What an amazing book."
"Any adult including the social worker should have seen by the way she was dressed and her physical condition that things were not good at home."
Best Social Science Reference

Using actual case histories of innocent men and women exonerated after decades in prison because of information they voluntarily gave to police, Professor Duane demonstrates the critical importance of a constitutional right not well or widely understood by the average American. “James Duane’s amazing but true stories of innocent people exonerated after decades of wrongful imprisonment (which could have been avoided if they had just insisted on their fundamental right to avoid self-incrimination) are riveting reminders of the high price we pay, as individuals and as a society, when we fail to assert our constitutional rights.” —Laurence H. Tribe, Harvard Law School. You Have the Right to Remain Innocent describes a stream of miscarriages of justice that occurred only because innocent suspects cooperated with deceptive officers preying on their ignorance and good intentions. “Well-informed, scary, sobering, and sure to tick off police officers and prosecutors even as it contributes to keeping innocent people out of jail.” — Kirkus Reviews.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Prof. Duane mixes his brilliant legal scholarship with his trademark humor in this brief overview of what to do when a police officer asks cheerfully, "You don't mind answering a few questions, do you?""
"I knew these tactics and techniques were used by law enforcement, I never knew how much simple statements could be woven into a guilty sentence for the most innocent."
"Once you start looking, it's alarming to realize how many innocent people go to jail because they don't understand the system and they thought if they just told the truth to the arresting officers that everything would be ok. Three felony's a day... Know your rights, the don't and do's of using the 5th, when and when not to keep your mouth shut."
"Every citizen owes it to her or himself to read this book."
"Some very important points made in this book about you (as a suspect, a person being questioned, a random person) and how you should deal with the police if they come to you."
"If you don't know about the lobster law or you even vaguely believe what you might have seen regarding forensics on TV, you should read this book."
"This text clearly shows the dangers of talking to the police."
"Even a single sentence shared with police before remaining silent can be construed into a confession, allowing police to bypass the investigatory work of finding a true culprit."
Best Library & Information Science

The 40th anniversary edition of the classic Newbery Medal-winning title by beloved author Katherine Paterson, with brand-new bonus materials including an author's note by Katherine herself and a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Kate DiCamillo. Here they reign as king and queen, fighting off imaginary giants and the walking dead, sharing stories and dreams, and plotting against the schoolmates who tease them. Together, they create an imaginary, secret kingdom in the woods called Terabithia that can be reached only by swinging across a creek bed on a rope. But one morning a tragic accident befalls Leslie as she ventures alone to Terabithia, and Jess's life is changed forever. Contemporary instrumental interludes featuring guitar, piano and drums signal the beginning and end of each tape side.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"One of the best Children's book I have read."
"Brilliant piece of writing that meshes vivid imagination with real feelings - feelings of friendship and goodness."
"excellent product, good attention!"
"bought book for our club to go with the movie."
"Cute book for young ones."
"Excellent!"
"Very good book with a few unexpected plot twists."
