Bliss Montage

Author: Ling Ma
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374717125
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 149

Book Description
A National Indie Bestseller Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Story Prize, and a Windham-Campbell Literature Prize A Best Book of the Year at The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, Houston Chronicle, Roxane Gay’s The Audacity, Mashable, Polygon, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice “Uncanny and haunting . . . Genius.” —Michele Filgate, The Washington Post “Dazzling.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air What happens when fantasy tears the screen of the everyday to wake us up? Could that waking be our end? In Bliss Montage, Ling Ma brings us eight wildly different tales of people making their way through the madness and reality of our collective delusions: love and loneliness, connection and possession, friendship, motherhood, the idea of home. A woman lives in a house with all her ex-boyfriends. A toxic friendship grows up around a drug that makes you invisible. An ancient ritual might heal you of anything—if you bury yourself alive. These and other scenarios investigate the ways that the outlandish and the ordinary are shockingly, deceptively, heartbreakingly alike.

Severance

Author: Ling Ma
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374717117
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Book Description
Maybe it’s the end of the world, but not for Candace Chen, a millennial, first-generation American and office drone meandering her way into adulthood in Ling Ma’s offbeat, wryly funny, apocalyptic satire, Severance. "A stunning, audacious book with a fresh take on both office politics and what the apocalypse might bring." —Michael Schaub, NPR.org “A satirical spin on the end times-- kind of like The Office meets The Leftovers.” --Estelle Tang, Elle NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: NPR * The New Yorker ("Books We Loved") * Elle * Marie Claire * Amazon Editors * The Paris Review (Staff Favorites) * Refinery29 * Bustle * Buzzfeed * BookPage * Bookish * Mental Floss * Chicago Review of Books * HuffPost * Electric Literature * A.V. Club * Jezebel * Vulture * Literary Hub * Flavorwire Winner of the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award * Winner of the Kirkus Prize for Fiction * Winner of the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award * Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel * A New York Times Notable Book of 2018 * An Indie Next Selection Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. With the recent passing of her Chinese immigrant parents, she’s had her fill of uncertainty. She’s content just to carry on: She goes to work, troubleshoots the teen-targeted Gemstone Bible, watches movies in a Greenpoint basement with her boyfriend. So Candace barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies cease operations. The subways screech to a halt. Her bosses enlist her as part of a dwindling skeleton crew with a big end-date payoff. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost. Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers? A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a moving family story, a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale, and a hilarious, deadpan satire. Most important, it’s a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.

Then We Came to the End

Author: Joshua Ferris
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 9780759572287
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
The National Book Award finalist and debut novel by the bestselling author of The Dinner Party: "A readymade classic of the office-novel genre. . . . A truly affecting novel about work, trust, love, and loneliness." --Seattle Times No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment--the one we pretend is normal five days a week.

Little John Crow

Author: Ziggy Marley
Publisher: Akashic Books
ISBN: 1636140270
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 71

Book Description
After being abandoned by his animal friends, Little John Crow must come to terms with what it means to be part of a community when you are a vulture. "Little John Crow is full of energy and color." —People Magazine "A new children’s book by [Ziggy Marley] and his wife, Orly, aims to educate youth on the threats the birds face and the vital ecological role they play." —Audubon Magazine Little John Crow is a young vulture growing up in Bull Bay on the edge of the Blue Mountains in Jamaica, where he lives with his loving parents Sharil and Rusil Crow. He spends his days playing with his friends, a motley group that includes a snake, George; Missy, the French pigeon; Chiqueen, a chicken hawk; Hummy, the hummingbird; and the Three Little Birds. One morning while the group of friends is relaxing by a cool river, they start chatting about life, their parents' jobs, and what they want to be when they grow up. As the conversation continues, Little John Crow realizes he has no idea what his parents do for work. Little John Crow and his friends set out to solve this mystery, but what they discover shocks them—Little John Crow and his vulture parents are scary scavengers! Most of his friends are disgusted when they learn this, and before Little John Crow can even adjust to this news, a terrible tragedy strikes. Feeling lonely and isolated from his friends, the young vulture flees Bull Bay. After traveling for days, a tired and hungry Little John Crow is fortunate to be found by a group of vultures. With their support and encouragement, the young vulture learns to embrace his future, and after months away, he returns to Bull Bay just in the nick of time to save his home from ruin. Filled with humor and memorable characters, Little John Crow reminds us of the importance of accepting our differences and remembering that life offers a place and purpose for all of us.

What She Ate

Author: Laura Shapiro
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698178947
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2017 One of NPR Fresh Air's "Books to Close Out a Chaotic 2017" NPR's Book Concierge Guide To 2017’s Great Reads “How lucky for us readers that Shapiro has been listening so perceptively for decades to the language of food.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR Fresh Air Six “mouthwatering” (Eater.com) short takes on six famous women through the lens of food and cooking, probing how their attitudes toward food can offer surprising new insights into their lives, and our own. Everyone eats, and food touches on every aspect of our lives—social and cultural, personal and political. Yet most biographers pay little attention to people’s attitudes toward food, as if the great and notable never bothered to think about what was on the plate in front of them. Once we ask how somebody relates to food, we find a whole world of different and provocative ways to understand her. Food stories can be as intimate and revealing as stories of love, work, or coming-of-age. Each of the six women in this entertaining group portrait was famous in her time, and most are still famous in ours; but until now, nobody has told their lives from the point of view of the kitchen and the table. What She Ate is a lively and unpredictable array of women; what they have in common with one another (and us) is a powerful relationship with food. They include Dorothy Wordsworth, whose food story transforms our picture of the life she shared with her famous poet brother; Rosa Lewis, the Edwardian-era Cockney caterer who cooked her way up the social ladder; Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady and rigorous protector of the worst cook in White House history; Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress, who challenges our warm associations of food, family, and table; Barbara Pym, whose witty books upend a host of stereotypes about postwar British cuisine; and Helen Gurley Brown, the editor of Cosmopolitan, whose commitment to “having it all” meant having almost nothing on the plate except a supersized portion of diet gelatin.

Horror after 9/11

Author: Aviva Briefel
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292742428
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
Horror films have exploded in popularity since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, many of them breaking box-office records and generating broad public discourse. These films have attracted A-list talent and earned award nods, while at the same time becoming darker, more disturbing, and increasingly apocalyptic. Why has horror suddenly become more popular, and what does this say about us? What do specific horror films and trends convey about American society in the wake of events so horrific that many pundits initially predicted the death of the genre? How could American audiences, after tasting real horror, want to consume images of violence on screen? Horror after 9/11 represents the first major exploration of the horror genre through the lens of 9/11 and the subsequent transformation of American and global society. Films discussed include the Twilight saga; the Saw series; Hostel; Cloverfield; 28 Days Later; remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead, and The Hills Have Eyes; and many more. The contributors analyze recent trends in the horror genre, including the rise of 'torture porn,' the big-budget remakes of classic horror films, the reinvention of traditional monsters such as vampires and zombies, and a new awareness of visual technologies as sites of horror in themselves. The essays examine the allegorical role that the horror film has held in the last ten years, and the ways that it has been translating and reinterpreting the discourses and images of terror into its own cinematic language.

One Summer in Paris

Author: Sarah Morgan
Publisher: HQN Books
ISBN: 1488096511
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 462

Book Description
At the end of their rope in the City of Light, two women discover the healing magic of friendship in this heartfelt novel from “a master storyteller” (Booklist). To celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, Grace planned a surprise getaway in Paris for her and her husband. But now he has a surprise of his own: he wants a divorce. Reeling from the shock but refusing to be broken, Grace makes the bold decision to go to Paris alone. Audrey, a young woman from London, left behind her own heartache when she arrived in Paris. Working in a bookshop seems like her ticket to freedom, but with no money and terrible French, she may wind up spending the summer wandering the cobbled streets alone . . . until she meets Grace, and everything changes. Grace can’t believe how daring young Audrey is. Audrey can’t believe how cautious newly single Grace is. Living in neighboring apartments, this unlikely pair offer each other just what they’ve both been missing. They came to Paris to find themselves, but finding this unbreakable friendship might be the best thing that’s ever happened to them . . .

For His Eyes Only

Author: Lisa Funnell
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231850921
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
The release of Skyfall in 2012 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the James Bond film franchise. It earned over one billion dollars in the worldwide box office and won two Academy Awards. Amid popular and critical acclaim, some have questioned the representation of women in the film. From an aging M to the limited role of the Bond Girl and the characterization of Miss Moneypenny as a defunct field agent, Skyfall develops the legacy of Bond at the expense of women. Since Casino Royale (2006) and its sequels Quantum of Solace (2008) and Skyfall constitute a reboot of the franchise, it is time to question whether there is a place for women in the new world of James Bond and what role they will play in the future of series. This volume answers these questions by examining the role that women have historically played in the franchise, which greatly contributed to the international success of the films. This academic study constitutes the first book-length anthology on femininity and feminism in the Bond series. It covers all twenty-three Eon productions as well as the spoof Casino Royale (1967), considering a range of factors that have shaped the depiction of women in the franchise, including female characterization in Ian Fleming's novels; the vision of producer Albert R. Broccoli and other creative personnel; the influence of feminism; and broader trends in British and American film and television. The volume provides a timely look at women in the Bond franchise and offers new scholarly perspectives on the subject.

A Level Film Studies

Author: Sarah Casey Benyahia
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000769895
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 769

Book Description
This essential book covers the key areas for A Level Film Studies students, building confidence through a careful, step-by-step approach. The first part of the book establishes a basic understanding of the grounding of film analysis in the various elements of film construction, mise en scène, cinematography, editing, sound and performance, developing the knowledge students have of movies whilst challenging them to consider new films and ideas. Key theoretical approaches around narrative, genre, representation, spectatorship and authorship are introduced in Part II, before we consider specific national cinemas from around the world in parts III and IV. In Part V, the book assesses a range of slightly different film experiences, looking at silent cinema, experimental films and documentaries; before, finally, Part VI shifts to evaluating creative approaches to students’ own filmmaking. Specifically designed to be user-friendly, the book has an easy-to-follow design, includes more than 60 colour images and is packed with features such as: case studies on a range of films and filmmakers; activities on such films as Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (Murnau, 1927, USA), Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958, USA), Do the Right Thing (Lee, 1989, USA), We Need to Talk About Kevin (Ramsay, 2011, UK) and Stories We Tell (Polley, 2012, Canada); definitions of key terms; and suggestions for further reading and website resources. Matched to the current exam specification, A Level Film Studies: The Essential Introduction covers everything students need to study as part of the course. The book is supported by a companion website at www.alevelfilmstudies.co.uk, offering further advice and activities.

Neo-Feminist Cinema

Author: Hilary Radner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136995994
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 493

Book Description
What lies behind current feminist discontent with contemporary cinema? Through a combination of cultural and industry analysis, Hilary Radner’s Neo-Feminist Cinema: Girly Films, Chick Flicks and Consumer Culture shows how the needs of conglomerate Hollywood have encouraged an emphasis on consumer culture within films made for women. By exploring a number of representative "girly films," including Pretty Woman, Legally Blonde, Maid in Manhattan, The Devil Wears Prada, and Sex and the City: The Movie, Radner proposes that rather than being "post-feminist," as is usually assumed, such films are better described as "neo-feminist." Examining their narrative format, as it revolves around the story of an ambitious unmarried woman who defines herself through consumer culture as much as through work or romance, Radner argues that these films exemplify neo-liberalist values rather than those of feminism. As such, Neo-Feminist Cinema offers a new explanation as to why feminist-oriented scholars and audiences who are seeking more than "labels and love" from their film experience have viewed recent "girly films" as a betrayal of second-wave feminism, and why, on the other hand, such films have proven to be so successful at the box office.