Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Analysis of Pop Culture with Mostly Accessible Essays
  • What the media is up to....
Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers
Sonia Maasik , and Jack Solomon
Manufacturer: Bedford/St. Martin's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312431333

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Analysis of Pop Culture with Mostly Accessible Essays.......2006-02-19

Signs of Life focuses on the way we are shaped by the media and advertising with nine chapters that cover "Consuming Passions," "The Signs of Advertising," "Video Dreams," "The Culture of American Film," "Culture and Contradiction in the U.S.A.," "Gender Codes," "Constructing Race," "Popular Spaces," and "American Icons." Many of the essayists, like David Brooks, Thomas Friedman, Thomas Frank, Eric Schlosser, Franine Prose, Gregg Easterbrook, Malcolm Gladwell, and Michael Eric Dyson are best-selling authors whose essays or book excerpts are published in popular magazines. Signs of Life is well served by these writers who, unlike some of the lesser known writers, don't indulge in heavy didactic, academic prose. Some might not like the book for giving too much space to overly didactic writers. For example, there is Fred Davis' essay about the cultural signs and contradictions of blue jeans, which is so steeped in academic speak and is so absorbed by its tiny topic that it seems a pardoy of scholarly writing. Read for example: "Paralleling the de-democratization of the jean, by the 1970s strong currents toward is eroticization were also evident." Or "Of all of the modifications wrought upon it, the phenomenon of designer jeans speaks most directly to the garment's encoding of status ambivalences. The very act of affixing a well-known designer's label . . . to the back side of a pair of jeans has to be interpreted . . . along Veblenian lines, as an instance of conspicuous consumption; in effect, a muting of the underlying rough-hewn proletarian connotation of the garment throug the introduction of a prominent status marker." This is tough going, especially freshmen college students who are not familiar with this type of heavy-handed writing. This essay selection should be further criticized because I don't think students should be encouraged to believe that Fred Davis' heavy-handed writing style represents a worthy model.

In spite of some of the book's excesses, teachers and students alike should appreciate Signs of Life for three reasons: 1) Integrating the aforementioned popular authors into the chapters about popular culture, 2) Providing excellent essay assignments at the end of each essay under the heading "Reading the Signs." With a half dozen strong essay options per essay, the students have over 50 assignment options for chapter. 3) The introduction has three excellent model essays that show the students how to write A-level expositions. The models are based on "The Personal Experience Essay," "Critical Reading of a Film," and "The Open-Ended Analytic Assignment." Each model shows how to integrate outside quotes, paraphrases, and summary into the writer's own voice and how to document outside sources in the text and at the end of the manuscript with an MLA style "Works Cited" page.

It appears that Signs of Life Fifth Edition is moving away from the academic lucubrations of scholarly authors and embracing more accessible writers, like those previously mentioned. This is a positive evolution for the fifth edition and hopefully points to less overly-done academic writing in future editions.

3 out of 5 stars What the media is up to...........2005-09-22

There is a statement that is familiar amongst our society, especially those of us that are more liberal, and that is "to not always trust what the media offers as valid or true." This textbook is an attempt to characterize the ways that media manipulate or tangle the truth, and even goes as far as offering an explanation as to why they do it. Now this is where objectivity within a learning text can be lost because to offer opinion about why the media does such things is treacherously difficult to do without biasing a left or right view. Yet the book does offer many illuminating details about the workings of this incredibly powerful economic and political tool, and more importantly, it offers the reader tools for combating or deciphering the clouded messages it gives.

I believe that this is a book that must be read by every human being (not to mention our pets who more and more become economic targets) so as to arm himself or herself against the incessant onslaught of "buy me! Buy me!" and "I can make you better because God knows you weren't made right!" However, the book loses power in being a textbook because some fluidity is lost, and it can be at times rather bland.

Nonetheless, it is a great tool to have and a tool that has now more recently become important to the human in his newest, superficial society.
Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Unsat
  • I'm a much more serious reader now
  • Unlocking Harry Potter: Five for the Serious Reader
  • good read even AFTER finishing the HP series
  • COLLEGE LEVEL READ
Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader
John Granger
Manufacturer: Zossima Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0972322124

Book Description

UNLOCKING HARRY POTTER gives you five essential keys for understanding the HARRY POTTER series. Not just who will live or die in DEATHLY HOLLOWS, but how J.K. Rowling created the most successful books of our times. To understand the story behind the stories, John Granger, author of THE HIDDEN KEY TO HARRY POTTER and editor of WHO KILLED ALBUS DUMBLEDORE?, introduces the themes and patterns Rowling uses to write books that resonate with readers of all ages. This book is for "serious readers" but Granger writes in a very entertaining style. If you never understood the term "postmodernism" or how "literary alchemy" is used by great authors from Shakespeare to J.K. Rowling, then this is a fun way to learn. UNLOCKING HARRY POTTER is the only book to examine in depth the importance of what Rowling said in an interview from 1998, that "to invent this wizard world" she had to learn about alchemy "in order to set the parameters and establish the stories' internal logic." - . - . - . - . - Here's what other HARRY POTTER authors and experts have to say about UNLOCKING HARRY POTTER: - . - . - . - . - "I got so hooked I had to stop everything else and just read, read, read. I carried it around the house, read it while using the excercycle, I hid in rooms away from the action of daily life so I could take it all in. I haven't had that reaction to a book since, well, THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. A spectacular read for all serious fans of Rowling's works. Compelling, well-argued, fun and funny. Engaging. Thought provoking. Erudite." - Tom Morris, author of IF HARRY POTTER RAN GENERAL ELECTRIC and PHILOSOPHY FOR DUMMIES. - . - . - . - . - "John Granger peels back the layers of Rowling's stories and sees patterns the rest of us miss - and he never forgets to be a fan, engaging in fun speculation about what will come in the finale. Once more Granger has shown himself to be second to none among Potter commentators and literary sleuths. Some books are meant to be ingested quickly. Not this one. Serious fans of HARRY POTTER will relish it." - David Baggett, editor of HARRY POTTER AND PHILOSOPHY.

Customer Reviews:

1 out of 5 stars Unsat.......2007-09-09

I purchased this for my grandson, who at 91/2 is an exceptionally bright boy.
Neither he nor his father were able to make heads or tails out of this purchase.

5 out of 5 stars I'm a much more serious reader now.......2007-08-17

Very early in the book John Granger recalls Professor Moody's trunk with 7 locks. Each time Dumbledore inserts a key into a different lock the trunk opens and contains different items. This book is exactly like that trunk! I have read or listened to every Harry Potter book (except Phoenix) more times than I can count and yet each time that Granger brings out a new key my reaction was "I didn't know that that was in there!" I even understand now why I didn't enjoy re-reading Phoenix (the alchemical "black" stage of the series)as much as the other books.

I didn't read this book until after I had read Deathly Hallows and I still truly enjoyed reading Granger's predictions. Some of them were spot on, while others weren't, but the premises on which they were based were solid. I had to laugh at one point, when a reference was made to the sun/Sol and moon/Luna coming together as part of an alchemical wedding. It wasn't precisely a prediction, but in Deathly Hallows Luna certainly did arrive at the wedding wearing brilliant yellow, "sun colors."

The best part is that I can reread the entire Potter series one more time, with a new perspective, and be assured of appreciating details that I have missed before.

4 out of 5 stars Unlocking Harry Potter: Five for the Serious Reader .......2007-08-14

I have seen the books' author on tv, I like the way he divided the book in 5 parts so you can understand about Harry Potter.

4 out of 5 stars good read even AFTER finishing the HP series.......2007-07-28

If you've already finished "Deathly Hallows," and you think this book is now obsolete, think again! This author's take on how Rowling thought while writing the HP series is fascinating and highly educational. Granger could teach a college course on the post-modern literary aspects of Harry Potter, and students would have to go on a wait list just to sign up for the course. Though Granger, I think, would be an annoying prof. His narrative voice has an edge of sarcasm and snobbery - which is hilarious and incredibly irritating at the same time.

Throughout reading this book, I was also fascinated with how on-target were many of his predictions for the "Deathly Hallows" book. At times he is way off-base, and other times you think he must have had an advance copy because he is so precise in his insights about how Rowling will think in crafting the 7th book. I learned a lot about this fascinating series - why I was duped by Rowling in almost every single book, why the themes are so compelling across 3 generations of readers ... and I was left wondering if we will ever again see a book or series like Harry Potter in our lifetime.

4 out of 5 stars COLLEGE LEVEL READ.......2007-07-23

This book is for those who are serious about literature. It is designed for college educated or those who read at the college level. I have a Master's Degree though not in literature. Parts of the book were a challenge to understand.
Every Day, Everywhere: Global Perspectives on Popular Culture
Average customer rating: 1 out of 5 stars
  • never received it
Every Day, Everywhere: Global Perspectives on Popular Culture
Stuart Hirschberg , and Terry Hirschberg
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0767411706

Book Description

With a thematic focus on global popular culture, this unique multi-genre reader offers students the opportunity to read, talk, and write about familiar topics of modern life.

Customer Reviews:

1 out of 5 stars never received it.......2005-09-18

Ordered this book a few weeks ago. Never received it. Had to go purchase a new copy at much greater expense.
Everyday English 1500-1700: A Reader
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Everyday English 1500-1700: A Reader

    Manufacturer: University of Michigan Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    1. A Book of Middle English A Book of Middle English

    ASIN: 0472066862

    Book Description

    What kind of language did ordinary men and women use in the seventeenth century? Everyday English 1500-1700 addresses this question by bringing together and explaining more than sixty nonliterary texts from the early modern period, ranging from witnesses' depositions to church wardens' accounts, and from letters and journals to constables' presentments and scurrilous abuse shouted in the marketplace.
    This unique source book of essential documents designed for courses on Early Modern English is designed as a teaching text with full guidance to each text, including glossary, explanatory and background notes, and suggested topics for linguistic evaluation. Everyday English takes an up-to-the-minute approach by focusing on language as it was used and spoken at the time.
    This wide-ranging collection for the first time makes available to students a corpus of examples of the ordinary, nonstandard language of the man and woman in the street, coming from areas as diverse as England, Scotland, and America. The emphasis throughout is on providing as much assistance as possible to the reader to aid understanding and appreciation of both the linguistic features and the everyday lifestyles of the time.
    "The only book a really conscientious teacher of the history and structure of Early Modern English would use for source texts." --Roger Lass, University of Cape Town
    Bridget Cusack was lecturer in English Language, University of Edinburgh.
    The Writer's Eye: Composition in the Multimedia Age
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      The Writer's Eye: Composition in the Multimedia Age
      William Costanzo
      Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

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      The Writer's Eye teaches effective composition across media by showing how rhetorical purposes and principles inform multimedia texts throughout the culture. By establishing the fundamentals of effective composition and demonstrating how these fundamentals inform multimedia texts, The Writer's Eye gives students the tools to better interpret the different cultural media in their own daily lives and to better compose their own meaningful and well-developed texts.
      The Video Game Theory Reader
      Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
      • Well worth it
      • Authoritative and interesting
      • hit-or-miss
      • A Fantastic Primer on Game Theories ...
      The Video Game Theory Reader
      Mark J. P. Wolf , and Bernard Perron
      Manufacturer: Routledge
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

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      ASIN: 0415965799

      Book Description

      In the early days of Pong and Pac Man, video games appeared to be little more than an idle pastime. Today, video games make up a multi-billion dollar industry that rivals television and film.

      The Video Game Theory Reader brings together exciting new work on the many ways video games are reshaping the face of entertainment and our relationship with technology. Drawing upon examples from widely popular games ranging from Space Invaders to Final Fantasy IX and Combat Flight Simulator 2, the contributors discuss the relationship between video games and other media; the shift from third- to first-person games; gamers and the gaming community; and the important sociological, cultural, industrial, and economic issues that surround gaming.

      The Video Game Theory Reader is the essential introduction to a fascinating and rapidly expanding new field of media studies.

      Customer Reviews:

      5 out of 5 stars Well worth it.......2006-11-10

      this is not light reading. There aren't any aliens to blast, cities to conquer, or my favorite, zombies to re-kill. Instead, this is fairly scholarly tome. It puts theories about why we really love blasting, conquering and re-killing. Not to be taken lightly but well worth the effort to read the science, psychology, marketing, and art behind our games.

      5 out of 5 stars Authoritative and interesting.......2006-04-13

      The social impact of video games as a new media has been my focus this semester at the University of Minnesota and this book has been my bible.

      The articles are not only informative and thought-provoking, but very interesting. As a long-time gamer, this was an opportunity for me to look differently at a medium I thought was purely for entertainment and really see the far reaching effect that video games have not only our media and consumer culture, but also on the individual's psyche and perception of the world around him/her.

      If you're a researcher or just a gamer looking for a fresh perspective on this medium, you need to buy this book.

      3 out of 5 stars hit-or-miss.......2005-11-19

      This book is an introduction to a nascent field within new media studies: video game theory, or ludology. As such, many of the essays contained herein are trying to get a grasp on what constitutes video game studies, period. Some of the questions broached are as follows:

      What would constitute a formal analysis of a video game?
      What features do all video games share (what can we classify as a video game, anyhow?)
      Which approaches are best for the analysis of video games: semiotics, psychoanalysis, cinema studies, cognitive psychology?

      This volume takes a few baby steps towards answering those questions. Gonzalo Frasca, for instance, makes the important argument that even the simplest games cannot be considered in mere narratological terms, but must be considered as a simulation. He then uses Roger Caillois's terms paidia and ludus to establish a tentative typology of video games.

      Other essays, such as Mia Consalvo's essay on the Sims and Final Fantasy IX, are more shallow and contribute little beyond a superficial plot analysis and trite comments about how radical it is that a guy can have a girl avatar (and vice-versa) in a video game.

      I found Patrick Crogan's essay on Combat Flight Simulator 2 and Pearl Harbor (the movie) especially insightful, as it drew some fascinating connections between Manuel De Landa, Paul Virilio, and the simulation representational ethos (as opposed to narrative).

      In conclusion, this is a really hit-or-miss collection, which is perhaps to be expected considering how marginal video game studies currently is within the academy. Nevertheless, it contains some valuable contributions to this inchoate field between its covers, which will certainly help to legitimate game studies in the future.

      5 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Primer on Game Theories ..........2004-01-19

      The Video Game Theory Reader begins not with a bold statement or manifesto for interpreting video games but in a far more grounded manner with a foreword from Warren Robinett who is widely regarded with having revolutionised gameplay in 1978 with his design for the Atari 2600 Adventure game. Robinett opens with an obvious but inescapable question about the acceptability of video games: 'It is hard to say what ranks lower on the artistic food chain than video games. Comic books? TV sit-coms? X-rated films? These ratlike vermin at the bottom scurry to avoid the thunderous footfalls of the towering behemoths of the art world.' (vii-viii). Robinett argues that most new art forms require an 'enabling technology'-cinema had the motion picture camera-and now video games have the affordable home PC (preceded somewhat by dedicated gaming systems like the Atari, which seem to have come full circle with new console Nintendo, Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox systems). With the technology firmly entrenched and a large body of work (the games) available for analysis, it's time for the critics and theorists to pay attention. As video games become increasingly complex and, more to the point, socially entrenched, the humble video game has become a worthy subject for critical analysis and a new cultural studies field is emerging. Moreover, the fact that in the US, UK and Australia video games sales outstrip the box office takings for first release films indicates that video games are playing an increasingly substantial role in our leisure hours and social interactions. While editors Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron may be overstating the case somewhat in claiming that 'the video game has recently become the hottest and most volatile field of study within new media theory' (1) , this collection certainly goes a long way to ensuring that video game analysis will have firm critical footholds.

      Wolf and Perron's excellent introduction goes a long way to illustrating that the field of video game study and theory does have both a lineage and its own proto-canon of important texts. As well as sketching the history of video game design and analysis, Wolf and Perron highlight four key elements of video games which distinguish them from the amorphous umbrella of new media: graphics, the changeable display almost always on a pixel-comprised screen; interface, the all-important connection between the game and player, which usually includes the graphics, but also speakers, microphones, keypads, joysticks, as well as onscreen elements such as sliders and menus; player activity, 'the heart of the video game experience' (15) and key to video game design; and algorithm, the program and procedures which must be to some extent unique for each different game.

      Walter Holland, Henry Jenkins and Kurt Squire's first chapter 'Theory by Design' looks at the feedback loop between design, play and theory in the realm of 'edutainment'-educationally oriented games-and uses four case studies to illustrate how designing games-to-teach involves utilising, critiquing and extending video game theory. Wolf's own article in the collection looks at the role of abstraction in video games. He traces abstraction from a technological necessity, due to the processing and graphics power of the earliest game devices, to an exploratory artistic potential for current games which almost all now tend toward representational techniques and the digital holy-grail of photorealism. Alison McMahan's 'Immersion, Engagement, and Presence' then looks at methods for analysing 3-D video games as opposed to their 2-D predecessors, focusing on degrees of presence and immersion in different games and game types, including a useful case study of Myst III: Exile. Miroslaw Filiciak's 'Hyperidentities: Postmodern Identity Patterns in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games' (MMORPGs) looks at the phenomena of MMORPGs where hundreds or thousands of game users participate in a shared virtual environment and argues that MMORPGs actualise postmodern ideas of self more so than any other medium. Filiciak's chapter, while ambitious, tends to get stuck in explicating various postmodern theories of self rather than the specifics of MMORPG gameplay, making this the weakest chapter of the collection. By contrast, Bob Rehak's 'Playing at Being: Psychoanalysis and the Avatar' intertwines a rich knowledge and appreciation for the historical spectrum of video games with an equally broad knowledge of psychoanalysis and film theory to produce a provocative chapter which explores how the video game avatar operates from a mediated mirror stage through to far more nuanced and subtle notions of identity. Torben Grodal's chapter 'Stories for Eye, Ear, and Muscles: Video Games, Media, and Embodied Experiences' starts from the premise that video games are primarily 'different realisations of real-life activities' (129) and makes the argument that the best critical tools for engaging with video games are thus drawn from cognitive psychology. Maintaining a focus on embodiment, Martti Lahti's 'As We Become Machines: Corporealised Pleasures in Video Games' examines the oft-touted idea that video games and cyberspace fetishise a 'meatless' disembodied view of subjectivity. In contrast, Lahti argues that the technologies of video games complicate corporeal responses in a number of ways, not so much erasing the body as reincorporating it in a cybernetic system which to some extent actually re-emphasises the material body for game players. Mia Consalvo's 'Hot Dates and Fairy-Tale Romances: Studying Sexuality in Video Games' also delineates how video games can complicate aspects of identity, but this chapter focuses specifically on sexuality. Consalvo conducts tight focused readings of Final Fantasy 9 and The Sims, exploring the ways sexuality is portrayed, the potential for non-heterosexual readings and activity, with the latter especially interesting in Consalvo's examination of the massively popular The Sims. Markku Eskelinen and Ragnhild Tronstad 'Video Games and Configurative Performances' add performative perspectives from theatre and drama studies, highlighting the role of pleasure in reading video games. Gonzalo Frasca's chapter 'Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology' follows in which Frasca outlines ludology-the study of video games not anchored to analyses of narrative-and shows how useful Espen Aarseth's ideas of cybernetic texts are in studying video games as simulations rather than representations. The following two chapters by Bernard Perron and Chris Crawford both focus on interactivity and narrative, the former from a more theoretical viewpoint and the latter more technical. The final chapter, Patrick Grogan's 'Gametime: History, Narrative, and Temporality in Combat Flight Simulator 2' examines similarities between gametime, gameplay and recent feature films, such as Pearl Harbour, and concludes that gametime is inherently ergodic; temporality is dictated by the episodic experiences of the game itself.

      As this brief overview illustrates, the chapters in The Video Game Theory Reader range across a huge spectrum of academic disciplines, from new media studies to cognitive psychology to literary analysis and gender studies. Most of the articles are extremely well written, making firm arguments for the importance of analysing video games in contemporary society, and providing many theoretical tools with which future work can be performed. Video game analysis and ludology may be a newly emerging field, but The Video Game Theory Reader guarantees that it's a field which will have considerable theoretical groundings and provide important insight into contemporary popular culture.
      Tourists and Tourism: A Reader
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Tourists and Tourism: A Reader
        Sharon Bohn Gmelch
        Manufacturer: Waveland Press
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback

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        4. The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class
        5. Travels in Paradox: Remapping Tourism Travels in Paradox: Remapping Tourism

        ASIN: 1577663063

        Book Description

        Capturing the diversity and importance of tourism research! What do people seek when they travel? How do locals respond and who benefits? What impact do tourists have on the environments and people they visit? What do tourists gain from their travel and exposure to other cultures and what are their responsibilities? Stimulating and comprehensive, Tourists and Tourism is a valuable examination of a major social and economic phenomenon. This new collection provides an authoritative and lively introduction to global tourism. Twenty-seven essays, by a wide array of North American and international scholars, have been selected to achieve a balance between theory and recent case studies from different parts of the world. In addition, contributors represent a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, history, geography, folklore, and journalism, offering fresh, eclectic perspectives. The volume is enriched by photographs. Appendices provide a list of recommended films and examples of behavioral guidelines for tourists.
        Festival of popular songs
        Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
        • Reader's Digest Festival of Popular Songs
        • Many of my favorite songs and yours!
        • Festival of Popular Songs refview
        • Excellent. Great arrangements. Easy for a beginner.
        • Great music -- easy to play -- good arangements
        Festival of popular songs
        Reader's Digest Editors
        Manufacturer: Readers Digest
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover

        GuitarGuitar | Instruments & Performers | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
        PopularPopular | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
        GeneralGeneral | Music | Pop Culture | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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        1. Popular songs that will live forever Popular songs that will live forever
        2. Great music's greatest hits Great music's greatest hits
        3. Parade of popular hits (Reader's Digest Songbook) Parade of popular hits (Reader's Digest Songbook)
        4. Reader's Digest Treasury of Best Loved Songs - 114 All Time Family Favorites Reader's Digest Treasury of Best Loved Songs - 114 All Time Family Favorites
        5. Unforgettable Musical Memories (Reader's Digest Songbook) Unforgettable Musical Memories (Reader's Digest Songbook)

        ASIN: 0895770350

        Customer Reviews:

        5 out of 5 stars Reader's Digest Festival of Popular Songs.......2004-04-28

        Great songs to play for a party or for your own enjoyment: Georgia on My Mind, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, It's Impossible, My Funny Valentine, The Shadow of your Smile, The Way You Look Tonight, On the Street Where You Live, Honky-Tonk Train. ALL of the songs are excellent piano melodies sutable for the intermediate player.

        5 out of 5 stars Many of my favorite songs and yours!.......2003-12-10

        From "Somewhere, My Love" to "On Top Of Spaghetti", this book has so many songs that I find myself humming and wishing I could play. Did you like Sesame Street, Dr. Zhivago, The Godfather? Do you like showtunes? There's over a hundred of them here ... the breadth is part of the fun of the book!

        4 out of 5 stars Festival of Popular Songs refview.......2000-02-27

        Great book for the intermediate pianist. It's one of my favorites. Reader's Digest needs to reprint it. I borrow it at the public library and would buy it if available.

        5 out of 5 stars Excellent. Great arrangements. Easy for a beginner........1999-10-16

        This songbook has many of the great songs of my youth. The chords are easy, there are guitar chords written above the treble staff and the print is large enough for those of us over 50 to see. The arrangements are outstanding. I wish Readers' Digest would reprint this book. I'd buy it in a second. I have to borrow mine from the public library.

        5 out of 5 stars Great music -- easy to play -- good arangements.......1999-03-13

        I wish Reader's Digest would print some more of these books. It is such an excellent composite of popular music and the arrangements are fantastic. If anyone has a copy, I would love to buy it.
        Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader (2nd Edition)
        Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
        • Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex
        • Wonderful Book
        Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader (2nd Edition)
        Mindy Stombler , Dawn M. Baunauch , Elisabeth O. Burgess , Denise Donnelly , and Wendy Simonds
        Manufacturer: Allyn & Bacon
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback

        GeneralGeneral | Sex | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
        GeneralGeneral | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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        1. Doing It: Real People Having Really Good Sex Doing It: Real People Having Really Good Sex
        2. Whores and Other Feminists Whores and Other Feminists
        3. The Social Construction of Sexuality (Contemporary Societies) The Social Construction of Sexuality (Contemporary Societies)
        4. Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity
        5. Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity (7th Edition) (MyPsychKit Series) Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity (7th Edition) (MyPsychKit Series)

        ASIN: 0205485448

        Customer Reviews:

        5 out of 5 stars Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex.......2004-12-13

        I took Dr. Stombler's Sexuality and Society class at Georgia State University for which this book is the text. It served as an excellent companion to the material she was covering, as well as just an all around great collection of informative and interesting articles. I'd recommend it (as well as the class itself) to anyone wanting to inform, and re-inform in some cases, themselves about sexuality.

        5 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book.......2003-12-19

        I just loved this book! It's a collection of some very great pieces of work. I would recommend this book to anyone. In fact I have recommended it to all of my family and friends who have heard me talk endlessly about it. Those who've read a story or two from it cannot wait until I'm finished to start reading it!
        New Media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          New Media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader

          Manufacturer: Routledge
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Paperback

          HistoryHistory | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
          Popular CulturePopular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
          Media StudiesMedia Studies | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
          General BroadcastingGeneral Broadcasting | Radio | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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          Computers & InternetComputers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
          EntertainmentEntertainment | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
          NonfictionNonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
          ScienceScience | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
          Similar Items:
          1. Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics
          2. Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means (Electronic Culture: History, Theory, and Practice) Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means (Electronic Culture: History, Theory, and Practice)
          3. Remediation: Understanding New Media Remediation: Understanding New Media
          4. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide
          5. The New Media Reader The New Media Reader

          ASIN: 0415942241

          Book Description

          The term "new media" rose to prominence in the 1990s, superseding "multi-media" in business, art, and culture. The phrase obstinately portrays other media as old or dead. But what, if anything, is truly unique or revolutionary about new media?

          New Media, Old Media is a comprehensive anthology of original and classic essays that explore the tensions of old and new in digital culture. Leading international media scholars and cultural theorists interrogate new media like the Internet, digital video, and MP3s against the backdrop of earlier media such as television, film, photography, and print. The essays provide new benchmarks for evaluating all those claims--political, social, ethical--made about the digital age. Committed to historical research and to theoretical innovation, they suggest that in the light of digital programmability, seemingly forgotten moments in the history of the media we glibly call old can be rediscovered and transformed. The many topics explored in provocative volume include websites, webcams, the rise and fall of dotcom mania, Internet journalism, the open source movement, and computer viruses.

          New Media, Old Media is a foundational text for general readers, students, and scholars of new media across the disciplines. It is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the cultural impact of new media.

          Books:

          1. Sixth Covenant (A. D. Chronicles, No. 6)
          2. Sixty Days and Counting
          3. Sociology of North American Sport with PowerWeb
          4. Subterranean Cities: The World Beneath Paris and London, 1800-1945
          5. Subway Art
          6. Terrorism and Homeland Security: An Introduction
          7. The Bridge Player's Bible: Illustrated Strategies for Staying Ahead of the Game
          8. The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines
          9. The Crowning Touch: Preparing for Beauty Pageant Competition
          10. The Devil's Arithmetic (Puffin Modern Classics)

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