The Language of the Blues


Book Description

A comprehensive dictionary of blues lyrics invites listeners to interpret what they hear in blues songs and blues culture, including excerpts from original interviews with Dr. John, Bonnie Raitt, Hubert Sumlin, Buddy Guy, and many others.




That's Cool!


Book Description

"That's Cool!" offers the perfect opportunity for everyone to raise their cool factor! Mastering these skills is fun, entertaining and confidence-building. If you appreciate the handy smoothness of James Bond or Jackie Chan, this book is for you. Learn forty-nine "people" tricks that will impress your friends and dazzle your colleagues! The skills are intended to be casually integrated into your life and used to pump up your cool factor. Young and old alike can pick up these talents. Who wouldn't want to be thought of as cool? This is the road map that can lead you there!"That's Cool!" is written in a "start anywhere" format. Find a trick you are excited about, jump to the chapter and learn it. The skills run the full gamut from quite easy to exceedingly difficult. Instructions are enhanced with 175 pictures to guide you through the steps. Pictures aren't enough? "That's Cool" has a YouTube channel that offers short training videos on other cool talents, as well. Learn these cool tricks and go through life with a little flair!




The Last Lecture


Book Description

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.




Fusion for Beginners and Experts


Book Description

A new book about love and friendship by New York Times bestselling author and creator of Steven Universe, Rebecca Sugar. When Gems fuse, their forms combine to create a Gem that is bigger, stronger, and more powerful than they are apart. But more importantly, Fusion is a process built on love, trust, and communication. It's like a dance that is perfectly in sync, or a conversation filled with perfect understanding. Learn all about Fusion with Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and the rest of the Gems on Earth as they share what Fusion—and love—mean to them. A perfect gift for Valentine’s Day or any special occasion.




Firefly Lane


Book Description

From the New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . . now a #1 Netflix series! In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer's end they've become TullyandKate. Inseparable. So begins Kristin Hannah's magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives. From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness. Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn't know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she'll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she'll envy her famous best friend. . . . For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they've survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test. Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone's Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it's the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It's about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you---and knows what has the power to hurt you . . . and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you'll never forget . . . one you'll want to pass on to your best friend.




Cool


Book Description

A bold argument that our "quest for cool" shapes modern culture and the global economy Like it or not, we live in an age of conspicuous consumption. In a world of brand names, many of us judge ourselves and others by the products we own. Teenagers broadcast their brand allegiances over social media. Tourists flock to Rodeo Drive to have their pictures taken in front of luxury stores. Soccer moms switch from minivans to SUVs to hybrids, while hip beer connoisseurs flaunt their knack for distinguishing a Kölsch from a pilsner. How did this pervasive desire for "cool" emerge, and why is it so powerful today that it is a prime driver of the global economy? In Cool, the neuroscientist and philosopher Steven Quartz and the political scientist Anette Asp bring together the latest findings in brain science, economics, and evolutionary biology to form a provocative theory of consumerism, revealing how the brain's "social calculator" and an instinct to rebel are the crucial missing links in understanding the motivations behind our spending habits. Applying their theory to everything from grocery shopping to the near-religious devotion of Harley-Davidson fans, Quartz and Asp explore how the brain's ancient decision-making machinery guides consumer choice. Using these revolutionary insights, they show how we use products to advertise ourselves to others in an often unconscious pursuit of social esteem. Surprising at every turn, Cool will change the way you think about money, status, desire, and choice.




The Origins of Cool in Postwar America


Book Description

Cool. It was a new word and a new way to be, and in a single generation, it became the supreme compliment of American culture. The Origins of Cool in Postwar America uncovers the hidden history of this concept and its new set of codes that came to define a global attitude and style. As Joel Dinerstein reveals in this dynamic book, cool began as a stylish defiance of racism, a challenge to suppressed sexuality, a philosophy of individual rebellion, and a youthful search for social change. Through eye-opening portraits of iconic figures, Dinerstein illuminates the cultural connections and artistic innovations among Lester Young, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Jack Kerouac, Albert Camus, Marlon Brando, and James Dean, among others. We eavesdrop on conversations among Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Miles Davis, and on a forgotten debate between Lorraine Hansberry and Norman Mailer over the "white Negro" and black cool. We come to understand how the cool worlds of Beat writers and Method actors emerged from the intersections of film noir, jazz, and existentialism. Out of this mix, Dinerstein sketches nuanced definitions of cool that unite concepts from African-American and Euro-American culture: the stylish stoicism of the ethical rebel loner; the relaxed intensity of the improvising jazz musician; the effortless, physical grace of the Method actor. To be cool is not to be hip and to be hot is definitely not to be cool. This is the first work to trace the history of cool during the Cold War by exploring the intersections of film noir, jazz, existential literature, Method acting, blues, and rock and roll. Dinerstein reveals that they came together to create something completely new—and that something is cool.




I Wish I Knew That: Cool Stuff You Need to Know


Book Description

An Apple a Day Keeps the Low Marks Away! Have you ever been excited to find out you knew something the other kids in your class didn't? Then just think about how you would feel if you knew hundreds of fascinating tidbits-on everything from art, literature, and history to geography, science, and math-from just one quick-and-easy read crammed with fun and cool stuff you shouldn't have to wait to find out about. With I Wish I Knew That you will speed through science, whiz through history, and take a dip into the classic Greek and Roman myths in no time at all. Inside, learn all about... Classic Reads: A guide to classic children's literature such as Call of The Wild, Anne of Green Gables, The Wind in The Willows, Little Women and Shakespeare. How Land is Shaped and Changed: Erosion, Glaciers, Volcanoes and the world's tallest mountain, largest sea, and longest river. Math Stuff: Jump Into Geometry by learning that the three points of a triangle, whose angles always add up to 180º make measuring more precise. Science at a Glance: The Periodic table which was invented by Dmitri Mendeleyev and beginners' Biology History Stuff: Early explorers, important wars, all the Presidents and British Kings and Queens as well as the names of the countries and their capital cities. Bonus sections include Poet's Corner, Brief History of Music, The World Of Art and Geological Time, In Brief With I Wish I Knew That you'll boost your general knowledge and jump to the head of the class!




The Book of Cool


Book Description

From jazz music to wearing sunglasses indoors, “cool” has always been the ultimate social label. The craving for this acceptance has powered popular culture for the last hundred years. Fashion, music, cars, pop idols, attitudes, and even some schools and parents, have been labeled Cool. But by whom? The truth is: no one in particular. And then there is the whimsical nature of being Cool: The arbiters of taste and style are so eager to pronounce something Cool, that something immediately becomes uncool as the masses rush to adopt it, in order to be Cool first. Something or someone can be so “In” they quickly become “So Five Minutes Ago” before spiraling downward to “Out.” And then, like nerds and bell-bottoms, something can be so “Out”, it's “In.” (That's cool.) Taylor details the history of Cool, spotlighting its current manifestations. She charts the evolution of Cool from the sidewalks to the boardrooms, separating who creates cool from who merely markets it.




Ice Boy


Book Description

Tired of helping others cool their drinks, Ice Boy proceeds to sneak out of the freezer and heads to the beach, where his edges begin to blur.