Wild Thing


Book Description

Through the creations of characters like a black god of soul, a reluctant blues singer, a faceless brilliant rock guitarist and an iron cripple at the throat of country and western, the author extracts from pop music what is interesting, good and great.




The Official ACT Reading Guide


Book Description

The ACT official subject guides are a step by step guide for outlining the preparation for the ACT section tests. These prep guides provide students a concept-based outline for the subjects they plan to focus on. Each one of the official guides, is an efficient prep tool comprised of the most current and relevant test information packed into one guide. In addition to the book, the entire pool of questions are available online for a customizable learning experience. The ACT official subject guides are the best resource to get detailed input and practice to help you in preparation for the ACT. By using this guide, students can feel comfortable and confident that they are preparing to do their best! Features of the ACT® Official Reading Guide Includes: The only book with real ACT reading questions organized by question type; Includes tips and advice for reading more quickly and retaining information; detailed explanations for every official ACT.




The Natural History of Make-believe


Book Description

The Man in the Moon has dropped down to earth for a visit. Over the hedge, a rabbit in trousers is having a pipe with his evening paper. Elsewhere, Alice is passing through a looking glass, Dorothy riding a tornado to Oz, and Jack climbing a beanstalk to heaven. To enter the world of children's literature is to journey to a realm where the miraculous and the mundane exist side by side, a world that is at once recognizable and real--and enchanted. Many books have probed the myths and meanings of children's stories, but Goldthwaite's Natural History is the first exclusively to survey the magic that lies at the heart of the literature. From the dish that ran away with the spoon to the antics of Brer Rabbit and Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat, Goldthwaite celebrates the craft, the invention, and the inspired silliness that fix these tales in our minds from childhood and leave us in a state of wondering to know how these things can be. Covering the three centuries from the fairy tales of Charles Perrault to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, he gathers together all the major imaginative works of America, Britain, and Europe to show how the nursery rhyme, the fairy tale, and the beast fable have evolved into modern nonsense verse and fantasy. Throughout, he sheds important new light on such stock characters as the fool and the fairy godmother and on the sources of authors as diverse as Carlo Collodi, Lewis Carroll, and Beatrix Potter. His bold claims will inspire some readers and outrage others. He hails Pinocchio, for example, as the greatest of all children's books, but he views C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia as a parable that is not only murderously misogynistic, but deeply blasphemous as well. Fresh, incisive, and utterly original, this rich literary history will be required reading for anyone who cares about children's books and their enduring influence on how we come to see the world.




Getting It Wrong


Book Description

Black public intellectuals, from liberal to conservative, are all talking about how black America is degenerating culturally. But there is little concrete evidence for this conclusion. In most areas of life, black Americans have made significant positive progress since the Civil Rights era. Blacks are still economically worse off than whites, but black poverty has declined and the black middle class has grown since the 1960s. More blacks graduate from college today than ever before. Black communities are much safer now than during the peak crack epidemic years of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The blackteenage pregnancy rate has fallen dramatically since the 1960s. All of these facts contradict the assertions of black cultural decline. While negative images of blacks abound in American popular culture, there is no evidence that these images accurately represent most real black Americans. In Getting It Wrong, sociologist Algernon Austin carefully examines the data on black Americans and separates myth from fact.




The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English


Book Description

The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang offers the ultimate record of modern, post WW2 American Slang. The 25,000 entries are accompanied by citations that authenticate the words as well as offer examples of usage from popular literature, newspapers, magazines, movies, television shows, musical lyrics, and Internet user groups. Etymology, cultural context, country of origin and the date the word was first used are also provided. In terms of content, the cultural transformations since 1945 are astounding. Television, computers, drugs, music, unpopular wars, youth movements, changing racial sensitivities and attitudes towards sex and sexuality are all substantial factors that have shaped culture and language. This new edition includes over 500 new headwords collected with citations from the last five years, a period of immense change in the English language, as well as revised existing entries with new dating and citations. No term is excluded on the grounds that it might be considered offensive as a racial, ethnic, religious, sexual or any kind of slur. This dictionary contains many entries and citations that will, and should, offend. Rich, scholarly and informative, The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English is an indispensable resource for language researchers, lexicographers and translators.




WILD THING.


Book Description




Bayou Suzette


Book Description

A Cajun girl tries to keep her family together on the Louisiana bayou It’s been almost 2 years since Suzette’s father caught 2 bullets in his back. Since then, he’s been bed-ridden, too sick to hunt or fish or do any of the things a bayou man must do to keep his family fed. While he heals, Suzette scours the swamps around her house for fish, gators, or anything she can sell to put food on the table. It’s hard, but Suzette is a proud Cajun, and work doesn’t scare her. When an Indian girl appears on the bayou, Suzette finds in her a friend—and maybe a way to save her family. This moving novel lovingly depicts the warmth and vitality of Cajun people and a time when the bayous seemed to stretch forever.




Love In Uncertain Times


Book Description

A boxed set of five full-length romance novels set in modern times. When the western world is focused on cyber connections, social networking and internet matchmaking, certain individuals, like those in these stories, have decided from past experience that guarding the heart is preferable to being attached, which means avoiding entanglements at all costs. At least that's their intention... Until love enters the picture.




Why Does My Dog Act That Way?


Book Description

Draws on recent scientific discoveries to analyze canine character, in a reference that explains how to assess a dog's specific traits and promote desirable behavior.




Turn It Around


Book Description

Pastor and motivational speaker Frank Santora shares seven powerful solutions that promise to transform what appear to be life’s road blocks into victories that will turn your life around. With clarity and vision, Frank Santora presents the message that God can still bring meaning and purpose out of your life, even when insurmountable circumstances and difficult situations seem to be making your life spiral out of control. Santora reveals seven pathways for turning your life around with chapters such as, “Changing Direction When You’re Headed Down the Wrong Road, “ ”Making Things Right When You’ve Totally Blown it,” “Regaining Confidence When No One Believes in You,” Finding Your Way Back When You’ve Walked Away From God,” “Regaining Life’s Composure When Things are Out of Your Control,” and “Finding a Way Out When You Feel Trapped.” Affirming the importance and worth of each reader, Santora shows readers how to turn around even the must difficult life situations.




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