The Long Chalkboard and Other Stories


Book Description

A trio of stories focuses on the complexities of modern life as experienced by the baby boomers, who have discovered that not everything turns out the way they had expected.




Would Everybody Please Stop?


Book Description

Thirty-five humorous essays exploring middle age, motherhood, marriage, divorce, cancer, and other potholes along the road of life. Finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor In Would Everybody Please Stop?, Jenny Allen asks the tough questions: Why do people say “It is what it is”? What’s the point of fat-free half-and-half? Why don’t the women detectives on TV carry purses, and where are we supposed to think they keep all their stuff? And haven’t we heard enough about memes? Reporting from the potholes midway through life’s journey, Allen addresses these and other more serious matters, like the rude awakenings of being single after twenty-five years, of mothering a teenager, and of living with a serious illness. She also discusses life’s everyday trials, like the horrors of attempting a crafts project, the anxieties of being a houseguest, and the ever-changing rules of recycling. Allen is a performer at heart—her one-woman show I Got Sick Then I Got Better premiered in 2009, and she regularly acts in other plays—and she brings that same spirit to these thirty-five short essays, which read like the work of a female Dave Barry. Writing on places both real (like a swag den for celebrities at Sundance and the parking lot at L.L.Bean’s flagship store) and imaginary (a Buddhist retreat attended by Martha Stewart, Elmer Fudd’s psychotherapy appointment), Allen’s wit and compassion give a fresh slant on life’s ups and downs.




Do Not Erase


Book Description

A photographic exploration of mathematicians’ chalkboards “A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns,” wrote the British mathematician G. H. Hardy. In Do Not Erase, photographer Jessica Wynne presents remarkable examples of this idea through images of mathematicians’ chalkboards. While other fields have replaced chalkboards with whiteboards and digital presentations, mathematicians remain loyal to chalk for puzzling out their ideas and communicating their research. Wynne offers more than one hundred stunning photographs of these chalkboards, gathered from a diverse group of mathematicians around the world. The photographs are accompanied by essays from each mathematician, reflecting on their work and processes. Together, pictures and words provide an illuminating meditation on the unique relationships among mathematics, art, and creativity. The mathematicians featured in this collection comprise exciting new voices alongside established figures, including Sun-Yung Alice Chang, Alain Connes, Misha Gromov, Andre Neves, Kasso Okoudjou, Peter Shor, Christina Sormani, Terence Tao, Claire Voisin, and many others. The companion essays give insights into how the chalkboard serves as a special medium for mathematical expression. The volume also includes an introduction by the author, an afterword by New Yorker writer Alec Wilkinson, and biographical information for each contributor. Do Not Erase is a testament to the myriad ways that mathematicians use their chalkboards to reveal the conceptual and visual beauty of their discipline—shapes, figures, formulas, and conjectures created through imagination, argument, and speculation.




The Complete Book of Chalk Lettering


Book Description

Ubiquitous at boutiques and cafés, on Etsy and Pinterest, in stationery and home decor, the art of chalk lettering is hotter than ever. Valerie McKeehan, an Etsy standout whose work has been featured in magazines and websites from Good Housekeeping to RealSimple.com, teaches us everything we need to know to create gorgeous hand-drawn chalk designs. The book is also a practice space, with three foldout “chalkboards”—the inside cover and foldout back cover are lined with blackboard paper. In over 60 lessons, learn the ABCs of lettering (literally) and basic styles: serif, sans serif, and script. Next, how to lay out a design, combine various styles into one cohesive piece, add shadows and dimension. Master more advanced letter styles, from faceted to ribbon to “vintage circus.” Use banners, borders, flourishes. And finally, 12 projects to show off your newfound skills: including a Winter Wonderland Snow Globe; a smartphone-themed birthday card to text friends and family; a one-of-a-kind party invitation to create, photograph, and mail; and a bake sale sign guaranteed to put everyone who sees it in the mood for a cupcake!




Vulcanium


Book Description

THE NAUTILUS "Riding low in the water and bristling with iron barbs, the Nautilus was a menace to navigation: in a collision with her, a wooden ship would suffer grievous damage. Certainly, the conservative observer would condemn the submarine as an infernal machine the civilized world could never tolerate in rebel hands. But if the Nautilus was built to stand down for no one, she was only as hard and unforgiving as the World had been to the men who built her." Jules Verne gave us 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea but never really explained who Captain Nemo and the Crew of the Nautilus were; let alone how or why they built the World's most advanced submarine and used it to wage war against some hated (yet undefined) nation. VULCANIUM (The Secret of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus) is the story of who they were; how and why they did what they did; and what adventures led up to that fateful encounter with the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. The intent is to entertain and (hopefully) educate; so as to enhance the reader's enjoyment of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by adding dimension to the characters, events, and technologies portrayed therein."




Fat Time and Other Stories


Book Description

In Fat Time and Other Stories , Jimi Hendrix, Francis Bacon, the boxer Jack Johnson, Miles Davis, and a space-age Muhammad Ali find themselves in the otherworldly hands of Jeffery Renard Allen, reimagined and transformed to bring us news of America in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Along with them are characters of Allen's two teenagers in an unnamed big city who stumble through a down-low relationship; an African preacher visits a Christian religious retreat to speak on the evils of fornication in an Italian villa imported to America by Abraham Lincoln; and an albino revolutionary who struggles with leading his people into conflict. The two strands in this brilliant story collection speculative history and tender, painful depictions of Black life in urban America are joined by African notions of circular time in which past, present, and future exist all at once. Here the natural and supernatural, the sacred and the profane, the real and fantastical, destruction and creation are held in delicate and tense balance. Allen's work has been said to extend the tradition of Ralph Ellison, William Faulkner, Henry Roth, and Ishmael Reed, but he is blazing his own path through American literature. Fat Time and Other Stories brilliantly shows the range and depth of his imagination.




I'm Almost Out of Cha


Book Description

Before there was Facebook, before there was Twitter, there was Woody Paige's Chalkboard. Compiled here are nearly 2,000 quotes that have appreared alongside Woody on that trusty chalkboard: some witty, some witless, and all under 140 characters.







DIY Chalkboard Crafts


Book Description

The chalkboard isn't just for the classroom anymore! With DIY Chalkboard Crafts, you'll find everything you need to create one-of-a-kind accessories, decorations, and gifts using the latest home decor trend. This fun and original collection features 50 imaginative crafts that you can create using a few essential tools and a splash of chalkboard paint. You'll find simple, step-by-step instructions as well as helpful tips for turning a little bit of paint into stylish crafts that you won't be able to find anywhere else. From bookends and lampshades to cake toppers and ornaments, you'll transform ordinary household items into eye-catching pieces with beautiful chalkboard crafts like: Cake-Silhouette Table Runner Chevron Votive Holders Paint-Dipped Flowerpot Rustic-Wood Menu Card Patriotic Lanterns Complete with stunning, full-color photographs and plenty of chalkboard inspiration, the projects in DIY Chalkboard Crafts will show you that this schoolhouse staple is all grown up!




The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks


Book Description

Containing forty-eight chapters, The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks is the ultimate guide to picturebooks. It contains a detailed introduction, surveying the history and development of the field and emphasizing the international and cultural diversity of picturebooks. Divided into five key parts, this volume covers: Concepts and topics – from hybridity and ideology to metafiction and emotions; Genres – from baby books through to picturebooks for adults; Interfaces – their relations to other forms such as comics and visual media; Domains and theoretical approaches, including developmental psychology and cognitive studies; Adaptations. With ground-breaking contributions from leading and emerging scholars alike, this comprehensive volume is one of the first to focus solely on picturebook research. Its interdisciplinary approach makes it key for both scholars and students of literature, as well as education and media.