Entertainment Science

I am 93. I've had an extraordinary life. It's only now that I appreciate how extraordinary. As a young man, I felt I was out there in the wild, experiencing the untouched natural world - but it was an illusion. The tragedy of our time has been happening all around us, barely noticeable from day to day - the loss of our planet's wild places, its biodiversity. I have been witness to this decline.

Daphne A. Brooks explores more than a century of music archives to examine the critics, collectors, and listeners who have determined perceptions of Black women on stage and in the recording studio. How is it possible, she asks, that iconic artists such as Aretha Franklin and Beyonce exist simultaneously at the center and on the fringe of the culture industry? Liner Notes for the Revolution offers a startling new perspective on these acclaimed figures—a perspective informed by the overlooked contributions of other Black women concerned with the work of their musical peers.

Amid the restless evil of Sanctuary, only the Horadrim, an ancient order of heroes and scholars, wield the knowledge needed to light the way for humanity. In the Book of Lorath, join Lorath Nahr, one of the last of the dwindling Horadrim, on a journey through Sanctuary's most powerful relics and the stories behind them. It is Lorath's hope that this volume will preserve his knowledge for all time . . . and pass it down to those who will inherit the fight against the Prime Evils.

Erin Gibson has a singular goal - to create a utopian future where women are recognized as humans. In Feminasty - titled after her nickname on the hit podcast Throwing Shade - she has written a collection of make-you-laugh-until-you-cry essays that expose the hidden rules that make life as a woman unnecessarily hard and deconstructs them in a way that's bold, provocative, and hilarious.

The never-before-published edition of Francis Ford Coppola's notes and annotations on The Godfather novel by Mario Puzo reveals the story behind one of the world's most iconic films. In this one-of-a-kind audio production, Coppola provides listeners with unfiltered access to his creative process in his own voice. Featuring notes from eight scenes - handpicked by Coppola himself - The Godfather Notebook is a must-listen for fans of the 1972 film.

In How I Saved the World, Jesse Watters takes fans on a tour of his life from basement-dwelling Fox minion to pampered champion of right-thinking Americans. He has divined great truths about the nature of our country while stumbling across beaches asking oblivious college students basic political questions and while stumbling out of Air Force One with the President.

Ted Lasso and Philosophy explores the hidden depths beneath the vibrant veneer of AppleTV's breakout, award-winning sitcom. Blending philosophical sophistication with winsome appreciation of this feel-good comedy, the collection features original essays canvassing the breadth of the series and carefully considering the ideas it presents.

Batman is one of the most compelling and enduring characters to come from the Golden Age of Comics, and interest in his story has only increased through countless incarnations since his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. Why does this superhero without superpowers fascinate us? What does that fascination say about us? Batman and Psychology explores these and other intriguing questions about the masked vigilante.

The second volume of the Lost & Found Sound collection explores how recorded sound has shaped and captured the history of the last 100 years. Drawing from the archives and attics of the nation, this historic and intimate collection of radio documentaries presents a compelling array of sonic pioneers and legends, eccentric collectors, and original American voices.

The year is 1877. Automatons and steam-powered dirigible gunships have transformed the nation in the aftermath of the Civil War. Everything on the other side of the Mississippi has been claimed for Russia. Lincoln is still president, having never been assassinated, but the former secretary of war Edwin Stanton is now the head of the Department of Public Safety, ruling with an iron fist as head of the country's military.

All that's left of Hallie Walker after the Eudora Jayde mission are nightmares and an ancestry tangled with dark secrets. When her parents send an urgent telegram to return home, she knows it's time to face the past she's determined to forget. In doing so, she unwittingly stumbles into a scheme as old as the planet itself. If only she can convince a certain cocky pilot to fly her home. Reeling from the death of his brother, Kase Shackley focuses on anything but reality itself. But when his past sins spill into the light of day, Kase does what he does bestrun.

Monsters, mystery, and magic abound in this stunning, illustrated collection of original fairy tales from the World of Warcraft universe, as told by an all-star cast of best-selling, award-winning storytellers.

Mother American Night is the wild, funny, heartbreaking, and often unbelievable (yet completely true) story of an American icon. Born into a powerful Wyoming political family, John Perry Barlow wrote the lyrics for thirty Grateful Dead songs while also running his family’s cattle ranch. He hung out in Andy Warhol’s Factory, went on a date with the Dalai Lama’s sister, and accidentally shot Bob Weir in the face on the eve of his own wedding. Despite being a freely self-confessed acidhead, he served as Dick Cheney’s campaign manager during Cheney’s first run for Congress.

Washington has fallen! Legions of "grays"—dead soldiers reanimated on the battlefield and pressed back into service of the Southern Cause—have pushed the lines as far north as the Ohio River. Lincoln has moved the government of the United States to New York City. He needs to stop the juggernaut of the Southern undead 'abominations' or the North will ultimately fall. But Allan Pinkerton, his head of security, has a plan....

Investigative journalist Lee Smith's The Plot Against the President tells the story of how Congressman Devin Nunes uncovered the operation to bring down the commander-in-chief. While popular opinion holds that Russia subverted democratic processes during the 2016 elections, the real damage was done not by Moscow or any other foreign actor. Rather, this was a slow-moving coup engineered by a coterie of the American elite, the "deep state," targeting not only the president, but also the rest of the country.

The original Star Trek series debuted in 1966 and has spawned five TV series spin-offs and a dozen feature films, with an upcoming one from Paramount arriving in 2016. The Fifty-Year Mission is a no-holds-barred oral history of five decades of Star Trek, told by the people who were there. Hear from the hundreds of television and film executives, programmers, writers, creators, and cast as they unveil the oftentimes shocking story of Star Trek's ongoing 50-year mission.

Set in a lethal American professional football league seven centuries in the future, The MVP puts huge humans on the field with four alien races, creating a game that is faster, stronger, and deadlier than anything we know today. Star quarterback Quentin Barnes has spent three seasons putting together a hard-hitting, hard-fighting team that combines rookies, rejects, discarded free agents, and seasoned veterans from all five species.

Zoey Donovan should be happy. Her love life couldn't be better, her demonic nemesis is on the run, business is booming, and no one has tried to kill her in seven whole months. But without her best friend to share it with, it all seems a little hollow. Neil, her fabulous furry wingman, is missing and two grumpy werewolf bodyguards have taken his place. Undaunted by her humorless babysitters, she intends to track Neil down even if it means risking her newfound romantic bliss. But someone else has plans for Zoey, and they don't intend to play nice. Lucas Halfer is desperate for revenge.

Today both reality and entertainment crowd our fields of vision with brutal imagery. The pervasiveness of images of torture, horror, and war has all but demolished the 20th-century hope that such imagery might shock us into a less alienated state, or aid in the creation of a just social order. What to do now? When to look, when to turn away? Genre-busting author Maggie Nelson brilliantly navigates this contemporary predicament, with an eye to the question of whether or not focusing on representations of cruelty makes us cruel.

The explosive, definitive account of Michael Jackson’s fall from grace has now been updated with four new fascinating chapters. Award-winning journalist Diane Dimond, who first broke the story of the King of Pop’s battles against child molestation charges from 1993 to 2005, takes you behind the scenes and into the courtroom of one of the most controversial cases of the decade. This audio version gives listeners a dramatic glimpse of one reporter’s vigilance and unending quest to uncover the truth.