Entertainment Science

A special collection of new stories and more after the finale of the bestselling Mushoku Tensei light novels that inspired the hit anime!

First published in 1973, this is a study of the force of photographic images, which are continually inserted between experience and reality. When anything can be photographed, and photography has destroyed the boundaries and definitions of art, a viewer can approach a photograph freely, with no expectations of discovering what it means. This collection of six lucid and invigorating essays, with the most famous being "In Plato's Cave", make up a deep exploration of how the image has affected society.

Rudeus Greyrat has finally emerged victorious from the showdown at Biheiril Kingdom. With his hard-fought battle over, he can finally rest easy and put his adventuring days behind him. Yeah right! The epic fight may be done, but the story of the Jobless Reincarnation cast is far from over.

Alanna of Trebond is no ordinary girl: her dream is to become a knight. So she disguises herself as a boy and begins training at the palace of King Roald. Alanna quickly finds out that the road to knighthood is not an easy one, but her skills and stubborness help her become friends with Prince Jonathan and his followers. At the same time, Alanna makes an enemy of the prince's uncle, the overly charming Duke Roger.

Nobody Owens is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place - he's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time as well as their ghostly teachings - such as the ability to Fade so mere mortals cannot see him.

There's something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori. Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price's attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

At least 12 million people listen to Osgood every day on CBS radio, and millions more watch him on CBS News Sunday Morning. All of them would agree that no one delivers quite the way he does the offbeat stories that make listeners stop and pay attention; the commentaries in which he shares his sense of wonder, dismay, or amusement; the well-spun tales of irony that often burst forth into wordplay or even poetry.

The aging orc shaman Ner'zhul has seized control of the Horde and reopened the Dark Portal. His brutal warriors once again encroach upon Azeroth, laying siege to the newly constructed stronghold of Nethergarde Keep. There, the archmage Khadgar and the Alliance commander, Turalyon, lead humanity and its elven and dwarven allies in fighting this new invasion. Even so, disturbing questions arise.

This is the touching story of the benevolent naturalist who roamed the Ohio valley in the early 1800s, planting apple orchards, making friends, and spreading goodwill along his way. Known to early settlers as a gentle soul with a reverence for all life, Johnny never missed a chance to save an abandoned animal or to savor a delicious apple pie. Garrison Keillor's narration is accompanied by original music by Mark O'Connor. Ages five and up.

Kousuke suddenly wakes up alone in a vast forest that clearly isn't anywhere on Earth. Now he has to find some way to eat, drink, and survive! Luckily, Kousuke also has the power to craft using a special video game menu that allows him to harvest resources and build whatever he can imagine. However, every time he goes to sleep, he's attacked by one of the many non-human races of this world, all of whom despise humankind. Enter Silphy, the beautiful dark elf who lays claim to Kousuke and vows to protect him--after all, she's taken him as her property!

Ever since the tragic death of his parents, Porsche's life has been a balancing act between attending college and bartending to support his younger brother and pay off his deadbeat uncle's gambling debt. When he witnesses a gang of thugs attacking a handsome young man in the alley behind his bar, he's reluctant to intervene--until he's offered fifty thousand baht to help the stranger escape. The stranger is known as Kinn, the second son of a notorious crime family.

In Ivy's world, stars are everything. She's a Tamer, born to subdue monsters and animals, but she was also born starless! With her life in danger, Ivy flees into the forest where she befriends a weak little slime named Sora--the one creature she can tame. Together, the unlikely pair set off on a journey, salvaging rubbish to survive. Along the way they'll win hearts, evade danger, and discover there's more to starless Ivy than meets the eye!

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.

Filled with sharply drawn, emotionally powerful senses, Walk Through Fire traces the hardships Sheila faced in her marriage and her professional life. Despite her skills as a violinist and music teacher, as well as her obvious entrepreneurial talent, she had to fight to overcome self-doubt and fears of failure. Sheila vividly details her struggles, including battling institutional racism, losing a child, suffering emotional abuse in her thirty-three-year marriage, and plunging into a deep depression with her divorce. And yet, out of that pain came renewed purpose and meaning.

Diane Guerrero, the television actress from the megahit Orange Is the New Black and Jane the Virgin, was just 14 years old on the day her parents were detained and deported while she was at school. Born in the US, Guerrero was able to remain in the country and continue her education, depending on the kindness of family friends who took her in and helped her build a life and a successful acting career for herself, without the support system of her family.

Who invented reality television, the world’s most dangerous pop-culture genre? And why can’t we look away? In this revelatory, deeply reported account of the rise of “dirty documentary”—from its contentious roots in radio to the ascent of Donald Trump—Emily Nussbaum unearths the origin story of the genre that ate the world, as told through the lively voices of the people who built it. At once gimlet-eyed and empathetic, Cue the Sun! explores the morally charged, funny, and sometimes tragic consequences of the hunt for something real inside something fake.

The Shirone Kingdom summons Zanoba home, saying they need more manpower to weather a recent coup d'etat, but Rudeus doesn't buy it: could it be a trap from the Man-God? He and Roxy travel with Zanoba as protection, only to come face-to-face with the fifth of the Seven Great Powers: Randolph Marianne, the Death God. It'll be hard work to best the Man-God's machinations, especially when Rudeus never quite knows who to trust!

From the early development of recorded and transmitted sound, DJs have been shaping the way we listen to music and the record industry. This book tracks down the inside story on some of music's most memorable moments. Focusing on the club DJ, the book gets firsthand accounts of the births of disco, hip-hop, house, and techno. Visiting legendary clubs like the Peppermint Lounge, Cheetah, the Loft, Sound Factory, and Ministry of Sound, and with interviews with legendary DJs, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life is a lively and entertaining account of musical history.

Jay-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson’s decade of teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced, as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But as a rapper, he’s sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just how great an artist he’s been for so long.

Instead of focusing on one service, like HBO, Pandora’s Box asks, “What did HBO do, besides give us The Sopranos?” The answer: It gave us a revolution. Biskind bites off a big chunk of entertainment history, following HBO from its birth into maturity, moving on to the basic cablers like FX and AMC, and ending up with the streamers and their wars, pitting Netflix against Amazon Prime Video, Max, and the killer pluses—Disney, Apple TV, and Paramount.