Entertainment Science

A group of cynical, hard-bit mercenaries runs afoul of Lawbrand’s authorities after a simple job goes belly-up. Desperate and on the run, these ragged outcasts find safety and belonging in their unlikely partnership. Always barely one step ahead the law, they cross paths with the Children of the Sun, a powerful new faith movement, that seeks to topple Lawbrand’s ruling church and purify the Trade-Cities by fire.

In Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature, philosopher and cognitive scientist Alva Noë raises a number of profound questions: What is art? Why do we value art as we do? What does art reveal about our nature? Drawing on philosophy, art history, and cognitive science, and making provocative use of examples from all three of these fields, Noë offers new answers to such questions. He also shows why recent efforts to frame questions about art in terms of neuroscience and evolutionary biology alone have been and will continue to be unsuccessful.

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.

The films, the stars, the filmmakers - all get their due in Hollywood Black, a sweeping overview of Blacks in film from the silent era through Black Panther, with striking photos and an engrossing history by award-winning author Donald Bogle.

The world’s population was aware of UFOs, and some of them were aware of the USOs (unidentified submersible objects) One starry night two sixteen-year-old girls, with gifts, would learn about both and their lives would never, ever be the same. One of the girls would confide in her uncle, and he would become their only savior in a mixed-up world. The Greys, who supposedly kidnapped people, were here on earth and they were everywhere in all parts of the world. No one would ever believe what two sixteen-year-old girls could do to greet the Greys. What role would these two sixteen-year-old ...

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.

All They Will Call You is the harrowing account of "the worst airplane disaster in California's history", which claimed the lives of 32 passengers, including 28 Mexican citizens - farmworkers who were being deported by the US government. Outraged that media reports omitted only the names of the Mexican passengers, American folk icon Woody Guthrie penned a poem that went on to become one of the most important protest songs of the 20th century.

Rock-and-roll legend Ted Nugent contends that a lot of what is wrong with this country could be remedied by a simple but controversial concept: gun ownership. With humor and classic-rock attitude, Nugent lays down his prescription for what ails America: his "Warrior Code" training, highlighting the responsible exercising of our second-ammendment rights.

What's the nature of reality? Does the universe ever end? What is time, and does it even exist? These are the biggest imagination-stretching, brain-staggering questions in the universe - and here are their fascinating answers. From quantum weirdness to freaky cosmology (like white holes - which spew out matter instead of sucking it in), This Book Will Blow Your Mind takes you on an epic journey to the furthest extremes of science, to the things you never thought possible.

Seth Grahame-Smith delivers the definitive, essential guide to making it through a horror movie in one piece. As hilarious as it is useful (if you’re trapped in a scary flick, that is), How to Survive a Horror Movie covers all the bases. Trapped in a haunted house? Check. Stalked by an evil doll? Check. Wandering aimlessly through the remains of the old world as a plague of zombies sweeps over the planet? Check.

On the run! Union Engineer Braxton Wright thought his mission into the south was to extract the contents of a top secret Confederate train. Unbeknownst to him, he was a just a pawn in Alan Pinkerton’s plan to break his ace spy Hattie Lawton out of the Castle Thunder Prison. Now free, and in the company of Braxton’s childhood friend Laurie as well as a mysterious metal man, Braxton is itching to return north to his safe, quiet drafting board.

Danny Goldberg's new book is a subjective history of 1967, the year he graduated from high school. It is, he writes, "an attempt at trying to remember the culture that mesmerized me, to visit the places and conversations I was not cool enough to have been a part of." It is also a refreshing and new analysis of the era; by looking at not only the political causes, but also the spiritual, musical, and psychedelic movements, Goldberg provides a unique perspective on how and why the legacy of 1967 lives on today.

When Fancy Feast was in her high school production of "Cabaret," she convinced the director to cast her as a sexy Kit Kat Club Girl, not the old landlady part that always, always goes to the fat girl. In a black slip and fingerless gloves, Fancy made her debut appearance in a fluorescent-lit high school auditorium—and has never looked back. In Naked, Fancy draws back the curtain to reveal a world that most denizens of the daytime never see.

Zoey Donovan-Quinn is growing restless. After months of searching, her crew hasn’t been able to locate the resting place of the one man who could save Daniel. While they frantically continue their quest, Zoey is still struggling to recover from the devastating losses she suffered in Faery. In the midst of her grief and worry, Louis Marini appears and demands the Blood Stone he forced Zoey to steal. Zoey has no choice but to hand it over. When the giant ruby’s true nature is revealed, Zoey discovers she has given their greatest enemy a weapon of unimaginable power.

Flula Borg's fascination with America and its "peoples" have warmed hearts nationwide. A frequent guest of Conan O’Brien, the German-born actor and multi-talented entertainer (think Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat crossed with Billy Eichner) fell in love with the United States upon his first visit as a young boy. Throughout his career, he has succeeded in regaling audiences with stories from his outlandish travel exploits while paying homage to his German upbringing, culminating in a personality that is supercharged and charmingly wholesome.

In Planet Funny, Ken Jennings explores this brave new comedic world and what it means - or doesn’t - to be funny in it now. Tracing the evolution of humor from the caveman days to the bawdy middle-class antics of Chaucer to Monty Python’s game-changing silliness to the fast-paced meta-humor of The Simpsons, Jennings explains how we built our humor-saturated modern age, where lots of us get our news from comedy shows and a comic figure can even be elected president of the United States purely on showmanship.

Today’s gay youth have dozens of queer peer heroes, both fictional and real, but former gay teenager Grace Perry did not have that luxury. Instead, she had to search for queerness in the (largely straight) teen cultural phenomena the aughts had to offer: in Lindsay Lohan’s fall from grace, Gossip Girl, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl”, country-era Taylor Swift, and Seth Cohen jumping on a coffee cart. And, for better or worse, these touch points shaped her adult identity. She came out on the other side like many millennials did: in her words, gay as hell.

Young Arthur doesn't understand why pulling a sword from a stone qualifies him for kingship. Old Merlin tells him a story of his childhood, when he first learned to trust in himself: a story about fighting dragons, clashing armies, and a young boy's prophetic dreams. Merlin's story inspires young Arthur with the confidence he will need to become a great king.

Masterfully narrated by film star Kevin Kline.

Shortly after moving into an old house Coraline discovers a big, carved, brown wooden door at the far corner of the drawing room. And it is locked. Curiosity runs riot in Coraline's mind and she unlocks the door to see what lies behind it. Disappointingly, it opens onto a brick wall. Days later, after exploring the rest of the house and garden, Coraline returns to the same mysterious door and opens it again. This time, however, there is a dark hallway in front of her.

The Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it, showing us just how uncommon common sense can be. Marvel at the thief who steals electrical wires before shutting off the current. Gape at the would-be-pilot who flies his lawnchair suspended from helium balloons into air-traffic lanes. These tales of trial and awe-inspiring error illustrate the ongoing saga of survival of the fittest in all its selective glory!