Entertainment Science

Eating one's own kind is a completely natural behavior in thousands of species, including humans. Throughout history we have engaged in cannibalism for reasons related to famine, burial rites, and medicine. Cannibalism has also been used as a form of terrorism and as the ultimate expression of filial piety. With unexpected wit and a wealth of knowledge, Bill Schutt takes us on a tour of the field, exploring exciting new avenues of research and investigating questions like why so many fish eat their offspring and some amphibians consume their mothers' skin.

How do master storytellers compel us? There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story, but few have used a scientific approach. In The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can tell better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers - and also our brains - create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.

With even more levels under his belt, S-rank adventurer Kisaragi Claire approaches Rin in hopes of recruiting him to the Yoizuki Guild. Now, with a new opportunity to keep leveling up in hand, Rin's back at it, dungeon diving and surpassing all expectations. However, horrors lurk in the dungeons! Will Rin's Dungeon Teleportation and skills be enough to unravel the mysteries within?

Sakamori Kagami was one of the top players in the VRMMO Ark Earth Online as Danblf, a veteran summoner with the gravitas to match his elite status. When he falls asleep playing one day, he's transported to a world where the game is reality—but instead of his all-powerful avatar, he's stuck in the body of a cute young girl! He can't let anyone know that this little cutie is really Danblf, so he takes the name "Mira" and claims to be Danblf's disciple. If this gets out, he'll never live it down!

Royal Academy is off to a late start this spring—thanks to the Dark One's surprise attack on the Spring Ball—and Melody Wave could not be more elated. After all, it's her chance to meet her comrades-in-domestic-arms! Melody is itching to get to work and show everyone what she's got, despite Luciana's reluctance to let her use her maidly magic. But alas, life doesn't always go as planned, and although Melody finds herself assisting Lect and making new friends...is it really okay for a maid to have this much free time?!

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

As Ayanokouji and his classmates begin their second year at the Advanced Nurturing High School, they're greeted by a fresh gauntlet of exams and a fresh batch of rather unique first-year students. They'll have to get to know each other quickly, because the first special exam pairs the first-years with the second-years on a written test--with only the second-years facing expulsion if their team performs poorly! Worse yet? It seems one of the new first-years is also from the White Room. Can Ayanokouji avoid expulsion while sussing out the identity of this hidden foe?

Experience the past adventures of the Jobless Reincarnation crew once again in this special collection! Enjoy more stories with some of your favorite characters during their early adventures—and tons more!

Hiro and crew head to a planet of dwarves on the hunt for a new carrier ship and a chance to stuff themselves with okonomiyaki and takoyaki, only to find a pair of bombshell twin mechanics! They may look alike, but these girls' personalities are like fire and ice. If the twins join the crew, will Hiro's ship ever know peace again?

He knows it, and so does everyone else in the star nation of Prometheus. A promising naval career down the drain just because he accidentally killed 504 civilians. So, it's time for him to give up and accept a dead-end command on Persephone, the worst starship in the fleet. Until he meets the beautiful and cunning Jessica Lin, his new executive officer, who harbors a terrible secret of her own. Now, with an enemy warship four times their size bearing down on them, Brad's in a race to save Jessica and his stupid ship.

Much to Cale's chagrin, Prince Albert has tasked him with traversing a treacherous desert in search of the dark elves. Yet what he discovers in the ill-rumored crimson wasteland is unlike anything he's ever imagined! Later, after a brief respite for a festival back home, he treks onward to the Ten Finger Mountains. Among the peaks, another band of elves is locked in a fierce battle against an all-too-familiar foe. With Ancient Powers, masterful allies, and a mighty dragon on his side, there's no harm in Cale joining the fray—or is there?

Hiro and the gang get dragged into rescuing the daughters of an elf patriarch and receive a warm welcome from the elven home planet. The elves here are nothing like Hiro imagined--they know nothing of modern science and rely on magic rather than technology. As Hiro and the girls sample local delicacies, enjoy the sights, and get a crash course in elven fashion, they find that Hiro seems to wield a power much like the elves' magic...

Blessed with new power after his trials in Galia, Fate returns to Seifort. He intends to wield his influence to uplift the downtrodden--those forsaken by the world for their "unnecessary" skills. But standing in his way are his cruel old employers, the powerful Vlerick family. Now, in order to save the soul of Seifort, Fate must expose the terrifying truth hidden within the Vlerick estate.

Comedians Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld never thought anyone would watch their silly little sitcom about a New York comedian sitting around talking to his friends. NBC executives didn't think anyone would watch either, but they bought it anyway, hiding it away in the TV dead zone of summer. But against all odds, viewers began to watch, first a few and then many, until nine years later nearly 40 million Americans were tuning in weekly.

Yoshio is thirty years old, and his life is a mess. A shut-in living with his parents, he has no job, no relationship, and no prospects. When he receives a new sim computer game that boasts characters created with a new kind of A.I., he doesn't think much of it--until he gets drawn into a fantasy world so vibrant and lifelike that its residents can't just be game characters. Suddenly finding himself the benevolent god of a scrappy fantasy village is a lot for Yoshio to handle, but it might be the key to the change he is desperate for.

Yoshio was a thirty-year-old unemployed shut-in when a mysterious village-building sim, The Village of Fate, showed up at his door. Through watching and caring for the game's intensely realistic NPCs, Yoshio has started getting his life back on track--getting a job to pay for microtransactions, and using the villagers' care for each other as inspiration to reconnect with his family. But despite overcoming the first challenges thrown at him, more complicated issues, both in and out of the game, are closing in. And are the game's monstrous enemies controlled by real humans, too?

Following her retirement from Princeton University, celebrated historian Dr. Nell Irvin Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school - in her 60s - to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. In Old in Art School, she travels from her beloved Newark to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design; finds meaning in the artists she loves, even as she comes to understand how they may be undervalued; and struggles with the unstable balance between the pursuit of art and the inevitable, sometimes painful, demands of a life fully lived.

Nineteen-year-old Greg Sestero met Tommy Wiseau at an acting school in San Francisco. Wiseau's scenes were rivetingly wrong, yet Sestero, hypnotized by such uninhibited acting, thought, "I have to do a scene with this guy." That impulse changed both of their lives. The Disaster Artist is Greg Sestero's laugh-out-loud funny account of how Tommy Wiseau defied every law of artistry, business, and friendship to make "the Citizen Kane of bad movies" ( Entertainment Weekly), which is now an international phenomenon.

The reveal of the Man-God's longest-hidden disciple has Rudeus rushing to gather strong allies. Luckily, the Immortal Demon King Atofe fits the bill! Rudeus's team arrives on the Demon Continent she governs, but negotiations are anything but smooth sailing--not only does Atofe have a few screws loose, but listening is far from her strong suit. How will the party handle this Demon King's devil-may-care demeanor?

The landscape that the Brat Pack memorialized is rich with cultural themes and significance, and has influenced an entire generation who still believe that life always turns out like an '80s movie. You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried takes us back to that era, through Susannah Gora's interviews with key players such as Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy, and John Cusack, and mines all the material from the movies to the music to the way the films were made to show how they helped shape our visions for romance, friendship, society, and success.