High Art

A central figure in the Hollywood Ten and one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood history, Trumbo epitomized the spirit of American capitalism, yet he went to jail refusing to talk about his membership in the Communist party.

“The new girl has scars on her arms, like mine..." Sophie thought her senior year was going to be the best. That was before the new girl Laney arrives in her art class. Now, instead of good times hanging with her friends, everyone is acting strangely. Paul is angry all the time, Kevin and Jenna aren’t quite the perfect couple anymore, and everyone is ignoring Evan. Sophie knows there's something different about the new girl. Something that seems to be tearing her group of friends apart. When Evan starts dating Laney, it looks like the end of the Art Kids… but maybe Sophie isn’t ...

This original recording - his first - features Trillin at his most uproarious, reading from his own articles and books. Wonderfully funny and full of surprises, this is a thoroughly satisfying, eminently entertaining, and beautifully crafted collection.

In August of 1966, Jim Grimsley entered the sixth grade in the same public school he had attended for the five previous years, in his small eastern North Carolina hometown. But he knew that the first day of this school year was going to be different: For the first time he'd be in a classroom with Black children. That was the year federally mandated integration of the schools went into effect, at first allowing students to change schools through "freedom of choice", replaced two years later by forced integration.

From anonymous 10th-century troubadours to world-renowned 20th-century composers, this comprehensive commentary explores the roots of the most influential music genres of our time. Essential listening for students and lovers of great music, A History of Music in Western Civilization features music performed by world-renowned orchestras and enlightening discussions by 15 prominent music authorities, including Christopher Hogwood, Dr. Wilfrid Mellers, and others.

Ever wonder why some people stay focused, crush their goals, and never seem to give up—while others keep procrastinating and falling short? It’s not luck. It’s not talent. It’s self-discipline. Self Discipline Blueprint gives you the tools, strategies, and mindset to break bad habits, silence your inner critic, and become the kind of person who follows through—no matter what.

Are you ready to stop spinning your wheels and start growing intentionally? In "Intentional Growth: Small Steps to Big Change," you’ll discover how to take control of your progress and achieve the success you’ve been striving for—one actionable step at a time. This isn’t just another self-help book full of clichés. It’s a practical, no-nonsense guide packed with tools, stories, and strategies to help you: Clarify your goals and focus on what truly matters. Overcome setbacks by building resilience and turning challenges into opportunities. Create feedback loops that drive constant...

As a believer in the philosophy of loving oneself and help to spread that love to others, Leanna May writes a book that could educate other people in the same ethos. The goal is to inform people of how much beauty they can find inside themselves and the world around them. This book is meant to help you find a more beautiful you! That includes your physical and mental beauty as well.

Pat Conroy was America's poet laureate of family dysfunction. A larger-than-life character and the author of such classics as The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, Conroy was remembered by everybody for his energy, his exuberance, and his self-lacerating humor. Michael Mewshaw's The Lost Prince is an intimate memoir of his friendship with Pat Conroy, one that involves their families and those days in Rome when they were both young - when Conroy went from being a popular regional writer to an internationally best-selling author.

Dream of having a flourishing and fulfilling practice as a healer, but are wrestling with the “business of healing”? Countless healers today are stuck in jobs they hate—doing what they love at night, in fits and starts. Others are practicing their craft but struggling to make ends meet. And some never get off the ground because they have no idea how and where to start. Sound familiar? What do they all have in common? They’re far better healers than businesspeople. Yet, to succeed in a healing profession today, you have to be BOTH. Enter The High Income healer, written by Jill K. ...

In his first memoir, Ander Monson guides listeners through a scene-by-scene exploration of the 1987 film Predator, which he has watched 146 times. Some fighters might not have time to bleed, but Monson has the patience to consider their adventure, one frame at a time. He turns his obsession into a lens through which he poignantly examines his own life, formed by mainstream white male American culture.

El Greco visits the Sistine Chapel and is appalled by Michelangelo's bodies. The mystery of Rothko's refusal to finish murals for the Seagram Building in New York is blended with the story of a hospital in which a prostitute walks the halls while the narrator's husband receives chemotherapy. Alfred de Dreux visits Gericault's workshop; Gustave Courbet's devilish seascapes incite viewers "to have sex, or to eat an apple"; Picasso organizes a cruel banquet in Rousseau's honor.... All of these fascinating episodes in art history interact with the narrator's life in Buenos Aires.

What does it mean to be a "diva"? A shifting, increasingly loaded term, it has been used to both deride and celebrate charismatic and unapologetically fierce performers like Aretha Franklin, Divine, and the women of Labelle. In this brilliant, powerful blend of incisive criticism and electric memoir, Deborah Paredez-scholar, cultural critic, and lifelong diva devotee-unravels our enduring fascination with these icons and explores how divas have challenged American ideas about feminism, performance, and freedom.

With only a guitar, a tatty copy of the Melody Maker, and his template for the perfect band, Andrew Matheson set out in 1971 to make musical history. His band, the Hollywood Brats, were prepunk prophets - uncompromising, ultrathin, wild, untamable, and outrageous. But thrown into the crazy world of the 1970s London music scene, the Brats ultimately fell afoul of the crooks and heavies that ran it and an industry that just wasn't ready for them.

The River Thames always gives up its dead.... There’s a killer picking off victims from the wild swimming spots on the upper reaches of the Thames. The case takes Detective Inspector Leo George into the path of Jess Bridges, a private investigator who lives life close to the edge. Their enquiries lead them to author, Jago Jackson, whose book on secret wild swimming spots has turned him into a social media celebrity. Is Jago’s book the blueprint that the murderer is following?

In Wild Things, Vanity Fair contributing editor Bruce Handy revisits the classics of every American childhood, from fairy tales to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and explores the back stories of their creators, using context and biography to understand how some of the most insightful, creative, and witty authors and illustrators of their times created their often deeply personal masterpieces.

Solitude is the inspirational core for many writers, artists, and thinkers. Alone with our thoughts, we can make discoveries that matter not only to us but to others. To be solitary is not only to draw sustenance from being alone, but to know that our ultimate responsibility is not only to our partner or our own offspring, but to a larger community. Fenton Johnson's lyrical prose and searching sensibility explores what it means to choose to be solitary and celebrates the notion that solitude is a legitimate and dignified calling.

Through the ages, sensual massage has been a widely practiced form of intimate connection between those who know its secrets. With a long and fascinating past, sensual massage is found all over the world, its secrets delighting the initiated with a whole new level of touch. Tantric massage, especially, is an erotic font of mutual delight and ecstasy.

George Chakiris famously played the angry gang leader Bernardo in the film version of West Side Story (1961), for which he won an Oscar for best supporting actor. My West Side Story is an insider's look at how this theatrical and cinematic landmark evolved from a conversation in Jerome Robbins's Manhattan apartment between him, Arthur Laurents, and Leonard Bernstein to ten Oscars, three Golden Globes, two Tony Awards, and a Grammy.

Bobby was happy with colony life on Nibiru. His job at the Colonial Security Force and his family were all the man needed. Then two renegades escaped confinement in stasis and teleported from the LARC1 colony to Earth’s Stone Age to wipe humanity and its primordial cousins from existence. Now, armed only with a shugarra, Bobby must journey across our prehistoric world and through the realms that our extinct cousins once ruled. Can he and a band of misfit hominins overcome two dangerous aliens with god-like magic and their army of cannibals? High fantasy has long ventured through the ...