An engaging guide to how Stoicism--the ancient philosophy of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius--can provide lessons for living in the modern world. Whenever we worry about what to eat, how to love, or simply how to be happy, we are worrying about how to lead a good life. No goal is more elusive. In How to Be a Stoic, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci offers Stoicism, the ancient philosophy that inspired the great emperor Marcus Aurelius, as the best way to...

"Peter Guralnick's remarkable work... covers old ground from new perspectives, offering deeply felt, masterful, and strikingly personal portraits of creative artists, both musicians and writers, at the height of their powers. "You put the book down feeling that its sweep is vast, that you have read of giants who walked among us," rock critic Lester Bangs wrote of Guralnick's earlier work in words that could just as easily be applied to this new one....

"Marc Masters explores the surprising ups and downs of the cassette tape's journey through international music culture, showing us the cultural impact of cassettes on music listening, music portability, and music making itself. Winding through early hip-hop tape trading, the deeply personal act of making a mixtape, and even contemporary composers who use cassettes to create musique concrète compositions, this book chronicles the resilient do-it-yourself...

Surveys the history and components of music, concentrating on Western musical traditions.

An illustrated history of the origins and influences of jazz, from Africa to contemporary America.

"The incredible true story of the making of The Godfather-one of America's most popular cinematic masterpieces-featuring interviews with the director, producer, cast, and crew, just in time for the film's fiftieth anniversary"-- The Godfather: over the years, many versions of various aspects of the movie's fiery creation have been told. Seal sifts through the evidence, has extensive new conversations with director Francis Ford Coppola and several...

From the age of song sheets in the late nineteenth century to the contemporary era of digital streaming, pop music has been our most influential laboratory for social and aesthetic experimentation, changing the world three minutes at a time. Hajdu shows how pop has done much more than peddle fantasies of love and sex to teenagers. Exhaustively researched and rich with fresh insights, Love for Sale details pop music from Eva Tanguay, who upended Victorian...

"Jokes change from generation to generation, but the experience of the stand-up comedian transcends the ages: the striving and struggles, the tragedy and triumph. From the Marx Brothers to Milton Berle, George Carlin to Eddie Murphy, Conan O'Brien to Louis C. K.--comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff presents a century of fascinating rebels, forgotten stars, and characters on the precipice of fame in this essential history of American comedy."--Book jacket....

"An Anthology of Monsters by Cherie Dimaline, award-winning M̌tis author of The Marrow Thieves, is the tale of an intricate dance with life-long anxiety. It is about how the stories we tell ourselves--both the excellent and the horrible--can help reshape the ways in which we think, cope, and ultimately survive. Using examples from her published and forthcoming books, from her m̈re, and from her own late night worry sessions, Dimaline choreographs...