Entertainment Science

Today both reality and entertainment crowd our fields of vision with brutal imagery. The pervasiveness of images of torture, horror, and war has all but demolished the 20th-century hope that such imagery might shock us into a less alienated state, or aid in the creation of a just social order. What to do now? When to look, when to turn away? Genre-busting author Maggie Nelson brilliantly navigates this contemporary predicament, with an eye to the question of whether or not focusing on representations of cruelty makes us cruel.

Nora Colburn was perfectly content in life. A junior in high school, she had good friends, a great family, and did well in school. Nothing particularly exciting ever happened where she lived, and everything was stable. But that all drastically changes when a new student arrives at Nora's school. Wild rumors swirl about his past, and Nora becomes determined to find out the truth. As she gets to know the mysterious student, he shares with her an ancient secret - one that may yet put both of them in grave danger.

When a madman starts robbing banks the really old-fashioned way - by blowing holes in them with magical explosives - the police want Alex to catch him before he kills and robs again. Alex splits his time between chasing the homicidal bomber and helping Danny figure out what happened to a dead writer who was basing her book on Broadway’s most famous murder. While the bomber continues to elude Alex, he becomes convinced that the writer was killed by someone who wanted the old murder to remain unsolved.

Sixty-thousand light-years from Earth, the corrupt Terran Confederacy holds the Koprulu sector tightly in its tyrannical grip, controlling every aspect of its citizens' lives. One man dares to stand up to this faceless empire and vows to bring it to its knees: Arcturus Mengsk - genius propagandist, tactician, and freedom fighter. A monstrous act of bloody violence sows the seeds of rebellion in Arcturus, but he is not the first Mengsk to rail against such oppression. Before Arcturus grew to manhood, his father, Angus Mengsk, also defied the Confederacy and sought to end its reign.

The Disneyland Story: The Unofficial Guide to the Evolution of Walt Disney's Dream is the story of how Walt Disney's greatest creation was conceived, nurtured, and how it grew into a source of joy and inspiration for generations of visitors. Despite his successors' battles with the whims of history and their own doubts and egos, Walt's vision maintained momentum, thrived, and taught future generations how to do it Walt Disney's way.

Gallifrey is in a state of crisis, facing destruction at the hands of an overwhelming enemy. And the Doctor is involved in three different incarnations - each caught up in a deadly adventure, scattered across time and space. The web of time is threatened - and someone wants the Doctor dead. The three incarnations of the Doctor must join together to set time back on the right track - but in doing so, will they unleash a still greater threat?

An original journalist for The Source, Dan Charnas built a celebrated career in the rap industry. In The Big Payback, he chronicles the rise of the hip-hop culture and shows how it became so powerful in a matter of decades. Charnas also profiles many of the movers and shakers in this burgeoning cultural movement, offering unprecedented access to an industry that continues to shake the globe.

Where does learning begin and how is it sustained and stored in the brain? For musicians, these questions are at the very core of their creative lives. Cognitive and neuroscience have flung wide the doors of our understanding, but bridging the gap between research data and music-making requires a unique immersion in both worlds. Lynn Helding presents a symphony of discoveries that illuminate how musicians can optimize their mental well-being and cognitive abilities.

The long-awaited tournament has finally begun, and, under Lumina's tutelage, Teacher and Fran are ready to claim their rightful spot as champions. There's just one problem, though--as they advance through the rounds, they find themselves facing off against old friends and A-rank adventurers Amanda and Forlund!

Fate has a new quest: chase down Myne and close the Door to Distant Lands--and maybe get some answers out of his resurrected father. This time, however, he's heading out with a whole party in tow, including Eris, Memil, and Roxy. But Fate's not the only one wrestling with this new camaraderie. Roxy's glad to finally be fighting by Fate's side, but she knows she won't be able to stay there unless she too reaches the Domain of E...if she can survive it.

Shinonome, a Tsukumogami, runs the spirit realm's only bookstore with his daughter, Kaori, who happens to be a different species entirely. Now, the spirit and human father-daughter pair are faced with decisions that will change the course of their lives forever. Prepare to laugh, cry, and go through a rollercoaster of emotions with the conclusion of this heartwarming tale of the spirit realm!

Kaori and Suimei have finally realized how they feel about each other, but their love will have to wait—the bookstore is in terrible danger. One day, a fox spirit called Hakuzousu storms in, screaming, "The spirit realm has no use for such an unscrupulous bookstore!" He blames his daughter's love for a human on the influence of human books. Shinonome can't just shrug off such an insult, and Kaori fears that a fight between her father and the fox will reduce the store to ashes.

When Siasha gets called away to help someone on a job, Zig finds himself with time to kill. He's quickly recruited by Katia, the daughter of a mafia boss, to help investigate the spread of a dangerous drug across the city. Tempted by the lure of a big payout, Zig accepts the request, and together they dig into the underbelly of society...only to discover the problem runs much deeper than they expected.

Piratenjagd ist schwierig... besonders wenn deine einzigen Mittel ein unbewaffnetes Schiff, zwei ehemalige Marineoffiziere, eine Visagistin und ein paar Pistolen sind. Aber genau dafür haben sich Brad Mendoza und Jessica Lin am Rande des Grenzgebiets verpflichtet: einem Haufen Bauern auf einem gottverlassenen Planeten im Kampf gegen die Piratenbedrohung zu helfen! Schnell stellen sie fest, dass sie eigentlich keine Ahnung haben, was sie da tun... und nicht alles so ist, wie es scheint.

Claudia may have helped her former brothel companions, but saving them altogether seems impossible. That is, until a cardinal sidles up to her during a foreign trade visit, looking to cut a deal. It's a prime opportunity to have the powerful church--and its seedy underbelly--in her back pocket! She agrees to cooperate with the cardinal, but he's just one more pawn in her master plan. Thus begins an elaborate game of deception as Claudia battles to become the boss of a crime syndicate!

Many bemoan the decay of culture. But we all have a responsibility to care for culture, to nurture it in ways that help people thrive. In Culture Care artist Makoto Fujimura issues a call to cultural stewardship, in which we become generative and feed our culture's soul with beauty, creativity, and generosity. We serve others as cultural custodians of the future. This is a book for artists, but artists come in many forms.

It's swimming season! But Ryuuji's hopes of a relaxing dip are shattered when another spat between Taiga and Ami escalates into a challenge--a no-holds barred swimming contest! The prize? The winner gets to claim Ryuuji for the summer! Ryuuji's none too keen on being spirited away by Ami, but if he wants Taiga to win, he's going to have to teach her to swim from scratch! And what happens if Taiga doesn't even want to win?

Jenny's friends are lost one by one to a ghostly wolf and a phantom snake, instruments of the sinister but attractive Shadow Man, who has returned from the Shadow World with a deadly game called "Lambs and Monsters."

Considered by many to be a founder of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra - a.k.a. Herman Blount - was a composer, keyboardist, bandleader, philosopher, entrepreneur, poet, and self-proclaimed extraterrestrial from Saturn. He recorded over 200 albums with his Arkestra, which, dressed in Egypto-space costumes, played everything from boogie-woogie and swing to fusion and free jazz.

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.