"A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people--morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners-who work in it and what led them there. We are surrounded by death. It is in our news, our nursery rhymes, our true-crime podcasts. Yet from a young age, we are told that death is something to be feared. How are we supposed to know what we're so afraid of, when we are never given the chance to look? Fueled by...

In childhood, Bell Hooks was taught that "talking back" meant speaking as an equal to an authority figure and daring to disagree and/or have an opinion. In this collection of personal and theoretical essays, Hooks reflects on her signature issues of racism and feminism, politics and pedagogy. Among her discoveries is that moving from silence into speech is for the oppressed, the colonized, the exploited, and those who stand and struggle side by side,...

Learn how to combat the effects of aging in just five minutes a day. Each short period of stretching, strength-building, and specialized breathing contributes to greater flexibility, strength, and mental clarity. After years spent teaching and practicing, Peggy has designed a way of incorporating yoga into our daily lives.

"For more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to read without laughing. Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work....

E.B. White's love of dogs is conveyed in his own essays, poems, letters, and sketches, including articles from "The New Yorker" about dog shows and city canines, as well as previously unpublished photographs of his family dogs.

This is not your mother's memoir. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly moves the reader through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and the family from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. In writing that explores the nature of memoir itself, her story traces the effect of extreme grief on a young woman's developing sexuality that some define as untraditional because of her attraction to both men and women. Her...

"A thrilling account of the creation of the so-called lie detector, exploring shocking murders and dramatic trials to uncover the true nature of the polygraph"-- Summer, 1922. Henry Wilkens burst through the doors of the emergency room covered in his wife's blood. Was he a grieving husband, or a ruthless killer who had conspired with bandits to have her murdered? San Francisco police turned to a new machine that had just been invented in Berkeley....

Explore the power of the underdog in Malcolm Gladwell's dazzling examination of success, motivation, and the role of adversity in shaping our lives, from the bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia.
Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between...

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who invent and create but prefer not to pitch their own ideas; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled "quiet," it is to introverts we owe many of the great contributions to society--from Van Gogh's sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer. Passionately argued,...

"The Titanic Story studies the RMS Titanic, the supposedly unsinkable, world-class passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic in 1912. Vivid text and images bring the ship to life, examining its construction, technology, crew, and passengers, as well as its fateful place in history. Features include a glossary, references, websites, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards."--Amazon.com.