Politics Entertainment

In 1959, the year Terry Galloway turned nine, the voices of everyone she loved began to disappear. No one yet knew that an experimental antibiotic given to her mother had wreaked havoc on her fetal nervous system, eventually causing her to go deaf. As a self-proclaimed "child freak," she acted out her fury with her boxy hearing aids and Coke-bottle glasses by faking her own drowning at a camp for crippled children

After a surprise phone call from Children’s Television Workshop, Daoud Kuttab took the chance of a lifetime to create a Palestinian co-production of Sesame Street. But the challenges of producing a world-famous children’s program quickly escalated beyond just teaching Elmo to speak Arabic. From finding actors and puppeteers in a country starved of training to dealing with a community that considered the production too provocative, the early days were less than easy.

The issue of immigration stirs intense emotions today, as it has throughout much of American history. But what gets lost in the debates about policy are the stories of immigrants themselves, the people who are drawn to America by its promise of economic opportunity and political and religious freedom - and who strengthen our nation in countless ways. Out of Many, One brings together 43 full-color portraits of men and women who have immigrated to the United States, alongside stirring stories of the unique ways all of them are pursuing the American dream.

Nev Schulman is the host of the wildly popular TV series Catfish which investigates online relationships to determine whether they are based on truth or fiction (spoiler: it's almost always fiction).

Black Music is a book about the brilliant young jazz musicians of the early 1960s: John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, and others. It is composed of essays, reviews, interviews, liner notes, musical analyses, and personal impressions from 1959-1967. Also includes Amiri Baraka's reflections in a 2009 interview with Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly.

Sarah Vaughan, a pivotal figure in the formation of bebop, influenced a broad array of singers who followed in her wake, yet the breadth and depth of her impact - not just as an artist but also as an African American woman - remain overlooked. Drawing from a wealth of sources as well as on exclusive interviews with Vaughan's friends and former colleagues, Queen of Bebop unravels the many myths and misunderstandings that have surrounded Vaughan.

Investigative journalist and number-one New York Times best-selling author Ian Halperin reveals the true and untold story about this larger-than-life and often outrageous figure. From his childhood in Austria to his rise as a star of American conservative politics, the story of ArnoldSchwarzenegger's life reads like the script of a Hollywood B-movie penned by Horatio Alger.

When musicians in the New York folk scene of the 1960s grew tired of city life, they decided to "get it together in the country". They headed for Woodstock - not to the site of the infamous music festival of 1969 but to the Catskills, to Bearsville, to Woodstock proper. Counterculture revolutionaries like Janis Joplin, Richie Havens, and Paul Butterfield got "back to the land", turning the once sleepy hollow into a funky Shangri-La.

A memoir by Academy Award-winning actress Lee Grant, detailing her starring roles in Valley of the Dolls and Shampoo, her 12 years on the Hollywood blacklist, and a singularly unpredictable life.

"A diamond is forever." Who among us doesn't recognize this slogan and, with it, the fascination that diamonds hold in our collective imagination as emblems of royalty, glamor, and eternal love? Rachelle Bergstein's cultural biography illuminates the enticing, often surprising story of our society's enduring obsession with diamonds - and the people who have worked tirelessly to ensure their continued allure.

Dickson D. Despommier proposes a visionary yet achievable plan for creating a new, self-sustaining urban landscape. He argues that we can find solutions through the concept of biomimicry: emulating successful strategies found in nature. A better city is possible if we heed the lessons that forests and trees teach about how to store carbon, grow food, collect rainwater, and convert sunlight into energy.

Over his 30-year career at Condé Nast, Nicholas Coleridge has witnessed it all. From the anxieties of the Princess of Wales to the blazing fury of Mohamed Al-Fayed, his story is also the story of the people who populate the glamorous world of glossy magazines. With relish and astonishing candour, he offers the inside scoop on Tina Brown and Anna Wintour, David Bowie and Philip Green, Kate Moss and Beyonce and a surreal weekend away with Bob Geldof and William Hague.

Welcome to 2090 – where sound no longer just fills the room, it fills your soul. In this Arabic audio edition, visionary cultural ambassador Birgit Maria Kemphues takes You on a magical journey through the soundscapes of the future – deeply rooted in the traditions of the Emirates. From AI-composed oud melodies to quantum-enhanced palm trees that sing at sunrise – this is no ordinary audiobook. This is an immersive tribute to the UAE, its people, its vision, and its rhythm.

Tommy Jessop is a multi-award winning actor, theatre performer, and campaigner. Tommy has been at the vanguard of bringing awareness of the potential of people living with Down syndrome to the media, and to government. A Life Worth Living will be Tommy's story - from his journey into acting and campaigning while showing his unstoppable determination, charisma, and love for life.

At the age of 25, she received an Academy Award for Best Actress and little more than a year later, she became royalty. Stunningly beautiful, elusive, and aloof, Grace Kelly captured our imagination and affection throughout her storybook career and royal marriage. Raised in Philadelphia in an atmosphere of great wealth and greater expectations, Grace transformed from an aristocratic conforming beauty into a sensual, recklessly daring woman. In Grace, Robert Lacey breaks through the glittery façade of her public image and reveals a complex, surprisingly conflicted woman.

Media and law enforcement work at cross-purposes. Law enforcement want to solve a case as fast as possible and put the guilty behind bars. The media want a case to drag on as long as humanly possible and do all they can to extricate every last bit of drama, drop by bloody drop, in order to hold the attention of the millions of viewers who have gotten hooked. Law enforcement must abide by rules. The media make their own rules, and even then break them or find ways to work loopholes into them.

A small-town Florida teenager discovers punk rock through a loaned mix tape, and punk music and culture slowly takes over all aspects of his life. His new passion causes him to form a band, track down out-of-print records he loves and reissue them, open a record store, start a record distribution operation as a public service, mentor a host of young musicians, and befriend all manner of punk luminaries along the way. Slowly his life's pursuit pushes him to the point of personal ruination and, ultimately, redemption.

Bombs explode around the world—and the United States may be next. The president needs an off-the-books covert asset to handle an impossible mission… quickly and quietly. Former Navy SEAL Thomas “Bone” Marks has the perfect cover.

Grammy Nominee for Best Spoken Comedy Album
Once again there's good news for those of us who rage at the evening news, shake our heads at Washington's business-as-usual, or watch as politicians carom helplessly between political crises and sex scandals: Dennis Miller is back performing his fourth installment of hilarious observations, I Rant, Therefore I Am. More from Miller.

Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. In this installment, arts writer and co-editor of Black Futures Kimberly Drew shows us that art and protest are inextricably linked. Drawing on her personal experience through art toward activism, Drew challenges us to create space for the change that we want to see in the world. Because there really is so much more space than we think.