In a critically acclaimed memoir, a correspondent for The New York Times recounts growing up in the Alabama hill country, the son of a violent veteran and a mother who tried to insulate her children from the poverty and ignorance of life. This haunting, harrowing, gloriously moving recollection of a life on the American margin is the story of Rick Bragg, who grew up dirt-poor in northeastern Alabama, seemingly destined for either the cotton mills...

"The author of the 2016 smash hit Anatomy of a Song returns with 55 new oral histories and analyses of iconic songs such as Creedence Clearwater Revival's 'Bad Moon Rising,' The Beach Boys' 'Good Vibrations' and Elton John's 'Rocket Man.'"--

"New Bad News is a collection of smart, cynical micro-fictions about falling out of love with America's Hollywood dream. Its deadpan humor and ironic touches will ring especially true to Gen-X and X-ennial readers. There's an undeniable "cool factor" to the collection; it's the sort of book that dares the reader to get all its pop-culture references. NBN is organized into five sections: "Echo Park" is a Calvino-Prize-winning series of micro-fictions...

"The definitive, no-holds-barred oral history of 1980s hard rock and hair metal. 1980s hard rock was a hedonistic and often intensely creative wellspring of escapism that perfectly encapsulated-and maybe even helped to define-a spectacularly over-the-top decade. Indeed, fist-pumping hits like Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It," Mötley Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls," and Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" are as inextricably linked to the...

Presents an anthology of the best literary essays published in the past year, selected from American periodicals.

"An integrative approach to healing chronic autoimmune conditions by a doctor, researcher, and sufferer of progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) whose TEDx talk is already a web sensation. Like many physicians, Dr. Terry Wahls focused on treating her patients' ailments with drugs or surgical procedures--until she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2000. Within three years, her back and stomach muscles had weakened to the point where she needed...

A collection of 100 classic films from the golden age of Hollywood.