La Porte County Public Library System

"Columbia professor and cultural historian Jeremy Dauber takes readers to the startling origins of the horror genre in the United States, from the lingering influence of the European Gothic to the enslaved insurrection tales and the apocryphal chronicles of colonial settlers kidnapped by Native Americans"--

"In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans--and all movie lovers--could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he...

"A transporting and illuminating voyage around the globe, through classic and modern literary works that are in conversation with one another and with the world around them"--.

"From the bestselling author of The Shakespeare Wars and Explaining Hitler comes a stirring manifesto on love in the modern age. From one generation to the next, our understanding of love is constantly evolving, be it courtship, sex, or romantic relationships. The science of love is advancing, too, from the study of chemicals responsible for our behavior in love to the mining of data generated using dating apps. Now, more than ever, we find ourselves...

"An exhilarating volume that will ratchet up the joy for all reading groups "Wendy Lesser's extraordinary alertness, intelligence, and curiosity have made her one of America's most significant cultural critics," writes Stephen Greenblatt. In Why I Read, Lesser draws on a lifetime of pleasure reading and decades of editing one of the most distinguished little magazines in the country, The Threepenny Review, to describe a life lived in and through literature....

Tinseltown's fascination with the comic icon is detailed in this book, encompassing all the behind-the-scenes machinations that helped shape Superman into a screen legend and all the derailed projects that have vilified everyone involved. These newly uncovered stories about the odyssey of bringing the Man of Steel to the big screen include the challenge of making Superman appear to fly, and the many casting processes, which at various points had Superman...

A wide-ranging collection of essays on the importance and meaning of literature by “one of the most influential thinkers of our time” (Los Angeles Times).
 
In this collection of essays and addresses delivered over the course of his long and celebrated career, Umberto Eco seeks "to understand the chemistry of [his] passion" for the word. From musings on Ptolemy and "the force of the false"...

"From beloved New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum comes a groundbreaking narrative detailing the fights, egos, drama, and future presidents of reality television. Cue the Sun is a rollicking, deeply reported story about how the early reality TV business metastasized into an industry that now dominates entertainment in the United States. Starting in 1948, Nussbaum pulls back the curtain on the cultural meat grinder that created a generation-defining...

"Spanning three decades worth of astute, acerbic, and overall astounding music writing, Kick Out the Jams is the first large-scale anthology of the work of renowned critic Dave Marsh. Ranging from Elvis Presley to Kurt Cobain, from Nina Simone to Ani DiFranco, from the Beatles to Green Day, the book gives an opinionated, eye-opening overview of 20th century popular music--offering a portrait not just of an era but of a writer wrestling with the American...

"Celebrate the King of Horror's 75th birthday with Stephen King: The Ultimate Companion, which explores the connections between Stephen King's life and his body of work"--